Voyageurs National Park

 Voyageurs National Park

As one historian described the late 18th and early 19th century fur trade, it was “a vast empire held together by nothing stronger than birchbark.” Canoe, that is. The birchbark canoe was used extensively by the voyageurs in their fur trade empire. The voyageurs route - between Lake Superior and Lake of the Woods - was so established by those hardy men that it became, in the 1783 treaty ending the Revolutionary War, the international boundary.  

Voyageurs National Park lies along fifty-six miles of their canoe route to Canada’s Northwest. A boat - for Patti and I, a canoe - is still the only way to see this National Park. And we did it up close and personal, paddling the vast lakes, Kabetogama, Namakan, and Rainy, doing overland portages, and camping in remote campsites. It was not, shall I say, a walk in the park, but a true adventure. We mapped out a route from the east end of Kabetogama, to the west end of Namakan, to a portage to Beast Lake, another to Brown Lake, and then to Rainy Lake, with a stop at Kettle Falls, paddling back through Namakan, before returning to where we put-in a week earlier.

Beast Lake. Sounds adventurous, if not a bit disconcerting. On the lake was a little-used, overgrown campsite barely large enough for our two-person tent. But, even so, it was a welcome rest stop after a ten mile paddle and overland portage to get there. Beast Lake is one of the many lakes in the interior of the long Kabetogama Peninsula which comprises most of the land surface of the Park. We saw no beasts, though they might have seen us. We were up early to paddle across the small lake to our next challenge. It was an uphill, overland portage, through downed trees and brush to a ridge-top. We followed the ridge as shown on our topo map, and arrived at Brown Lake. It took two trips to portage the canoe and backpacks from Beast to Brown.

Brown Lake was a beautifully scenic campsite in the evergreens, with, once again, no one there but us. We would have stayed more than one night, but had heard before we left on our trip that there was a small forest fire on the peninsula, and, in the morning, we smelled smoke. So we moved on. A short paddle and a short portage brought us to Browns Bay and the vast waters of Rainy Lake. Rainy is an apt name. As we left the protected bay, the wind came up, the rain started, and the waves threatened to either capsize us or dash us on the tall cliffs along the shore. Thankfully we had to paddle just two miles on the big water, before we could turn into a protected bay. And, again thankfully, we had an able paddler in the bow, my intrepid wife, Patti.

After the rollicking passage on Rainy, Anderson Bay was idyllic. The rain stopped, and, to stretch our legs, we  clambered up a rock bluff, hiked a bit, and looked out over the stunning, island-studded bay. After supper, we enjoyed a campfire in the peace of a wilderness evening.

The next morning came with a warning: red sky. Since we had at least five more miles to paddle on the big water of Rainy, we again left early. The trip was uneventful except for being attentive to where we had to turn into the safety of the channel to Kettle Falls.  The channel separates the US from Canada, and eventually leads to an amazing place for a wilderness, a hotel! 

After the cold rain we had the day before, it was a wonder to be able to take advantage of a unique and historic hotel in the middle of the wilderness. Built to accommodate loggers and trappers in a bygone era, Kettle Falls Hotel, accessible only by water, with an actual hot shower (!), was an oasis for us denizens of the wilderness. We stowed our canoe and paddles, checked-in to this amazing establishment, and found it to have a restaurant and bar room as well. The bar room was a real eye opener. Totally restored to its old-time glory, the room had a totally unusual feature, the floor. As the story goes, many years ago the hotel building was upset by a landslide. Despite its sliding downhill, the building remained relatively intact. It did, however, warp the bar room floor so badly that, if you played pool, you’d have to sling your cue stick over your shoulder from the downslope end of the table. The national park service kept it this way for the humor and history of it.

At dinner of locally caught trout, we enjoyed the company of one fellow who had checked-in earlier geared up for fishing. He was a National Weather Service employee, who was in the field to check on a remote weather station in the area. He thoroughly enjoyed his work, especially the fringe benefit of fishing on his off-hours. For us: a shower, a beer, a dinner, and a warm bed. 

What’s not to like about wilderness accommodations like that? We gave them five stars.

In the morning we put-in upstream from Kettle Falls and made for our next campsite on Namakan Lake. We found there another beautiful lakeside campsite, our last in the park. In all, it was a great experience to go where the voyageurs of old traveled. Next time we’ll take our kids and grandkids to explore the western end of this vast water park.