We spent several days exploring the Louse River, which is long on portages and short on paddling. It is a wild, rugged landscape and many of the portages feel more like muddy, narrow game trails than the well-worn tracks that connect many of the more popular lakes in the Wilderness.
Yesterday we were mesmerized by the tall marsh grasses rippling with the force of each passing gust.
We spent two nights camped on Trail Lake, in the middle of the Louse River. The only person that we saw on the Louse River was a young man named Owen on the portage between Zenith and Fredrick Lake. Owen is in college and just started working at Sawbill Outfitters. I worked at Sawbill when I was his age and I remember him coming into the store as a little kid, quietly peering over the counter as he bought treats to take back to his campsite in the Sawbill Lake Campground. He has been coming to the Boundary Waters for his whole life and it was easy to see that he was beaming with excitement as he headed out on his first solo canoe trip (even after completing the 1.5 mile Lujenida Portage). A few minutes after we returned to our campsite on Trail Lake, dark clouds towered over us, the trees began to sway and the wind sent streams of spray flying off the rapidly building wave tops. Huddled under our Cooke Custom Sewing Lean 2 Amy said,” I sure hope Owen is off the water and has his camp set up.” Amy and I have spent the last 279 days in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to help protect this national treasure from a series of sulfide-ore copper mines being proposed along the edge of the Wilderness. Please visit @savethebwca at http://ift.tt/1x2erSX to learn more and take action today.
#wildernessyear #savetheBWCA #BoundaryWaters #Wilderness #BWCA #CaptureMN #OnlyinMN
