Previous: On the Water Day One
Meeds to Henson
As became my custom I awoke around 6am as it got light. There was a little rain but it stopped by the time we put in around 8:30.
This was our first full day in the Boundary Waters and I could feel that as we set out across Meeds Lake en route to Henson Lake. I don't think I have ever been in a more absolutely quiet place. Even the birds took a break as we paddled down the lake to our first portage.
On the way we spotted what we decided was a Trumpeter Swan based on face and bill color.
Getting to Henson Lake required three portages:
- Meeds to Swallow. This was the longest portage of the day at about a third of a mile; I carried the canoe
- Swallow to Pillsbery. This was a bit shorter than the previous portage; CRH carried the boat this time.
- Pillsbery to Henson. I carried the canoe on the shortest portage of the day, about a sixth of a mile.
When we got to the far end of the portage from Meeds to Swallow we could actually see the takeout for the next portage, about fifty yards away directly across the very narrow Swallow Lake. This was vaguely (or maybe not so vaguely) annoying as the length of the paddle has no effect on the portage activity. You still have to change footwear, pack everything back into drybags that you took out, pack everything correctly into the canoe, then paddle for maybe two minutes only to repeat the process.
We decided to break for lunch at the put-in to Henson Lake. My main course was pepperoni and cheese wrapped in a tortilla.
As we ate we greeted a solo paddler arriving at the put-in, having paddled all the way from our outfitter on Poplar Lake. He was on a fairly minimalist fishing trip with pretty much only a hammock for camping gear, but he also had a satellite radio with which he could get updated weather forecasts for the area. He reported that there was a storm forecast for around 8PM with lightning around 2AM, so we kept that in mind as we set out on the search for a campsite on Henson Lake.
We skipped the first site in order to shorten the next day's paddle. The second site was not exceptional as it required a fairly steep uphill hike to the site from the shore, but CRH and I held it while S and P explored the third site farther west. When they returned to report that the site seemed a bit small, we settled on the second site, making camp around 3:45 PM.
We left the boats near the shore. The water in the picture is actually a smaller separate lake; Henson Lake is behind the photographer.
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| Boatyard for this leg |
Per custom I chose the most isolated of the tent sites to spare my companions the delights of my nocturnal serenading. We ended up never seeing any bears and now I am wondering if they thought there already was one in our campsite.
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| Another good spot for the Apnea Ward |
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| View from the Apnea Ward |
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| It's a tarp! (sorry) |
Dinner was freeze-dried Korean style beef, washed down with vodka and lemonade, with hot chocolate afterwards.
Right before we turned in we saw a pair of loons flying overhead, having heard them first, and CRH marveled "So they really can fly..."
We discussed the plan for the next day. Depending on the weather we will end up somewhere on Winchell Lake, which is quite long and has several possible campsites.
Overnight it was very windy with periods of very heavy rain, but I didn't hear any thunder or see any lightning.
The bottom corner of my sleeping bag and pad got a bit wet from where it was pushed up against the tent, but it was nothing serious and my assumption going in to the trip was that things would be various stages of damp from start to finish. On the other hand I ended up demonstrating an almost uncanny ability to place my sleeping pad and bag in the lowest part of the tent, so I wasn't doing myself any favors.
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