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Boundary Waters Routes: Sag and Sea Gull Loop
Two large lakes dominate the terrain at the end of the Gunflint Trail. To the north at Trail’s End, Saganaga Lake stretches through the Boundary Waters and into Canada. To the west, Sea Gull Lake runs for miles. A Boundary Waters Canoe Area entry point serves each lake and both are connected through a set of portages. These portages make it one of the easy Boundary Waters routes that make a loop. Distance: 29 miles (450 rods of portages) – This area has several variation, so you could do a shorter route and still see most of it. Entry Points: 55, 55A, 54, 54A Trip Rating: Intermediate. The portages are…
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THE SKELETON COAST: Paddling Lake Superior’s Desolate Southeast Shore
I’ve spent the last few summers working as a sea kayak guide for Woods and Water Ecotours in Hessel, Michigan and loved every minute of it. The long days, working with clients, teaching lessons and kayak surf sessions with the guides all added to the mystique. In the fall, reluctant to let go of my summer freedom as I went back to engineering school, I would go kayak surfing on Whitefish Bay when the gales of November would come slashing out of the north. The Big Water has a way of stripping away everything that isn’t important. It becomes just you and the Lake. For a spring expedition I decided…
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Ninja Paddling – The Path of the Ninja Paddler
The word ‘ninja’ brings to mind silent assassins running through the forests of medieval Japan and cheesy B action movies with terrible plots and even worse special effects. The word itself has become heavily overused in modern society. People are obsessed with ninjas. Movies, cartoons, anime, and even paddling equipment makers like NRS have used the name ‘Ninja’ as a hook to draw people in, but for me the name brings to mind a special activity, something I like to call “Ninja Paddling.” Once a month at Woods & Water Ecotours we guide a moonlight kayak trip where we take clients out to watch the sunset and then to watch…
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Boundary Waters Day Trip: Bower Trout Lake BWCA
The eastern side of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area has many great day trips, but one of the best starts at the Bower Trout Lake BWCA entry point. This route is an out and back paddle, so you decide how long of a trip you want. The fishing is good on several of the lakes, and moose often frequent Bower Trout late in the evening. Combine those factors with the burned area further west along the route, and you get a diverse day trip with plenty to see. Start early in the morning on this one, because there’s so much to explore Distance: 1 to 10 miles – This is…
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For Whom The Old Presque Isle Bell Tolls
The Old Presque Isle Lighthouse was built in 1840 and operated until 1871. It’s one of the oldest surviving lighthouses on the Great Lakes. The park preserves both the old keepers house and the light. When originally restored, the owner used wood from a nearby shipwreck, so the interior features knotted wood with lots of holes. He also used all the doors from the ship to replace interior doors, which gives the keeper’s house a wonderful nautical feel. When I was there, the park volunteer had a small fire burning in the fireplace, which made the house feel even more welcoming. After being rescued from a shipwreck, it would have…
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Port Huron to Home Expedition: Twitter Posts Day 24 to 45
About the midway through my 45-day Port Huron to Home Expedition, my brother Eric started pulling together all my tweets for a blog post about my trip. Here are the remainder of the tweets. The oldest is the lowest on the page. Also, you may want to read a few articles that were written about the trip: Bryan Hansel Finally Completes his Top Secret Great Lakes Expedition and A Kayaker’s Journey From Port Huron to Minnesota Along Lakes Huron and Superior and Dreaming of a Trip. The Duluth news (KBJR) ran a segment on the 10pm news on Wednesday. I was on WTIP at 8 on Thursday. And I’m going…
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Port Huron to Home Solo Kayaking Expedition
Yesterday, I finished a 800-mile, 45-day, solo, kayaking expedition. The trip started at Port Huron, Michigan, which is at the southern most point of Lake Huron, and ended in Grand Marais, Minnesota. At Houghton, Michigan, I linked up with my 2009 Grand Marais to Houghton trip, which means that I’ve now paddled the entire American shoreline from the Pigeon River on the Canadian/Minnesota border to Port Huron on the Michigan/Canadian border. I did the trip in three legs. At each leg, I had an easy way out if I wanted to call it good. The first leg ran from Port Huron to St. Ignas. The second leg went for St.…
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Bryan’s Spring/Summer 2011 Kayaking Adventure
My Brother Bryan, the main author of this website has been out on a paddling trip for the last 26 days. I wanted to take some time and offer an update to the site and share with you some of his adventure. He’s been using both Twitter and Facebook to keep people updated to his whereabouts, triumphs and trials. Below you’ll find most of his Tweets from the last 26 days along with my best attempt at mapping his path along the way. If you feel like my map is way off (which it probably is) and would like to contribute to it, use the contact form on this site…
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Head North to Old Woman: A Lake Superior Kayaking Adventure
This is a guest post from sea kayaker Tim Gallway. It was a cold August morning, and I was heading for Wawa, Ontario to teach at the Greenland Symposium put on by Naturally Superior Adventures (NSA). Or at least I would have if the event hadn’t been cancelled. Due to many last minute cancellations instructors would outnumber students, so the plug was pulled. But I was still going. I was planning on spending the long weekend sleeping on beaches, playing in the surf and rock gardens around Superior Provincial Park with the other instructors that were going to do the same thing I was. One way or another I was…
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12 Months of Paddling
I did it! On Saturday, I closed the circle and paddled year round for the third or fourth year in a row. I set a goal for the last few years to paddle at least once a month, even in winter when it’s cold. Most years in my area, Lake Superior remains completely open, but every once in a while it freezes completely over. This year, it didn’t even get close, and the area experienced enough warmer days throughout the winter to make paddling bearable for a couple of hours at a time. So, I did it! 12 Months of Paddling in a row. I usually don’t write about personal…
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Hiking Eagle Mountain, Minnesota
It’s winter and even though the winter paddling on Lake Superior is still great, I do like to explore the snowy aspects of Minnesota. I’ve never hiked up Eagle Mountain, Minnesota’s highest point, in winter before, so I decided it was about time. Eagle Mountain is part of the Misquah Hills in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. And at 2,301 feet, it’s the tallest mountain in Minn. It’s also only 15 miles from Minnesota’s lowest point on Lake Superior. In the summer, some people race the Minnesota Lowest to Highest Duathalon Challenge from the lake near Grand Marais’ bike shop to the summit and back — first on bikes…
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Boundary Waters (BWCA) Primer
The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota protects 1.09 million acres of Boreal forest and lakes under the Wilderness Act of 1964 and the 1978 BWCA Act. The U.S. set aside the area to provide a place “where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” It is one of two protected canoe areas in the U.S. The other one, the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Canoe Trail System, is in Alaska. A typical BWCA experience takes a visitor across lakes and the portage trails connecting them into an unspoiled forest. Because most the area’s 1,000 lakes and over 2,200 backcountry campsites are only accessible by water, the…
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The Paddles of Walter Caribou
Grand Portage National Monument in Grand Portage, Minn. marks the lower terminus of the 8-mile Grand Portage used by fur-trading voyagers to transport trade goods and furs from the Pigeon River to Lake Superior. The current fort is a reconstruction of the original fort. Inside the stockade, there’s a display of paddles built by Walter Caribou, a Ojibwe, who lived in Grand Portage. Caribou was known as a great storyteller and a good paddle maker. In the above picture, the paddles from the left going clockwise are labeled: Ladies Paddle Middleman Paddle Francis Anne Hopkins painting “Canoe Shooting Rapids” paddle. U.S.A. Paddle “Rendezvous Awards” Paddle Ladies Paddle. Cribbage board “Distressed”…
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Fram Museum Kayaks and Kayaking Gear
In 2008, I visited Norway to kayak and be a tourist. The trip started in Oslo with visits to the museums. Then we flew north to kayak in the Lofoten Islands. After the Lofoten Islands, we kayaked in Aurlandsfjorden near Flåm. The scenery was stunning the entire trip — it’s the type of place that you can drop a camera and get a great picture. Even though the scenery was overwhelming and the kayaking good, I enjoyed the museums the most. Seeing my first “real” traditional Greenland kayak and the accompanying gear was one highlight. The Fram Museum in Oslo houses the polar ship Fram, which still holds the record…
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Manitou River Kayaking Trip Report
If a kayaking trip included one arch, one cave and one waterfall, I’d call it a winner. By that definition, the trip from Sugarloaf Cove to the Manitou River on Lake Superior wins the world championship. During the 11 mile round-trip, you will paddle past three arches that you can kayak through and many others above the waterline. You’ll see two postcard worthy waterfalls, paddle past towering palisades, kayak into caves (one with a waterfall falling down over the entrance) and encounter mansions and old fishing buildings. Rock from Keweenawan lava flows and intrusions makes up the shoreline and the presence of glaciers gone shows itself with gouge marks. A…
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