Boundary Waters/Quetico Trip for 2001

June 8th-17th, 2001
Day 1:Friday, June 8th, 2001Blackstone or Bust

The Players:GeoFisher, GadgetMan, Alan, and Paul.  Between all members of the group, we have something like 20+ trip years collectively.  

After driving 18 hours straight from Louisville, KY, we finally arrived at Superior North Outfitters on the Gunflint Trail.  It was about 7:00am, and the weather was great.  We had 3 options for canoes to rent:  Old Town Penopscot 15, Souris River Quetico 18, or Winonah Minnesota II.  We opted for the Souris River Quetico 18.

The tow to Hook Island was pretty uneventful..after all, it is just a tow.  But the young lady working for Superior North was amazed that we chose to load our canoes on the water, instead of the bank of Hook Island.  I thought this was the norm, not the exception.  After discussing some initial trip rules..such as no fishing until we arrive at Blackstone, we were off.

We made it to the ranger station at Cache Bay in record time, with 1 group ahead of us.  We spent about 1 hour checking in with Jason, the Quetico Park Ranger.  Jason pointed out the hazards at Silver Falls, and also corrected some of our unmarked portages into Blackstone.

The Silver Falls portage was the longest portage up to this point that I had used in either Quetico or the BWCAW.  I decided to attempt to single portage carried my gear pack on my back and the food pack on the front..for a total of nearly 100 lbs.  I did make it across the portage with only 3 rest stops..pretty good I thought.  GadgetMan made 2 trips.1 to get the Canoe, and 1 to get his pack.  All fishing gear, chairs, paddles, and life vests were strapped into the canoe, changing the weight of our Souris River from 43lbs to nearly 50lbs.  This would be the last time we strap all the stuff to the canoe, and I single portage..Doubles, and even triples would be used the rest of the trip.

We ate MRE Lunches on the other side of Silver Falls just before tackling the rather swift current coming from the falls.  This was a pretty scary time for all of us..since we had never really experienced this type of current anywhere in the park in the past.  Both canoes handled this pretty well, but we were rather scared after crossing it.  With the water up, we were able to float the small cut instead of going around the large island on Saganagons.  This took us to a small 10 rod portage into Slate lake.   

The unmarked portages from Slate lake into Blackstone were pretty good, although they are not used very often.  There were some trees down, and in some cases, were pretty muddy, but not so bad that the muck, mud, and goop went over my 12" high Rocky Pro Hunter boots.  The unmarked portages GPS' d at about 180 rods for the first portage, 50 for the second, and 50-60 for the third.  To calculate rods, I took miles, and converted using 320 rods for 1 mile.  I hope this is right.  A map segment with these portages marked will be on my website in the very near future.

On the very last portage of the day.I rip the butt out of my zipoff pants..It is going to be a long, long trip.  Fortunately I have another pair, and am able to repair these with a needle from the first aid kit, and Fireline..man, you gotta love this stuff.

Finally, we hit Blackstone about 4:00PM.  After looking for the island campsite, which is supposed to be this great campsite, we found a really substandard site.  (I still don't think we were at the good site, but we chose to take it anyway).  We setup camp, and chose areas of the lake to fish for the night and the next morning.  Fishing that evening was not really too good.  We did manage to catch 22 smallmouth, and 5 or 6 northern, some of which were nearing the 10lb range.  Alan and Paul did not have as much luck, only catching 3 smallmouth and no northern.  The grumbling of "why did we come here" were already starting.

This was supposed to be our destination lake, and we had planned to spend 3-4 days on Blackstone.  That would not happen.

This page was last updated on: December 23, 2022