BW On the Water: Day One (9/6/2026)

Into the Wild

Wanting to get an early start we arose at 6am and had a quick breakfast.

Once we had wrapped up everything we needed to do before setting out, we undertook a final review of our gear to see if there was anything we really didn't need. We all decided to leave our camp chairs behind to reduce cargo volume; they don't weigh much so that was less of a factor. In retrospect it would have been nice to have a seating option with some back support to boot, but it did save us a couple of cubic feet and we seemed to miss them less with each portage.

After some trial and error loading the canoes we put in to Poplar Lake and got underway around 7:45am. Our target was Meeds Lake via Lizz, Caribou and an unnamed watercourse that, on the map, threaded between marshy banks.

The expedition sets out

Most of the lakes we paddled in the Boundary Waters ran from west to east, and all were fairly narrow. The exception, and coincidentally the only lake we paddled that is outside the BWCA, is Poplar Lake, which does run mostly west to east but is relatively broad. Our course to the portage to Lizz Lake ran southeast across the widest part of the lake and was a lovely paddle on this sunny day with low winds. Yes, this is foreshadowing.

After navigating around a few islands and a brief conference to confirm our course, we made a pretty good landfall at the first portage. This portage was unique for our trip in that it had duckboards/docks at both ends; I suspect this is the result of the portage being one of the "official" entry points to the BWCA so it gets a lot of use. On a practical level both ends of the portage excelled in muck so it was nice to have something more stable to use than potentially bottomless lakeshore.

Luxury!

About halfway through the portage a long trail intersects it and a sign announces the entry to the Boundary Waters, so that was an auspicious moment. Better still, as I made my way along the path with my load of gear I suddenly came upon a group of small chicken-like birds wandering around in the middle of the path making little churring sounds at each other. From their neck feathers I guessed they were Ruffed Grouse, and I watched until they decided to take their discussion elsewhere. Later, once we were back in cell/internet range, I determined that they were actually Spruce Grouse; northern Minnesota is the southern edge of their normal range so this was a fun discovery!

Lizz Lake is long and narrow but runs roughly north to south. We were able to find the portage relatively easily; on the way we saw a beaver swimming back to its lodge and an adult loon feeding two of its young.

The portage from Lizz to Caribou Lake was my first time carrying the canoe. It took some getting used to, but the built-in yoke is situated to provide good balance so as long as I took care on the path it wasn't too bad, relatively speaking. It also showed that I Could Do It so that was a good boost for me. From this point we began to encounter more groups of fellow paddlers on the portages. Most consisted of two people so we found ourselves being overtaken by fewer people with correspondingly less gear. This planted a small seed of anxiety regarding the availability of campsites where we were heading. On the plus side, by this time we (but really CRH) had determined the most efficient weight-balancing load for our tandem canoe, so our efficiency at put-ins improved.

As we headed west on Caribou Lake we spotted a Bald Eagle and what we are pretty sure was a Trumpeter Swan.

The portage from Caribou to the "marshy passage" was short but quite rocky at both ends of the portage.

Preparing for the reed-ing

The map's depiction of this passage was much more optimistic than the reality as it was not immediately obvious as we entered it that there was a way through. S and P led the way through the reeds. It was quite hard to see much of the way forward as the "open" water was narrow and twisty, and we found ourselves more or less poling the canoe at times. However, we made it through and got to the last portage of the day, to Meeds Lake. Like the previous one, it was rocky at both ends.

Reeds to Meeds

Once on Meeds Lake we headed for the first campsite, on the easternmost island of the lake. As luck would have it we just beat another party heading to the to the campsite from the other direction, and arrived a little after 3PM. This is the downside to the first-come first-serve campsite system. Of course, the downside if we had lost the race would have been the need to keep going in hopes of finding another open site, but we felt bad for the other group.

BWCA campsites are designed to accommodate up to four boats and nine people (not sure whether dogs count against any maximums). They have a firepit with grill and, a few hundred feet away, a basic one-hole latrine. The path to the latrine sometimes is not immediately obvious so I would usually make it an early order of business to find out where to conduct business.

I had warned my companions about my sleep apnea so in the absence of a miles-long extension cord for my CPAP machine I was usually able to site my tent at sufficient distance from the others. In the photo below you can see the "common area" of the site behind my tent, with the other tents behind the trees to the right.

Apnea Ward

Another priority item was ensuring a sufficient supply of potable water. The BWCA prides itself on its clean fresh water but we all brought various water filtering purifying gear. S and P had a large iodine-filter drip bag which became our principal filtering equipment, while CRH had a smaller pump that came in handy. I brought purification tablets more as a backup, and as it turns out we never used them, but water purification redundancy seemed wise, plus the tablets took up very little space. Being the least experienced camper in the group by an order of magnitude, I saw an opportunity to Be Useful and got a quick tutorial from P on using the filter drip bag, and from then on became the "Water Commissioner" for the trip.

Prior to setting out we had generally agreed on a division of responsibility for dinner contents and prep. The first night was CRH's and my responsibility and we prepared burrito fixins with black beans, diced pepper, freeze-dried chicken (surprisingly not bad) and tortillas. P supervised the tortilla prep on the camp grill. I ended up making a kind of tortilla soup which was more or less successful.

We were in our tents around 7:30. At first this seemed early but the work of the day quickly made its presence felt, and on subsequent days an early turn-in was positively welcome!

That night we heard quite a commotion on the shore some distance away. Pretty sure it was a moose; as CRH put it, it was certainly something "with good lung capacity."