Remote Boundary Waters River Should be Impossible

Deep in the boundary waters there's a river listed as either impossible or very very difficult to paddle down. But today the ice just went off the lakes, the water is high and we're going to paddle that river. All the trip reports that I've read about it claim that it's either very very difficult or impossible to get through. The challenges are that there's tons of beaver dams, tons of log jams, mud flats and it's super super remote. One group a few years ago even abandoned their canoes and called search and rescue. The only time it might be paddleable is right now during springtime high water levels. So for this trip Lambo and Puddles and I are going to paddle this river and find out what it's all about. It's going to be a blast. I can't wait. Come along with me. We're currently on Four Town Lake nearing the portage to Boot Lake. The day started off absolutely beautiful. The creek down to Mud Row Lake was gorgeous. The paddle down Mud Row during sunrise was absolutely stunning. This trip has been just a blast so far. I can't wait to see what's next. Well we are at the far eastern end of Bullet Lake almost the portage to Moose Camp. This will be our final portage for a while. After we get across this portage we'll stop. We'll take a look at the map. I'll show you guys where we've been and where we're heading. It's about 10 30. The day is going absolutely perfectly so far. Boy portaging at 55 degrees with no bugs is absolutely fantastic. Let's pull out the map and have a look where we're at here. Well we started this morning down here at the Mud Row Lake access the old Chainsaw Sisters. We paddled down this creek across Mud Row across three short portages into Four Town. Portage into Boot. Up Boot. Those big rock cliffs right there. We paddled and portaged into Ferry Lake. Portage into Gunn Lake. We followed Gunn Lake. Took a shorty into Bullet Lake. Portage from Bullet into Moose Camp. So right now we are right here on Moose Camp. Next step we'll keep paddling east down Moose Camp and then take the river out the far east end that exits and flows toward Four Town. So now we're back up here just off the map for a second. We'll take that river down all the way to Four Town. Man Moose Camp is just gorgeous. What a perfect day. So far so good. It looks absolutely stunning back here. Water's up. Everything's moving. Love it. I was about to say how smooth the travel's been so far. Well I heard about this area. I believe this is part of the old sluiceway from the logging days and what that is is a channelized section through rocks and logs that forces the river to flow through a small area and that gives some velocity to the logs and helps them shoot downstream. Very cool. Just over the hill to my left is Noseum Lake in the Tick Lake PMA. It looks like a pretty easy bushwhack but I don't have time today. This is one of the prettiest creeks I have ever paddled. Love it. We're eating lunch in the canoe. Lunch is summer sausage, flatbread crackers, and I actually brought a beer along which I haven't done in a long time. It's actually not a beer. It's a blueberry hard cider but man it tastes good out here. I wouldn't say we're behind schedule but I definitely thought we'd be farther along than we are. It's about 1 30. Still have quite a few miles to go so we're gonna keep at it but it's still gorgeous out here but there's a headwind kicking up. It's not bad here in the river but Four Town Lake might be kind of choppy. In case you're wondering I've been running the Garmin through here and most of the deep holes are five to six feet deep which is not that much water but you know definitely enough to hold some walleyes. Well back on Four Town Lake this headwind actually feels kind of good. It's getting a little warm. Whenever I'm paddling across a new body of water or pretty much any body of water that I might want to fish I will run the graph with the contour mapping turned on and once you have that map drawn it makes it very easy to come back later on in the summer to fish those pieces of structure and be at the exact depth you want to fish. It's not very often you get to paddle through a moose camp river which ended up being absolutely beautiful and a very easy paddle. We saw the old sluice way from the logging days. All in all what an incredible day. Strava says 22 miles so pretty awesome day. Thank you for watching. I appreciate it. See you guys next time.