030: Hairy Lake PMA

Episode Transcript

[0:00:16 – 0:00:18] Adam: Somebody is interested in my new chair.
[0:00:18 – 0:00:20] Adam: Ooh-wee.
[0:00:22 – 0:00:32] Adam: Well, we are here on Snipe 1 with the bumblebees and the crickets, and there’s not a speck of wind.
[0:00:33 – 0:00:34] Adam: It’s a really nice sight.
[0:00:35 – 0:00:36] Adam: It’s glass.
[0:00:37 – 0:00:38] Erik: Glass calm.
[0:00:38 – 0:00:42] Erik: Little blips and bleeps of the insects on the water out there.
[0:00:42 – 0:00:43] Erik: Besides that.
[0:00:44 – 0:00:45] Erik: Nothing’s happening.
[0:00:46 – 0:00:47] Erik: There isn’t a bird chirping.
[0:00:48 – 0:00:50] Erik: There isn’t a squirrel chattering.
[0:00:51 – 0:00:54] Erik: There’s not a seagull gulling.
[0:00:55 – 0:00:56] Erik: There’s nothing happening.
[0:00:57 – 0:00:58] Erik: Everybody’s tired.
[0:00:59 – 0:01:00] Adam: It’s hot.
[0:01:00 – 0:01:01] Adam: The animals are tired.
[0:01:02 – 0:01:03] Adam: They’re sick of this heat.
[0:01:03 – 0:01:04] Adam: The humans are tired.
[0:01:06 – 0:01:07] Erik: We got something they don’t, though.
[0:01:11 – 0:01:11] Erik: That’s right.
[0:01:11 – 0:01:12] Erik: Woo!
[0:01:14 – 0:01:40] Erik: this week on tumble home we’re out on snipe we’re drinking wine and we’re going bushwhacking into the deep park we got a bag of bushwhacking juice we got a couple of big old chops sitting out on a rock kind of slowly baking preheating in the sun with a nice hog rub oh yeah with a hog rub we put that hog rub on we put them on the hot rock
[0:01:41 – 0:01:44] Adam: That’s going to be a fine dinner along with some spring rolls.
[0:01:45 – 0:01:46] Erik: Some frozen spring rolls.
[0:01:46 – 0:01:47] Erik: Yeah, that’s fine.
[0:01:48 – 0:01:50] Erik: We did a little wood run.
[0:01:50 – 0:01:52] Erik: I think we’re good on wood.
[0:01:53 – 0:01:54] Adam: You did a wood run?
[0:01:55 – 0:01:57] Adam: I was meditating down by the lake.
[0:01:58 – 0:01:59] Erik: What did you meditate about?
[0:01:59 – 0:02:02] Adam: On how many wine sips I can have tonight.
[0:02:03 – 0:02:05] Adam: Also, where am I going to put the hammock?
[0:02:05 – 0:02:06] Erik: Ah, yes.
[0:02:06 – 0:02:09] Adam: I’ve got to figure out the hammock set here.
[0:02:10 – 0:02:13] Adam: We have probably about 45 minutes of decent light left.
[0:02:14 – 0:02:16] Erik: So you’re going to try to get that set up before dark?
[0:02:16 – 0:02:23] Adam: Yeah, I mean, I have a headlamp, but I always like to get my bearings set in the hammock up before dark if I can.
[0:02:25 – 0:02:27] Adam: Certainly no reason why I cannot tonight.
[0:02:28 – 0:02:29] Adam: This is a really nice campsite.
[0:02:29 – 0:02:31] Adam: We did the whole tour day snipe.
[0:02:32 – 0:02:36] Adam: We’ve seen some guys laying on the rocks on the first site.
[0:02:36 – 0:02:38] Adam: I guess it would be snipe two, really.
[0:02:38 – 0:02:39] Adam: Heaven’s Gate style.
[0:02:39 – 0:02:40] Adam: Yeah, Heaven’s Gate.
[0:02:40 – 0:02:45] Adam: They’re just waiting for the celestial heavens to open up.
[0:02:45 – 0:02:49] Erik: I don’t think Hale-Bopp’s coming around for at least another 1,900 years.
[0:02:49 – 0:02:50] Erik: He’ll be waiting a while.
[0:02:50 – 0:02:51] Erik: Yeah, absolutely.
[0:02:53 – 0:02:54] Adam: Unless they’re vampires.
[0:02:54 – 0:02:55] Adam: It’s not going to happen.
[0:02:56 – 0:02:58] Adam: We made our way past the Snipe 3.
[0:02:58 – 0:02:59] Adam: Nobody there, of course.
[0:03:01 – 0:03:02] Adam: So we knew we were safe.
[0:03:02 – 0:03:07] Adam: And then we went all the way down to the east end, down to the precipice rock.
[0:03:07 – 0:03:10] Adam: But, of course, there was a bunch of nude bozos down there.
[0:03:12 – 0:03:13] Adam: So we turned it around.
[0:03:13 – 0:03:14] Adam: It’s very shallow.
[0:03:15 – 0:03:17] Adam: But we did a speed turn and got out of there before the even…
[0:03:18 – 0:03:19] Adam: Cintas.
[0:03:19 – 0:03:22] Erik: Yeah, they probably thought we were like a jalopy off in the distance.
[0:03:22 – 0:03:22] Erik: What was that?
[0:03:23 – 0:03:24] Erik: Did you guys see that?
[0:03:24 – 0:03:25] Adam: Some kind of a jalopy.
[0:03:25 – 0:03:26] Adam: I don’t know.
[0:03:26 – 0:03:26] Adam: I don’t see anything.
[0:03:27 – 0:03:27] Erik: Yeah.
[0:03:27 – 0:03:29] Adam: So we came back to the back bay.
[0:03:29 – 0:03:30] Erik: Obviously the best site.
[0:03:31 – 0:03:32] Erik: Snipe 1.
[0:03:32 – 0:03:35] Erik: Turns out this is a great site on the island.
[0:03:35 – 0:03:35] Erik: Private.
[0:03:36 – 0:03:38] Erik: Faces a bay that goes nowhere.
[0:03:39 – 0:03:42] Erik: So a couple of really cool cliffs like…
[0:03:43 – 0:03:48] Erik: 20, 30-foot cliffs just kind of coming straight out of the water all around us back here.
[0:03:49 – 0:03:50] Erik: Nice spot just in general.
[0:03:50 – 0:03:53] Erik: We’ll do an official campsite review after we live in it for a little bit.
[0:03:53 – 0:03:57] Adam: Yeah, we’ll do one in the morning, but just the general first impression is very nice here.
[0:03:58 – 0:03:59] Adam: Some good jack pine.
[0:04:00 – 0:04:03] Adam: You have a beautiful totem pole log here in the middle of the camp.
[0:04:04 – 0:04:05] Adam: Some decent grasses.
[0:04:06 – 0:04:11] Adam: Good bare footing, but we, of course, have our camp slippers out because we’re professionals.
[0:04:12 – 0:04:19] Adam: So with that said, this is the start of the PMA adventure and the PMA episode.
[0:04:20 – 0:04:26] Adam: We’re happy to have you with us, and we’re excited to get into the deep park tomorrow.
[0:04:26 – 0:04:35] Adam: But for tonight, we’re just relaxing in our fancy chairs, in our fancy footwear, and it’s literally the perfect weather out here.
[0:04:36 – 0:04:38] Adam: Not a speck of wind, not a bug in the sky.
[0:05:02 – 0:05:09] Erik: Hello, welcome to Tumble Home, a Boundary Waters slash PMA podcast.
[0:05:09 – 0:05:10] Adam: Woo!
[0:05:10 – 0:05:11] Adam: Good morning, Eric!
[0:05:13 – 0:05:13] Adam: We’re here!
[0:05:14 – 0:05:18] Erik: Live and in the park from Snipe One.
[0:05:19 – 0:05:22] Erik: Just finished up a tasty, tasty breakfast.
[0:05:23 – 0:05:28] Erik: We are sponsored by, as always, Clearwater Historic Lodge and Canoe Outfitters.
[0:05:28 – 0:05:31] Erik: And by the remaining quarter…
[0:05:33 – 0:05:35] Erik: This Chilable Red.
[0:05:35 – 0:05:38] Adam: It’s a 2018 Chilable Red.
[0:05:39 – 0:05:40] Adam: It’s a beautiful blend.
[0:05:41 – 0:05:41] Adam: Let’s give it a sip.
[0:05:46 – 0:05:47] Adam: Mmm.
[0:05:48 – 0:05:48] Adam: So good.
[0:05:48 – 0:05:49] Adam: It’s actually a little chilled.
[0:05:50 – 0:05:53] Adam: We got out here last night and it was a little warm, to be honest.
[0:05:54 – 0:05:57] Adam: I picked it up in town before I came up and it wasn’t really…
[0:05:59 – 0:06:00] Adam: It wasn’t really chillable enough.
[0:06:00 – 0:06:01] Adam: No.
[0:06:01 – 0:06:05] Adam: But we let it sit out overnight, and now it’s got a nice temperature to it.
[0:06:05 – 0:06:07] Adam: Would you like to partake?
[0:06:07 – 0:06:07] Erik: Yeah.
[0:06:10 – 0:06:14] Adam: Yeah, they were saying maybe it was going to get down in the 40s last night.
[0:06:14 – 0:06:15] Adam: I don’t think it did.
[0:06:16 – 0:06:16] Adam: Maybe in the 50s.
[0:06:16 – 0:06:17] Adam: It was a little chilly.
[0:06:18 – 0:06:19] Erik: It was very comfortable sleeping, though.
[0:06:20 – 0:06:23] Erik: So we are out here the morning.
[0:06:25 – 0:06:28] Erik: of our plunge into a primitive management area.
[0:06:29 – 0:06:34] Erik: We will keep you abreast to our daily wanderings as we can.
[0:06:34 – 0:06:36] Erik: For sure, we will check in from Harry.
[0:06:37 – 0:06:41] Erik: But before we do that, we’ll talk about this designated campsite on Snipe.
[0:06:41 – 0:06:46] Adam: We’re doing a live, in-the-field campsite review on Snipe 1.
[0:06:47 – 0:06:50] Adam: As always, we will start with the landing.
[0:06:51 – 0:06:52] Adam: No problems there.
[0:06:52 – 0:06:56] Adam: We were both going wet foot just with the bushwhacking ahead.
[0:06:56 – 0:06:58] Adam: So, yeah, it was easy in and out, no?
[0:06:59 – 0:06:59] Erik: Very easy.
[0:06:59 – 0:07:01] Erik: Very nice and gradual.
[0:07:02 – 0:07:07] Erik: The site itself is on the backside of this island in the southwest corner of Snipe.
[0:07:07 – 0:07:09] Erik: I think it may get overlooked.
[0:07:09 – 0:07:14] Erik: We can get to some of the more broad gradings on the site when we get there.
[0:07:14 – 0:07:18] Erik: But yeah, overall landing, I would say solid B.
[0:07:19 – 0:07:20] Adam: Yeah, I think so.
[0:07:20 – 0:07:24] Adam: And we got the canoe kind of pulled up here up top on the grassy knoll.
[0:07:24 – 0:07:35] Adam: But I did notice kind of back yonder where my one hammock tree was here, there’s kind of a little parking lot or a little spot down there where it would have been a real easy pull down.
[0:07:36 – 0:07:39] Adam: So we kind of took the more luxurious upper spot.
[0:07:39 – 0:07:44] Erik: Kind of a nice little slip that you could actually have rocks on both sides of the canoe.
[0:07:44 – 0:07:44] Adam: Yeah.
[0:07:46 – 0:07:46] Adam: Very secure.
[0:07:48 – 0:07:49] Adam: The fire grate is beautiful.
[0:07:49 – 0:07:50] Adam: Nice rock.
[0:07:50 – 0:07:50] Adam: A.
[0:07:51 – 0:07:52] Adam: A on the fire grate.
[0:07:52 – 0:07:58] Adam: There’s a big rock kind of in front of us at the bench here where we got our bench and we got a couple chairs set.
[0:07:59 – 0:08:01] Adam: A nice little table rock of prepping and getting stuff.
[0:08:01 – 0:08:03] Adam: We did our breakfast on here this morning.
[0:08:04 – 0:08:08] Adam: And then on the other side of this big flat rock, the grate itself is sitting.
[0:08:08 – 0:08:16] Adam: It’s a nice modern grate in mint condition, which we fried up our pork chops and our spring rolls last night.
[0:08:16 – 0:08:25] Erik: Yes, the grate width allowed us to smoke some slow-smoked spring rolls by Ling Ling’s Kitchen.
[0:08:25 – 0:08:26] Erik: Thank you, Ling Ling.
[0:08:26 – 0:08:28] Erik: We are also sponsored by Ling Ling this week.
[0:08:28 – 0:08:29] Adam: You’re darn right.
[0:08:29 – 0:08:31] Adam: I love Ling Ling’s products.
[0:08:31 – 0:08:31] Adam: They’re amazing.
[0:08:32 – 0:08:43] Adam: And then behind the fire grate is this beautiful sloping ancient-looking rock in which my boots and my socks are up there sunning themselves on this rock right now.
[0:08:44 – 0:08:46] Adam: It’s just a very picturesque setting for the fire grate.
[0:08:47 – 0:08:48] Erik: Nice centerpiece.
[0:08:48 – 0:08:49] Adam: Kind of brings the whole site together.
[0:08:50 – 0:08:52] Adam: Yeah, and it’s kind of surrounded by a bit of grass.
[0:08:53 – 0:08:54] Adam: It’s kind of open around here.
[0:08:54 – 0:09:02] Adam: So there’s beautiful stargazing last night, and we had the crescent moon and several planets visible in the southern sky here.
[0:09:02 – 0:09:06] Adam: You know, I always try and get a northern-facing site just in case there’s going to be northern lights.
[0:09:06 – 0:09:10] Adam: But, yeah, if you’ve got southern-facing sites, you get to watch the arc of the planets.
[0:09:10 – 0:09:16] Erik: Yeah, and the western fires were throwing a nice reddish hue on everything.
[0:09:16 – 0:09:20] Erik: That was like a blood-red moon, crescent blood-red moon that sank last night.
[0:09:21 – 0:09:21] Erik: It was pretty cool.
[0:09:22 – 0:09:26] Adam: Yeah, I did a doodle of that event, which we’ll be putting up on the gram.
[0:09:26 – 0:09:27] Adam: Stay tuned.
[0:09:27 – 0:09:28] Adam: I don’t have a camera.
[0:09:28 – 0:09:31] Adam: Eric’s got some pictures, and I’m doing doodles on this trip.
[0:09:31 – 0:09:39] Erik: Yeah, we’re going to try to document our travels into Sora and hopefully beyond with the camera and the recorder.
[0:09:40 – 0:09:41] Erik: But back to the site.
[0:09:42 – 0:09:45] Erik: Yeah, overall, I think just nice and elevated up here in the fire grate area.
[0:09:46 – 0:09:51] Erik: The nice high legs allowed for pretty easy burning.
[0:09:52 – 0:09:57] Erik: I think the biggest concern for a person with a tent would be maybe a lack of…
[0:09:58 – 0:10:22] Adam: nice tent pads the one is like really close to the fire grate itself so you know if you’ve got sparks popping yeah might not be a great spot for the tent um there there is honestly like a rock over to our left here that uh to the west that is flat enough where you could literally set up on there and then if you had a nice sleeping pad or something like that would work but you just would have no way to like secure the tent
[0:10:23 – 0:10:25] Erik: Yeah, just camping right on that flat rock.
[0:10:25 – 0:10:26] Erik: That could work.
[0:10:26 – 0:10:30] Erik: You just throw down a thermarest if the bugs aren’t out and just sleep on that rock.
[0:10:30 – 0:10:31] Erik: Hey, loons.
[0:10:32 – 0:10:36] Erik: It’s not an episode of Tumble Home in the Field if we don’t get visited by loons or a fox.
[0:10:39 – 0:10:40] Adam: There they go.
[0:10:40 – 0:10:40] Erik: There they go.
[0:10:41 – 0:10:45] Erik: So, yeah, kind of lacking in tent pads, but plenty of hammock potential.
[0:10:45 – 0:10:47] Adam: Yeah, a lot of jack pine in here.
[0:10:47 – 0:10:51] Adam: And so no problem finding a couple nice hammock sets back to the east here.
[0:10:52 – 0:10:59] Adam: And the box gets a decent mark, although Eric got chased by a large wasp.
[0:11:00 – 0:11:05] Erik: Yeah, there was a large buzzing like black jacket hornet or wasp type creature.
[0:11:05 – 0:11:16] Erik: I had to make a run and do a classic Quetico squat out there because he was like tickling the butt hairs on the latrine and I did not want to get stung in the butt on PMA day.
[0:11:17 – 0:11:41] Erik: no that would really put a damper on your portaging skills yeah for sure so i don’t know overall it’s a b overall the site is a b yeah i’d say i’d be i think a low b so like just a couple of the intangibles is it it has a considering where we are in the proximity to entry points i mean we’re probably i don’t know what it was like an hour in here yesterday maybe
[0:11:42 – 0:11:46] Adam: Yeah, if we had come straight to that, we went and looked at all the other sites first just to see them.
[0:11:47 – 0:11:48] Adam: But then we end up here.
[0:11:48 – 0:11:52] Adam: But even if we had just paddled straight here, I don’t think it’s an hour from the car.
[0:11:52 – 0:11:57] Erik: Yeah, so the proximity, you would assume this would be a very used site.
[0:11:57 – 0:12:03] Erik: But I think because it’s out of the view on the backside of this island, it actually has a very quiet feel.
[0:12:04 – 0:12:07] Erik: And the available firewood…
[0:12:08 – 0:12:16] Adam: The lack of just general trampledness and the… Not one piece of micro litter in this site.
[0:12:16 – 0:12:18] Adam: It was very clean and, yeah.
[0:12:18 – 0:12:20] Erik: It’s got a very wild feel, which I like.
[0:12:21 – 0:12:23] Erik: Not overused, not all dusty and walked on.
[0:12:24 – 0:12:25] Erik: So, you know…
[0:12:26 – 0:12:31] Erik: We’ll blow the lid off this one, but I would say this is by far the nicest site on Snipe for what you get.
[0:12:31 – 0:12:37] Erik: There’s no reason, unless you’re looking for this site, to come back into this bay.
[0:12:37 – 0:12:39] Erik: So, like, you’re really not going to see canoe traffic.
[0:12:40 – 0:12:45] Erik: I imagine Snipe is a quiet lake in general, though two of the sites on the way in yesterday we did see were occupied.
[0:12:46 – 0:12:52] Adam: Yeah, it is the middle of August, but we’ve talked about it previously on the show about Snipe’s just kind of not on a route.
[0:12:52 – 0:12:53] Adam: It’s kind of in between routes.
[0:12:53 – 0:12:54] Erik: Yeah.
[0:12:54 – 0:12:56] Erik: So we came in with a 51.
[0:12:56 – 0:12:58] Erik: He could have come in over from Cross Bay.
[0:12:59 – 0:13:04] Erik: But, yeah, most people, I would assume, I don’t know, are just coming out here to camp.
[0:13:04 – 0:13:09] Erik: I don’t know what routes people would be using unless everybody’s lined up to head into Harry today.
[0:13:10 – 0:13:14] Adam: Too bad we got the only PMA for Harry Lake Zone 2 today.
[0:13:14 – 0:13:16] Adam: So sayonara.
[0:13:16 – 0:13:20] Adam: We’re leaving everybody, all the bozos and the tourists and the dust today, and we’re heading south.
[0:13:21 – 0:13:29] Erik: Yeah, so we’ll check back in depending on how the day goes on our probably somewhere in those beaver ponds between Copper and Sora.
[0:13:30 – 0:13:38] Erik: And for sure at the headwaters, we’ll probably just walk up to Harry unless we get really ambitious and we want to try to plunge a canoe up into there.
[0:13:38 – 0:13:42] Erik: I’m thinking just a walk up and a dip of the hat and a check in on Harry.
[0:13:43 – 0:14:01] Erik: definitely in order and then uh it kind of from there depends on what else we find i am very excited like i the anticipation yesterday was was high but this morning is like you know i mean it’s almost like christmas morning yeah it’s finally here and i’m really jazzed i’m jazzed and i’m amped
[0:14:01 – 0:14:04] Erik: Yeah, and I don’t know, the best part is I have no idea what to expect.
[0:14:04 – 0:14:16] Erik: The campsite tonight, you know, you can usually conjure an image of a site because you’ve camped at enough Boundary Waters sites, but I have nothing in mind for a frame of reference for what our camp tonight is going to look like.
[0:14:16 – 0:14:17] Adam: Yeah, it could be anything.
[0:14:18 – 0:14:25] Adam: I just said before I finished breakfast up, and I was like, man, I just can’t wait to see what this campsite is going to be tonight.
[0:14:25 – 0:14:26] Adam: It could be anything.
[0:14:27 – 0:14:32] Adam: We have heard whispers that there possibly is a sort of a rough campsite on Dinn.
[0:14:33 – 0:14:39] Adam: So we’ll probably at least check in there, but I’d kind of like to just find our own spot, but we’ll see.
[0:14:39 – 0:14:39] Adam: You never know.
[0:14:40 – 0:14:44] Adam: This journey into the unknown, that’s the whole point.
[0:14:44 – 0:14:47] Adam: You don’t know how it’s going to end, but we will let you know.
[0:14:48 – 0:14:49] Adam: One more note here before we end this track.
[0:14:49 – 0:14:52] Adam: I guess we should give it an official grade.
[0:14:52 – 0:14:54] Adam: What are you giving it, a B-plus or B?
[0:14:54 – 0:14:55] Erik: I would say B-plus.
[0:14:55 – 0:14:56] Erik: Yeah, B+.
[0:14:56 – 0:14:57] Adam: It’s a really nice campsite.
[0:14:57 – 0:14:59] Adam: There’s a big cliff right across from us here.
[0:15:00 – 0:15:03] Adam: Around the corner, there’s a beautiful set of cliffs that go straight into the water.
[0:15:04 – 0:15:06] Adam: Yeah, I’ll go B+.
[0:15:06 – 0:15:06] Adam: I agree.
[0:15:07 – 0:15:08] Adam: Snipe 1, B+.
[0:15:09 – 0:15:13] Adam: We’ll probably do a whole Snipe episode at some point in the future.
[0:15:13 – 0:15:14] Adam: Sometime in winter.
[0:15:14 – 0:15:15] Adam: That’ll be a winter episode.
[0:15:15 – 0:15:17] Adam: But one more note before we end this track.
[0:15:18 – 0:15:20] Adam: Thanks for joining us on this adventure.
[0:15:20 – 0:15:24] Adam: Our second field audio episode ever.
[0:15:25 – 0:15:27] Adam: I just wanted to say we had instant coffee.
[0:15:27 – 0:15:32] Adam: We’re trying to pack light, and we’re going to get into more of what we’ve done to lighten the load a little bit later once we get in the PMA.
[0:15:32 – 0:15:35] Adam: But one thing we did do is we didn’t bring a press.
[0:15:36 – 0:15:37] Adam: And we just brought instant coffee.
[0:15:38 – 0:15:41] Adam: And I have literally never had instant coffee before in my life.
[0:15:41 – 0:15:43] Adam: And I was like, what do you got to strain these crystals out?
[0:15:44 – 0:15:44] Adam: No.
[0:15:44 – 0:15:46] Erik: How instant coffee works.
[0:15:46 – 0:15:47] Adam: It just disappears.
[0:15:47 – 0:15:48] Adam: It just turns into coffee.
[0:15:49 – 0:15:49] Adam: It’s amazing.
[0:15:50 – 0:15:56] Adam: So as much as I love the French press, I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever bring a French press camping in the Boundary Waters again.
[0:15:57 – 0:16:02] Erik: And that instant coffee, I think, lasts forever, but it was like, I think, four or five years old.
[0:16:02 – 0:16:04] Erik: So I just think if we got fresh instant coffee.
[0:16:04 – 0:16:05] Adam: Oh, yeah.
[0:16:05 – 0:16:09] Adam: No, they got some really good stuff at work because I was looking at it the other day.
[0:16:09 – 0:16:13] Adam: Somebody I work with was like, all I bring camping is instant coffee.
[0:16:14 – 0:16:14] Adam: It’s the way to go.
[0:16:15 – 0:16:17] Adam: We have some really good stuff at work I want to try out, but…
[0:16:17 – 0:16:19] Adam: Yeah, well, we had these little packets.
[0:16:19 – 0:16:20] Adam: Really nice.
[0:16:20 – 0:16:21] Adam: I had no qualms with that.
[0:16:22 – 0:16:25] Adam: I just wish I would have brought some of my Hershey’s creamers, though.
[0:16:26 – 0:16:28] Adam: I’m addicted to the Hershey’s creamers these days.
[0:16:29 – 0:16:31] Adam: Black coffee, it’ll get you going.
[0:16:31 – 0:16:32] Adam: So, yeah, a really nice breakfast.
[0:16:32 – 0:16:35] Adam: Sausage, scrambled eggs, black coffee, and a little sip of wine.
[0:16:36 – 0:16:36] Adam: I’m feeling ready.
[0:16:36 – 0:16:37] Adam: Can you tell?
[0:16:38 – 0:16:39] Erik: I can definitely tell.
[0:16:39 – 0:16:39] Erik: I am ready.
[0:16:40 – 0:16:42] Erik: And hairier busts, I say.
[0:17:41 – 0:18:06] Erik: well where are we hairy lake we made it oh wow yeah so we uh we are not quite at the shores of hairy lake it’s you know what do you know it’s kind of boggy up here oh weird uh so we are about as close as we can get without going up to our neck in bog juice and uh
[0:18:07 – 0:18:12] Erik: We just came up off of Sora, which is a beautiful lake.
[0:18:12 – 0:18:13] Adam: Very pretty.
[0:18:14 – 0:18:21] Erik: We did have our doubts coming down from Crooked in terms of what Sora was going to look like because the little ponds, copper.
[0:18:22 – 0:18:26] Erik: Yeah, the ponds between copper and Sora were pretty.
[0:18:26 – 0:18:30] Erik: I mean, the rocks were pretty, but the water was like really bog stained.
[0:18:31 – 0:18:31] Adam: Yeah.
[0:18:32 – 0:18:42] Adam: Um, but as soon as we hit Sora, got up there and it’s like crystal clear water, you know, it was like the pond before Sora, we started to notice, um, some, some nice white pine again.
[0:18:43 – 0:18:46] Adam: It was all just, um, spruce up until then for the most part.
[0:18:46 – 0:18:48] Adam: And then we started seeing some white pine.
[0:18:48 – 0:18:53] Adam: And then after that last, uh, pond before Sora, we ran into some really nice cedar there.
[0:18:54 – 0:18:56] Adam: And then we got to Sora and it’s all cedar and pine up here.
[0:18:56 – 0:18:59] Adam: Uh, and the water is this crystal clear.
[0:19:00 – 0:19:20] Adam: really nice and deep looking lake i really wish we would have brought some fishing gear yeah i know it looks like a lake trout lake or something there’s no data on it as far as what’s in it and all the reports we could find is that nobody has caught anything um so but i’m thinking you know if it’s a lake trout lake most people are gonna be in there in the summertime be hard to do that it’s if it’s as deep as it looks it looks incredibly deep
[0:19:21 – 0:19:21] Erik: It does.
[0:19:21 – 0:19:26] Erik: I immediately slammed my water bottle into the lake and took a big gulp because it just looked that fresh.
[0:19:26 – 0:19:27] Adam: Yeah, it’s divvable for sure.
[0:19:28 – 0:19:28] Erik: Yeah.
[0:19:28 – 0:19:33] Adam: So, yeah, it took us five portages to get to Harry here, and we’re not really portaging.
[0:19:33 – 0:19:40] Adam: Coming into Harry, we just bushwhacked ourselves, the recorder, and the last of the wine, which we dispatched.
[0:19:40 – 0:19:41] Adam: Last of the bushwhacker juice.
[0:19:42 – 0:19:43] Adam: The bushwhacker juice has done its job.
[0:19:43 – 0:19:44] Adam: It got us to Harry.
[0:19:45 – 0:19:48] Adam: And yeah, so why don’t we go through the portages?
[0:19:48 – 0:19:57] Adam: So I guess first off, just going from snipe down into copper, it’s a 100 rodder and it looked like it had been traveled pretty well and we got to the spot where it crosses the creek.
[0:19:58 – 0:20:22] Adam: and there’s like you know two plank boards going across this creek but they’re kind of high up and the one’s broken and the other one i put one foot on it and it just real real bendy yeah i was like i don’t think i’m gonna walk across this with the full pack on and make it so we had to like put the pack down and kind of shuffle across like underneath and across the rocks so it was a little bit more of a challenge than we expected on the first portage of the morning
[0:20:23 – 0:20:30] Adam: And we’re paddling around on copper, and sure enough, there’s two canoes with people coming out of the hubbub going past us.
[0:20:30 – 0:20:30] Erik: I couldn’t believe it.
[0:20:30 – 0:20:39] Erik: Like, that route down through copper, it doesn’t seem like, I mean, you really want to do the 255-rod portage to do the Howell Swamp and the Tuscarora.
[0:20:39 – 0:20:43] Adam: And you still have to do the hubbub and the 100 and the snipe and then the 180 out of Missing Link.
[0:20:43 – 0:20:47] Adam: So, like, you’re doing way more portaging to avoid the long one.
[0:20:48 – 0:20:48] Adam: I don’t know.
[0:20:48 – 0:20:50] Adam: I’ve never been through the Howell Swamp.
[0:20:51 – 0:21:16] Erik: yeah we said to the guys in the lead boat i said how’s the whole swamp and they just like smiled and paddled by it’s like okay i guess it’s great and then the second two boats in the canoe that were just getting off of the hubbub portage must have thought it was funny that we were like pulling out on the side of the lake at clearly not a portage hey hubbub’s this way you’re going the wrong way so yeah we uh so yeah that’s
[0:21:17 – 0:21:28] Erik: We started the day with, I would say, the opinions of some of the previous travelers that we read on Reddit.
[0:21:32 – 0:21:59] Erik: message boards i would say were pretty accurate in terms of the farther in you go the rougher they get absolutely true um makes sense yeah but on the other hand like there is i was thinking it was going to be much more bushwhacking than there actually was yeah i thought it was going to be a lot of what we just did to get to harry which was basically just walking through a thicket of maple moose maple just tangled up all the whole time so
[0:22:00 – 0:22:02] Erik: There was mostly a trail.
[0:22:02 – 0:22:09] Erik: There were very, very old portages from the landing at Copper up to the little lake up on top.
[0:22:09 – 0:22:15] Erik: I think maybe a beaver dam blew out or something because that lake on the map is way larger than it actually is in real life.
[0:22:15 – 0:22:24] Erik: We ended up walking mostly through like grasses and kind of a beavery, I don’t know what you would call it, a beaver meadow.
[0:22:25 – 0:22:29] Erik: And then a tiny little paddle and then another, you know,
[0:22:30 – 0:22:50] Adam: pretty well established path but it was just like super overgrown yeah really you know tricky kind of landing um but yeah they were there yeah we made it into the second little pond pretty much easy peasy yeah and then yeah i mean even the third portage getting into the bigger like lesser sora
[0:22:51 – 0:22:58] Adam: That’s when we first started seeing the white pine and that one was fine, but you could tell there the water level is very low.
[0:22:58 – 0:23:03] Adam: And so like we were kind of just paddling through muck and lily pads and there’s this strange new kind of lily pad.
[0:23:03 – 0:23:08] Adam: I’ve never seen like a star spiked flower on a grass more.
[0:23:08 – 0:23:10] Adam: I don’t know.
[0:23:10 – 0:23:14] Adam: But yeah, then the real challenge began on the last portage going into Sora.
[0:23:16 – 0:23:19] Adam: I think without the GPS, it would have been a lot longer of a time getting through there.
[0:23:20 – 0:23:22] Erik: And yeah, we, I don’t know if we would have even made it.
[0:23:22 – 0:23:28] Erik: So like we were following what was actually probably the most well-established path of the day.
[0:23:29 – 0:23:29] Erik: Nice and clear.
[0:23:30 – 0:23:30] Erik: Yeah.
[0:23:30 – 0:23:35] Erik: And then we came to like a six foot rock wall that you could climb up.
[0:23:35 – 0:23:42] Erik: And then on the other side of that rock wall was like this big, like beautiful, like metal, like boggy, like flowers I’ve never seen.
[0:23:42 – 0:23:48] Erik: I think, yeah, we were saying when we were walking around and they were like, we’re probably trampling like precious habitat there.
[0:23:48 – 0:23:54] Adam: Precious mosses and lichens were being destroyed while we wandered around looking for the rest of the portage.
[0:23:55 – 0:23:57] Erik: Yeah, so we felt like we were like, I don’t know, maybe we’re like halfway.
[0:23:57 – 0:23:59] Erik: We’re like walking down.
[0:23:59 – 0:24:02] Erik: You can kind of see where people have walked because the grass is a little trampled.
[0:24:03 – 0:24:06] Erik: And then at one point, we just stumbled across a water bottle.
[0:24:06 – 0:24:08] Adam: Yeah, just an empty water bottle.
[0:24:08 – 0:24:10] Adam: Like a smart water bottle.
[0:24:10 – 0:24:13] Adam: And we’re like, okay, well, that’s… Definitely on the right route then.
[0:24:13 – 0:24:15] Adam: Thanks a lot, you bums.
[0:24:15 – 0:24:17] Erik: Or there’s somebody out there just gone.
[0:24:17 – 0:24:41] Adam: just yeah the water was empty so they either ran out of water and are still laying out there or they or they’re just a litter bug so either way not cool how do you get so far as to uh come out into a pma but then still litter it has to have been an accident yeah like it had they had that bottle in the side pocket of their stupid pack and it fell out or something yeah but so we picked it up you know leave no trace we’re gonna we’re gonna clean up after their mess
[0:24:41 – 0:24:43] Adam: PMA Rangers out here.
[0:24:43 – 0:24:45] Adam: Yeah, we’re out here enforcing the morality.
[0:24:45 – 0:24:50] Erik: So, yeah, there was a moment in time because we were exploring this bog along all the edges.
[0:24:50 – 0:24:53] Erik: And it was just thick like a wall of alder.
[0:24:53 – 0:24:59] Erik: And, you know, we went back and tried to see if there was a turn we missed before the bog.
[0:25:00 – 0:25:06] Erik: We were walking around up on the hills off to the left because we were like, it’s got to be up over the left because that’s where everything else was going.
[0:25:06 – 0:25:10] Erik: And there was a second where I was thinking we were heading back to snipe.
[0:25:11 – 0:25:19] Erik: And I was going to be calling it a day, but I did bring a GPS device just in case.
[0:25:20 – 0:25:26] Erik: And so I walked back to the canoe, grabbed that, and didn’t really help all that much because I got to the point where…
[0:25:27 – 0:25:32] Erik: We pretty much lost the trail and it showed us being about halfway to Sora.
[0:25:32 – 0:25:38] Erik: So then I was like, all right, I’m just going to start crashing through the woods and just get to the lake.
[0:25:38 – 0:25:43] Erik: And then I hopefully will be able to find the trail on the Sora side.
[0:25:43 – 0:25:52] Adam: Yeah, somebody on the BWCA post we were reading on it said, you know, like a lot of the times you lose the trail and then you finally make it to the lake and you see where the actual trail came out.
[0:25:53 – 0:25:56] Adam: And then you follow that back and it’s like, okay, that’s now how you find the portage.
[0:25:57 – 0:25:57] Adam: Kind of what you pulled.
[0:25:58 – 0:25:58] Erik: Yeah, exactly.
[0:25:58 – 0:26:06] Erik: But like if I wouldn’t have had the GPS, like there was a time where I was like, boy, I hope this thing doesn’t like lose its signal because I’m just like I’m in the middle of the woods right now.
[0:26:06 – 0:26:13] Adam: Meanwhile, I was back by the canoe kind of wandering around the original landing, like looking for alternate trails leading out of the landing.
[0:26:14 – 0:26:15] Adam: Didn’t see anything.
[0:26:15 – 0:26:18] Adam: So I had just grabbed the pack and gone back to that like rock cliff thing.
[0:26:18 – 0:26:18] Erik: Yeah.
[0:26:19 – 0:26:23] Erik: So found the trail and started walking that back.
[0:26:23 – 0:26:30] Erik: And I don’t know how anybody just on their own would be able to find it because it, like, when you get up to that swamp, it cuts hard over to the right.
[0:26:31 – 0:26:35] Erik: And then there’s not even a clear, like, path back out of the swamp.
[0:26:35 – 0:26:38] Erik: You just had to, like, know where to, like, plunge the canoe in.
[0:26:38 – 0:26:38] Adam: Yeah.
[0:26:38 – 0:26:42] Adam: So I, like, I got back up to that rock thing where we had a few things laying there.
[0:26:42 – 0:26:44] Adam: And I, like, walked up on it and I could hear something.
[0:26:45 – 0:26:47] Adam: And then I just hear you yell, like, I found it.
[0:26:47 – 0:26:47] UNKNOWN: Yeah.
[0:26:48 – 0:27:10] Adam: i’m like i’m over here so that’s how we put the puzzle together uh so you the whole day we’re staying left of the creek stay left of the creek stay left of the creek and then the last second you got the sora switchback yeah at the big rock you gotta hang a right hard right hard right and then pick up the trail and it’s not that great of a trail at that point even when you know you’re on it you’re like wait am i on it
[0:27:10 – 0:27:24] Erik: Yeah, no, I walked back from Sora, grabbed the canoe, and then made it across the swamp, and then in that last section, lost it again, dropped the canoe, and then found the path, and then for a second couldn’t find the canoe.
[0:27:24 – 0:27:27] Erik: It was kind of like, it’s a little dicey in there, but we found it.
[0:27:27 – 0:27:30] Erik: We made it out onto Sora, and… Man, Sora is beautiful.
[0:27:31 – 0:27:40] Erik: I can’t wait to keep exploring Sora, see what we can find for a campsite on Sora, or either push into Din and Mass and see what’s going on down there, but…
[0:27:41 – 0:28:01] Adam: yeah um overall um pretty awesome so far yeah you know difficult it’s not going to be for everybody but it’s definitely not just straight bushwhacking either at least this one i think a lot of these pmas some of these lakes are going to be more of the bushwhacking nature like trying to get to harry we’ve made it to the eponymous harry lake yes and uh
[0:28:02 – 0:28:08] Adam: Yeah, I’m excited to see what Din and Mass and maybe we can get to Tame yet today.
[0:28:08 – 0:28:09] Erik: Yeah, maybe.
[0:28:09 – 0:28:18] Adam: We’ve heard reports there might be a decent campsite on Din, but we’re in Hammock, so we can be a little more picky or, you know, we can kind of set up anywhere.
[0:28:18 – 0:28:19] Erik: Yeah, really.
[0:28:19 – 0:28:23] Erik: So yeah, it’s successful up to this point.
[0:28:24 – 0:28:38] Erik: I don’t know if I would be interested in pushing beyond any of these lakes that are much more accessible than they are just based on the little bit of like legit actual crashing through the forest that I had to do.
[0:28:39 – 0:28:51] Erik: But for now, I think we’re satisfied with where we’re at, and we’re going to go out and try to find a sweet spot to catch some of this nice sun and dip in the sweet, crystal-clear waters of Sora.
[0:28:51 – 0:28:52] Adam: We’re definitely swimming.
[0:28:53 – 0:28:54] Adam: Yeah, it’s like midday.
[0:28:55 – 0:28:56] Adam: We didn’t even get that early of a start.
[0:28:56 – 0:28:58] Adam: I mean, I don’t know how long we’ve been on the move.
[0:28:58 – 0:28:59] Adam: Maybe a couple hours now?
[0:29:00 – 0:29:00] Erik: Yeah, maybe.
[0:29:00 – 0:29:02] Adam: Two, two and a half, something like that, we’ve been on the move.
[0:29:02 – 0:29:07] Erik: Yeah, so getting back out should be pretty straightforward because we know where all the trails are at.
[0:29:07 – 0:29:13] Erik: So we will check back in with you from Lakeside, Sora, Din, Mass.
[0:29:13 – 0:29:13] Erik: .
[0:29:24 – 0:29:31] Adam: Okay, it’s early afternoon, and we continued our push down Sora.
[0:29:32 – 0:29:42] Adam: Confirmed there is an island at the end of Sora, and on the fisher map it’s just a little blue outline, but they didn’t fill it in with the yellow.
[0:29:43 – 0:29:46] Adam: But it’s clearly marked there, but they just didn’t fill it in.
[0:29:46 – 0:29:48] Adam: And then it is on the Nat Geo, it’s on island.
[0:29:48 – 0:29:52] Adam: So we confirmed that, and then we made our way down into Din here.
[0:29:53 – 0:29:56] Adam: There wasn’t really any portage going down.
[0:29:56 – 0:29:59] Adam: It’s just you’re in kind of a little mini canyon between the two lakes.
[0:30:00 – 0:30:00] Erik: Creek bed.
[0:30:01 – 0:30:05] Adam: And you basically, Eric just was like walking down the middle of the creek with the canoe.
[0:30:06 – 0:30:08] Adam: It’s pretty tight in there, a lot of timber.
[0:30:09 – 0:30:10] Adam: Very uneven footing.
[0:30:11 – 0:30:15] Erik: I didn’t see anything on Soro that looked like we could have had fun camping.
[0:30:16 – 0:30:17] Adam: Yeah, maybe on the island.
[0:30:17 – 0:30:21] Adam: There’s maybe that one point where it looked like there’s some decent big trees.
[0:30:23 – 0:30:23] Adam: But I don’t know.
[0:30:23 – 0:30:23] Adam: Yeah.
[0:30:24 – 0:30:26] Adam: Nothing really was, like, jumping out at us.
[0:30:27 – 0:30:31] Erik: Yeah, I think so far… And I had an assumption that that would be the case.
[0:30:31 – 0:30:39] Erik: Like, I think one of the biggest, you know, downsides to the PMA camping is the campsites themselves.
[0:30:39 – 0:30:43] Erik: I can see… Like, the one we’re at here, we’ll get into the details later.
[0:30:43 – 0:30:52] Erik: But this has really been the first spot that I’ve seen that has any, like, workability, open areas, a landing.
[0:30:52 – 0:30:53] Erik: Otherwise, you’d just be…
[0:30:55 – 0:31:24] Erik: jamming yourself up into the woods yeah pretty much so like i could see like you know there is definitely an enjoyment of boundary waters camping where the sites even the worst ones are still going to be something to work with and although like it sounds fun like you can camp wherever you want yeah it’s not really like all that much fun to just like camp in the woods especially if you have a tent and even this site that we’re at here doesn’t really look like the tent sleeping would be very comfortable
[0:31:24 – 0:31:31] Adam: There’s maybe one small tent, and I’m pretty sure this is the one of several of the posts we were reading online about this area.
[0:31:32 – 0:31:39] Adam: The very few information we could find, a few people did mention that there is possibly a site on this lake, on Din here.
[0:31:40 – 0:31:41] Adam: Um, so we kind of knew about it.
[0:31:41 – 0:31:46] Adam: And now that I’m thinking about it, I’m kind of wishing I hadn’t read anything, but I don’t know.
[0:31:46 – 0:31:50] Adam: It’s better to go in prepared, I guess, than to just the true unknown.
[0:31:51 – 0:31:51] Erik: Yeah.
[0:31:51 – 0:31:55] Adam: If we kept going from here now all the way down to octopus, now that would be pretty much the true unknown.
[0:31:55 – 0:31:57] Adam: Although even that I read stuff about, so.
[0:31:57 – 0:31:58] Adam: Fetters.
[0:31:58 – 0:31:58] Adam: Fetters.
[0:31:59 – 0:31:59] Adam: Yeah.
[0:32:00 – 0:32:16] Erik: Yeah, so it’s really a wonder, you know, we’ll also… Around the evening campfire tonight, we’re going to be talking about the specific rules and regulations and the permitting process that I went through with some interesting, unique rules to the PMA.
[0:32:17 – 0:32:21] Erik: But in that process, I definitely did get the sense that they don’t issue very many of these.
[0:32:22 – 0:32:26] Erik: But along the way, you know, we’d noted that we ran into a bottle of water.
[0:32:27 – 0:32:28] Erik: That looked kind of…
[0:32:29 – 0:32:56] Erik: newish like the label wasn’t really faded that’s true yeah it wasn’t faded at all and it was laying out in an open area kind of a grassy area where it would get lots of sun there yeah and we definitely did see like footprints yeah in a couple of spots and so we were wondering yeah is are there any soil scientists out there any mud experts yeah how many mud experts please fact check us we want to know how long would a footprint last in the mud
[0:32:56 – 0:33:00] Adam: Yeah, like I’m thinking it would freeze up like in the fall or whatever.
[0:33:00 – 0:33:06] Adam: You get a cold night, the whole footprint’s going to kind of freeze in place and then get snowed over.
[0:33:06 – 0:33:09] Adam: So why wouldn’t it last at least a few years, I would think.
[0:33:09 – 0:33:09] Adam: But who knows?
[0:33:10 – 0:33:12] Adam: Depends on the kind of mud probably.
[0:33:12 – 0:33:12] Erik: Yeah.
[0:33:12 – 0:33:20] Erik: So this is, I mean, you got to think like if it pours, that’s like probably going to wash out a boot print.
[0:33:20 – 0:33:21] Erik: And that was pretty open.
[0:33:21 – 0:33:22] Erik: It wasn’t like it was on the trail.
[0:33:22 – 0:33:22] Erik: It’s true.
[0:33:22 – 0:33:24] Erik: It wasn’t like, yeah.
[0:33:24 – 0:33:28] Erik: So, I mean, there’s still the possibility that like people just come up here and don’t camp.
[0:33:29 – 0:33:39] Erik: Because, I mean, this little campsite that we’re at here is probably the first place I’ve seen that you can actually camp, and there doesn’t seem to be very much usage here at all.
[0:33:39 – 0:33:40] Erik: So, I don’t know.
[0:33:41 – 0:33:43] Erik: Maybe it’s just day trippers that we’re seeing the tracks of.
[0:33:44 – 0:33:45] Adam: That could be.
[0:33:45 – 0:33:54] Adam: I mean, you could definitely, if we were really moving, I think we could get all the way to Octopus or, you know, and then go from there back to Frost tonight.
[0:33:54 – 0:33:57] Adam: Like, if we had that in our mind, that was the plan.
[0:33:57 – 0:33:57] Erik: Mm-hmm.
[0:33:57 – 0:34:00] Adam: and had maybe been through the area before, we could probably pull it off.
[0:34:01 – 0:34:05] Adam: But, see, we’ll have a much more detailed map of the area when we’re done with this trip.
[0:34:05 – 0:34:07] Adam: And then maybe we can push further.
[0:34:07 – 0:34:09] Adam: But we’ll probably get over it.
[0:34:09 – 0:34:11] Adam: We’re definitely going to get over and paddle around en masse.
[0:34:11 – 0:34:14] Adam: There’s two little islands en masse we want to kind of just go take a look.
[0:34:14 – 0:34:16] Adam: But I’m pretty sure we’re going to stay here tonight.
[0:34:16 – 0:34:16] Adam: I mean…
[0:34:17 – 0:34:18] Erik: I think this is our campsite.
[0:34:18 – 0:34:20] Erik: The chairs are set up.
[0:34:21 – 0:34:27] Erik: Gear has been thrown clear of the pack like it was involved in some kind of a T-bone incident.
[0:34:29 – 0:34:34] Erik: So I don’t think we’re packing back up unless we come across literally a sand beach.
[0:34:36 – 0:34:38] Erik: I think we’re going to call it good here.
[0:34:38 – 0:34:40] Erik: There are for sure hammock trees.
[0:34:40 – 0:34:43] Erik: We are kind of in between din and mass.
[0:34:43 – 0:34:46] Erik: We’re going to live in it for a few hours before we give you…
[0:34:47 – 0:34:49] Adam: Some good pine in here, nice open rocks.
[0:34:50 – 0:34:53] Erik: But we’ll wait until probably tomorrow morning on the way out after we have, you know.
[0:34:54 – 0:34:57] Adam: I think we got to do, you usually do the campsite review with breakfast the next day.
[0:34:58 – 0:34:58] Adam: Yeah, it works.
[0:34:58 – 0:35:00] Adam: I think it makes the most sense.
[0:35:00 – 0:35:00] Erik: Yeah.
[0:35:00 – 0:35:08] Adam: Yeah, but I mean, for instance, we have our chairs out here and I had to go, I had to get out of my chair and come over and sit on the rocks here because our chairs are so far apart.
[0:35:09 – 0:35:14] Adam: The even amount of level of space for a small chair is not that great here.
[0:35:14 – 0:35:15] Adam: But, you know.
[0:35:15 – 0:35:16] Adam: It’s a pretty charming site.
[0:35:17 – 0:35:17] Adam: No, it is.
[0:35:17 – 0:35:19] Adam: First impressions, it’s charming.
[0:35:19 – 0:35:22] Erik: Yeah, it’s got a very Quetico-esque feel to it.
[0:35:22 – 0:35:41] Erik: I mean, we were also looking at the map, and I think where we’re at right now is about as far away from another designated campsite, at least, than any other site, at least in the eastern section of the Bonjoirs, with maybe the campsite on Bologna being a close tie, maybe.
[0:35:41 – 0:35:47] Erik: I think we might be just a little bit closer to the northern site on Frost than Bologna is.
[0:35:47 – 0:35:48] Erik: So Bologna still might be…
[0:35:49 – 0:36:13] Adam: baloney is a remote site and the fact that we’re almost two miles away from baloney and there’s really maybe a handful of other sites that are within two miles that one on frost i think is the closest but we’re way out there yeah even though we were looking at the mat like seven miles as the crow flies the we didn’t like just to the car yeah like we’re not that far in yeah just back to where we started from there’s only seven miles which
[0:36:14 – 0:36:23] Erik: In any other Boundary Waters trip, probably wouldn’t sound like that much, but the seven miles between here and the Round Lake Landing were very labor-intensive.
[0:36:24 – 0:36:36] Erik: And, you know, with the lack of knowing what is beyond and not really having much more than just tomorrow to work with, trying to push for any kind of a loop would be kind of a crazy idea.
[0:36:38 – 0:36:39] Adam: Are you really going to go swimming?
[0:36:39 – 0:36:39] Erik: Yeah.
[0:36:40 – 0:36:41] Erik: Why, did you just see something in the water?
[0:36:42 – 0:36:45] Adam: Well, no, not now, but we did have the leeches before.
[0:36:45 – 0:36:45] Adam: Oh, yes.
[0:36:45 – 0:36:46] Adam: Swamp leeches.
[0:36:46 – 0:36:47] Adam: Everybody check yourself.
[0:36:47 – 0:36:49] Adam: Yes, please check yourselves.
[0:36:49 – 0:36:50] Adam: What’s the deal?
[0:36:50 – 0:36:51] Adam: I’m the only one that got hit.
[0:36:52 – 0:36:52] Adam: What gives?
[0:36:53 – 0:36:54] Adam: Oh, man, I butchered that.
[0:36:55 – 0:36:56] Adam: You did pretty good.
[0:36:57 – 0:36:58] Adam: Yeah, I don’t know.
[0:36:58 – 0:37:00] Adam: A leech encounter.
[0:37:00 – 0:37:02] Adam: Somehow a leech got in the canoe at some point.
[0:37:02 – 0:37:02] Erik: Yeah, I don’t know.
[0:37:02 – 0:37:06] Erik: A leech probably was up in my pants and then fell out when I got in the water.
[0:37:06 – 0:37:06] Erik: Yeah, I don’t know.
[0:37:07 – 0:37:10] Adam: I’m thinking it was from those mud ponds, not Sora or Din.
[0:37:11 – 0:37:12] Erik: No, definitely not.
[0:37:12 – 0:37:16] Erik: How dare you even suggest that there could be leeches in Sora, that beautiful lake.
[0:37:16 – 0:37:18] Adam: Yeah, Din looks very clean too.
[0:37:18 – 0:37:22] Adam: I haven’t really got a good look over at Mass yet, but I expect more of the same.
[0:37:22 – 0:37:23] Erik: Yep.
[0:37:23 – 0:37:48] Erik: um yeah i mean it’s crystal clear water the sun’s out probably good swimming time i think so and unfortunately that would probably be a great getting taken away for swimming potential here it’s yeah it’s gonna be a little ways before you can actually get out and swim so the audio of us um living the dream jumping into water probably would be pretty uh boring just sounding like somebody walking into the lake um
[0:37:49 – 0:38:15] Erik: We will find the deeps and get out for a swim though before it’s too late and probably check back in with some fun PMA tips, facts, the regulations that you’re supposed to kind of follow out here that I thought a couple of them were sort of funny and unique to the PMA and then we’ll try not to make fun of the U.S. Forest Service when we talk about the permitting process itself.
[0:38:15 – 0:38:28] Adam: Yes, and I think we decided we’re going to mark up a fisher map in high def detail, and we’ll give out the link at the end of the episode to download that map if you want it.
[0:38:28 – 0:38:29] Adam: The information will be out there.
[0:39:03 – 0:39:06] Erik: Checking in from Din1.
[0:39:07 – 0:39:11] Erik: Just got back from an exploratory tour of Mass.
[0:39:12 – 0:39:16] Adam: Went on over to Mass to check out the multiple bays of Mass.
[0:39:17 – 0:39:18] Adam: Yes.
[0:39:19 – 0:39:22] Adam: And had ourselves a look at some interesting things over there on Mass.
[0:39:23 – 0:39:23] Erik: Yeah.
[0:39:23 – 0:39:29] Adam: There’s no, I will start out by saying there was definitely no campsite over there that was far and away better than this one.
[0:39:29 – 0:39:36] Adam: But we did find at least one acceptable campsite on Mass, which I had not previously read anything about.
[0:39:37 – 0:39:40] Adam: Nobody on the Internet has mentioned this campsite en masse.
[0:39:41 – 0:39:44] Adam: So we’ll be marking it on the Fisher map.
[0:39:46 – 0:39:51] Erik: The HD map that we will provide in the show notes, you’ll just have to know where to look to find that.
[0:39:52 – 0:40:02] Adam: And, yeah, so we got in there, and pretty much as soon as we got out of this first bay, you could see, like, this opening on the south shore, I guess, of Mass.
[0:40:02 – 0:40:03] Adam: Mm-hmm.
[0:40:03 – 0:40:07] Adam: And it kind of just looks like a steep, open rock, and it’s like, well, that’s definitely something.
[0:40:07 – 0:40:08] Adam: And we paddle up, and then…
[0:40:10 – 0:40:13] Adam: At first, it was like, well, maybe it isn’t really something.
[0:40:13 – 0:40:14] Adam: But we kind of stopped.
[0:40:14 – 0:40:17] Adam: I was like, well, maybe it does look like there’s something up there.
[0:40:17 – 0:40:19] Adam: Plus, look at this crazy boulder erratic.
[0:40:19 – 0:40:20] Erik: Yes.
[0:40:20 – 0:40:29] Adam: So we were drawn in, and it’s like, oh, yeah, we have to at least pull up and take a look at this boulder that’s just precariously perched on top of the sloping rock.
[0:40:29 – 0:40:30] Adam: Mm-hmm.
[0:40:30 – 0:40:35] Adam: And I get out of the boat, and I go up there, and I’m like, no, it’s a dolman.
[0:40:35 – 0:40:36] Adam: It’s a dolman.
[0:40:37 – 0:40:38] Adam: We found a dolman.
[0:40:38 – 0:40:42] Erik: I’m pretty sure we’ve definitely found what we refer to as dolmans.
[0:40:43 – 0:40:44] Erik: We’ve got a confirmed third one.
[0:40:44 – 0:40:47] Adam: This is the third one we have found.
[0:40:49 – 0:41:09] Adam: we’ve seen together at least yeah so this probably for most people are it probably means nothing and you’re probably wondering not exciting what the heck are they talking about can you hear the excitement in my voice because we literally just found and and it was in a campsite and it still wasn’t like good enough we’re like yeah we’ll move all our stuff over there yeah
[0:41:09 – 0:41:10] Adam: The Dolman was cool.
[0:41:10 – 0:41:12] Adam: The campsite was a little off.
[0:41:12 – 0:41:19] Adam: There was definitely, we’re not going to do a campsite review of it, but definitely not a cool campsite, but there’s a Dolman right in camp.
[0:41:19 – 0:41:25] Erik: Yeah, so before we get to dolmens and manures and all these old, we’ll get to that.
[0:41:26 – 0:41:30] Erik: But just quickly on the campsite that we walked up into, it clearly had been used.
[0:41:30 – 0:41:38] Adam: Yeah, there was definitely a little bit of like an old fire, not a fire, it was more of a little like ramshackle fire pit.
[0:41:38 – 0:41:39] Adam: Yes.
[0:41:39 – 0:41:41] Adam: Kind of up on the top of the hill behind this dolmen.
[0:41:42 – 0:41:42] Adam: Yeah.
[0:41:43 – 0:41:45] Adam: I didn’t really see a place you could fit a tent.
[0:41:46 – 0:41:49] Adam: There’s definitely at least a dozen different hammock options up there.
[0:41:50 – 0:41:52] Adam: But then I’m in there, and I, like, turn around.
[0:41:52 – 0:41:55] Adam: At first, I thought it was, like, a mushroom growing on the side of the tree.
[0:41:56 – 0:41:57] Erik: I’m going to throw another log on the fire.
[0:41:58 – 0:41:58] Erik: Oh, okay.
[0:41:58 – 0:41:59] Erik: Tell them about the camp.
[0:42:00 – 0:42:02] Adam: So, yeah, I turn around.
[0:42:02 – 0:42:07] Adam: I’m going back towards the lake, and what I thought at least at first was, like, some sort of mushroom growing on the side of the tree.
[0:42:07 – 0:42:09] Adam: I realize it’s, like, a small 3-inch tree.
[0:42:11 – 0:42:14] Adam: cast iron little tiny pan hanging in the tree.
[0:42:16 – 0:42:16] Adam: And I’m like, that’s weird.
[0:42:16 – 0:42:24] Adam: I walk up to it, and not only is it just a cast iron in the tree, it’s got a hole in the middle of it and kind of has rusted out.
[0:42:24 – 0:42:33] Adam: Like somebody banged it on a rock and knocked a hole in it, or we are theorizing possibly shot it with a .22 or something, which seems crazy and dangerous.
[0:42:33 – 0:42:34] Adam: Yes.
[0:42:35 – 0:42:35] Adam: But there you go.
[0:42:36 – 0:42:37] Adam: It’s a little cast.
[0:42:37 – 0:42:41] Adam: So now that one got dubbed cast iron camp, a.k.a.
[0:42:41 – 0:42:42] Adam: mass one.
[0:42:44 – 0:42:44] Erik: So…
[0:42:46 – 0:42:55] Erik: I think this has always been something that we talk about personally, but we’ve never actually really exposed it or talked in depth about some of these things.
[0:42:55 – 0:43:03] Erik: And these are just our opinions on it, what we’ve heard from a few other people who have things to say on it.
[0:43:04 – 0:43:04] Erik: But…
[0:43:05 – 0:43:19] Erik: So what a dolmen is, D-O-L-M-E-N, is I think what would show up if you just Googled that or looked it up in a dictionary would be basically something that’s propped up.
[0:43:20 – 0:43:22] Erik: A lot of times it’s a flat rock.
[0:43:22 – 0:43:23] Adam: Flat-ish rock.
[0:43:23 – 0:43:28] Erik: Propped up in at least three spots, and it marks like a grave site.
[0:43:29 – 0:43:33] Erik: And there are these rocks that we have found out here.
[0:43:34 – 0:43:36] Erik: Not just rocks.
[0:43:36 – 0:43:39] Adam: Massive, like, car-sized boulders.
[0:43:39 – 0:43:39] Erik: Yeah.
[0:43:39 – 0:43:41] Erik: Basically glacier.
[0:43:41 – 0:43:41] Adam: Fiesta.
[0:43:42 – 0:43:42] Erik: Yeah.
[0:43:43 – 0:43:55] Erik: Glacial erratics that are propped up on three tiny little, like, fist-sized or maybe even a little bit bigger stones so that you can pretty much see all the way under it.
[0:43:56 – 0:44:00] Erik: There are for sure two, well, there’s for sure three now.
[0:44:01 – 0:44:09] Erik: We know that the two that we’ve seen in the past have been over off of the Kelso River and then one north of Wine Lake that we saw last year.
[0:44:09 – 0:44:09] Adam: Yes.
[0:44:10 – 0:44:14] Erik: And they are, I mean, it would be highly improbable.
[0:44:15 – 0:44:26] Erik: That they came to rest on multiple smaller boulders so that there was the amount of space under them that there is.
[0:44:26 – 0:44:27] Erik: They’re highly unnatural.
[0:44:27 – 0:44:28] Adam: They’re just floating.
[0:44:29 – 0:44:35] Adam: It’s like we’re talking about a Geo Metro sized boulder floating on like…
[0:44:36 – 0:44:41] Adam: little boulders the size of a Nalgene up to maybe a size of a large loaf of bread.
[0:44:42 – 0:44:43] Adam: So you can see clear through.
[0:44:43 – 0:44:50] Adam: It’s highly improbable that that would just happen that way, like somebody put it there.
[0:44:51 – 0:44:55] Adam: And they’re always on major routes of travel, the ones we’ve found so far.
[0:44:55 – 0:44:58] Adam: I’ve never just found one out in the middle of the woods like this.
[0:44:58 – 0:45:03] Adam: It’s always on a portage or on like a major paddling route that we’ve seen this.
[0:45:04 – 0:45:19] Adam: And then literally when we’re on mass, like we saw this one here, and then if you would go around that corner into that next bay, that would be where if we wanted to continue going on south to Octopus, that would be where the portage to like L would be.
[0:45:19 – 0:45:19] Erik: Yeah.
[0:45:20 – 0:45:24] Adam: So it does sort of mark like, hey, turn here almost is what it was saying to me.
[0:45:24 – 0:45:24] Erik: Yeah.
[0:45:25 – 0:45:27] Adam: And we did go down to that bay, and there is a little like –
[0:45:28 – 0:45:31] Adam: game trail looking path where that portage should be.
[0:45:31 – 0:45:36] Adam: We’re going to put that in as a little dashed line on the map because we did not explore that portage.
[0:45:38 – 0:45:39] Adam: I wouldn’t want to try and go to L.
[0:45:40 – 0:45:40] Adam: Maybe someday.
[0:45:41 – 0:45:41] Erik: Maybe someday.
[0:45:42 – 0:45:59] Erik: But the other thing, so we call them dolmens, but I’ve been recently told by the geologist’s wife that they’re actually referred to, if what we are seeing is actually like a way marker.
[0:45:59 – 0:46:01] Erik: A way marker, a trail marking.
[0:46:01 – 0:46:05] Erik: Yeah, that would be more what is known as a meneer.
[0:46:06 – 0:46:06] Erik: How do you spell that?
[0:46:07 – 0:46:10] Erik: M-E-N-E-A-R, I believe.
[0:46:10 – 0:46:11] Erik: Menear.
[0:46:11 – 0:46:12] Erik: Yeah, Menear.
[0:46:12 – 0:46:25] Erik: And so these are basically ancient, like borderline ancient way markers, like almost even pre-known First Nation, like definitely pre-French Voyagers.
[0:46:26 – 0:46:29] Erik: It was the way that these people would…
[0:46:31 – 0:46:35] Erik: either remember for themselves or to tell others that this is the way.
[0:46:35 – 0:46:39] Erik: And one of my favorites is this one’s more of a hypothesis.
[0:46:40 – 0:46:49] Erik: If you’ve ever been on the Gunflint Trail, you’ve probably heard of, hiked, or at least seen the sign for the Magnetic Rock hiking trail.
[0:46:50 – 0:46:55] Erik: And everybody gets all, like, worked up because the rock is, like, magnetic and it’ll make your compass go screwy.
[0:46:55 – 0:47:03] Erik: But what’s interesting for it, you know, to me at least, is that there’s the potential that that is a Muneer because…
[0:47:04 – 0:47:04] Adam: Yeah.
[0:47:04 – 0:47:11] Erik: It’s like two stories of a flipped up rock just upright in the middle of the woods.
[0:47:11 – 0:47:20] Erik: It almost makes more sense that it was placed there than that it was dropped as a glacial erratic because that…
[0:47:21 – 0:47:21] Erik: That would be insane.
[0:47:21 – 0:47:33] Erik: That seems like, I mean, almost more improbable than, yeah, I mean, trying to think about people flipping up a rock like that and then having it end up upright is, like, crazy.
[0:47:34 – 0:47:41] Erik: But thinking about a glacier just melting just right and dropping it so that it didn’t still tip it over is even crazier.
[0:47:41 – 0:47:44] Erik: And, like, you don’t see anything else out there like that in that shape.
[0:47:45 – 0:47:47] Adam: No, not on that scale either.
[0:47:47 – 0:47:50] Adam: And, you know what, I’m just realizing we have a compass with us
[0:47:50 – 0:47:56] Adam: because we’re on a PMA trip and we didn’t even try and get the compass out and like mess around near that.
[0:47:56 – 0:47:58] Erik: Yeah, we should have.
[0:47:58 – 0:47:59] Adam: What is it?
[0:47:59 – 0:48:00] Adam: Paneer?
[0:48:00 – 0:48:00] Erik: Maneer.
[0:48:00 – 0:48:01] Adam: Maneer.
[0:48:01 – 0:48:01] Adam: Yeah.
[0:48:03 – 0:48:04] Adam: Yeah, a dolmen.
[0:48:04 – 0:48:06] Adam: As soon as we saw it, it was like, dolmen!
[0:48:06 – 0:48:09] Adam: Because you couldn’t tell, it just looked like a huge boulder.
[0:48:09 – 0:48:12] Adam: But then when I climbed up the hill, all of a sudden I could see under it.
[0:48:13 – 0:48:16] Adam: Like at the right angle, all of a sudden I was like, oh, I can see through.
[0:48:16 – 0:48:20] Adam: And it’s just propped up on this little rock on the one side, and then it kind of drops down.
[0:48:20 – 0:48:23] Adam: There’s like three points of contact.
[0:48:23 – 0:48:29] Adam: But that one little rock being under there, and then being able to see through underneath this rock this size,
[0:48:30 – 0:48:31] Adam: Pretty impressive.
[0:48:31 – 0:48:32] Adam: There’s another one.
[0:48:33 – 0:48:37] Erik: Oh, this one was way more questionable because it wasn’t actually on small rocks.
[0:48:37 – 0:48:40] Adam: No, but it was out on this tiny little island en masse as well.
[0:48:41 – 0:48:42] Adam: And this one was kind of like…
[0:48:43 – 0:48:51] Adam: It kind of had an archway almost, like the big rock, and it was just sitting on this other flat rock, so there was no little small rocks underneath it.
[0:48:52 – 0:49:11] Adam: It was dolmen-like or nanier-like, but not quite because it wasn’t resting on anything, but it was kind of like half hanging over this rock, like over the lake, but then the arch of the bottom of this rock was such that I could have climbed underneath it.
[0:49:11 – 0:49:19] Erik: I think that one was, like, I was saying, like, before we started recording, like, I’m a pretty skeptical person.
[0:49:19 – 0:49:27] Erik: If you haven’t noticed, I mean, these dolmens or maniers, like, I’ve paddled around out here enough.
[0:49:27 – 0:49:31] Erik: I’ve seen enough boulders laying around on the ground that for…
[0:49:32 – 0:49:39] Erik: There to be just the three that I’ve ever found that have specific little rocks laying under them has to be more than just chance.
[0:49:40 – 0:49:45] Erik: But the one on that island seemed like it was just kind of happened.
[0:49:45 – 0:49:48] Adam: Just a funny shaped rock that happened to end up there.
[0:49:48 – 0:49:49] Adam: But I don’t know.
[0:49:49 – 0:49:53] Adam: It was odd in that we had literally just found this other one 10 minutes before.
[0:49:53 – 0:50:00] Erik: Considering the proximity, like I said, when we came around that next corner and there was like almost, for a second I thought it was another one.
[0:50:00 – 0:50:01] Erik: I got like the chills.
[0:50:01 – 0:50:03] Adam: I was like, holy crap, there’s another one?
[0:50:03 – 0:50:08] Adam: It gave me the goosebumps when I first, I looked back and it was over our left shoulder back behind us on this little island.
[0:50:09 – 0:50:24] Adam: facing back to the east it was like oh god yeah another one you could see right under it it was like clear as day you could see underneath it that’s for sure I could have climbed through there yeah we’re kind of kicking ourselves for not staging a silly photo op under there we could have had some fun with it but yeah
[0:50:24 – 0:50:31] Erik: But we paddled up close and it was a single boulder that just happened to have like a weird hump on it.
[0:50:31 – 0:50:31] Adam: Yeah.
[0:50:32 – 0:50:37] Erik: But mass in general, outside of the dolmens and the manures, which… And the little camp with the cast iron.
[0:50:38 – 0:50:44] Erik: Was kind of a cool lake, but it seemed like it had been recently inundated by a new beaver dam.
[0:50:44 – 0:50:44] Erik: Yeah.
[0:50:44 – 0:50:45] Adam: So the…
[0:50:45 – 0:50:45] Adam: Check that out.
[0:50:46 – 0:50:47] Erik: The water levels were very high.
[0:50:47 – 0:50:47] Erik: Yeah.
[0:50:48 – 0:50:57] Erik: And it seemed like it had just recently started to kill some trees off because we saw a lot of dead pines right on the shore that had been, I’m assuming, just from being flooded.
[0:50:57 – 0:51:04] Adam: Yeah, we did make our way all the way down to like the outlet, which would then, it goes into a little unnamed pond.
[0:51:04 – 0:51:08] Adam: And then eventually that outlet makes its way all the way down to Frost Lake.
[0:51:09 – 0:51:12] Adam: near one of the campsites on the northwest corner of Frost Lake.
[0:51:12 – 0:51:14] Adam: There’s a creek that comes in there.
[0:51:14 – 0:51:18] Adam: That’s all coming down basically from Sora, Din, and Mass.
[0:51:19 – 0:51:27] Adam: So we got over to the outlet, and we paddled up to it, and there’s a log jam sideways, and then it looked like a beaver had done some work on top of that.
[0:51:27 – 0:51:31] Adam: Then we paddled up to it, and you can literally see down this hill a 10-foot drop.
[0:51:32 – 0:51:33] Erik: It was crazy, yeah.
[0:51:33 – 0:51:39] Adam: And you could kind of hear water rushing underneath it, and then you could almost see out to the little unnamed pond, which was even further down.
[0:51:40 – 0:51:42] Adam: So it kind of felt like you’re up on top of this cliff.
[0:51:43 – 0:51:47] Adam: in a canoe looking downhill is an odd sensation too.
[0:51:47 – 0:51:51] Adam: So we were saying like, yeah, this lake is interesting and just a little off though.
[0:51:51 – 0:52:01] Adam: Like the, um, probable Dolman or Muneer, uh, a second, probably not Muneer, but interesting rock on a little tiny Island.
[0:52:01 – 0:52:05] Adam: We haven’t like kind of, we’re like, maybe we could just, there’s one big pine tree there.
[0:52:05 – 0:52:10] Adam: Like maybe we could hang hammocks on this little Island somehow, but I don’t think it would have worked.
[0:52:10 – 0:52:14] Adam: And then finding that, like, outro and the little possible portage out to El.
[0:52:16 – 0:52:16] Adam: I don’t know.
[0:52:16 – 0:52:17] Adam: It was just an odd lake.
[0:52:17 – 0:52:19] Adam: But, yeah, the cast iron with the hole, too.
[0:52:19 – 0:52:22] Erik: Like, how long has that been hanging in that tree?
[0:52:22 – 0:52:24] Adam: It seemed like it’s been hanging there a long time.
[0:52:24 – 0:52:25] Adam: Yeah.
[0:52:25 – 0:52:27] Adam: That was a really – and just everywhere you go out here –
[0:52:28 – 0:52:30] Adam: there’s like crispy moss right now.
[0:52:30 – 0:52:33] Adam: It’s pretty dry and there’s everything that’s covered in moss.
[0:52:33 – 0:52:37] Adam: Whereas if you were in the boundary waters, none of this moss would be here.
[0:52:37 – 0:52:40] Adam: It would have been trampled away and it would just be down to bare rock.
[0:52:40 – 0:52:44] Adam: But everywhere you get out of the canoe around here, there’s moss everywhere.
[0:52:45 – 0:52:53] Adam: Even in the campfire ring here when we pulled in, there was like a piece of old charcoal that somebody left behind with moss growing on the charcoal.
[0:52:53 – 0:52:53] Erik: Yeah.
[0:52:54 – 0:52:55] Adam: Charcoaled moss.
[0:52:55 – 0:52:56] Adam: Mossy charcoal.
[0:52:56 – 0:52:57] Adam: Mossed charcoal.
[0:52:57 – 0:52:58] Adam: Yeah.
[0:52:58 – 0:53:04] Erik: No, that was one of the, we were talking before about the age of footprints.
[0:53:04 – 0:53:05] Erik: Yeah.
[0:53:05 – 0:53:16] Erik: And how they looked fresh, but then, you know, you come out here and you’re like, there are years, at least two years of pine needles in where it looks like people have had fires before.
[0:53:16 – 0:53:20] Erik: And then we dug a little bit deeper and I’m like, yeah, there’s moss on the charcoal.
[0:53:20 – 0:53:20] Erik: Yeah.
[0:53:20 – 0:53:27] Adam: Yeah, like neither this campsite nor the one we found en masse, neither of them looked like anybody had been in there.
[0:53:27 – 0:53:31] Adam: There’s an obvious tent spot over here on this campsite.
[0:53:31 – 0:53:35] Adam: Nobody has set anything up over there in at least the last two years, it looks like.
[0:53:36 – 0:53:42] Adam: Nor has anybody had a fire in this, what appears to be a pretty universal fire ring here.
[0:53:44 – 0:53:45] Adam: And the same goes for that one.
[0:53:45 – 0:53:48] Erik: That one was even lesser used, it looked like.
[0:53:48 – 0:53:54] Adam: Yeah, I wonder how many people are actually staying here, or if it’s just people are going through in one day somehow, all the way down to like Iris.
[0:53:55 – 0:54:03] Erik: Or maybe people are taking full advantage, or not advantage, but they are fully complying with the rules.
[0:54:03 – 0:54:03] Erik: Right.
[0:54:03 – 0:54:06] Erik: which I think we will… Everybody should.
[0:54:06 – 0:54:10] Erik: Yes, everybody should, but we will read the list of the specific PMA rules here a little bit.
[0:54:10 – 0:54:14] Adam: Yeah, because you really shouldn’t see evidence of a fire in this fire pit.
[0:54:15 – 0:54:33] Erik: No, but yeah, so besides getting to those rules, and before we get to a proper campsite review, I think this may be the most rustic campsite that I’ve ever spent an evening and eventual night at before, but it’s great.
[0:54:33 – 0:54:34] Erik: I’m loving it.
[0:54:34 – 0:54:38] Adam: Yeah, the longer we’re here, the more I’m loving it.
[0:54:38 – 0:54:39] Adam: The one out on Mass was pretty cool.
[0:54:40 – 0:54:41] Adam: It has a dolman.
[0:54:41 – 0:54:41] UNKNOWN: Yeah.
[0:54:42 – 0:54:48] Adam: I’m super amped about this dolmen being nearby, but this campsite’s definitely the nicer of those two.
[0:54:48 – 0:54:50] Adam: They’re in close proximity here.
[0:54:51 – 0:54:55] Adam: Yeah, we have a beautiful view to the north.
[0:54:55 – 0:54:57] Adam: Just overall, it’s very rustic.
[0:54:57 – 0:55:02] Adam: It’s hard to find even a place to set your chair that’s kind of level, but…
[0:55:02 – 0:55:12] Erik: I have a camp chair that is resting on a log that’s perpendicular to make up the difference between the level that Adam is at and the level that I need to be at.
[0:55:12 – 0:55:19] Erik: And earlier, you may have heard us, we kind of hesitated for a second because it was kind of starting to crack, but I think we’re all right.
[0:55:19 – 0:55:20] Erik: Yeah, I think it’s going to hold.
[0:55:21 – 0:55:27] Erik: Yeah, the sun is just barely illuminating the tips of the tallest trees on the tallest hills to the north.
[0:55:27 – 0:55:30] Erik: The sun has all but gone down.
[0:55:30 – 0:55:32] Erik: The sky is clear.
[0:55:33 – 0:55:38] Erik: We’re really looking forward to some brilliant stars and hopefully a trailing crescent moon.
[0:55:38 – 0:56:01] Adam: yeah we did see the crescent moon earlier it was up so it should be setting shortly here behind and like where the sun went we’re going to be able to see it uh we haven’t located it yet but it’s out there but man just been sublime weather so far on this trip just amazing has been calm mostly sunny and again once again just glass calm out there right now and uh
[0:56:02 – 0:56:04] Adam: Not even a hint of a cloud right now.
[0:56:04 – 0:56:07] Adam: It’s going to be an amazing night out here on Din.
[0:56:08 – 0:56:08] Adam: Very exciting.
[0:56:08 – 0:56:14] Adam: Yeah, we’re going to begin some quesadillas, cheese quesadillas for an appetizer.
[0:56:15 – 0:56:16] Adam: We have a casserole.
[0:56:17 – 0:56:18] Adam: We have some camp chow out here.
[0:56:18 – 0:56:22] Adam: We’re going to have a, what is it, sausage casserole?
[0:56:22 – 0:56:30] Erik: Yeah, we’re going to finish cooking the breakfast sausages we didn’t finish from this morning, pull those aside, and then cook up the…
[0:56:32 – 0:56:37] Erik: Wild rice sausage casserole and then supplement with fresh cooked sausages.
[0:56:37 – 0:56:38] Erik: Yeah.
[0:56:38 – 0:56:40] Erik: And then we also have some green beans.
[0:56:41 – 0:56:42] Adam: Some green beans.
[0:56:42 – 0:56:47] Adam: And then we’re saving the stuffing and cranberries and stuffing, Camp Joe, for breakfast tomorrow probably.
[0:56:48 – 0:56:48] Adam: Yes.
[0:56:48 – 0:56:49] Adam: I don’t know.
[0:56:49 – 0:56:49] Adam: We’re good on food.
[0:56:49 – 0:56:52] Adam: But, yeah, we’re really going to feast tonight.
[0:56:53 – 0:56:59] Adam: And, yeah, coming up next we will hopefully have some – we’re going to read the rules.
[0:56:59 – 0:57:00] Adam: PMA rules.
[0:57:00 – 0:57:00] Adam: PMA rules.
[0:57:01 – 0:57:09] Erik: And we’re going to read the rules, and we will also let you in on the most recent development, the audible that we made for our exit tomorrow.
[0:57:10 – 0:57:11] Adam: Oh, yeah, that’s right.
[0:57:11 – 0:57:13] Adam: We actually are going to kind of loop out of here.
[0:57:13 – 0:57:15] Adam: We’re not going all the way out and back on the same track.
[0:57:16 – 0:57:19] Adam: So if you’ve got a map in front of you, you might be able to figure it out.
[0:57:19 – 0:57:23] Adam: Otherwise, hang out for…
[0:57:23 – 0:57:24] Adam: There’s a clue.
[0:57:44 – 0:57:45] UNKNOWN: We’re on.
[0:57:45 – 0:57:45] UNKNOWN: We’re on.
[0:57:46 – 0:57:46] UNKNOWN: Oh, my.
[0:57:46 – 0:57:47] UNKNOWN: Oh, my God.
[0:57:47 – 0:57:47] UNKNOWN: We’re on.
[0:58:10 – 0:58:13] Erik: We are still hanging out at Din.
[0:58:13 – 0:58:15] Erik: Din Din has been consumed.
[0:58:15 – 0:58:16] Adam: Din Din.
[0:58:16 – 0:58:16] Adam: Din Din.
[0:58:18 – 0:58:20] Erik: We fed ourselves.
[0:58:20 – 0:58:23] Erik: We fed a small, a youth pine.
[0:58:25 – 0:58:28] Adam: Got a nice one-year-old little white pine here in camp.
[0:58:30 – 0:58:32] Erik: Beautiful white pine.
[0:58:33 – 0:58:35] Adam: So before we finish up…
[0:58:35 – 0:58:37] Adam: Probably the first humans this white pine has ever seen.
[0:58:38 – 0:58:38] Erik: Probably.
[0:58:38 – 0:58:41] Erik: It looks like it was birthed this year.
[0:58:44 – 0:58:47] Erik: I think we’re going to finish up the whole show in general.
[0:58:48 – 0:58:49] Erik: Pros and cons.
[0:58:49 – 0:58:50] Erik: Overall thoughts.
[0:58:50 – 0:58:59] Erik: We’ve teased this, but it is a primitive management area authorization sheet.
[0:59:00 – 0:59:00] Erik: Oui.
[0:59:00 – 0:59:04] Erik: It comes with the PMA permit.
[0:59:05 – 0:59:07] Erik: So just a little… Is it punched?
[0:59:08 – 0:59:11] Erik: Well, it hangs out in a three-ring binder.
[0:59:12 – 0:59:26] Erik: Just to give you an idea, though, so, you know, we’ve also mentioned that you do need your overnight paddling permit for any entry point into the Boundary Waters on top of the PMA authorization permit.
[0:59:27 – 0:59:32] Erik: So, you secure your BWCA visitor’s permit.
[0:59:34 – 0:59:36] Adam: You have to take that into the office to get…
[0:59:37 – 0:59:47] Erik: Yeah, you have to have an overnight camping permit secured before you can even ask questions about PMAs.
[0:59:47 – 0:59:48] Adam: Hmm.
[0:59:48 – 0:59:54] Erik: Because I was like, hey, can I get an overnight camping permit and a PMA at the same time?
[0:59:54 – 1:00:04] Erik: No, you have to get your overnight camping permit first and give us that number before we can give you a PMA authorization.
[1:00:05 – 1:00:05] Erik: Hmm.
[1:00:06 – 1:00:09] Erik: So I went on and got the entry point into 51.
[1:00:09 – 1:00:18] Erik: The one thing that is kind of nice about the PMA permitting system is that you can pick it up more than 24 hours in advance of your entry date.
[1:00:18 – 1:00:19] Erik: That’s nice, yeah.
[1:00:19 – 1:00:27] Erik: Because for me, I just happened to be in town like a week before this trip, and I just walked in.
[1:00:27 – 1:00:31] Erik: I was like, hey, I need to pick up a PMA permit.
[1:00:32 – 1:00:45] Erik: what and it was uh yeah kind of a kind of a what it wasn’t completely like we don’t know what that is but it was it could confusion as to how it goes maybe
[1:00:46 – 1:00:48] Erik: I could tell that they don’t send very many of them out.
[1:00:49 – 1:00:52] Erik: So I had to consult somebody who knew a little bit more about them.
[1:00:54 – 1:00:59] Erik: She came over and got logged into a system that I had actually reserved.
[1:00:59 – 1:01:06] Erik: I called and reserved a permit for an entry date into a PMA.
[1:01:06 – 1:01:07] Erik: Yeah.
[1:01:08 – 1:01:14] Erik: Which, how it works is you claim your dates, basically.
[1:01:14 – 1:01:14] Erik: Okay.
[1:01:14 – 1:01:14] Erik: Yeah.
[1:01:16 – 1:01:21] Erik: So Harry Lake, I said, I want to go into Harry Lake on the 14th.
[1:01:23 – 1:01:26] Erik: And then she was like, what zone would you like to go into?
[1:01:26 – 1:01:30] Erik: I was like, oh, I don’t know what zone I want to go into.
[1:01:30 – 1:01:31] Erik: There are three zones.
[1:01:31 – 1:01:34] Erik: Every PMA is broken up into zones.
[1:01:36 – 1:01:40] Erik: And this keeps you from running into anybody else.
[1:01:40 – 1:01:42] Adam: That’s the whole idea.
[1:01:42 – 1:01:43] Adam: I think that’s the idea.
[1:01:43 – 1:01:43] Adam: Yeah.
[1:01:44 – 1:01:48] Adam: So they just block that area off for you when you finally get your permit.
[1:01:48 – 1:01:49] Erik: Yeah.
[1:01:49 – 1:01:53] Adam: Like if somebody else came in the day after and was like, hey, I want to go to Sorrel Lake on the 14th.
[1:01:56 – 1:02:14] Erik: red flags yeah and we were wondering like what you know what is the what is the point like why why are these areas being managed even why don’t they just say hey you want to go out and press your luck yeah head out to sora head down to mugwump
[1:02:16 – 1:02:25] Erik: But I think we came to the conclusion that I think that they’re managed just in the way that they are is so based on the few number of campsites we have noticed out here.
[1:02:26 – 1:02:27] Adam: Right, right.
[1:02:27 – 1:02:30] Adam: It couldn’t really support more than another group.
[1:02:30 – 1:02:32] Adam: And even then it would be like we’d be able to hear them.
[1:02:32 – 1:02:34] Adam: The other campsites right around the corner there.
[1:02:35 – 1:02:35] Erik: Yeah.
[1:02:36 – 1:02:50] Erik: So, yeah, no, I think that that is maybe room for more conversation on the legitimacy or why there is time and resources put into.
[1:02:50 – 1:02:55] Adam: It doesn’t sound like there’s a ton of time and resources being put into this, but there’s a system sort of in place.
[1:02:55 – 1:02:57] Erik: But there is a system in place.
[1:02:57 – 1:03:00] Adam: Regulate the amount of people that can go into one of these at a time.
[1:03:00 – 1:03:02] Adam: You know, that’s assuming people actually get the permit.
[1:03:02 – 1:03:03] Erik: Yeah.
[1:03:04 – 1:03:07] Adam: I bet there’s a lot of people that come into these without the permit.
[1:03:07 – 1:03:13] Adam: Or if you’re just coming in for a day trip to check it out, you don’t need the permit unless you’re planning to stay overnight, correct?
[1:03:13 – 1:03:14] Erik: Right.
[1:03:15 – 1:03:24] Erik: If you’re just visiting, you don’t need to get a PMA authorization, which we did get.
[1:03:25 – 1:03:27] Erik: We are camped in a PMA currently.
[1:03:27 – 1:03:28] Erik: Okay.
[1:03:29 – 1:03:36] Erik: And outside of the rules and regulations that go into a bonjour artist permit, there are a few.
[1:03:37 – 1:03:38] Erik: Supplemental rules.
[1:03:38 – 1:03:39] Erik: Supplemental rules.
[1:03:40 – 1:03:41] Erik: This is the highlight of the show.
[1:03:42 – 1:03:55] Erik: If you’ve hung out for an hour and listened to us ramble for over 50 minutes, a couple of them are very funny, and I wonder, based on where I am now…
[1:03:56 – 1:04:02] Erik: how I feel about them, and I think some of them are…
[1:04:02 – 1:04:03] Erik: I’m not for.
[1:04:05 – 1:04:09] Adam: I would just like to say that I have not previously read these rules.
[1:04:09 – 1:04:16] Adam: I just trusted that Eric was keeping us in the law, and I just wanted to save it until we actually read them live on the show.
[1:04:17 – 1:04:22] Adam: So I’m hearing this for the first time as well, and yeah, away we go.
[1:04:23 – 1:04:33] Erik: So let’s see how many of the PMA authorization leave no trace checklist rules we are breaking.
[1:04:35 – 1:04:36] Adam: None.
[1:04:37 – 1:04:38] Adam: Rule one.
[1:04:38 – 1:04:39] Erik: Rule number one.
[1:04:40 – 1:04:41] Erik: PMA.
[1:04:41 – 1:04:48] Erik: Portages are not maintained and bushwhacking, that’s in quotes, may be required.
[1:04:50 – 1:04:56] Erik: You will make less of an impact by not following paths of others who have been here before you.
[1:04:58 – 1:05:02] Erik: Cutting brush and vegetation to get through an area is not allowed.
[1:05:05 – 1:05:08] Erik: Map and compass skills will be necessary to navigate.
[1:05:10 – 1:05:12] Erik: There are no developed landmarks.
[1:05:14 – 1:05:15] Adam: Other than the dolmens.
[1:05:16 – 1:05:18] Adam: Nobody told them about the, uh…
[1:05:19 – 1:05:23] Adam: The dolmens, but they’re not gonna like come out here and remove a dolmen.
[1:05:25 – 1:05:33] Adam: Is that leaving a trace if you are ancient people from 10,000 BC making a dolmen?
[1:05:33 – 1:05:34] Erik: Retroactively.
[1:05:34 – 1:05:34] Erik: Yeah.
[1:05:35 – 1:05:35] Erik: Yeah.
[1:05:35 – 1:05:37] Adam: They didn’t know about the Forest Service back then.
[1:05:37 – 1:05:42] Adam: So what they’re saying is you’re not even supposed, like there’s not portages, but we clearly found old portages.
[1:05:43 – 1:05:44] Adam: We’re not supposed to follow those.
[1:05:44 – 1:05:46] Adam: We’re supposed to like walk five feet over to the right.
[1:05:47 – 1:05:49] Adam: through the thick stuff.
[1:05:49 – 1:05:51] Erik: That’s what I was wondering.
[1:05:51 – 1:05:51] Erik: I don’t know.
[1:05:51 – 1:05:52] Adam: That seems insane.
[1:05:52 – 1:05:58] Erik: I mean, all of that is fine, but except for the you will make less of an impact by not following paths.
[1:05:58 – 1:06:06] Adam: Well, we would never have found that water bottle if we hadn’t been walking through the area where, you know, it looked like somebody had walked through the grass there.
[1:06:07 – 1:06:09] Adam: And that’s when we came upon that littered water bottle.
[1:06:10 – 1:06:13] Adam: So in that case, we reduced the impact of human…
[1:06:15 – 1:06:18] Adam: travel by going where somebody else had walked because we cleaned up their litter though.
[1:06:20 – 1:06:21] Adam: That’s pretty ambiguous.
[1:06:21 – 1:06:24] Adam: I’m not sure they mean like don’t follow game trails.
[1:06:24 – 1:06:26] Adam: Don’t follow old portages.
[1:06:26 – 1:06:28] Adam: Like obviously that’s what people are going to do.
[1:06:28 – 1:06:29] Adam: That seems pretty silly to say that.
[1:06:30 – 1:06:41] Erik: But like I think the sentence you will make less of an impact by not following paths of others who have been here before you is like fundamentally flawed.
[1:06:41 – 1:06:41] Adam: Yeah.
[1:06:41 – 1:06:44] Erik: You’ll make more of an impact if you don’t follow paths.
[1:06:45 – 1:06:49] Adam: Right, like in the regular boundary waters, they always say stay on the path.
[1:06:49 – 1:06:49] Erik: Yeah.
[1:06:50 – 1:06:53] Adam: Otherwise, don’t go around puddles.
[1:06:53 – 1:06:57] Adam: You’ll widen the portage and make more of an impact.
[1:06:57 – 1:07:01] Adam: You’re better off just following any path you have found rather than making your own path.
[1:07:01 – 1:07:06] Adam: And then they say you don’t cut things or try and snap branches to get out of the way.
[1:07:07 – 1:07:08] Adam: Well, how else are you going to get through?
[1:07:09 – 1:07:14] Adam: If there’s a branch down in front of you, you either step on it or go under it.
[1:07:15 – 1:07:16] Erik: I mean, I get it.
[1:07:16 – 1:07:20] Erik: Like, yeah, you don’t want to be just, like, forging a new portage.
[1:07:20 – 1:07:31] Erik: Like, they contradict themselves by saying you will make less of an impact by not following paths of others, but then at the same time cutting brush and vegetation to get through an area is not allowed.
[1:07:31 – 1:07:36] Adam: I think they just want you, like, walking through the woods just in a tangle in a well.
[1:07:36 – 1:07:37] Adam: You just deal with it.
[1:07:38 – 1:07:39] Adam: but that’s just not realistic.
[1:07:39 – 1:07:41] Erik: Well, and that’s not viable at all.
[1:07:41 – 1:07:47] Erik: That level of bushwhacking, we did it for like, like we didn’t even actually do it.
[1:07:47 – 1:07:48] Erik: We considered doing it.
[1:07:49 – 1:07:49] Erik: Yeah.
[1:07:49 – 1:07:56] Erik: And it would have been insane to try to plunge a canoe into an area that nobody had been through before.
[1:07:56 – 1:07:59] Adam: Yeah, especially with the big men, too, as well.
[1:07:59 – 1:08:01] Adam: Like, we needed to go back an episode.
[1:08:01 – 1:08:07] Adam: We needed to get Dick’s Last Drink, the 11-foot tandem canoe, for our next PMA trip.
[1:08:07 – 1:08:09] Adam: Josh, hook us up.
[1:08:11 – 1:08:13] Erik: Alright, rule two.
[1:08:13 – 1:08:19] Erik: Choose a campsite that is away from the lake, out of sight, and on a durable surface.
[1:08:20 – 1:08:22] Erik: Keep the campsite area as small as possible.
[1:08:23 – 1:08:29] Erik: If you see signs of previous use, choose a different campsite so you do not further impact that area.
[1:08:30 – 1:08:33] Erik: Remember, cutting live vegetation is prohibited.
[1:08:33 – 1:08:38] Erik: Your challenge is to blend into the wilderness and avoid long-lasting impacts.
[1:08:39 – 1:08:40] Erik: That’s the end of the statement.
[1:08:41 – 1:08:46] Erik: My statement is I feel like this was written by somebody that doesn’t understand the woods.
[1:08:47 – 1:08:54] Adam: Yeah, like I was going to say before we even started, what are the chances the person who wrote this policy was ever in a PMA?
[1:08:54 – 1:08:55] Adam: Yeah.
[1:08:57 – 1:08:57] Erik: I don’t know.
[1:08:58 – 1:09:00] Adam: Maybe we’ll get through it more and then answer that.
[1:09:00 – 1:09:03] Erik: I mean, I get it, but at the same time, it’s not practical.
[1:09:04 – 1:09:07] Adam: Yeah, there’s two actual campsites we’ve come across today.
[1:09:08 – 1:09:11] Adam: Both of them are clearly, like, been used by multiple parties.
[1:09:11 – 1:09:18] Adam: But at the same time, we’ve said they are, like, by far the most rustic campsites we’ve ever seen compared to, like, a Boundary Waters site.
[1:09:18 – 1:09:23] Adam: These are, you know, we’re bushwhacking camping still just being in a site.
[1:09:23 – 1:09:25] Adam: But it has been used.
[1:09:26 – 1:09:31] Adam: But that one’s got a, the one down the way has got a little cast iron skillet nailed into a tree.
[1:09:32 – 1:09:36] Adam: And, yeah, this one had some campfire wood stacked here and a little fire pit, obviously.
[1:09:36 – 1:09:43] Adam: Yeah, we’re going to use this site than just go sit up in the woods 150 feet away from the lake.
[1:09:46 – 1:09:52] Erik: I think the same reason that I have a problem with this is the same reason I have a problem with the portage.
[1:09:54 – 1:09:56] Erik: Don’t use an area that anybody else has used.
[1:09:57 – 1:10:02] Erik: So you really just are going to be using other areas.
[1:10:03 – 1:10:05] Erik: When you can just concentrate all of your…
[1:10:06 – 1:10:09] Erik: Which is basically, what, maybe once a year?
[1:10:10 – 1:10:11] Adam: Yeah, like, I think… People are out here?
[1:10:11 – 1:10:13] Erik: Like, just concentrate in that one area.
[1:10:13 – 1:10:19] Erik: Versus, like, if you were to truly follow these rules, we would be just off in the woods right now.
[1:10:20 – 1:10:26] Adam: Just, like, kind of… Maybe… We would have found some place on Sora and just kind of…
[1:10:27 – 1:10:57] Adam: found an area where we can just snuggle you know get two little hammock sets barely in uh and just yeah we would just be in the woods that wouldn’t be that great but i mean i i see this i understand what they’re saying but at the same time it’s just not realistic and honestly like these this area appears to be used so little that what does it really matter like we i’m pretty sure we’re the only ones who have been in here all year it feels like that for sure
[1:10:58 – 1:11:06] Erik: Rule three, instead of open fires, camp stoves are encouraged because they leave no trace.
[1:11:06 – 1:11:11] Erik: If you have a fire, keep it small and remove any trace of it before you leave.
[1:11:11 – 1:11:14] Erik: Select a flat area away from trees and shrubs.
[1:11:15 – 1:11:20] Erik: Two ideas are to use fire pans or remove and replace sod.
[1:11:21 – 1:11:23] Erik: Avoid discarring ledge rock.
[1:11:24 – 1:11:26] Erik: Did you bring your sod saw?
[1:11:27 – 1:11:31] Adam: I forgot the sod saw, so we had to kind of peel it back by hand, I guess, but…
[1:11:32 – 1:11:34] Adam: We definitely didn’t bring a fire pan.
[1:11:34 – 1:11:35] Adam: That’s… No.
[1:11:36 – 1:11:36] UNKNOWN: No.
[1:11:37 – 1:11:40] Adam: We were packing light, and we’re going to get to more of that, I think, tomorrow.
[1:11:40 – 1:11:44] Adam: We’re going to kind of talk about our setup and how we tried to keep everything light on this trip.
[1:11:44 – 1:11:50] Adam: But we definitely did bring a one-burner stove, just a…
[1:11:51 – 1:12:19] Adam: very small camp stove to reheat our um dehydrated dinner of casserole and beans and uh heat up our coffee water um yeah we’ve been using the stove a lot uh just even when we were on snipe you know last night we were using we always use a stove a lot it’s it’s very handy and i agree um it’s it’s not a bad thing to have with you especially in a pma no exactly the uh
[1:12:21 – 1:12:24] Erik: Fourth rule, pretty consistent, this one.
[1:12:24 – 1:12:25] Erik: Not too much difference.
[1:12:25 – 1:12:29] Erik: Mostly wilderness latrines, and they are not furnished.
[1:12:30 – 1:12:36] Erik: Human waste should be buried at least 150 feet from any trail, portage, shoreline, or other water source.
[1:12:37 – 1:12:38] Erik: Move on past that.
[1:12:39 – 1:12:40] Erik: That’s pretty much… That’s standard.
[1:12:40 – 1:12:41] Erik: That’s standard.
[1:12:41 – 1:12:42] Adam: Yeah, I agree.
[1:12:42 – 1:12:43] Adam: What number was that?
[1:12:44 – 1:12:44] Erik: Four.
[1:12:45 – 1:12:45] Adam: Number four.
[1:12:45 – 1:12:47] Adam: I definitely agree with all of that.
[1:12:49 – 1:12:51] Erik: Uh, and five is pretty much the same.
[1:12:51 – 1:12:56] Erik: Personal hygiene and dishwashing should be done at least 150 feet away from the shore.
[1:12:57 – 1:12:58] Erik: Help preserve water quality.
[1:12:58 – 1:13:00] Erik: Recommended you bring collapsible stuff.
[1:13:01 – 1:13:02] Erik: Uh, bucket that is.
[1:13:02 – 1:13:05] Erik: The last rule, that’s the only other one that’s really that different.
[1:13:05 – 1:13:08] Erik: It is recommended that the group size be kept small.
[1:13:09 – 1:13:10] Erik: One to six people.
[1:13:10 – 1:13:10] Erik: Uh,
[1:13:11 – 1:13:17] Erik: While visiting PMA areas, smaller groups have less impact on the land.
[1:13:18 – 1:13:20] Erik: Preserve solitude by limiting noise.
[1:13:21 – 1:13:23] Erik: Remember, sound carries.
[1:13:24 – 1:13:24] Adam: Absolutely.
[1:13:25 – 1:13:25] Adam: No howling.
[1:13:26 – 1:13:28] Erik: No howling or hooting.
[1:13:28 – 1:13:32] Adam: Wow, can you imagine having six people on this campsite right now?
[1:13:32 – 1:13:33] Erik: There’s no way.
[1:13:35 – 1:13:38] Erik: It is recommended that the group size be kept small, one to six people.
[1:13:38 – 1:13:40] Erik: That should be whited out and say one to two people.
[1:13:40 – 1:13:41] Erik: Yeah, two tops.
[1:13:42 – 1:13:43] Erik: I don’t know.
[1:13:43 – 1:13:43] Erik: Geez.
[1:13:43 – 1:13:52] Adam: I have not seen anything that could accommodate anything more than… Other than you’re just all sleeping on the rocks and your sleeping bag is just right on the rocks.
[1:13:52 – 1:13:53] Erik: Well, and that’s the other thing.
[1:13:53 – 1:13:58] Erik: I haven’t seen anything that has been able to accommodate anything besides a hammock.
[1:13:59 – 1:14:00] Adam: I haven’t seen a tent pad.
[1:14:00 – 1:14:07] Adam: There’s one spot up here that you could definitely set a small tent on, but it’s not level or all that great, but it would work.
[1:14:07 – 1:14:08] Erik: It would work.
[1:14:08 – 1:14:10] Adam: The other campsite over with the cast iron camp.
[1:14:11 – 1:14:15] Adam: I didn’t see anything in there, but there was more room for hammock sets in there.
[1:14:16 – 1:14:18] Adam: Maybe you could get six hammock sets over there.
[1:14:18 – 1:14:23] Adam: I don’t think in here you could, you’d be kind of way back in the woods, but I guess that’s kind of what they want you to do.
[1:14:24 – 1:14:28] Adam: Can, can, on the flip side, can you imagine being here right now just by yourself?
[1:14:29 – 1:14:34] Adam: Like that would take an incredible amount of fortitude and bravery.
[1:14:34 – 1:14:36] Adam: Like I wouldn’t want to be out here by myself.
[1:14:37 – 1:14:38] Adam: Not so much cause it’s like scary.
[1:14:39 – 1:14:40] Adam: It would be scary.
[1:14:41 – 1:14:41] Adam: Um,
[1:14:41 – 1:14:47] Adam: just being out here by yourself, but just also, like, it takes a lot to get here, and, like, a high risk of injury.
[1:14:47 – 1:14:54] Adam: It’s just a little bit more dangerous being out here by yourself, and, like, I’m not sure that they should even allow people to do this by themselves.
[1:14:54 – 1:15:02] Adam: I mean, I’m sure they will, but they’re going to have to, but it doesn’t seem like a smart thing to, like, hey, I’m going to go out in the PMA by myself.
[1:15:03 – 1:15:03] Adam: Okay.
[1:15:04 – 1:15:04] Adam: Yeah.
[1:15:04 – 1:15:11] Adam: It makes me nervous just thinking about it, and I would never consider it myself, but I know there’s people that do that sort of stuff, but…
[1:15:11 – 1:15:12] Adam: Man, that’s a little out there.
[1:15:13 – 1:15:14] Erik: I would agree with that.
[1:15:14 – 1:15:15] Erik: That seems a little out there.
[1:15:16 – 1:15:20] Adam: That would be funny if they’re like, we recommend the group size be two to two.
[1:15:21 – 1:15:21] Adam: Two is best.
[1:15:22 – 1:15:22] Adam: Two is best.
[1:15:23 – 1:15:32] Adam: Yeah, you got somebody you can count on in case something goes wrong and, you know, you couldn’t really fit more than two.
[1:15:32 – 1:15:32] Adam: So that’s it.
[1:15:33 – 1:15:39] Adam: For safety and for making sure you don’t scar the land up too bad or just have any place to actually sleep, two.
[1:15:40 – 1:15:42] Adam: That would be my recommended group size.
[1:15:42 – 1:15:43] Adam: No less, no more.
[1:15:45 – 1:15:46] Erik: That’s it?
[1:15:46 – 1:15:47] Adam: That’s all the rules?
[1:15:47 – 1:15:48] Erik: Those are all the rules.
[1:15:48 – 1:15:49] Adam: Well, I think we’re doing pretty good.
[1:15:49 – 1:15:56] Adam: I mean, yeah, obviously we followed some portages, and we are camped on definitely a campsite.
[1:15:58 – 1:16:02] Adam: But, you know, I don’t know.
[1:16:02 – 1:16:06] Erik: Choose a different campsite so you do not further impact the area, Adam.
[1:16:06 – 1:16:06] Erik: No.
[1:16:09 – 1:16:12] Adam: Honestly, nobody’s camped here this year, so I feel like it’s okay.
[1:16:12 – 1:16:16] Erik: Yeah, the weed definitely… Yeah, we burned this one up.
[1:16:16 – 1:16:20] Adam: If anybody else comes through here, they got to go over to cast iron camp because this one’s been used this year.
[1:16:20 – 1:16:21] Adam: I’d be okay with that.
[1:16:21 – 1:16:23] Adam: Like, hey, if it’s been used this year, move on.
[1:16:23 – 1:16:30] Erik: Yeah, if you can tell if there is not moss growing on the coals, burn away.
[1:16:50 – 1:16:51] Erik: Good morning from Din.
[1:16:52 – 1:16:52] Erik: Din Din.
[1:16:53 – 1:16:54] Erik: Good morning.
[1:16:55 – 1:16:56] Erik: We are on our way out.
[1:16:56 – 1:17:00] Erik: We’ve had a very abnormal breakfast of Camp Chow stuffing.
[1:17:00 – 1:17:02] Erik: Turkey and cranberry stuffing.
[1:17:04 – 1:17:05] Erik: Yes.
[1:17:05 – 1:17:08] Erik: No better way to start your day than with a bunch of bread.
[1:17:09 – 1:17:12] Adam: Yeah, and, you know, some more of the magical instant coffee.
[1:17:12 – 1:17:17] Adam: We even tried some in the teabag coffee this morning, which we deemed is not as good as the pure crystals.
[1:17:17 – 1:17:18] Adam: Yeah.
[1:17:18 – 1:17:27] Adam: But, yeah, it was sad to not have the cast iron on this trip, especially on this morning of the last day when we were not able to have a proper camp breakfast.
[1:17:27 – 1:17:30] Adam: I so dearly love, but that’s okay.
[1:17:30 – 1:17:36] Adam: We were able to have a nice dehydrated breakfast, and we didn’t have to carry the cast iron through all those bushwhack portages.
[1:17:36 – 1:17:39] Adam: So I think it was worth it, and probably it definitely was the right move.
[1:17:40 – 1:17:51] Erik: Yeah, I think besides the lack of the cast iron, the only other thing that we made considerations for in terms of cutting back was not bringing wine all the way out here.
[1:17:51 – 1:17:54] Adam: Yeah, only one bag of wine on this trip.
[1:17:55 – 1:17:57] Adam: So, you know, we had to make some sacrifices there.
[1:17:57 – 1:17:57] Erik: Yeah.
[1:17:58 – 1:18:09] Erik: So we’re going to give a quick, you know, we would not be providing the service of in the field campsite review if we left Din unremarked upon.
[1:18:09 – 1:18:15] Erik: So we’re going to do a quick campsite review, even though technically this isn’t a campsite.
[1:18:15 – 1:18:17] Adam: None of you should ever stay here again.
[1:18:18 – 1:18:26] Erik: So we came in across from Sora and you could almost immediately tell that this is going to be a place of interest.
[1:18:27 – 1:18:36] Adam: And mainly because there’s kind of this angled sloping rock, which… We’re kind of on an isthmus between Din Din and Mass here.
[1:18:36 – 1:18:39] Adam: I mean, we’re basically camped on both lakes.
[1:18:39 – 1:18:43] Adam: But I would say the shoreline is more prominent on the Din Din side.
[1:18:43 – 1:18:45] Adam: So that’s why we’re designating this as Din Din 1.
[1:18:46 – 1:18:51] Adam: And then the cast iron camp would be mass one if you’re scoring at home.
[1:18:51 – 1:18:51] Adam: Yeah.
[1:18:51 – 1:18:56] Erik: If you want to go and camp at the spooked site with the dolmen, that’s mass one.
[1:18:58 – 1:19:00] Erik: So the landing, I would say, is solid.
[1:19:01 – 1:19:02] Erik: Nice little terraced steps.
[1:19:02 – 1:19:03] Erik: Yeah.
[1:19:03 – 1:19:04] Erik: Gradual.
[1:19:04 – 1:19:09] Erik: You know, it is obviously an area that very rarely gets used.
[1:19:09 – 1:19:14] Erik: So the walking around is a little rough and tumble.
[1:19:15 – 1:19:16] Erik: But I kind of like that.
[1:19:16 – 1:19:18] Erik: It’s not trampled.
[1:19:18 – 1:19:24] Adam: Yeah, as we mentioned before, almost every rock surface is covered with a beautiful chartreuse moss.
[1:19:24 – 1:19:25] Adam: Wow.
[1:19:25 – 1:19:26] Erik: Yes.
[1:19:26 – 1:19:38] Erik: So the footing and the just overall getting around is kind of, you know, a little challenging, which in most cases for a boundary water site would probably be to its detriment.
[1:19:39 – 1:19:40] Erik: But we’re out here in the wilds.
[1:19:41 – 1:19:41] Adam: Yeah.
[1:19:41 – 1:19:43] Adam: So I don’t think we can hold that against its score at all.
[1:19:43 – 1:19:44] Adam: No.
[1:19:44 – 1:19:46] Adam: It may enhance the score if we’re being frank.
[1:19:46 – 1:19:47] Erik: Yes.
[1:19:48 – 1:19:50] Erik: So, I don’t know, a solid B on the landing.
[1:19:51 – 1:19:51] Erik: Can’t complain.
[1:19:51 – 1:19:53] Erik: I would take that any day, anywhere.
[1:19:53 – 1:19:53] Erik: Yeah.
[1:19:53 – 1:19:58] Adam: Yeah, I mean, especially compared to almost everything else in the PMA, the landing is out of this world.
[1:19:58 – 1:19:59] Adam: Yeah.
[1:19:59 – 1:20:04] Adam: Yeah, there’s really very few areas of shoreline where you could just easily get out of your boat around here, so.
[1:20:06 – 1:20:09] Adam: That includes the portage landings, and I did the air quotes when I said portage.
[1:20:10 – 1:20:11] Erik: Yeah.
[1:20:11 – 1:20:16] Erik: Fire grate area would be the next, you know, thing that we rate.
[1:20:16 – 1:20:17] Erik: If it was a…
[1:20:17 – 1:20:22] Erik: If it was, yeah, huge points away from this site because it does not have a grate, where did it go?
[1:20:23 – 1:20:30] Erik: No, the little perched rock here that has, like, you could clearly see where people have had a small fire in the past.
[1:20:31 – 1:20:32] Erik: Again, the…
[1:20:33 – 1:20:36] Adam: As Edward and Abby would call it, it was a good spot for a squaw fire.
[1:20:36 – 1:20:37] Adam: Just a few twigs.
[1:20:37 – 1:20:38] Erik: Just a few twigs.
[1:20:39 – 1:20:48] Erik: And, yeah, again, like the footing and seating around it is a little misshapen and uneven, but you’re able to make it work if you just kind of get your chair propped in a couple of little crevices.
[1:20:48 – 1:20:56] Erik: So, again, I think with the fact that it is a bush site, you can’t hold it against it too much.
[1:20:56 – 1:21:06] Adam: It was nice to be able to move the rocks around to our liking around this big muffin Buddha rock that is the centerpiece of this fire area.
[1:21:06 – 1:21:07] Adam: So that was kind of fun.
[1:21:07 – 1:21:09] Adam: We remarked upon that last night.
[1:21:09 – 1:21:13] Adam: Reminiscing of the Quetico days where you make each fire pit your own.
[1:21:14 – 1:21:22] Erik: Nice big views into the north where we confirmed a light Aurora Borealis display last night.
[1:21:22 – 1:21:27] Adam: We had a bit of a nice arcing glow due north pretty much through the early night.
[1:21:27 – 1:21:30] Adam: I did wake up late in the night or early morning.
[1:21:30 – 1:21:33] Adam: It was still dark, but the glowing arc had dissipated by that point.
[1:21:34 – 1:21:36] Adam: The stars were quite lovely.
[1:21:36 – 1:21:46] Adam: And yeah, I was hanging my hammock right down on the water’s edge between a very nice jack pine and then this resident white pine right in the center of camp.
[1:21:47 – 1:21:49] Adam: It’s a very, very nice spot to hang.
[1:21:49 – 1:21:50] Erik: Yeah.
[1:21:50 – 1:22:06] Erik: So, yeah, there are plenty of hammock options in here, but I can go ahead and say for sure that it has zero tent pads unless you are a single person and can maybe nestle up into that little crook of moss back there.
[1:22:06 – 1:22:07] Adam: Yeah, that’s about it.
[1:22:08 – 1:22:09] Adam: You know, and that’s what we read before.
[1:22:10 – 1:22:13] Adam: Very tough to bring a tent on a PMA trip, I would say.
[1:22:14 – 1:22:18] Erik: Yeah, that’s one of the things that I assumed, but I have very clearly learned.
[1:22:20 – 1:22:25] Erik: I think maybe we will finish the show with answering some of the questions like, who is the PMA for?
[1:22:26 – 1:22:26] Erik: Why is it here?
[1:22:27 – 1:22:32] Erik: And I can for sure say, just realistically, it’s not for people with tents to start with.
[1:22:32 – 1:22:33] Erik: Or big groups.
[1:22:33 – 1:22:34] Erik: Or big groups, yeah.
[1:22:34 – 1:22:35] Erik: Yeah.
[1:22:36 – 1:22:45] Erik: I would go ahead and give the tent pad an F because it’s non-existent, but it doesn’t, I don’t think, take away from the site because if you’ve got a hammock, you’d be just fine.
[1:22:45 – 1:22:52] Erik: And you’ll be leaving even less of a trace if you’re hanging from the trees and you’re not cutting down a bunch of branches to do so.
[1:22:52 – 1:22:53] Erik: And you can do that in here.
[1:22:53 – 1:22:54] Adam: Truly, truly.
[1:22:55 – 1:23:07] Erik: And then just outside of the aforementioned intangible aspects of the wild bush camp, the accessibility to firewood is borderline absurd.
[1:23:07 – 1:23:08] Erik: Off the charts.
[1:23:08 – 1:23:11] Erik: Like, it’s just hanging from the trees.
[1:23:11 – 1:23:13] Adam: This campsite is literally puking firewood.
[1:23:14 – 1:23:15] Adam: And it’s good stuff, too.
[1:23:15 – 1:23:17] Adam: It starts on fire just by looking at it.
[1:23:17 – 1:23:17] Erik: Yeah.
[1:23:17 – 1:23:20] Adam: You could bring a magnifying glass in here and start your little squaw fire.
[1:23:21 – 1:23:26] Erik: Some really nice jack pine, perfect wrist size, just the best.
[1:23:26 – 1:23:31] Erik: You just have two of those logs, and you’ll get 20 minutes of the perfect size fire out of it.
[1:23:31 – 1:23:35] Adam: Yeah, we were talking last night about the value of a nice jack pine.
[1:23:36 – 1:23:44] Adam: We always extol the virtues of cedar, but a nice jack pine burns hot and doesn’t kick sparks at you all night and spit and hiss.
[1:23:44 – 1:23:45] Erik: Yeah, it’s not crackling.
[1:23:45 – 1:23:50] Erik: You don’t get that, like, you know, there is something to be said about the enjoyment of a crackling fire.
[1:23:50 – 1:23:55] Erik: It’s actually kind of a quiet burning wood, but when you’re out here in the kind of…
[1:23:55 – 1:24:12] Erik: relatively dry mosses as we said basically just firewood laying on the ground all around us i’m kind of glad we didn’t have a cedar like cracking embers off into like the deep woods and yeah starting a wildfire out here so we kept it pretty reserved and enclosed
[1:24:13 – 1:24:30] Erik: right up next to this big rock yeah so firewood for and we were on mass yesterday thinking about maybe bringing a saw to collect firewood like we sometimes do and we came in here and we’re like why would we want to mess with that we’ll just grab the stuff that’s just laying on the ground and kind of clean up the forest floor a little bit for them yeah
[1:24:30 – 1:24:32] Adam: You know, give the moss a break.
[1:24:33 – 1:24:33] Erik: Yep.
[1:24:33 – 1:24:34] Erik: Open it up.
[1:24:35 – 1:24:42] Erik: So I think with that, I can go ahead and if this was a Boundary Waters site, probably D. Yes.
[1:24:43 – 1:24:57] Erik: But in the PMA and where we are, I would say solid B, maybe even A, because really we didn’t find anything else on the way in here or en masse that could be even considered a site besides Cast Iron Dolman Camp.
[1:24:57 – 1:25:06] Adam: Yeah, I would say just due to the, it’s got an extra category for extreme solitude, which is beyond category rating.
[1:25:06 – 1:25:07] Adam: Yes.
[1:25:07 – 1:25:10] Adam: So just with that, and it’s going to bump it up to an A for me.
[1:25:11 – 1:25:11] Adam: Yeah, for sure.
[1:25:12 – 1:25:22] Erik: Knowing that we are the only ones in a, at the very least, one and a half mile radius, maybe even farther, kind of adds to that intangible.
[1:25:23 – 1:25:24] Erik: I’m going to go ahead and agree.
[1:25:24 – 1:25:25] Erik: We’re both in agreement.
[1:25:26 – 1:25:26] Erik: Din Din.
[1:25:27 – 1:25:27] Erik: Site 1.
[1:25:28 – 1:25:29] Erik: Solid A.
[1:25:29 – 1:25:30] Erik: Put it on the board!
[1:25:56 – 1:25:58] Erik: Howl Swamp Update.
[1:25:59 – 1:26:01] Erik: Coming at you during an aqua lunch.
[1:26:02 – 1:26:05] Erik: We are on the shores of Tuscarora.
[1:26:05 – 1:26:07] Erik: Big, beautiful Tuscarora.
[1:26:07 – 1:26:08] Adam: Technically in Tuscarora.
[1:26:09 – 1:26:09] Adam: Yes.
[1:26:09 – 1:26:14] Erik: We are up to the shin on a beautiful sand beach that I’d never noticed before.
[1:26:15 – 1:26:22] Erik: I always avoided the Howell Swamp Portages just because of the name and the fact that the portage just goes right across a lake on the map.
[1:26:23 – 1:26:26] Erik: So I was very hesitant, but we…
[1:26:27 – 1:26:49] Erik: we made the call we kind of hinted at it to come back out a different way and um through the hollow swamp and the 400 plus rod portage out of tuscarora in the missing link just so we didn’t have to backtrack yeah i’ve never been a big fan of like backtracking the entire exact way you came in and so like everything we did going up into sora and
[1:26:50 – 1:27:15] Adam: the way through mass then we came right back the same way and so you know it’s the third day of the trip it’d be we had to go back through the the pma bushwhacking portages to start the day but then when we hit copper we’re like let’s just take a left head to the west and go to first those hubbub and then the whole swamp which there is a swamp there you have to you have to put your canoe down and paddle across this thin little strip of swamp in the middle of this portage
[1:27:16 – 1:27:18] Adam: It’s listed at $250, but it’s a pretty nice portage.
[1:27:18 – 1:27:20] Erik: Actually, yeah, I thought the path was amazing.
[1:27:20 – 1:27:23] Erik: And this landing down here is incredible.
[1:27:23 – 1:27:25] Erik: I haven’t seen anything like this since our days up in Quetico.
[1:27:25 – 1:27:27] Erik: You don’t see these beach landings.
[1:27:27 – 1:27:30] Adam: Yeah, you come out, you hit the opening here, and it’s just a beautiful beach.
[1:27:30 – 1:27:32] Adam: Just walk right in up to your knees.
[1:27:32 – 1:27:44] Erik: So we just opened the top of the pack and grabbed lunch, and now we’re just standing in the water eating and giving you a little update and a preview of the other reason we wanted to come over this way.
[1:27:46 – 1:27:57] Erik: was to do a little scientific research because of the multiple different disparities in lengths of the Tuscarora to missing link portage on the map.
[1:27:58 – 1:28:01] Erik: Every map company, I think, has it at a different distance.
[1:28:01 – 1:28:06] Adam: It’s a notorious portage, kind of a famous in a bad way kind of portage.
[1:28:06 – 1:28:08] Adam: So we want to set the record straight.
[1:28:08 – 1:28:12] Adam: We have the technology with us to measure accurately
[1:28:12 – 1:28:14] Adam: the distance of this portage, and we’ll see.
[1:28:15 – 1:28:20] Adam: I believe the Nat Geo listed at like 363 or 368, something like that.
[1:28:21 – 1:28:24] Adam: And the Fisher listed at 428.
[1:28:24 – 1:28:34] Adam: I’ve always believed it’s longer than 428, but that’s just probably because it does beat on you a little, especially if you’ve got like a pack and a canoe.
[1:28:35 – 1:28:39] Adam: We did that at the end of our Frost River trip at the beginning of the year, and it was really muddy.
[1:28:39 – 1:28:43] Adam: So you see a lot of people with grim looks on their faces on this portage.
[1:28:43 – 1:28:44] Adam: And I’m sure we’ll see some people on the portage too.
[1:28:44 – 1:28:45] Adam: That’s the thing.
[1:28:45 – 1:28:48] Adam: You always run into a couple groups on your way because you’re on there for so long.
[1:28:49 – 1:28:52] Adam: But yeah, usually you don’t see people smiling on this portage.
[1:28:52 – 1:28:58] Erik: No, but that also kind of reminds me of the feelings that I’ve had now on the last two portages.
[1:29:00 – 1:29:06] Erik: Granted, I do just have a canoe, but I think the PMA has ruined me in a good way.
[1:29:08 – 1:29:09] Erik: And we both agree on this now.
[1:29:09 – 1:29:14] Erik: I don’t think I will ever look at a portage in the boundary waters the same.
[1:29:15 – 1:29:17] Erik: I don’t think I’ll be able to complain as much about them.
[1:29:17 – 1:29:19] Adam: We said earlier on the show…
[1:29:19 – 1:29:24] Adam: A few episodes back, I think that you’re allowed to complain on the portage, but definitely no complaining in camp.
[1:29:24 – 1:29:25] Adam: I think we’re revising it now.
[1:29:25 – 1:29:29] Adam: You’re not allowed to complain, period, in the boundary waters unless you’re in a PMA.
[1:29:29 – 1:29:44] Erik: Yeah, the only time you can complain is on a PMA portage because once you have experienced those and the constant grappling and grabbing of every little branch, twig, and tree trying to hold you back.
[1:29:44 – 1:29:47] Adam: I’m surprised we have all four of our eyeballs left.
[1:29:47 – 1:29:47] Adam: Yes.
[1:29:47 – 1:29:49] Adam: They do seem like they go for the eyeballs, those maples.
[1:29:49 – 1:29:51] Adam: I’m wearing safety glasses.
[1:29:51 – 1:29:53] Adam: And they were still, like, under the glasses, gouging and…
[1:29:54 – 1:30:21] Erik: raking across my eyes yeah finding so yeah this you get to these uh which i think are even still like relatively these are still pretty thick underused portages and it was like a garden walk just a dream portage so i mean we went we went out of our way to not backtrack and in consequence we’ll be adding like close to 800 rods of portaging to the day and i’m not concerned at all about it
[1:30:21 – 1:30:26] Adam: Yeah, and then the other thing was neither of us have been through the Hull of Swamp Portage.
[1:30:26 – 1:30:29] Adam: So there’s a blank spot on the map that I need to highlight in.
[1:30:29 – 1:30:31] Adam: So, hey, we got some new water.
[1:30:31 – 1:30:33] Adam: Found this cool beach.
[1:30:33 – 1:30:37] Adam: Yeah, new beach that we found and beautiful spot for a lunch picnic here.
[1:30:37 – 1:30:42] Adam: So, yeah, we got the long one and then reasonable downhill portage back in the round.
[1:30:42 – 1:30:44] Adam: Then we’re off for cold beers.
[1:30:45 – 1:30:49] Erik: Yeah, we will definitely get you the information that you desperately need
[1:30:50 – 1:30:51] Adam: Exactly.
[1:30:51 – 1:30:56] Adam: The data on the Tuscarora portage will be revealed at the show close.
[1:30:57 – 1:30:58] Adam: And we will be marking the map.
[1:30:58 – 1:31:03] Adam: We did measure all the portages coming out of Sora as well, all four of those bushwhack portages.
[1:31:04 – 1:31:08] Adam: So we’re going to have accurate rodage and we’ll draw them on the map.
[1:31:08 – 1:31:13] Adam: And we will be posting the link to that map in the show notes.
[1:31:15 – 1:31:19] Adam: Under the hyperlink labeled privacy policy, that’s the key.
[1:31:19 – 1:31:21] Adam: If you’ve listened this far, now you know.
[1:31:21 – 1:31:22] Adam: It’s not a privacy policy.
[1:31:22 – 1:31:24] Adam: It’ll take you to a scan of the map.
[1:31:25 – 1:31:27] Adam: So that’s a treat for you listeners.
[1:31:28 – 1:31:32] Adam: It’s probably the most detailed map of the Sora chain out there.
[1:31:33 – 1:31:34] Erik: Yeah, up to this point.
[1:31:34 – 1:31:35] Erik: We don’t want to just have that information out there.
[1:31:35 – 1:31:37] Erik: It’s got to be a little bit of a challenge.
[1:31:37 – 1:31:41] Erik: It kind of fits in line with the PMA’s theme in general.
[1:31:41 – 1:31:46] Erik: To be able to find a detailed map on where stuff is, you should have to work a little bit to get at it.
[1:31:46 – 1:31:49] Adam: It’s not for everybody, and we’ll touch on that too, like who it’s for.
[1:31:49 – 1:31:52] Adam: But, you know, don’t just tell anybody or send that link around.
[1:31:53 – 1:31:54] Adam: But, you know, it’s…
[1:31:55 – 1:31:59] Adam: For somebody who’s seriously considering going in there, it would be helpful information to know for sure.
[1:31:59 – 1:32:01] Adam: It’s still going to be very difficult no matter what.
[1:32:01 – 1:32:04] Adam: Even with having that info, it’s going to be a very tough trip.
[1:32:04 – 1:32:11] Adam: But if you think you’re up for it, I think especially on the gun blend side, this PMA is probably the most accessible.
[1:32:11 – 1:32:12] Erik: I think so.
[1:32:12 – 1:32:15] Adam: It’s a pretty easy day to get in and out and one day in.
[1:32:15 – 1:32:17] Adam: Maybe you want to spend two days in there.
[1:32:17 – 1:32:26] Adam: But yeah, so we’re going to finish up our lunch here and paddle around the corner and go see what kind of friendly faces we can find on the long portage.
[1:32:26 – 1:32:28] Adam: And we’ll be measuring that.
[1:32:28 – 1:32:35] Adam: And then we’ll probably close the show out once we hit the truck at the lot on our way down to the beer station.
[1:32:36 – 1:32:36] Adam: Yep.
[1:32:44 – 1:32:47] Erik: All right, well, it happened.
[1:32:47 – 1:32:48] Erik: I got hit.
[1:32:49 – 1:32:52] Erik: Your leg is looking a little rough.
[1:32:52 – 1:32:53] Erik: Are you okay?
[1:32:55 – 1:33:23] Erik: I definitely got hit by a swamp leech and I looked down at one point and I thought there was the first thing that came to mind because of the color of it was like maybe like some Kool-Aid mix got spilled on my pants because the red was so like brilliant and yeah so if you’ve never been bit by a leech before they don’t cause any pain but they will cause a lot of bloodletting
[1:33:24 – 1:33:44] Erik: So the leech was gone by the time I found it leech was gone but the damage had been done and it’s just been slowly draining down the side of my leg like I put a bandaid on it and the bandaid like filled with blood in 30 seconds and then it just kept drizzling down the side of my leg.
[1:33:44 – 1:33:58] Erik: So, basically, you have to, like, apply pressure and actually get something with, like, a serious amount of, like – basically, we contemplated, like, asking somebody, like, in the area if they had, like, a tampon I could, like, duct tape to the side of my leg because that’s so bad.
[1:33:58 – 1:34:00] Adam: I was like, you should just duct tape that.
[1:34:00 – 1:34:02] Adam: I mean, it would have been painful to take the duct tape off.
[1:34:02 – 1:34:05] Adam: But even a duct tape maybe wouldn’t have held that all back.
[1:34:05 – 1:34:05] Adam: No.
[1:34:06 – 1:34:08] Adam: Very, very, lots of blood.
[1:34:09 – 1:34:11] Erik: Yeah, you’ve never seen it before.
[1:34:11 – 1:34:13] Erik: You were very surprised at the amount of globules of blood.
[1:34:13 – 1:34:16] Adam: I’ve gotten hit before, but I’ve caught them, like, early.
[1:34:16 – 1:34:18] Adam: Like, this one got its full.
[1:34:18 – 1:34:22] Adam: Like, it was like, all right, I’ve had enough, and let go and drifted off to who knows where.
[1:34:22 – 1:34:23] Adam: Yeah.
[1:34:23 – 1:34:26] Adam: So it was obviously a severe leech attack.
[1:34:26 – 1:34:27] Erik: Yes.
[1:34:27 – 1:34:28] Adam: I wonder where he got it.
[1:34:28 – 1:34:34] Adam: I’m going to have to blame the hollow swamp, but we weren’t really in the water at the hollow swamp all that long.
[1:34:34 – 1:34:37] Erik: I’m going to go ahead and blame that aqualunch on Tuscarora.
[1:34:37 – 1:34:37] Adam: I don’t know.
[1:34:38 – 1:34:40] Adam: I mean, it was crystal clear water.
[1:34:40 – 1:34:41] Adam: We would have seen a leech attack coming.
[1:34:42 – 1:34:42] Adam: No?
[1:34:43 – 1:34:43] Erik: I don’t know.
[1:34:43 – 1:34:44] Erik: Gotcha.
[1:34:44 – 1:34:46] Erik: I was in there for a while, just standing in the water.
[1:34:46 – 1:34:47] Erik: Shoot.
[1:34:48 – 1:34:49] Erik: That’s the second one this year I’ve had.
[1:34:49 – 1:34:51] Erik: I got bit on my guided trip, and yeah.
[1:34:52 – 1:34:54] Erik: It’s crazy how long they bleed.
[1:34:54 – 1:34:54] Erik: Yeah.
[1:34:55 – 1:34:57] Erik: Like, I just…
[1:34:57 – 1:34:58] Erik: I don’t even know.
[1:34:58 – 1:35:00] Erik: Like, if you didn’t apply pressure, would it just, like, bleed forever?
[1:35:00 – 1:35:01] Erik: It keeps going.
[1:35:01 – 1:35:02] Erik: Yeah.
[1:35:02 – 1:35:02] Erik: So…
[1:35:03 – 1:35:03] Erik: But I’m all right.
[1:35:03 – 1:35:06] Erik: We got it wrapped up in toilet paper and a sock that I cut up.
[1:35:08 – 1:35:09] Adam: It looks like a proper tourniquet.
[1:35:09 – 1:35:13] Adam: You’ve obviously taken medical first aid training.
[1:35:13 – 1:35:13] Adam: Yes.
[1:35:14 – 1:35:18] Erik: Well, I let that license lapse, but at one point I was a licensed DMT.
[1:35:18 – 1:35:22] Adam: Once you learn it, you never really let go of that training.
[1:35:22 – 1:35:22] Adam: Yeah.
[1:35:22 – 1:35:26] Erik: So with that in mind…
[1:35:26 – 1:35:51] Adam: made it out yes we’ve completed the trip we’re gonna call it at 20 portages and we you you tallied up the on the ride down you’re tallying up the the uh rottage the total rottage and we’ve and we’ve done the scientific gps gizmo uh measurement of the tuscarora portage so the tuscarora portage is not as long as people think
[1:35:52 – 1:35:52] Erik: Yeah.
[1:35:53 – 1:35:54] Erik: Here’s your opportunity.
[1:35:54 – 1:35:55] Erik: If you’re with friends, guess.
[1:35:56 – 1:35:56] Erik: What do you think?
[1:35:57 – 1:36:01] Erik: It’s listed as 428 on the Fisher, and Nat Geo has it listed at, I think, like 340.
[1:36:09 – 1:36:10] Erik: Or 360.
[1:36:11 – 1:36:12] Erik: Did the math.
[1:36:12 – 1:36:13] Erik: Did the GPS.
[1:36:13 – 1:36:17] Erik: That GPS was hanging off my butt the whole walk.
[1:36:18 – 1:36:20] Erik: And so that’s about as exact as it gets.
[1:36:20 – 1:36:21] Erik: No crow flies.
[1:36:21 – 1:36:22] Erik: No.
[1:36:22 – 1:36:23] Erik: This is legit.
[1:36:23 – 1:36:25] Erik: And we’ve got it officially measured.
[1:36:25 – 1:36:33] Erik: Cross out your portages on any map that you have because I have not seen one that has the distance of 355 rods from Tuscarora to Missing Link.
[1:36:37 – 1:36:38] Adam: I’m not surprised.
[1:36:39 – 1:36:46] Adam: I mean, it always felt longer than 428, but that’s just because at 428, that’s almost a pure torture run, especially if you’re really loaded down.
[1:36:47 – 1:36:51] Adam: So 355, that’s the new standard.
[1:36:52 – 1:36:53] Adam: We need to contact the map companies.
[1:36:53 – 1:36:56] Adam: Fisher, NatGeo, update your stuff.
[1:36:56 – 1:36:58] Adam: We got in-the-field data.
[1:37:00 – 1:37:24] Adam: thanks to tumble home so we got that and our total rottage for the entire trip we uh we calculated out all the bushwhacking portages too and uh we’ll reveal that with the map obviously uh but what is 1590 total rottage for the for a three-day not even a three-day a two and a quarter day trip
[1:37:25 – 1:37:27] Adam: 15.90 over 20 portages?
[1:37:27 – 1:37:28] Adam: I don’t know.
[1:37:28 – 1:37:29] Adam: That’s a lot of portaging.
[1:37:30 – 1:37:30] Erik: Yeah, that’s pretty good.
[1:37:31 – 1:37:32] Adam: It wasn’t really a paddling trip.
[1:37:32 – 1:37:33] Adam: It was more of a portaging trip.
[1:37:34 – 1:37:39] Erik: We didn’t really ever have to drop the hammer into any kind of a wind or get into a real solid groove of paddling.
[1:37:39 – 1:37:41] Erik: It was mostly portaging.
[1:37:42 – 1:37:43] Adam: Yeah, but I don’t know.
[1:37:43 – 1:37:44] Adam: Overall, I feel pretty good.
[1:37:45 – 1:37:48] Adam: I think you probably are fine other than the leech wound.
[1:37:48 – 1:37:53] Erik: Yeah, besides the leech attack that I sustained, I think I’m feeling all right.
[1:37:55 – 1:37:58] Erik: Maybe there is something to be said about some bloodletting.
[1:37:59 – 1:38:00] Erik: I feel good.
[1:38:00 – 1:38:01] Adam: Your eyes look crisp and clear.
[1:38:01 – 1:38:05] Erik: Yeah, I feel like my body is reproducing fresh new blood as I speak right now.
[1:38:05 – 1:38:07] Erik: Fresh platelets.
[1:38:08 – 1:38:19] Erik: For the next adventure out into a PMA, which we have over the course of these few days talked about, who are these places for?
[1:38:19 – 1:38:19] Adam: Would you do it again?
[1:38:19 – 1:38:20] Adam: For sure.
[1:38:20 – 1:38:20] Erik: For sure.
[1:38:22 – 1:38:23] Adam: Especially into there.
[1:38:23 – 1:38:25] Adam: I think we continue going farther into this one.
[1:38:26 – 1:38:27] Adam: Make it all the way to octopus someday.
[1:38:28 – 1:38:29] Erik: Yeah, we got a nice base.
[1:38:30 – 1:38:37] Erik: I saw this trip as an introduction, which is like anybody who takes a trip into the Bajau waters.
[1:38:37 – 1:38:38] Erik: That’s, I think, how it goes.
[1:38:39 – 1:38:41] Erik: Oh, well, I like that part about it.
[1:38:41 – 1:38:42] Erik: I didn’t like that part.
[1:38:42 – 1:38:47] Erik: Now, this next time, let’s try to adjust that and learn from what we experienced.
[1:38:47 – 1:38:57] Erik: And it’s kind of fun to have that as another fold in my relationship with the wilderness is now this kind of pushing the limits of…
[1:38:59 – 1:39:21] Erik: primitive management areas but it still does like bring to mind like what why are they why is the us forest service even bothering with these and i think we mentioned before it is probably logistic uh logistically pragmatic for them to have these zones designated to certain people just for campsite availability
[1:39:22 – 1:39:23] Adam: Yeah.
[1:39:24 – 1:39:28] Adam: I mean, honestly, even if they did nothing, though, I think that it would be the same.
[1:39:28 – 1:39:28] Adam: Yeah.
[1:39:29 – 1:39:30] Adam: But I get it, I guess.
[1:39:30 – 1:39:30] Adam: I don’t know.
[1:39:31 – 1:39:37] Erik: I mean, my, like, more for me, like, the why is probably bordering on, like, a couple weeks ago we were talking about, like, the why.
[1:39:37 – 1:39:40] Erik: And it was more, like, metaphorically.
[1:39:40 – 1:39:43] Erik: Like, what is it, what is it, why are we setting these places aside?
[1:39:43 – 1:39:45] Erik: Like, these PMAs are even, like, within the Boundary Waters.
[1:39:45 – 1:39:46] Erik: Like…
[1:39:47 – 1:40:06] Adam: even set more aside like we came out of that pma we’re like now we’re still in the boundary waters it was really odd to like re get back to copper lake and be like after all the thing all of what we had done be like all right now we’re back in the boundary waters yeah just the lowly old boundary waters yeah watch out for boy scouts yeah
[1:40:08 – 1:40:09] Adam: It was funny.
[1:40:09 – 1:40:15] Adam: You’re in a wilder part of the Boundary Waters this whole time, and there’s definitely a mystique and a draw to that.
[1:40:16 – 1:40:18] Adam: I get, and I could see going back in again.
[1:40:18 – 1:40:19] Adam: For sure.
[1:40:19 – 1:40:20] Adam: Now that we know.
[1:40:20 – 1:40:26] Erik: I would like to try to go make it down to the where we – just in terms of the Harry Lake PMA.
[1:40:27 – 1:40:31] Erik: Just in a day, get to Din and then push south and try to make a loop of it.
[1:40:31 – 1:40:38] Erik: We were talking about how if you can get familiar with these PMAs and where stuff is, you basically would have a park to yourself.
[1:40:39 – 1:40:41] Erik: You could reserve those permits and you would know –
[1:40:42 – 1:40:46] Adam: It’s a little mini, mini boundary waters within the park.
[1:40:46 – 1:40:46] Adam: Yeah.
[1:40:47 – 1:40:47] Adam: Just for you.
[1:40:48 – 1:40:48] Adam: Yeah.
[1:40:48 – 1:40:59] Erik: Now that like on the way back out today, those portages were, they were still a pain, you know, with the brush, but there wasn’t that first run of going through and making sure you were following it from lake to lake.
[1:40:59 – 1:40:59] Erik: Right.
[1:40:59 – 1:41:01] Erik: We were able to just pretty much run right through them.
[1:41:02 – 1:41:11] Erik: So the time out today was like, I don’t know if it was necessarily half the amount of time, but it was close because we weren’t scouting.
[1:41:12 – 1:41:15] Erik: So it would be really cool to get really familiar with a couple of PMAs.
[1:41:16 – 1:41:19] Erik: And then there’s that July and August potential.
[1:41:19 – 1:41:24] Adam: Yeah, I feel like for where we live, that one is really the most accessible.
[1:41:25 – 1:41:27] Adam: And so just to learn that PMA is valuable.
[1:41:27 – 1:41:27] UNKNOWN: Yeah.
[1:41:28 – 1:41:28] Adam: I don’t know.
[1:41:29 – 1:41:30] Adam: It’s like any trip.
[1:41:30 – 1:41:35] Adam: You learn something, like you said, and you adjust.
[1:41:36 – 1:41:38] Erik: Practically, who is the PMA for?
[1:41:38 – 1:41:48] Adam: I think it’s for somebody with a sturdy sense of adventure who doesn’t mind getting thrashed in the face and legs with branches nonstop all day.
[1:41:49 – 1:41:57] Erik: Yeah, it doesn’t mind having a general sense of wetness and discomfort for the most part.
[1:41:57 – 1:42:07] Erik: And we hinted at it just leading up to this episode in terms of what you get back out of it, I think was there.
[1:42:08 – 1:42:12] Erik: There was the potential as we were heading up through those ponds where it’s like, this is a lot of work.
[1:42:13 – 1:42:18] Erik: And for what I’m seeing so far, it doesn’t really feel like that work is going to…
[1:42:18 – 1:42:48] Erik: pay off because the lakes were they were cool but they were like really kind of mucky and swampy and but as soon as we got to Sora it was like okay this is like this is cool and then the campsite that we were on where we knew like we worked as hard as we did to get here there was that feeling of accomplishment so that it totally made up for it for the amount of work yeah Sora and Din Din and Mass were three beautiful lakes all very closely grouped
[1:42:48 – 1:42:50] Adam: and well worth the effort to get into them.
[1:42:50 – 1:42:57] Adam: I hope somebody who’s listening to this actually gets to Sora and can appreciate what we’re talking about.
[1:42:57 – 1:43:07] Adam: That’s, I mean, and if you’re willing to put up with the brush and the extra work and possible leech attacks, the rewards are really nice.
[1:43:07 – 1:43:10] Adam: I think I haven’t slept as well as I slept last night in a long time.
[1:43:11 – 1:43:15] Adam: Plus the Northern Lights were out, and man, what a cool place to get to.
[1:43:15 – 1:43:21] Erik: There was a level of silence out there that I think it also had to do with the time of year where the birds are quieting down.
[1:43:21 – 1:43:26] Erik: But, I mean, it was just, I mean, it was perfect solitude.
[1:43:26 – 1:43:27] Erik: I mean, pristine.
[1:43:27 – 1:43:33] Erik: A lot of the reasons that people go into the Bajau waters just amplified.
[1:43:34 – 1:43:40] Erik: And so I think that there are, you know, there are a group of people that those PMAs are for.
[1:43:41 – 1:43:43] Erik: And, you know, I think it was…
[1:43:43 – 1:44:07] Adam: it was worth it i would do it again i would definitely go back and i’m very excited to explore that pma more yeah i’m thinking maybe like next year right after ice out to try and move in there when it’s not so thick too yeah that’d be fun to try for sure and um but you know a lot of people almost everybody we said we’re like we’re going to a pma they’re like what yeah
[1:44:08 – 1:44:11] Adam: So, obviously, it’s not something that’s on the forefront of a lot of people’s minds.
[1:44:12 – 1:44:16] Adam: But if you’re listening to this podcast, maybe you’re one of those people.
[1:44:16 – 1:44:16] Adam: Yeah.
[1:44:17 – 1:44:23] Adam: And so, yeah, it’s a little bit of a specialized episode for people who have that kind of craziness in them to try something like this.
[1:44:23 – 1:44:24] Adam: But maybe you are one of those people.
[1:44:25 – 1:44:27] Adam: Yeah.
[1:44:27 – 1:44:30] Adam: So, yeah, it was a great trip.
[1:44:30 – 1:44:31] Adam: Thanks for doing that.
[1:44:31 – 1:44:32] Erik: No, definitely agreed.
[1:44:33 – 1:44:38] Erik: We will be back to a primitive management area, maybe Hairy Lake, maybe Pitfall.
[1:44:38 – 1:44:41] Erik: Those are our two backdoor PMAs, but, you know, we’ll see.
[1:44:41 – 1:44:42] Erik: Maybe we’ll get over to Mugwump.
[1:44:43 – 1:44:44] Adam: Mugwump’s out there.
[1:44:44 – 1:44:44] Erik: Yeah.
[1:44:45 – 1:44:55] Erik: But, boy, we’ve, I don’t know, been on the water, on the trails now for a few hours just with a handful of gorp here and some stuffing.
[1:44:55 – 1:45:00] Adam: Yeah, how is your leech wound feeling okay?
[1:45:00 – 1:45:01] Adam: Are you up for maybe going out?
[1:45:02 – 1:45:05] Erik: I think my leech wound is currently contained.
[1:45:05 – 1:45:06] Erik: I blew through a Band-Aid.
[1:45:06 – 1:45:10] Erik: Now there’s a wad of toilet paper on it and a sock tied.
[1:45:10 – 1:45:11] Erik: You seem fine.
[1:45:11 – 1:45:12] Erik: I think I seem fine.
[1:45:12 – 1:45:14] Erik: What do you say we go out and get a pop and a wheel?
[1:45:14 – 1:45:16] Adam: A pop and a wheel sounds amazing right now.
[1:45:16 – 1:45:16] Adam: Let’s do it.
[1:45:17 – 1:45:17] Adam: Let’s do it.
[1:45:28 – 1:45:50] Adam: This branch is as sharp as a sword In the sun beating down It’s hotter than the fires of hell Working at the pennies, following records And the flesh is as high as a mountain Send me a postcard with love and affection Dress it to the middle of the north
[1:45:52 – 1:45:57] Adam: Mommy, my bed is in the key while it is in the freshest wine for the city.
[1:46:10 – 1:46:12] Adam: There ain’t no paper roads.
[1:46:12 – 1:46:14] Adam: There are no telephones.
[1:46:14 – 1:46:15] Adam: There are no bathrooms.
[1:46:15 – 1:46:17] Adam: There are no wives at night.
[1:46:17 – 1:46:18] Adam: I got no lover.
[1:46:18 – 1:46:20] Adam: Keep me warm.
[1:46:20 – 1:46:22] Erik: You got no girl to sing me a song.
[1:46:22 – 1:46:22] Erik: Sing a song.
[1:46:23 – 1:46:23] Adam: Sing a song.
[1:46:25 – 1:46:28] Adam: I just might get some sleep tonight.
[1:46:28 – 1:46:30] Adam: That wind might dive down.
[1:46:30 – 1:46:31] Adam: That rain might run.
[1:46:31 – 1:46:34] Adam: That girl won’t come around here tonight.
[1:46:35 – 1:46:39] Adam: Send me a postcard with love and affection.
[1:46:39 – 1:46:42] Adam: Dress it to the middle of nowhere.
[1:46:42 – 1:46:47] Adam: Bring my meme, my band, and sookie while I live.
[1:46:47 – 1:46:52] Adam: Fresh to find both of us here.
[1:47:01 – 1:47:07] Adam: I want my soft dry bed, I want my soft smooth skin, cause around here I ain’t getting any younger.
[1:47:08 – 1:47:14] Adam: And next time I want to go to that part, no river, remind me of these things I’ve just said.
[1:47:14 – 1:47:19] Adam: Send me a postcard with love and affection, dress it to the middle of nowhere.
[1:47:19 – 1:47:27] Adam: Remind me of my bed in a silky white living room, fresh and fine, one of the same.
[1:47:39 – 1:47:48] Adam: Before the time being, around my place at least, the air is untroubled, and I become aware for the first time today of the immense silence in which I am lost.
[1:47:48 – 1:48:01] Adam: Not a silence so much as a great stillness, for there are few sounds, the creak of some bird in a juniper tree, an eddy of wind which passes and fades like a sigh, the ticking of the watch on my wrist.
[1:48:02 – 1:48:10] Adam: Slight noises which break the sensation of absolute silence, but at the same time exaggerate my sense of the surrounding, overwhelming peace.
[1:48:11 – 1:48:14] Adam: A suspension of time, a continuous present.