Welcome to tahoe's BWCAW 2001 Route.
2002 September Trip
As has become our entry date, got to Ely the Saturday before Labor Day. We made the Wahpeton exit again this year and stopped for lunch in Duluth. We missed the tanker that was beached by just a couple of days. Took Hwy 2 up to Ely. Our overnight stay at CanoeCountry Outfitters was good again. Stayed in the houses before our entry this year. Don't know if they're worth the extra money. We'll stay with the bunkhouses from now on.
We returned to an old favorite entry, Mudro at the Chainsaw Sisters. This year we went west on Fourtown to Boot. We found two campsites there and decided to stay for the night. All Fairy and Gun campsites remained full throughout the week, so we made our permanent camp there on Boot.
The 140 rod portage at Fourtown was tougher than we remembered, must be getting older. Boot was nice, with lots of (smaller) Crappies/Bluegills/Bass to keep the fishermen busy. We canoed to Gun one day to try Bass fishing at a rumored hotspot. It wasn't too hot for us.
Monday we had a lot of showers with one strong rain until about 5:00pm. Then it cleared off and became a nice night. Tuesday we were windblown until about the same time. Wednesday we watched a great lightning show from sunset until late in the evening. The storm bypassed us and cleared in time to show us some Northern Lights. Green only, but lots of spires and lots of movement. We were up early Friday and out to Chainsaw Sisters enjoying a cold pop by 10:30am.
Again, we found an eagle. He let us get somewhat close, then flew off, only to surprise us around a cliff face on a high, dead pine. At 300 zoom, he took up the whole lens! As we were exiting Fourtown, a loon let us get within 20 feet of him when I ran out of film! He stayed to watch me unload the new film and discover there were no more rolls to load. We ended up leaving him rather than him leaving us. The wildlife list ended with loons, gulls, a beaver, mice, lots of ravens, and the eagle...and float plane traffic! We watched a hummingbird at Chainsaw Sisters also.
**Map curtesy of Superior National Forest Map Server, available through the links page.
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