8 Day Boundary Waters Canoe Trip | 60+ Miles | Part 1

Hey, welcome to camp. Three friends and I are going on a 65 mile canoe trip in the boundary waters of Minnesota. For eight days we'll be paddling around beautiful remote lakes, portaging our canoes and gear from lake to lake, battling mosquitoes, fishing for dinner, going over beaver dams, and enjoying the gorgeous boundary water skies. We've been driving for five hours from Minneapolis. We are still 44 minutes away from the outfitter where we're going to hop in the lake and start our canoe trip. And now it's raining like crazy. We made it. Let's go, go, go. We start our trip tomorrow when we actually go in the water in the canoes. And so tonight we are at the outfitter's sleeping in a bunk house with all the bunk beds. We got everything packed up and now we're going to go to bed because it's early roll call tomorrow. Get out on the water. Good morning. We're about to go get driven to our starting point. Sight in the dark. So I just stayed on Rip Lake. Just got placed in the water. It's a little rainy but it's not really that bad. First portage is over there. This is attempt number two of a big loop, like a 60 mile loop that we tried last year and we couldn't do it. So this is round two. Hopefully we do it this time. Today is like 7 miles of paddling and like half a mile of portaging before we get to the first campsite. It's 830 right now so hopefully by noon we'll be there. There have been a lot of storms and so this portage is shin deep water in. Come on. Just ripped my rain pants on the first portage. Oh my god, you've got to be kidding me. Finished the first portage on the second lake. There's six more portages today. On the very first one I blew out the crotch of my rain pants immediately. So off to a great start. These are the worst mosquitoes yet. Oh my god. There's so many. Yeah, those are loons. They're so funny. A lot of these portages aren't supposed to look like this, be this muddy. But there were recent storms like two weeks ago that flooded everything, they raised the water level like by two feet, three feet. So all of this is now the portage site and it's like a breeding ground for mosquitoes and it's awful. Little baby waves. Set us up for success. Go in? Yeah. Go like straight in. Yeah, it's nice. It's good. That was the last portage of the day and now we just sail through until we find the campsite. This is the biggest lake so far. I'm sorry, I'm not paddling. Going straight for the island. What? Say it again. We got a fish. Say it's Latin name. I don't know it's Latin name. What kind of fish is it? It's a smallmouth bass. There's the campsite. I immediately ripped my rain pants on the very first portage so they're not really going to do much for the rest of the trip. Now it's lunchtime. Where are we? At three o'clock. There was like a breeze, I thought the bugs were better. Why? I think better. Mosquitoes are like ten times worse than they were last year. So we're eating lunch with our nets on and then you sneak a bite. Did I drop it? Yeah, you did. There's leeches all over this lake and I just had two on me. Maybe like a chair and maybe like a couple. Now I'm bleeding like crazy. We're in a little mosquito house. Mosquito free zone. Cooking up the fish we caught. What'd you grab? Oh, that's good. That's a piece of fig newton. Caught a walleye. First bite of walleye. That garlic pepper thing is really good. Yeah, really good. We made camp and we got back in the boats to do more fishing. So the wind's blowing us this way. We're trying to fish in this cove right here. So we post it up at the mouth of the cove. We're just letting the wind push us and cast and then when we get pushed all the way to the end, paddle back up and try again. Or go to a different area. When you go to the Boundary Waters, you have to stay at designated campsites. And the campsites have like a fire circle and tent pads kind of already. They also have vault toilets. This is the vault toilet. They're always surrounded by mosquitoes. It's dinner time? Yeah. Biscuits and gravy. Fix that next time. Reddit.com recommends one third cup less. One third less? So much less. Did you say reddit.com? Yeah. Because this one, this one's only two. We have an early morning tomorrow. I think we're getting up at like 5. Because the rain comes at definitely 2pm tomorrow. If not noon. And it's our longest day. So we're going to try to get up early and beat the rain. All the mosquitoes want to come inside. No sir. This is the best way I can think to dry my pants. Best way I can hang them up in the tent. Okay so we're getting an early start tomorrow. It's 8pm right now. But we're all in our tents. Getting ready for bed. Just so we can wake up early. We're going to try to head out early. It's like a 10 mile day. So it could take like 6 hours or so. So I will see you tomorrow. Good morning. It is 5am and the sun is just poking out over the water. So it's time to start moving. So this is the plan for today. Yesterday was 7 miles. 6 of them canoe. 1 of them portage. Day 2 is 9.7 total. With 8.2 canoe. 1.5 portage. So there's 7 portages total. 1.5 miles of portages. It's a big day. Last year when we did this. There was 1 portage that was a swamp for like a half a mile. And carrying the canoe in that is super sketchy. Because you just sink down in the mud. So hopefully with all the high water it's just a river now. The water is like glass this morning. It's a beautiful start to the worst day of the trip. Not the worst but the hardest at least. When you portage you can single portage or double portage. That just means you carry everything in one go. Versus like go back and go again. And last year we double portage. It literally takes double the time. Or like triple the time. Triple the miles because you have to have 1, 2, 3. So this year we're trying single portage. Which means I have a pack and the canoe. And on some of these it gets a little sketchy. This one wasn't that sketchy. We just made it through one of the bigger lakes today. And now it's going. I'm talking to the camera. The mouth of the lake is becoming a river now. And then we go down a river. And last year there was a beaver dam. That was a pain in the butt to get around. So this year we'll see if we can just get over it. Because of the high water. A little snack break on the water. Made it to the beaver dam. The water is almost high enough to where we can just go over it. I can get out too. Oh my god this is so much better. Ok good call. Paddle. Look at that view. We are currently doing the longest portage of the day. Which is 180 rods. I know 80 rods is a quarter mile. So 160 is a half mile. So it's just over half a mile. A little muddy. Like in terms of the ones we've seen this one really isn't that bad. Like I said before we're single portaging. So my friend has the canoe and a portage pack. And he's ahead of me right now. And I have the other pack. And our food bags. The next portage is literally right around the corner. And last year it was a really bad one. We were like sinking 3 feet into the mud. The last time we did this part of our trail. The water level wasn't as high. So we had to walk it in a marshy area the whole time. Now the water level is high enough. I mean it's a tight fit. But this is way better than walking it in waist high mud. This is our last lake before the lake that we're camping on. So it's just like one portage and then the campsite is right on the other side of the portage. Faster! This is the portage pack that we've been wearing when we carry the canoe. Looks huge. It's because it is. It weighs a ton. This is portage 7 out of 7 for the day. Another 80 rod portage. Which is a quarter mile. And this one is extremely muddy too. When you're portaging you can't really see where you're going at all. This is my view. You can only really see 2 feet in front of you. Welcome to Sawbill Lake. This is the lake we're camping on. Sawbill Lake. I think the campsite I found is over... Made it to campsite number 2. We left at 6.30 in the morning. And it is now almost 1 o'clock. So 6.5 hours for 9.7 miles. It's not that bad. We have an hour before it's supposed to rain. And the wind's picking up so it feels like it's going to. But right now it's really pretty. It's 1.30, rain comes in half an hour. Supposedly. I don't think it's coming. Everybody has their tents set up. And now we're just chilling. At some point we're going to go fishing and swimming. Because how can you not? So the wind's really picking up now. There's dark clouds coming. So the rain's probably coming. It said it was supposed to come at 2. And it's now 3.20. And there's still no rain. So it's probably coming soon. So we set up the tarp. When it rains. This is going to be our hangout area. Right now we're all going swimming. Because it's like 80 degrees out. And it's not raining yet. We're all going swimming. And this is our swimming pool. No splashing, no splashing. I'm falling, I'm falling. All the rocks are so slippery. So I slip and I'm sitting down. And I think I might stay here. It is so cold. Shut up, shut up. No talking for 3 seconds. I have no sun cream. Put your sun cream. I got some. Refreshing. It's now a little after 4. And the sun is still out. And it hasn't rained yet. So we're not even sure if it is going to rain. But we're prepared for it. Fishing day 2. It's a super windy day. But we're in between 2 islands right now. The wind really isn't blowing us that much right now. It never ended up raining. And it is 640 right now. So it probably won't rain ever again. For the rest of the trip. So we're making dinner. Tonight's dinner is Annie's mac and cheese. And tuna. Oh the sun is going to set right over there. We're facing the sunset. You can't leave this campsite. There's no bugs. So we only caught one fish while we were out. But we're cooking it up. So we're cooking the fish up in oil and whatever this is. Yesterday it worked out pretty well. First bite. At 8.07 The rain started. We just assumed it wasn't coming. But it finally came. So now I'm just chilling in my tent. It's really coming down now. No the sun is out. The rain was crazy hard. And then it just kind of stopped. And the sun is shining through. Hi YouTube. The rain finally stopped. It's almost 9 o'clock. We're going to go to bed. Because we're waking up early again to get an early head start. So I will see you tomorrow. Good morning. We're almost done packing up camp. Today we have 6.9 miles. And only two portages. Which is going to be awesome. Because yesterday was 7. And it was triple the length. This is the morning of day 3. We randomly got service for like half a second. This morning. And I was able to check the weather. And the weather said there's a 50% chance of rain at 1. And 100% chance of rain at 2. And we were taking our good old time this morning. Because when I checked the weather before. Today was supposed to be the clearest day. And so we got a late start. And it's 8 o'clock. And so it's a race against time right now. To get to camp before the boundary waters dumps a whole bunch of rain on us. But it's still a pretty day. The mornings on the water are always so glassy. It's so easy to paddle. This is the longest lake. And the calmest lake we've seen so far. When we did this last year. The wind was blowing us the opposite way. And it was a pain to try to get down it. It was so long. It took like two hours at least to get through it. And we're more than half way. And it's only been half an hour. The no wind is really helping right now. We just totally crushed that first lake. We did like three miles of paddling. In less than an hour. We're almost to the first portage. With these portages. We know the general area of where they are. But we don't know exactly where they are. So we just have to kind of go in that general direction. And then look around on the shore. So we know it's in here somewhere. We saw that clearing over there. So that's probably it. And if we're wrong. Then we recheck the maps. And look for another clearing. That portage was only. Like .1 miles or something. So we just figured we would. Double carry the canoe. And put on our packs while we carry it. And it worked out really well. It was like the best portage we've had. And now we are in Alton Lake. Which is another big one. And so we go from. Where we are on Alton. Just like kind of near the top. To the bottom. Then there's one more portage. And then we're in our camping lake. We're at the other end of this lake now. And this is officially the furthest. We've made it. Last year we got over there. We camped over there. And one of my friends. Aggravated the tendon in his thumb. Couldn't hold the paddle anymore. So we figured we better not. Carry on with. 35 more miles of the trip. So we just had like a calm. Rest of the trip. Turned back and did. I don't know. Like 15 miles in 4 days or something. So we're almost at the last portage. Right around this corner. And we have no idea. What's to come. Made it to the last lake. The water here is even more like glass. Than the other lakes. We got to camp around 10.30. So it was only like 2.5 hours. For the whole 7 mile day. Which was awesome. And we have just been chilling. For a couple hours now. We set up the tents. And we have the tarp up. For when it rains. Which is going to be soon. According to the weather. But the sun just came out. So who even knows. That's where bigger ones might be. Because it's deeper. I don't know. What did you do? Caught a smallmouth bass. Sport fish. Oh yeah he's in. I don't know. It's a little after 4. And it never rained. And it's actually a really pretty day. Which is really annoying. Because we set up the rain tarp. You're right. Oh this one is really good. Peak might be the way to go. When we got to our campsite. All this water was completely flat. It was so glassy. And now. With all the wind that's been coming in. You can see it's a lot more choppy. So I figured I'd go through and show. What I've been eating every single day. So for each day I have. Just a gallon bag like this. It has the breakfast snacks. Lunch and dinner inside of it. Mac means mac and cheese for dinner. Because I have some variants for dinner. That's really just to tell me. If I go for a snack from pack 4. Then I should keep eating from pack 4. For that day. For breakfast I just have a pop tart. Some other days I have a clif bar. But it's either clif bar or pop tart. One snack is two pouches of. Skippy peanut butter. Another snack is dried pineapple. I think it's like two ounces. So two ounces of trail mix. And then two beef sticks. Oh and also two. Fun size snicker bars. And then for lunch. I just have some jerky and briskets. So it's something that I can eat. Pretty quick. If we're trying to still paddle. So I can eat it on the canoe. It's a lot more filling than it sounds. And then. For dinner I have different variants. This one is Annie's. White cheddar mac and cheese. Shells. And then I throw in some canned tuna. Or it's packet tuna. Other variants of dinner are the. Biscuits and gravy backpacker meal. That I had before. And then a chicken pesto. Pasta backpacking meal. That I just had tonight. Pretty simple assortment of food. I like it. Fills me up. Keeps me going. Everything tastes good. I don't know if we happen to catch a fish that we can. Actually cook up easily. That we supplement dinner with that too. It is almost 630 right now. And we have. A pretty big day tomorrow. It's six different portages. But the mileage is like two miles of portages. So 630 is pretty early but. We're all going to try to go to sleep right now. Or soon. So that we can get up early and go. Because the portages take a long time. And so the earlier we can start. The better. Also we're all just kind of wiped out. So I'm really hoping I can fall asleep at. 630. As you can see the sun is still like. Pretty up there. It doesn't set until like 11 anyway. But we're all going to. Head to bed soon. Good morning. 530 in the morning. We're all packing up camp. And the sun has already risen. Super calm lake again this morning. First fish of the day. First portage of the day. This one is 285 rods. Which is almost a mile. And it's 630 in the morning. As far as portages go. This one isn't really that bad. It's just so long. One mile is 320 rods. And this one is 285. So it's really close to being a mile. The mosquitoes at this portage. Are insane. The Boundary Waters is a collection of lakes. In northern Minnesota. Just on the boundary between the US and Canada. It's like thousands. Of different lakes that are all. Interconnected. Some of those lakes are connected by small rivers. Or the lake just. Feeds into another lake. But a lot of them are connected. By hiking trails pretty much. Called portages where you have to. Carry the canoe from lake to lake. It really depends. On just your route. What lake you're going to. And that dictates what kind of portages you have to see. So on our 60 plus mile trip. We have a lot of portages. And that's just how it goes. That's just the route that we chose. And I'd say like the average length. Is a quarter mile. A quarter mile really isn't that bad. But ones like these where it's. Almost a full mile. If you single portage that. You carry your pack and the canoe. It hurts. A lot. And so this one we double portaged. So my friend went back for the other pack. So this is the longest portage of the day. Honestly this is one of the longer portages. Of the trip. But today we have 1.8 miles of portages. There are 5 more portages. For today. A lot of them are real quick like 5-10 rods. One of them I think is a quarter mile. Made it to Grace Lake. The next portage is like literally right over there. This is probably the. 30th beaver dam. Or beaver house that we've seen. But we haven't seen a single beaver. So currently we're on this kind of river system. That is like paddle for. Two minutes and then do a really quick portage. And we do that like four times. Until we get to the next lake. You sink? Yeah. Gross. Yeah. Perfect. Take it away. No. So there's sort of rapids right here. So there was a portage that took us all the way around. And then over the rapids. Or around the rapids. But this portage has so much blow down. There's two down trees. We went over it. I guess we could have. Sorry. So this is the portage trail. There's two down trees back to back. So we went around. All this sketchiness. The ironic part is. This is the shortest portage of the day. We have one more half mile portage. Before the lake that we're going to camp at. But before we get there. It's down a little river system again. So it's probably going to be really pretty. There's a swan on the lake. You know swan lake is a lake. It's only like a couple lakes over. Maybe she lives there. This is night lake. Oh we got a little boost from the drift. The water we're in now is super shallow. And there's rocks everywhere. So we're having to navigate around the rocks. The kind of canoe that we're in is a Kevlar canoe. So it's super light. Compared to the metal ones. But if we hit a rock too fast. It'll just pop a hole in it. And then we go down like the Titanic. The Kevlar canoes are just like strands of Kevlar. Held together with resin. So there's really no strength. But it makes the portaging. A lot better. So that's why we've been getting in and out. While standing in water. Because if you take it up on land. And try to get in and out. You'll end up just puncturing a hole in it. There's a bunch of rocks up ahead. We got beer right here. Those rocks were slippery. Snack on the boat. Oh look at this. Are you sure we can? Whoa. It seemed a lot scarier than it was. There's a little beaver dam there. That we just went over. We made a change of plans. We got to our supposed to be campsite. At like 1030 in the morning. And we just decided to keep pushing on. But to push on. We have to go through five more portages. Because in between the two lakes there's nothing. There's just five portages on this river. So we just did two of them. And now there are three more. And then the next lake is going to be a big lake with a bunch of campsites. So it should be fine. Regardless of what time we get there. Okay I'm holding this. Can you paddle left? Like turn us right? Nice, nice, nice. Yeah. This portage is so overgrown. Oh man. We are now in a part of the boundary waters that people don't normally go to. Like we're probably going to be the only people out this way. It makes sense that these portages are as grown over as they are. We have one more portage left. Until we're at the lake that we're going to camp on. Which will be our eleventh portage of the day. Which is pretty insane. It's not even 1230 yet so we're doing really well. This is the portage area that we were supposed to get off at. But a beaver. A freaking beaver chopped down a tree and blocked it off so we're all getting out in this marshy, swampy area. Yeah maybe it was right. So we kept on going. We added a little bit more to our day. That worked out to be five more portages. This is the last portage of the day. Number eleven. This one's I think 97 rods. Which is just over a quarter mile. So far, it's a pretty nice portage. Not overgrown. There's also like no mosquitoes for some reason. I don't know what's going on. All these black dots are mosquitoes. Day four campsite is on it's own private island. So we have this whole island to ourselves. We can go all the way to the other side. When we got to camp today it was super sunny. And like 80 degrees. It was so hot. And then in the last hour, the sky got super gray. The wind picked up. Temperature dropped. We're starting to hear thunder over there. So, rain is probably coming. But it didn't rain the entire day while we were on the water. Which is the best thing you could ask for. There's a lake called Gabby Michigan. These are all bug bites. Campsite's on this island right here. We have the whole island to ourselves. Do you have it on camera? No. I just started. First walleye of the trip. Good job. Do you want to see him up close? Look at his teeth. See those teeth? He's a little too small. He's so pretty. None of the fish were keeper sized, so have mac and cheese for dinner instead. It's almost 9pm. We are all going to bed. See you in the morning. That is huge! I don't like how it looks behind us. Getting a little sketchy.