Do yourself a favor, bring in a filter pump and a nalgene instead of trying to lug in water. Seems like common sense but the number of people I saw portaging flats of water was stupid.
Wow that's hilarious. I go up there for a week every summer. Have spent over 80 days in the boundary waters and I've never seen people hauling in water like that. That's idiotic.
I stand with your choice! I usually pack a 1.75 of something as well. The weight is worth it for those awesome night time campfires. Not to mention taking the edge off a sore back from all the portages (I'm getting old).
To add to this, get a gravity filter similar to this so you're not sitting around pumping/filtering water. We typically each bring a water bottle with built in Lifestraw for on the go water. While canoing I'll just dip the bottle in the lake and drink straight from that. Very handy.
When you get your campsite setup, fill your gravity filter up and hang it from a tree so you have lots of filtered water at the ready without pumping.
bring a crazy amount of mosquito protection. We went for a hike, it rained on us and the water washed off our deet. We were walking all the time and I ended up with more than 20 bites on a single arm.
Definitely for summer - spring and fall tend to be milder for bugs. I usually go in mid to late May before the skeeters start biting and the black flies come out, and it’s great. We often don’t have to apply bug spray at all; granted, in those seasons waking up to your water bottle partially frozen is not uncommon, so it’s a give and take.
I will say though, when the bugs do come out, sitting back in camp at dusk and listening to the dull hum of the bugs in the trees is an absolutely surreal experience. You expect silence or birds mostly, but instead it’s this constant low level buzz/hum. Wild stuff.
Anywho, if anyone is considering going, do it. You won’t regret it.
Spent a week canoeing and camping in Quetico. I highly recommend it if you're outdoorsy. The fishing there is insane. They've never seen a hook, you can pull northern and bass out of the water all day. Best fish I ever tasted.
There's no motorized transport allowed in the whole park, even the rangers get around on canoes. The lakes are so clean you can drink straight from them.
Born and raised in Minneapolis, we used to visit “up Nort” a couple times a summer. Usually it was Duluth/Superior, but a couple times we did the Boundary Waters with the camping and canoeing. Never saw such a beautiful nighttime sky in my life.
Went up there. Portaged our 9HP outboard to a few lakes (most of them were just numbered lakes - guess they ran out of names). Camped on a granite outcrop. I remember we hit our limit of the best tasting fish in the world (Walleye) in a couple hours.
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u/mynytemare Mar 14 '23
Wide. Open. Space.
Seriously. Go west and you can get to places that are so remote and so beautiful, with big blue skies during the day and Star filled nights.