TomT wrote on Oct 31^st, 2013 at 10:58pm:


When soloing, I think the trick for me was learning to ease  the pace enough that I could keep exploring every day, and not have to spend a day sitting in camp cause I needed to recover after a hard day.

Spartan2 wrote on Nov 1^st, 2013 at 12:38pm:
sorry about the rest of the trip (paddling with a neck spasm. ouch!) but that photo really is special  up

I still love October trips, despite having been hit with some wet and cold weeks. The silence and the solitude are simply beyond compare. It is like an "Last human in the world" experience, the trails and campsites are there, but there is not a footprint to be found.

My "never again" moment was on my trip in April of 2012, when I woke to 18" of snow and a viscous wind out of the north. Nearly flipped on Argo in the waves, the portage to Crooked took close to three hours. Standing in the snow on the north shore of crooked, the wind in the trees, waves in the bay, something brushed my cheek and I swatted it away- it was a little junco, it came back, landed on my arm and hopped across my shoulders and huddled for a minute or two against my neck before fluttering off in the wind.

Never above freezing that whole day, 10 degrees that night on Wagosh (a night I had planned on being home).

My tent in the morning.

We always take late fall, October trips.  Two years ago we went out Knife, thru Ottertrack and back thru Hanson to the South Arm and out thru Birch.  We had a sunny evening and then cold and a couple of inches of snow.  We were heading out for our last canoe day back and crossed the short portage to Sucker where we were greeting with three foot waves and gale force winds.  We decided to head around to Prairie Portage and try to follow the protected shoreline the route back.  It took twice our normal time and I broke a paddle fighting the wind and waves.  I thought never again, but enclosed is a picture from this years trip.  Always enjoy the solitude and serenity of being the last ones in and out of canoe country.

I had made the vow of no more fall trips but a few years later schedules were such that we set up another fall trip in WCPP. It would be a week long base camp on Irvine Lake before the portages had been cut by the park. Five paddlers, two canoes, a small kayak and ample gear to stay warm and dry were flown in with an Otter floatplane. We settled into a site I had prepared a few months earlier. It was sheltered on all sides except a nice southern exposure. Instead of the expected warming rays of the sun all that came in was a cold wind all week long with each day getting darker and colder until we were again experiencing temps just above the freezing point. We had come prepared though and kept adding tarps to our system. When the last wall was added mid-week and we had our improvised wall tent built we had no view but could stay comfortable. One partner commented that he now knew why I was so explicit on what tarps each person should bring. We have not given in again but the lure of the fall woods will surely entice us again sometime.