This may have been the most adventurous trip we took this year. It involved rafting, portaging a raft, hiking, and canoeing, as well as, coordinating all the components to work together. Also, I hadn’t expected an amazing historic story and hands-on experience that would remain with us for weeks after that would gel the entire history of the Northern United States together.
First, Voyageurs National Park is made up of 90% water. All the campsites in the park are across a huge lake, Lake Kabetogama. Since you can’t rent a boat (or you might and it was WAY out of our price range), we brought our 4-person blow-up dingy raft. Also, once you get across the huge lake, you can take a number of trails to other smaller lakes with park service canoes to rent. All the campsites are on the shoreline, whether on the large lake or on a small one.
The previous summer, we had bought a trolling motor for our raft and decided it would do to get us across. We practiced the week before in Lake Rice, near Brainerd Minnesota, of how long our batteries would last. We discovered that the two electric batteries we bought would only get us about ¼ of the way there, but our car battery seemed to go and go.
We arrived at the park late after driving through some serious thunderstorms. That night, while on my way from the bathroom, I experienced lightning bugs for the first time. I came running back to the tents and told Will and the kids, but they were so tired, they ignored my excitement and didn’t even get out of the tent. That night we laid in bed listening to loons and rolling thunder.
The next morning, we made our way to the Kabetogama Visitor Center. I had reserved space in the Voyageurs reenactment presentation. We learned about the Voyageurs, who were contracted for 2 years to live and barter with native Americans for pelts over the winter, then literally raced down the Northern Waterways each spring to Grand Portage, MN. They rowed birch bark canoes at a rate of 1 stroke per second for 50 minutes and then taking a 10-minute ‘peep’ break (smoke break). They would row for up to 16 hours a day.
After the reenactment, we organized our little boat and started across the lake. The plan was to cross a half mile of open waters, then portage a half mile across a peninsula, continue another 2 miles by raft to our trailhead, stow the boat and motor and hike 1.5 miles to our lake side canoe, and finally canoe a half mile to our final campsite.
I wish I had a picture of us portaging our stuff on the muddy trail. With packs on our backs, I cradled the car battery in my arms like a baby, Will hefted the boat over his head, and Noah and Isabel shared the weight of the trolling motor, we balanced all our stuff while sidestepping poison ivy and knocking ticks from ourselves.
During our 2-day trip, we saw our first beaver, beaver dam, bald eagles, deer, loons, and the ever-loving ticks. Isabel saw her first leech in the water and the next morning after heavy rains, we all saw our first leech on the rocks. Before the trip, I bought mosquito nets, because we were warned by rangers that every living biting thing had just come into season. We were surprised that we didn’t have a lot of mosquitos, but the ones we did have, didn’t care if you had repellent on or not.
Learning about the Voyageurs was an unexpected nugget during our trip that tied much of the rest of our trip together from the rawness of Isle Royale, to the recreated Grand Portage fort, to the shores of Lake Ontario, then finally visiting Montreal. We would discover in the coming weeks, that we had taken the same route that the Voyageurs had taken years and years ago.
