October 25, 2015 at 08:21PM

The Basswood River spills over many ledges and squeezes through rock walls where it empties out of Basswood Lake. There is a mile long portage that bypasses the first mile an a half of river, where most of these rapids lie. Gazing up the river this morning from our campsite at the base of the rapids we longed to see what was around the next bend. It had been many years since I followed the river channel rather than taking the mile long portage. Amy had always taken the portage, never witnessing this stretch of the river. In reality, taking the portage is probably faster and easier than following the river, but we had time and we wanted to feel the pull of the river and hear all of its throbbing, boiling rapids. We spent several hours paddling, lining, and portaging past the many ledges and rapids. We didn’t see a soul all day, we had the river to ourselves.
We stopped for lunch at the top of the last rapids before Basswood Lake and watched the water course by, there is something so soothing about moving water. The Kawishiwi River flows into Basswood Lake and eventually flows over the rapids and through the rock walls we had just navigated. Water polluted by the Twin Metals mine would flow right past here, right through the heart of Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on its way to Voyageurs National Park. The edge of our nation’ s most popular Wilderness isn’t an appropriate place to build a giant copper mine. Please share this, and help us @savetheBWCA . #wildernessyear #savethebwca #boundarywaters #BWCA #onlyinMN