BWCA 2020

 

Those of you who have visited the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) know that summer trips include cold and rainy days. You come to expect inclement weather days with just enough nice days sprinkled in to inspire deep appreciation. With Covid19, the riots, and stories about how crowded the BWCA might be in mind, our family wasn't super focused on the weather when preparing for this trip. By luck we stumbled into atypical, beautiful warm days, with only a little rain. We've never had an August trip this beautiful before. 

Our Family's Last Canoe Trip of 2020

You waste weekends in the summer accomplishing obligatory chores. You think to yourself, "It's summer, I can camp and paddle anytime." Then suddenly, night begins to come earlier. The leaves shine brilliant gold, orange, red, and then poof - they're gone. It sneaks up on you, the last canoe trip of the season. Now you wish you had spent more days on the water, in camp, off the grid.

Teen Finds Joy Paddling in the Sylvania Wilderness, September 2020

Our daughter Ams is a teenager now. Everything is boring. On canoe trips it's always a fight. She wants to sit in the middle seat and fiddle with her phone. Canoes, being a part of "everything", eyeroll, are sooooo booooooring. To offer her a bit of independence, not to mention exercise and fun, my husband decided to pick up a kayak and start bringing it on our canoe trips, at least the ones that require a smaller amount of portaging. Let me tell you how it went.

Backpacking in the Porcupine Mountains

2020 rolled in deliciously fat and happy, but by mid-March things looked very different. With the Corona Virus spreading and the government in denial, the virus took off before we realized it posed a threat. My daughter's school closed, my husband began working from home, I took a pay cut and then a period of reduced hours. We didn't complain, we felt lucky to have work and our health. Before long, civil unrest began to spread though cities and towns. When the  fourth of July weekend came along, the entire family needed a break from the 2020 news cycle.

June 2020 Canoe Trip in the Turtle Flambeau Flowage

On a hot, windy June Tuesday morning, we arrived at Fisherman's Landing in the Turtle Flambeau Flowage. A stiff breeze provided a bit of a relief from the hot sun on nearly the longest day of the year. The upper and lower parking overflowed with vehicles and motorboat trailers. We wanted to try a new landing just for fun, and -this looked like the hot-spot landing for motorboats rather than canoes. We loaded the canoe, and paddled against the wind in search of a campsite.

Watching Goslings on our First Canoe Trip of 2020

With limited dispersed camping areas open in Wisconsin due to the Covid19 pandemic, we set off for a  closer-to-home destination. We went on a rainy spring day thinking the Turtle Flambeau Flowage would not be busy until Memorial Weekend. On the way, we saw other cars carrying canoes. As one sped by, I said to my husband, "Look they're racing you, they're trying to beat you to the campsite." We laughed, in a state with so much water, they could be headed anywhere. Imagine our surprise when we got to the landing and there they were, putting their boats. And yes, they did beat us to the first open campsite, although it wasn't a race and we were looking to go further in.

Watching the Boats Go By on a Canoe Trip for Two in the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage

The Turtle-Flambeau Scenic Waters Area offers remote camping on campsites accessible only by water. Located in Northern Wisconsin near Mercer, the flowage offers fishing, boating, and paddling. On a stormy Friday night in July, we headed north. Traffic pulled to the side of the road from time to time due to poor visibility. Wind churned the dark clouds. We wondered how the weather would be spending this night in our tent.

Hiking the Bohn Lake Segment of the Ice Age Trail, Along with the Connecting Routes to the Deerfield and Greenwood Segments

Layered up and ready to go, I hiked the Bohn Lake Segment of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail (IAT) and the neighboring connecting routes on a windy 12°F (-11°C) February morning. The Bohn Lake Segment of the IAT is 1.8 miles in length, bookended by short connecting routes on either end. To the northeast the connecting route carriers the hiker 1.8 miles to the Deerfield Segment of the IAT, and to the south the connecting route carries the hiker one mile to the Greenwood Segment of the IAT.

July 2019 Sylvania Wilderness Canoe Trip

Cold snowy days are great times for reminiscing about summer days gone by. Our 2019 four day canoe trip to celebrate the 4th of July seems so long ago.  It is funny how in hindsight the first things I remember are the warm sunny swim days, little fish jumping to eat mosquitoes, and the excitement of watching a porcupine visiting our campsite and climb trees. It is only after looking through the old videos and photographs that I recall the swarming mosquitoes, or the storm that came out of nowhere and turned out campsite into mud puddles.

Hiking the Connecting Route between the Walla Hi and Manitowoc Segments of the Ice Age Trail

Footpaths through the prairies, wetlands and forests of Wisconsin beat road-walking most times in my book. I typically like to avoid fast moving cars and narrow shoulders - with one exception. Deer hunting season becomes road-walking season for me, and for many an Ice Age National Scenic Trail (IAT) hiker. When walking connecting routes along the IAT during deer gun season, it is not unusual to hear gunshots, see deer dashing across country roads, and to feel great relief to be on road rather than on trail. In fact, many segments of the IAT are closed during deer gun season. It is in this spirit I road-walked between the Walla Hi and Manitowoc Segments of the IAT.