Saturday, May 28, 2011
I woke up an saw at the campground and saw a younger man packing up his stuff at a small tent down the way from me. I got up and walked down to the bathroom and stopped to chat with him. His name is Brian and he is from Madison, Wisconsin. His Girlfriend Erin was still inside the tent. I asked him if they we’re going to Isle Royale. And he said yes. It started raining so he took his gear into the bathroom and packed it up. That looked like a good idea, so after he got done, I drove the van down to the bathroom and packed up my stuff. When I got done I went down to their tent and continued talking to them. Somehow, I must have tipped them off that they were at the wrong spot. The Campground is next to the Marina, but the Ferry dock is two miles down the road out on Hat Point. I told Erin how lucky Brian was to have a woman that goes backpacking. She agreed. Evidently, she had been to Isle Royale before but he had not. It looked like Brian had a heavy backpack, so I asked him how much it weighed and he said 45 pounds. I said Ouch. But he said he had most of the food so it would get lighter throughout the hike. I took their photo, and gave them an “I Saw Tman” card. Turns out they only live about two miles away from me in Madison. It’s a small world.
I was all ready to go on my backpacking trip, having sorted through and packed everything. I headed down to the Casino to have breakfast at the Hotel Restaurant. I had a ham and cheese omelet for $8.00, but it was more than I could eat. It was really good, and after some time, I somehow managed to finish it off.
Somehow, my start for the day was a lot later than I intended. I had hoped to be at the National Monument Heritage Center right at 8:30 am when it opened and then at the Depot around 9 am. But by the time I got down to the Heritage Center it was already past 9:00 am. I had talked with Pam of the Heritage Center a few days earlier, and she gave me instructions on where to park my car and my bicycle. She had feared that someone might try to break into my van, if it was left alone and the bike was inside. So, I locked my mountain bike at the bike rack and went inside.
I went up to the big reception desk and met Amber. I told her that I was going to reserve a Campsite at Fort Charlotte for tonight, even though I thought I would pass it by and camp somewhere else. I thought it would be good if they had my information, and if I was feeling tired when I got out to Fort Charlotte, yes, indeed I would camp there. Amber introduced me to Pam, who I had talked to on the phone a few days earlier.
Then I looked at the exhibits inside the Heritage Center. They have a bunch of artifacts from the Fur Trading days, and some stuff from the Grand Portage Tribe. They have a Tee Pee set up with a video going inside the Tee Pee. They also have another room set up with a movie,that people can watch at specific times. One thing that caught my attention was a display with the timeline of Grand Portage.
Pam was walking around the display area, so I pulled her aside and asked her a few questions about the timeline. Then I asked her some a question about how the local tribe members feel about the National Park Service and the Monument itself. It seems to me that a lot of the story about the Grand Portage is about the white man, most notably French men who were the Voyagers. She said the local tribe didn’t feel that way because it is their history, too. She said the tribe and locals are quite good to work with. She had previously worked at another National Historic Site were the locals were always mad at the Park Service because of the historic restrictions placed on the local’s property. In other words, the locals could not build anything without being consistent with the historic aspects of the area.
I thanked Pam for her time, and headed down to the historic depot. The depot looks like a Fort, with a high fence around it made from logs. The path going to the depot has several examples of Native American dwellings from the Fur Trade time period. I went to the warehouse building were several other people had gathered. At the warehouse building is where Carl the Canoe Builder was located. He gave an interesting talk about the Fur Trade and Canoe Building. He said there were three groups of people involved with the Fur Trade in the 1790s. There were the British who were more of the Administrative people. Where the French Voyagers were more like agents in the field. They would live with the local tribes out in the Boundary Waters each winter, and then bring the furs to the Depot in the spring. Then there are the Native Americans who actually did all the trapping of the animals for the Fur.
After the talk he answered questions. I asked about the talk fence made of log that emcompasses the Depot. Was that to defend themselves from the local Indians. He said no, that they had good relations with the local tribe at the time, but the fence was more like the fence around your local Menards. It was to protect the furs from getting stolen.
I continued on down to the main building of the depot. There was a bagpiper playing out in front of the building headed towards Lake Superior. After he got done playing, I helped some people to take their photo with the bagpiper, and then I had my photo taken with him. Then he gave us a tour of the main building.. The building was where business meetings were held for the North West Fur Trading Company, and they also used it as a dining hall. There are four side rooms that originally were used as bedrooms for the Company Officers, but they only had one of them set up as a bedroom, the rest are set up as other rooms that would have been in different buildings. Originally there were 14 buildings in the compound. So, one of the rooms was set up as a clerk’s office and another room was set up like a bunkhouse that an ordinary worker would stay at. I left the main building and crossed a breezeway into another building which was the kitchen. There was a lady in there cooking using the methods of the day. I took a little tour of that building then I went up into the Guard Tower and took some photos. I got a good overview of the Fur Trading history, now it was time for me to hike the Grand Portage Trail.
And It was just my luck that it started raining. I headed back to my van at the parking lot of the National Monument Heritage Center. I picked up my backpack, vest, and poles. I made sure I had everything I was supposed to have for backpacking, Then I locked up the van and headed into the Heritage Center. I used the facilities for once last time, then said goodbye to the staff and headed out the front door with my backpack on. Some tourists took my photo using my camera out in front of the Heritage Center. I would be starting my the hike with my rain coat on. I hiked through the Depot and headed out the other side to start on the Grand Portage Trail. Across the road from the depot is a sign marking the start of the Grand Portage Trail. I took a photo at the sign then headed out.
To Follow this hike with Photos Click Here
The first 1/2 mile of the Grand Portage Trail is what I call a Creek walk. You’re hiking right next to the Grand Portage Creek. First you come to an ATV/Snowmobile Trail Crossing. I can assure you, that’s one crossing that wasn’t there in the days of the Voyagers. In Fact, a lot of the stuff that I would be encountering would not be there back in those days, Soon I encountered some board walks going over some smaller creeks, then a larger bridge going over the Grand Portage Creek. After that I came upon an Electric Line Right of way. Another thing the Voyagers wouldn’t have seen. Mankind’s knowledge of electricity was just in its infancy when the Voyagers walked this trail back in the 1790s
The trail heads along the creek for a little ways more, then the creek moves away from the trail. The trail is pretty straight, and heads in a steady uphill direction for the last 400 yards before making it to Highway 61. Maybe I should be calling this New Highway 61. At any rate, Highway 61 is a popular route for people with fishing boats headed to and from Canada. It was still raining and the cars left a little water vapor trail behind them as they passed by.
I crossed the highway and came to a Self Registration Kiosk on the other side. I opened it up and didn’t see anything inside it. There was another compartment that I was supposed to open and didn’t. I continued down the trail passing some rocky areas next to the trail. After that the trail would keep going in an up and down pattern for a few miles. It was more of a gradual up and down pattern with no steep uphill sections. In the lower areas there were boardwalks made from 12 inch wide, 4 inch thick and 12 feet long boards. Sometimes these boardwalks were fairly long. I also noted that there were some very straight sections of the trail, and that the trail was very well maintained, with only an occasional tree down. I did see evidence that the trail had been maintained recently, because there were freshly cut down trees that had been cleared from the trail. It’s a nice hike through the woods, but it has very few long distance views from the trail. At one point I could see a larger hill to the left of the trail and I wondered if that was Mt Maude. I continued on the gradual up and down and mostly straight trail for over 2 miles from Highway 61.
Then the trail heads downhill and I came to the Poplar Creek Bridge. It was the biggest bridge I’d seen yet on the Grand Portage Trail. I’d say it was about 40 yards long, going across a winding Poplar Creek. I stopped here and set out the Spot Messenger to mark my spot. It had stopped raining and was turning into a fairly nice day, but still very cloudy.
After my break at the Poplar Creek Bridge, I continued on the trail as it went up from the Creek. Then it continued it’s gradual up and down pattern, crossing several little creeks on the down swings. After Poplar Creek I figured it wouldn’t be that far to Old Highway 61, and I was right. It seemed like it was less than a half a mile away.
There’s a small parking lot, which is more like an extension of the road. There are signs marking the Grand Portage Trail. And when I crossed the road there was a sign saying “Cascade Trail Junction – 3 miles, Fort Charlotte – 4 miles. When I started hiking the trail again I found another one of those Self Registration Kiosks. And this time I found the inner compartment, which I missed down at the new Highway 61. The Kiosk had a sign in logbook, asking whether you were hiking to Fort Charlotte or the Cascades, It also had some brochures featuring the plants of the trail, etc. I continued on after signing the book.
It actually was starting to become a rather nice day. The sun came out and I was warming up. As for the trail, it was fairly easy and uneventful for a couple miles. You are just walking through the woods on a trail that is very well maintained. The swath of the trail is at least 8 feet wide, and there are many boardwalks in the low lying areas. And it looks like they are working on the boardwalks because you see piles of boards laying next to the trail near the boardwalks.
Eventually you hit a road going in a diagonal direction and the trail turns on the road to the right. The National Monument Trail goes with the dirt road for about 75 yards, then it veers off to the left. Since the road was going in a diagonal direction, I wondered if it went out near the Cascades. But there was no sign mentioning the Cascades, so I continued on. The trail continues to be quite straight and flat.
The sun kept shining, and I kept looking for the trail going to the Cascades. I kept going and going, at really good rate because this was easy hiking. There was only a couple downed trees on the entire route. But then I came to a spot where there is going to be two down trees across the trail. The beavers had cut nearly 2/3rds of the way through two really tall aspen trees, These trees were about 5 stories tall. It’s amazing such a little critter like a beaver can bring down tall trees like that. Imediatedly after seeing the two trees, I came upon a beaver dam. But this wasn’t any old beaver dam, this was a monster beaver dam. I’d say it was over 100 yards long. And the Trail went right across the beaver dam on one long bridge. But this bridge is in disrepair right off the bat. It was quite surprising given the excellent shape that the trail was in up to this point.
I made it past the first place the bridge was bad without getting wet. But about half way across the bridge there was a spot were the bridge was completely under water except for the hand rails. I thought about hopping off the bridge and hiking on the beaver dam, That’s what I should have done. Instead I tried using the handrails to hop across the bad area but I ending up getting both feet soaked with water. Luckily, it was fairly warm out by now, but the wet feet cooled me off.
The cool thing about walking the bridge is that it goes right by a big beaver house. This thing must be about ten feet high and 20 feet across. And you also get a good up close view of one of the largest beaver dams I had ever seen. At the end of the bridge, there was another rough spot, then an informational sign about the beaver dam, also stating that the beaver was once the national symbol of Canada. I headed down the trail, still looking for the Trail Junction for the trail going to the Cascades.
I had intended to set my gear down near the trail junction. Then I would hike out to the Cascades and take some photos, then return for my gear and hike to Fort Charlotte. I kept looking for the trail but didn’t see it. Pretty soon I did see something way down at the end of the trail, and as I got closer, I found out it was the Pigeon River, and there was a sign that said it was the site of Fort Charlotte. I had totally missed the trail to the Cascades. And I was looking for it pretty intensely. You would have thought there would have been a sign for it, but there was none that I saw. I don’t know how I could have missed it. But I had a feeling I knew what was happening. I had a feeling the tribe had something to do with it since the Cascade Trail leads you off the National Monument Trail onto Tribal Lands.
Well, I started checking out the area. Basically, at Fort Charlotte there is really nothing there except for a small clearing, a canoe landing, a backcountry registration kiosk and a couple of informational signs. There are trails headed to the left and to the right along the river. I set my gear down and started hiking to the right to where a campsite and a outhouse are supposed to be, according to one of the signs.
I hiked down about 30 yards and sure enough there was a trail leading to the right to an outhouse. It was a fairly nice outhouse, too. It was deluxe accommodations for the backcountry, for sure. Then I went into the campsite that had one old picnic table, two newer tables and a fire grate. There were several nice tent pads. I’ve heard of Scout Groups using this site when taking a canoe trip that retraces the routes of the Voyagers. But carrying a canoe on that 8 mile Grand Portage Trail does not sound like fun to me. I bet a lot of people leave their canoes at that diagonal road crossing that I walked on a while back.
The Trail continues going on the bank of the Pigeon River with a view of some rapids. I thought maybe the trail might go all the way to the Cascades, but the trail soon fizzled out into nothing. I think it was more of a trail for people at the campsite to go pick up firewood. So my attempts to go to the Cascades were officially over. And now I set my sites on going to Partridge Falls.
I went back to Fort Charlotte and took a photo of me in back of a historical sign about the Fort. Then I picked up my gear and headed down the trail to the left. It was headed in the direction of Partridge Falls and that was good enough for me. Soon I came to a monument of sorts. It looked like a pile of cannon balls stacked up, but instead it was a piled of rocks that were cemented together to make a pillar of sorts.
After the hike I called into the National Monument staff and found out that the monument was actual build by the Civilian Conservation Corps back in the 1930’s. That was a surprise to me, because I had originally thought that it may have been part of Fort Charlotte, or something the tribe a put there. At any rate I continued on the trail next to the Pigeon River for about 200 yards and came to a bridge.
For photos of this hike Click Here
The bridge was a rather long bridge. I’d say it was about 40 yards long or so. It crossed a marshy area and a stream. The Bridge looked to be in good condition, but when I got to the other end it was in disrepair. But I managed to get across and walk up some steps on the bank. Then I was greeted with a sign. The sign said “Trail Not Maintained Beyond This Point.” This was a surprised to me, because all the trails had been maintained pretty well up to this point, except I couldn’t find the Cascade Trail. But I continued on down the trail, and the sign was right, it wasn’t very well maintained. But there was some orange ribbon marking the trail from time to time, so knew I was on the trail. There were several down trees and wet areas, but nothing too burdensome. But the trees and brush were still wet from the rain, so I was getting soaked just walking this unmaintained trail. I kept going and soon I came out on a dirt forest road. It didn’t look very well maintained either. There were some downed trees along the way, and some muddy areas. Soon I made it to a dead end at the river. I did not see Partridge Falls or anything that looked like a path going towards Partridge Falls. Instead I saw some Government Boats and a shack. The Shack must house stuff for the boats. I didn’t look too closely at the boats, but I’m betting they are for customs agents to use.
I headed back from the dead end and passed the place where the trail junction was. I kept going down the road with lots of muddy spots, and made it to a junction of forest roads. I decided to go to the right to stay parallel to the river. This road seemed a little better than the other one. After hiking on this road a ways, I started to hear rushing water, so I knew I must be getting near the falls. Soon I found an Arrow on a tree and a trail leading away from the road. Could this be the way to Partridge Falls? I hoped so, The trail descended at a pretty good rate, but came out at a canoe landing. I was disappointed, but I could still hear the rushing water down the river. I figured this trail must have been part of the portage going around the waterfall. So I headed back up towards the road. I wasn’t too happy about hiking uphill after finding another dead end.
When I got back to the dirt road, I started hiking west again, over a steep but short uphill section. Then it went gradually down hill and was easy hiking. I could hear the rushing water, it was getting louder and louder. Soon I came to a path leading to the right and I found the campsite on top of Partridge Falls.
It was a bi-level campsite. It had some tent pads, then there was a 3 foot high rock ledge that lead down to a campfire area. Beyond that was the river, and the spot where you could see the water drop over the edge. You could look down and see the gorge down below, way down below, but you don’t really have a view of the waterfall itself.
I decided this would be the spot where I was going to camp for the night. I had hoped to make it to Finn Camp, which was in the middle of the 4 mile unmaintained section of the Old Border Route. But it was past 7 pm, now, after doing all those detour hikes, and I wanted to explore the area around the falls. So I set out my Spot Messenger to mark my spot. Then I started looking around. I found a steep gully where you can walk down to the bottom of the falls. But it looked very dangerous and treacherous, so I decided I would wait until the Spot Messenger sent it’s message, then I would take the Messenger with me when I went to the bottom. What a fool I would be if I broke my leg on the bottom and my emergency beacon was still sitting at the top.
So, I decided to explore some other areas around the campsite while I waited for the Messenger to send its message. I walked down the road to the west. It had pools of water and was muddy in a couple spots. Soon I found the old broken down Partridge Falls Cabin and a much better road coming from the left. The Pigeon River was still on my right. So, the better road deadended at the cabin and it was wider there for turning around. Even though it was a better road, it was still only suitable for jeeps, trucks and SUV’s where the road I had been on was maybe only passable by 4 wheel drive Jeeps. I went back to the campsite and the Spot Messenger had sent its message. So I grabbed it and headed down the steep gully to the bottom of Partridge Falls.
The descent was scary. I took my time and grabbed onto trees and roots. Hopefully, none of them would break while I was holding on to them. But I finally made it down to the bottom and what a spectacular sight. There is a wall of water coming down from about 3 stories high, and it was fairly wide. The falls had one step in the middle of it. It came down from the top to this level spot, then it came down again. Water was just gushing down the falls, and there was a steep banked rock gorge down at the bottom of the falls. I took lots of photos including a self-shot of me. I was wasn’t planning on coming down the steep gully again, so I wanted to take as many photos as I could. Then I headed back up the steep gully next to a rock face.
I took it slow, again hanging on to roots and trees. What made it even worse was it had rained earlier in the day, making the footing slippery. I was glad when I made it back to the top. I decided I’d better stop lollygagging around and start making camp. After all, it still was getting cloudy again and could start raining. I set up my tent, and put out my Kelly Kettle to cook some hot water for my dehydrated meal.
When I bought the Kelly Kettle, I called the company and the guy said that alcohol would work in it. If you are unfamiliar with a Kelly Kettle, it is a pot with a chimney coming up through it. You burn stuff in the chimney and it heats the water. Most of the twigs and branches around the campsite was wet from the rain that had occurred earlier. So I was glad I bought some alcohol.
I put some twigs in the chimney, poured some alcohol down the chimney, and lit it. The water inside the kettle started boiling in 3 or 4 minutes. I wasn’t ready for that. I quickly got my dehydrated meal unpacked and ready. Then I carefully poured the water into the meal. The kettle takes a little getting used to. I stirred the Spaghetti meal, sealed it up and let it sit like the instructions say. The alcohol had finished burning so all I had to put out was the twigs that were in the fire. After that I sat on the 3 foot high rock ledge in the campsite and ate my meal.
The dehydrated Spaghetti was my favorite dehydrated meal, so I enjoyed it. But it was too much for me. So I sealed it up and walked down the road to two tall trees and proceeded to put up my rope for my bear bags. I found a small oblong rock that I tied the rope to, then after a couple tries I threw it across a branch that was about 15 feet high. Then I pulled most of the rope through, tying the other end of the rope to the tree. Then I threw the rock with the rope tied to it over another branch of another tree, about 15 feet up, I was all ready to hang my bear bags. The Sky looking more like rain by the minute, so it was a good thing I was getting all this stuff ready.
But I had to finish my meal and put the spaghetti bag in my one of my bear bags. So that’s what I did, I polished off the spaghetti, and grabbed my two bear bags and proceeded to hang them up between the two trees. And when I got finished hanging them the skies let loose.
It wasn’t a light rain either. It was a hard rain, but since it wasn’t very windy, it wasn’t a driving rain. I headed straight for the tent and zippered it up. Everything was inside the tent, except for the bear bags and the Kelly Kettle, but I had a new problem. The tent is 3 foot high, and none of my stuff was laid out in it. Normally, I get everything ready, then I go inside the tent. So now I had the awkward tasks of setting out my pad and sleeping bag, and also changing clothes.
My first awkward task was to take off my books. This was no small task in the small tent. Then I laid out my sleeping pad and put my sleeping bag on it. I decided to just sleep in my clothes I was wearing on top of my sleeping bag. But it was getting too cold for me to sleep. So, I managed to take off my day clothes and put on my thermal underwear, and then tuck into my sleeping bag. All of that took what seemed like ten times longer than it usually takes. Once I was finally cozy in my sleeping bag, I decided to do my voice recording for the day. You can hear the rain hitting the tent on the recording. It was still a steady rain. At the end of the recording, I wondered what was going to happen the next day. What would I find when I hike the Old Border Route that hasn’t been maintained in 13 years? I was still raining when I fell off to sleep.