The ice is dotted with things that look like the outline of octopuses of varying sizes flattened on the ice. These unique patterns were made by old slush drain holes that refroze leaving a circle ringed with squiggly tentacles branching off in all directions.
We portaged into Bonnie Lake and found a lane of open water lining the shore in front of the portage. We used the canoe to break up the ice and paddled out into the lake breaking ice with the canoe, looking for the same 12 inches of ice that covers Knife Lake. Bonnie is a very shallow lake and even when we drilled test holes 100 feet from shore there were only about 6 inches of very rotten ice that would barely hold us.
We decided to go paddling in the narrow strip of open water in front of the portage and work on getting Tank used to riding in the canoe. He was a little nervous at first, but with lots of dog treats and praise he became an eager study. Before long I think he will be napping in the bottom of the canoe with his head perched on a gunwale.
Even though we only had a lane of open water about 200 feet long and 10 feet wide in most places, it felt great to paddle again. In fact, after paddling on Bonnie we hauled the canoe down to the narrows 2 miles west of our campsite and paddled around some more!
Thank you @MTIAdventureWear and @DarrenBush for providing us with amazing new dry suits! They are perfect for what we are doing right now.
#BWCA #canoeing #paddling #onlyinMN #captureMN #BoundaryWaters #Wilderness
