Like the Beav, I was in the park when that thing hit.  We went in on Wednesday the 20th via PP and stopped a the high camp site on the middle of Isabella with our group of 7.  We weathered the storm as the Beav described, lots of rain, lightning and thunder, but the winds where we were, were pretty mild - thankfully.  We did not find out about the major blow down until coming out of Agnes into Meadows on the 28th from a pair of paddlers coming in.  On fellow said his brother in Duluth just got power back the day before.  We didn't see much evidence of any blow downs going up Kahsh thru the poets, Kawnipi, and Agnes until we go to Sunday and PP. BTW the BSA Order of the Arrow crews did a heck of a job fixing up the portage from Sunday to Sunday Bay - kudos to them and I'll not avoid that anymore if headed in via Sunday Lake.

Once back in civilization, they were calling it Blow-down II (after the '99 one) and Ferberg Rd. showed lots of evidence of the seriousness of the storm.  Many local houses and businesses were out of power for several days and some with severe damage.  Burntside Lodge took a serious hit as show in the Timberjay newspaper.

pd

DentonDoc & I have returned safely from our adventure.  While it got quite warm where we were on the 20th (moving from the Sue Falls area to Kasakokwog), there was no bad weather to speak of that day.

Our REAL blast came on Sunday the 17th.  Frankly, we thought the T-storms were pretty much over for that day.  Bright blue sky, cooling temps, etc..  Wrong!  We were camped on 2Z, one of my favorite sites.  I noticed a shift in the wind so I stepped out to the edge of the site to get a better look back at the W/NW sky.  I haven't seen such a dark sky in a LONG time & it was headed straight at us.

Winds surely topped 60 mph, with the tops of white caps being blown off in our direction.  It certainly was an intense thunder cell but we weathered it OK, as our shelters were placed well back in the woods.

Lots of thunder, lightening & heavy rain but no casualties.

I will say that the north shore "mansions" along Rte 61 in Duluth took a real beating.  Large trees were down, some still lying atop houses when we passed through on Wednesday, July 27.

We did hear from 2 Quetico Rangers about the 2 paddlers being killed in the Basswood Lake area.  Also, wind was generally a challenge for us during this trip, although Mother Nature cooperated nicely during our two long-paddling days as we moved from Kasakokwog to The Pines for our last night in the park.  Strangely enough, big Pickerel Lake was like a sheet of glass....

Jimbo   

My power was out 36 hours, so not as bad as some had it (have it).  Lots of trees down between Cook, Tower, Ely which took out power lines.  A few homes and cars got hit by them.  We personally did not have any damage but had to cut a lot of small trees off of our cars at our mainland parking area.  None were large enough to hurt the vehicles but one large one could have if it had not fallen between two of the cars.  Glad I was not out camping.  DNR is still out checking campsites and portages to make sure no one is still in trouble out in the BWCA.

The storm on the 20th hit at 1:30 am-ish after a very hot, clear day. No clouds at sunset but you just had a feeling a storm was coming given the build up in heat. I put my rain fly on despite the heat. That turned out to be a good call...

Ranger wrote on Jul 28^th, 2016 at 4:47pm:

Our bigger blow was actually about the 17th.  Looks like this storm was on the 20th.  We were far enough north on that day just to just get some rain and a little wind.

DentonDoc wrote on Jul 28^th, 2016 at 2:56am:


Did you have any idea that the storm was coming? Sounds like it was clear that evening, and then it hit in the middle of the night. Glad you guys were safe in a good spot.

I'm still without power from the storm. Maybe tomorrow.

Ranger wrote on Jul 27^th, 2016 at 2:23pm:

I guess Jim and I survived.  We estimated wind speed on our campsite on Cirrus to be between 60 and 70 mph, but we were in a protected spot so had no real issues.  Later a couple of rangers related the tragedy further south.

dd

Those pics are good reminder to NEWBIES that are not familiar with the geology in this area. Unlike root system where I live here in Lower MI, the roots go mostly OUT not down.

Those big trees get moving it's like a giant lever. Something to think about when your setting camp or picking sites especially this time of year.

I was on a small island campsite on Sturgeon last Wednesday. It was ugly. Straight line wind, lightning and thunder, and lots of rain. Storm raged for 90 minutes (1:30am to 3am). No damage on my site; it seems the brunt of that particular storm stayed to my north.

I learned about the tragic deaths Friday from paddlers I met on the Conk portage.

Later in the week I saw many downed and uprooted trees.

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