Revisiting: Superior National Forest

With these last few months of 2016 dwindling down, we voyaged to one of our favorite places for some soul cleansing & fall foliage, an annual trip to the Boundary Water Canoe Area in Superior National Forest. 

The BWCA is a protected wilderness area in northern Minnesota, bordering Canada just west of Lake Superior. 

Motorboats with up to 25 horsepower are allowed in some parts of the reserve, but the majority of the BWCA is exclusive to canoes & anything else paddle driven only.

Over the span of a week we paddled & portaged over 30 miles from Fall Lake, Northbound along the Canadian border, all the way up past Basswood Falls.

We were lucky enough to spot some pictographs created hundreds of years ago by Native Americans occupying the region, most likely from the Sioux or the Ojibwe tribes.

Despite consistently sunny afternoons, some mornings dipped as low as a frigid 38 degrees Fahrenheit. Fortunately we had our G Pen Elite to start the days off right. 

Traces of active wildlife were abundant all around us. Trees bearing the scars of a beaver's work were just a stone's throw from one of our campsites. 

 

Time shifts at different paces when you're withdrawn & disconnected from the turbulent drone of modern civilization, reminding us how valuable a simple rejuvenating breath of fresh air can be.

The Gods of Boundary Water graciously blessed us with some prime fishing allowing us to feast on the freshest Walleye fillets for many of our evenings. 

“The serenity of [a placid lake] is a wondrous thing to behold, more precious than the gems coveted & covered in platinum or gold...”

One of the few places not affected by light pollution, the BWCA is an ideal place to view Aurora Borealis, aka the Northern Lights. This year the colliding electrons among the magnetospheric plasma were the most vivid we've experienced yet. Another glorious venture for the books.