Note: Site numbers reference this map.
Sites: Trail’s End campground site 14, 335, 2007, 338
Camping books: Christine (Meredith), The Martian Race (Sean)
Friday, August 31: Madison to Trail’s End Campground
We left Madison around noon and headed toward Duluth, and picked up our permit at the Duluth Pack store in Canal Park. There were a few others there to pick up permits, but we were about to get in and out in about 30 minutes. While we were waiting, we put in an order for take-out at Pizza Luce, and grabbed it on the way out of town to eat while we drove. We still had another 3.5 hours to go, so we didn’t linger. We got to Trail’s End around 9:00 after driving through foggy rain up most of the north shore highway. Lucky for us, it has mostly let up by the time we arrived at our site, so we didn’t have to set up wet. Site 14 is convenient to the toilets (but not right next door), and also near a water spigot. We set up quickly and went to sleep, as we had an early start the next morning.
Saturday, September 1: Trail’s End to Zephyr Lake
Campsite: 335
We got up around 5:00, quickly broke camp, and downed some protein bars and water for a quick breakfast. We pulled into the landing, but had a quick heart-stopping moment when we realized that there’s probably an 8-9 inch drop from the edge of the road into the landing area on one side, and we almost got our car stuck with the back wheels on the landing and the front wheels on the road. Luckily we were able to back onto the landing! Our packing strategy this time was to put all of the bedding and “can’t get wet” stuff into our big waterproof Duluth pack, and everything else into a frame pack. It turned out that the tent couldn’t be in the Duluth pack because that made it too tall to fit in the canoe, so it got strapped to the frame pack instead. It was annoying to figure this out while we were trying to load and get going, but we eventually figured it out. Once we finally got on the way, Sean tied on a buzz bait and caught a nice northern and two nice smallies on the Seagull river – we usually don’t catch much on this stretch, so that was a nice surprise! Sean installed rod-holders on our canoe, so it was easy to troll while we were paddling. The weather was really densely foggy, but the wind was light and so we had no problems getting around American Point and into the bays. Not too many people were out and about, and we were easily able to find an empty site in one of the bays to stretch our legs for a few minutes. The fog eventually burned off and it was a pretty nice day – sunny, warm, and with a light breeze.
Zephyr is a great little lake that has a small portage. It’s off the main drag just a little bit and with the portage there it doesn’t see as much traffic as it probably would otherwise. It’s one of my favorite sites, and I’m always pleased to camp there. It was available when we got there, so we happily pulled in and set up. We had quinoa and bouillon for a quick lunch. It was warm enough to go for a swim, but this isn’t a great lake for diving as it’s fairly murky.
The Zephyr site must have had a big storm since we were last camping here two years ago, because two big old trees have fallen right through the middle of the site. These actually made for a pretty handy shelf, though they are a bit of an obstacle. You just need to walk around them, it’s all good. We had jambalaya and landjaeger sausage for dinner, which was awesome! There’s no better lake for nice sunsets than this one.
Sunday, September 2: Zephyr Lake
We woke up early to fish, and caught a couple of smallies and northern. We came back to have some oatmeal (with dried fruit and toasted walnuts), coffee, and the ultimate camping luxury, shelf-stable bacon. We decided that we’d go over to Swamp Lake for a fishing trip, but about halfway over to the portage we started hearing thunder and about-faced. Back at camp we put up the aerial tarp and hung out in our hammocks, waiting to see what the weather was going to do. Thunder sounds kept getting louder and closer, and eventually we had a small thunderstorm passing through. It passed through pretty quickly, and we went back to the original plan of heading over to Swamp. The fishing wasn’t great, unfortunately, but we did catch a few small smallmouth bass and northern.
We had taco rice for dinner, which turned out good, and had a nice little fire while we watched the stars come out. We decided we’d break camp early the next morning and start heading over to Gijikiki Lake, where we’d never been before.
Monday, Sept 28: Zephyr to Gijikiki
Campsite: 2007
We got up early to pack out. We fished our way over to the Monument portage, and I picked up a small northern on a buzzbait near the portage landing and didn’t argue much when he shook himself off. Buzzbaits have been a great lure for us this trip. It was a really gorgeous day with blue sky and not much wind. The pier landing at Monument had a little white flag on it, which we quickly discovered meant, “hornets nesting here! be careful!” Sean got a sting on his hand but otherwise we got through okay. We ran into another group coming back over the other side, and they told us that they had run into the nest on the way in. Everyone was pretty good about warning each other when we went back over Monument coming home.
Once we got to the deeper part of Ottertrack, we tied on deep taildancers to troll the very deep waters and hopefully pick up a trout. Off of a small point, we both lost action. Sean caught a very large stick, which I thought I had gotten a piece of but it turned out to be a nice eating-size walleye. He didn’t put up too much of a fight until he was right next to the boat (like hauling up… a big stick.) We brought the walleye over to the Gijikiki portage with us to be our lunch.
The portage to Gijikiki isn’t very long. All that we knew about it is that it’s “steep.” Steep means different things to different people, so we decided to see what that meant. It’s a not-difficult uphill portion for a bit, and then there’s about 20 feet near the summit where it’s rocky and extremely steep. It was tough going with our big aluminum canoe, and Sean needed to put the boat down and take a quick break while I hauled our very unhappy walleye over to the Gijikiki landing. There are a couple of muddy patches on this portage but nothing really bad – just the steep spot at the top. The portage has a lot of undergrowth and does not seem to be used very often. The landing on the Gijikiki side is a little tricky, steep with lots of slippery moving rocks. Both sites were open, and we chose the island site.
The island site is very wide, with a big front porch of wide, flat rocks and a nice swimming area out the front. Not too many tent pads are available here, but there is a clearing up in the woods above the site that might work. The site clearly gets a lot of wind; there is plenty of deadfall for a fire. The front of the site looks straight at the portage to Rivalry Lake on the opposite shore, and the back door of the site are some cliffs that overlook the second campsite and the portage. There are lots of blueberry plants, but it was too late in the year for them.
Sean filleted the walleye over on an island and we wrapped it in foil with lemon slices, bacon, and a little bit of bouillon (as we had forgotten to bring salt). We cooked it over a nice little fire, and it was a very delicious lunch.
The breeze had picked up quite a bit, so we found a spot near the shore to pitch the tent (we discovered the clearing a bit later), and made tomato mac and cheese for dinner. This lake is clear and full of smallmouth bass, and we caught quite a few of them in the evening using a smaller natural perch pattern rapala. Worn out from the traveling and portaging, we tucked in early.
Tuesday, September 4: Gijikiki, side-trip to Rivalry Lake
I woke up at dawn to the sound of buzzing. Peering outside the tent, I realized that we had a LOT of yellow jackets swirling around the tent and guessed that we were pitched near a nest. GREAT. It was so breezy the day before that we hadn’t noticed them so much. I got up, quickly put my shoes on, and carefully examined the area, and saw that they were nesting in a rotted stump right next to our tent. We had almost driven a stake right through the nest, and it’s pretty lucky that we didn’t piss them off. They didn’t end up bothering us too much – we didn’t linger in the tent area, used the door farthest from them, and didn’t try to disturb them, and they left us alone.
Although the sun was out at dawn, rain clouds quickly settled in. We decided to go to Rivalry Lake, hoping that the rain would stay light. The portage to Rivalry isn’t bad, but the end of the portage at Rivalry lake is extremely swampy, and I sunk in up to mid-calf while we were carrying the canoe near the put-in. Luckily my boot was laced on properly!
Unfortunately, the drizzle turned into a full on rain in Rivalry, and it became pretty clear that Sean’s old Walmart rain pants were not going to provide him much protection. We got out to check what we thought was the portage over to to Glen Lake, but it ended up being the portage to Lake of the Clouds (we’re pretty sure). We walked back to the canoe and the rain just kept on coming. We went back over to the portage back to Gijikiki, as we were ready to be warm and dry by this point. Sean got under the canoe to portage it, but said he was stuck on something. It turned out that there was at least a gallon of water in the stern making it very heavy, so we tipped it forward to empty it out. We got back to camp and got under the aerial tarp and consoled ourselves with a lunch of Parmesan couscous and landjaeger. We then got out our books and read under the aerial until it finally cleared up a bit. After all that effort of getting to Rivalry and back, we only caught two smallies on a brief evening fishing trip on Gijikiki before dinner.
We decided to stay one more day on Gijikiki, and then try for a site on Ottertrack near the Monument portage, or the Saganaga bays on Thursday. Dinner was salsa rice, which was nice, and we hoped for a nice day on Wednesday.
Wednesday, September 5: Gijikiki
The rain cleared up during the night, and we slept in a bit. The day was lovely and sunny with a steady breeze from the west. We tied on some jigs (wacky worms for me, a crappie tube for Sean), and headed over to the island across from our site where we had noticed a shallow saddle of rock between it and the far shore. We anchored there and ended up being right – there were a lot of smallmouth bass in this area. We had good fishing for a couple of hours.
We went over to the other site and went for a dive. Gijikiki is much clearer than Zephyr and we had good visibility, but not too many fish over in that area. There were some cool drop-offs, though. It wasn’t warm enough to swim for very long.
As cooking our breakfast in the wood-fired emberlit stove was a bit of a chore in the morning due to all the rain the day before, we spread out several branches on the rocks in front of our site to let the sun and wind dry them a bit. We had plenty of wood to make our lunch and a fire in the evening.
We had salsa mac and cheese with a stick of landjaeger in it for dinner, which was great, and then built a fire and watched the stars come out. We didn’t see anyone else on Gijikiki the whole time we were there, until the next morning as we were leaving.
Sean saw a baby rock bass or two in the water in front of our site, so we have confirmation of other species!
Thursday, September 6: Gijikiki to Saganaga (by Swamp portage)
Campsite: 338
This was the chilliest night of our trip, and we slept in a little. We took our time breaking camp and saying goodbye to Gijikiki, leaving our site around 9:30. There was a big group of four canoes coming in over the portage, so we waited for them to clear out before we got underway. They headed straight for the island site that we had just vacated. There were not any problems getting back down the portage, but I stayed near Sean in any case, as there are some challenging spots!
There were quite a few people on Ottertrack heading out. Sean and I tied on deep taildancers again, and Sean caught a big northern near the Ottertrack site over by Ester/Monument portage, in the middle of deep water. Unfortunately, he lost his lure. The Monument portage still had a hornet nest on the Swamp side, but we were careful and were able to pass unscathed. We tied on a few buzzbaits in Swamp and caught a couple of fish, and headed over the Swamp portage, where we could see that the campsite opposite the portage was unclaimed. We decided to grab it.
This is a very heavily used campsite with a lot of exposure. The text pads are very exposed to the elements and there isn’t much protection. However, it’s fine for just one night. We didn’t unpack more than our bedding and the tent, as we wanted to get up early the next day. We mostly relaxed and read our books.
Friday, September 7: Saganaga to Seagull River put-in
We got up pretty early, cooked breakfast, and got underway. The weather was not overly windy, and we made pretty good time. The sun started to get a little hot, but we got there eventually! The Way of the Wilderness used to sell beer (we have often purchased a celebratory Coors upon exit), but I was informed they don’t have beer for sale any more. Bummer.
We got on the road to Duluth and got to our hotel (Voyageurs Lakewalk Inn). They were a bit disorganized (we were given the wrong type of room), so I’m not sure we’d stay here again. We had a great dinner at Fitger’s, breakfast the next morning at Sarah’s Table Chester Creek Cafe, and were back in Madison by early evening. It was a wonderful trip, and we’re already looking forward to next year!
Photos by Sean, full album here.
Tippy Canoe Tales 