Canoeing and Camping in Voyageurs National Park

A selfie taken by Dustin, who is sitting in the front of the canoe and appears large in the left of the photo. Behind him, sitting in the back of the canoe, is Laura holding a paddle at a jaunty angle and making an "ooh!" face. Both wear bright orange life vests. The lake is calm and a line of trees can be seen on the shore in the distance. — Canoeing experts! Look, we can even take a self and not capsize the boat at the same time!

We spent part of our lazy afternoon at Kettle Falls Hotel trying to calculate how far two people who have never canoed before could reasonably paddle in a day. More importantly: how far could we paddle and still make it back to the hotel the next morning to catch our 10am shuttle out?

After considering the various possible campsites, we elected to play it safe and reserve the one closest to the hotel, called Kettle Falls Portage, which would be less than a mile of rowing. If we wanted to go farther, we could use our campsite as a homebase without fear of missing the literal boat.

After a pleasant continental breakfast and a quick remote check-in with the real world, the helpful folks at the hotel got us set up with our little green canoe. They watched us wobble away from the dock with only the mildest of doubtful expressions.

The day was mild (mid-50s F, low teens C) with a heavy smattering of clouds that promised sprinkles throughout the day.

This photo is taken from the back seat of a canoe. Dustin sits in the front of the canoe with his back to the camera, wearing a blue raincoat and orange life vest. The water around him appears almost black. In the distance is a line of sunlit evergreen trees on a rocky shore. The sky above is heavily clouded. — Backpacks are so much less heavy when the boat carries them!

By the time we arrived at the Kettle Portage campsite’s dock, we were pretty pleased with our rowing skills. Sitting in the back, I was getting the hang of steering, and Dustin, as ever, provided 80% of the power.

A rocky shoreline, left, holds a brown sign on a wooden post reading "KETTLE PORTAGE N16" with a tent icon, designating a campsite. A wooden dock comes out of the rocks at center, with a green canoe tied to the end. The sky above is mostly cloudy.

Our dock was low and friendly and we hardly tipped the boat over at all while heaving our bags and ourselves out. The site is lovely, with a gently sloping rock bluff that provides views in three directions, and a tent pad sheltered back between the trees. Since this is, technically, a front-country campsite, there were also two bear boxes and a pit toilet. Since it’s only technically a front-country site, though, we had no neighbors and almost perfect seclusion from human noise.

The Kettle Portage N16 campsite sign fills the right of the photo. The background looks over the campsite, lined with evergreen trees and sloping gently to the left. Laura stands in the distance in front of a bear box and beside a fire ring.

We pitched our tent, had a little lunch snack, and went foraging for downed, dead wood to use for an evening fire. I’d intended to buy a wood from the hotel, but when I found out they wanted $12 per bundle, I thought I’d take my chances with the slightly damp offerings of the forest.

A photo of the campsite showing two tall evergreen trunks in the middle, a picnic table to the right, and bear boxes to the left and center. In the background, mostly obscured by underbrush, the top of an orange and gray tent can be seen.

In the foreground at the lower left, a gray and orange tent is pitched on a flat, sandy surface. The sandy surface is surrounded by thin evergreen trees. Between the trees, a bit of lake can ben seen in the background.

We clambered around in the trees for awhile, collecting the driest downed sticks we could find and admiring the other flora. We came back with enough wood to keep a respectable little fire going for an hour or so, and decided to put it in the second bear box, in order to keep it dry. We opened the bear box to find — a bundle and a half of fresh, dry firewood.

Hooray!!

My plans for an evening campfire began to expand.

But first! We would head off and do a bit more touring around in our canoe. It was barely after noon, and we had plenty of adventuring left in us.

We chose Mica Island as our sightseeing destination. We’d considered a campsite there (an island all to ourselves!) but it was a solid three miles from the hotel.

Everything went great for awhile. The scenery was gorgeous and even the spits of rain that threw themselves at us from time to time were more atmospheric than bothersome. Then we turned west into the Squirrel Narrows and things got ugly.

A google maps image showing a detail of Voyageurs National Park, encompassing Kettle Falls on the far right and Mica Island on the far west. A black line running through the lakes indicates the US/Canada border. A red dotted line runs from Kettle Falls north to Kettle Portage Campsite, then southwest to a point where it crosses the international border. This point has a red label reading, "oops". The dotted line continues west across a wide expanse of water, which eventually contains a label reading "pain, suffering". Just west of this is Mica Island, where the dotted line ends. — The first half of our nautical wanderings.

Would you like to know which way the current runs through Namakan Lake? Follow the dotted line above, showing our route, except in the opposite direction. Would you like to know what the weather did as soon as we corrected our accidental visit to Canadian waters (sorry, Canada)? It started raining with serious intent. Would you like to know what the wind was doing? Right. Of course.

The rain and wind seemed to be blowing down from the north, so we hustled (haha) ourselves as close to the US shore as we could safely get, and sure enough, that provided us a bit of a break. We slid along the bit between “oops” and “suffering” slowly but without too much trouble.

And then we found the real current. Between the current and the wind, we were suddenly fighting actual waves. My rowing muscles, which had been born only that morning, started to howl. As we came around the first knob of Mica Island, making progress against the shore at a rate of two inches per paddle stroke, I began wailing along with them.

Two men sit in a boat, all appearing in silhouette against a silvery lake surface. The shore is not far behind them and is thick with evergreen trees. — These fisherpeople in their fancy little boat are the only other people we saw all day. I can’t even imagine what they thought of our slow progress. I also don’t understand how their boat stayed upright, with those high seats.

We stopped rowing for 45 seconds while Dustin checked the map to see how close we were to the dock, and lost 30 feet of progress as wind and current pulled us back the way we had come. I may have actually wept a little, but when Dustin asked if I wanted to go back, of course I could not say yes. Too many abused strands of muscles had already died in this battle.

We persevered.

A wooden dock is built into the side of a very rocky shore. The green canoe is tied to the dock but is visibly rocking in the lake waves. The lake is dark and the sky above is cloudy. — We didn’t, as you might guess, get too many photos while in the midst of our suffering, so this is the best I have to show the challenging waves we faced. What? You’re not impressed? I’d like to see you take your wimpy little arms out and do better. (Practiced rowers need not apply.)

Mica Island was as lovely as expected, though not in ways vastly different from our own campsite. The suffering we’d invested made us appreciate it a little more, maybe. Its real charm was that it would have been an entire island all to ourselves for the night.

A vertical shot of Laura standing among some tall evergreen trees. The shot is taken from a bit below her, looking up, which makes the trees look especially tall. The sky behind the trees is heavy with gray clouds. — No bears here.

We did a circuit of as much of the edge of the island as we could access. I wanted to gaze out upon the path of my despair, but the trees on the northern shore were too thick. We had another snack and used the toilet (an island that is effectively total wilderness that has its own toilet. What a wonderful world!), then decided to head back to our camp.

A photo taken from the back of a canoe, of Laura rowing in the front of the canoe, her back to the camera. The water of the lake around the canoe is nearly black, reflecting dark clouds overhead. Despite this, Laura is lit by full sun, as are the trees on the shore in the distance.

Given how hard wind and waves had campaigned to prevent our arrival at Mica Island’s dock, I feel they did not try nearly as hard to help us return in the other direction. In any case, the trip back did not involve nearly as much suffering as the trip out had, and the scenery just kept being gorgeous.

Lake at the bottom, with a tree-lined shore stretching across the middle, and a cloudy sky above. Deeply contrasted sunbeams are streaming toward the lake through breaks in the clouds above.

The photo is mostly water and sky. The sky is mostly cloudy with a few spots of blue. The lake is the color of steel. At the left, a wooden dock extends into the water. A green canoe is tied to its end. Laura is laying on the dock beside the canoe, face-up, one leg hanging over the side of the dock. — This photo is why picking a campsite close to the hotel was vital. After rowing seven miles, give or take, over the course of four hours, give or take, this was the best I could do for about 15 minutes.

And then I peeled myself off the dock and started a campfire. It was about 4:30, and the sun wasn’t even down, but I had 1.5 bundles of wood and a healthy pile of mostly dry sticks, and I had earned an all-evening campfire.

In the foreground, at right, a small fire burns in a metal fire ring, though it is daytime. Cut logs are stacked to the ring's left. In the middle background, sumac bushes grow along the shore, green leaves starting to turn red. Behind them, the lake is visible. At a distance across the water you can see an opposite shore, lined with evergreen trees. The sky is blue with some gray clouds.

Laura sits next to the fire ring, face turned toward the camera, with a pile of broken sticks between her legs. A small fire burns in the ring. A grate over the fire holds a black cooking pot. The lake can be seen over the edge of a rocky ledge in the background. — I tend my hoard of sticks.

With such a magnificent fire and a fire grate to boot, we skipped the camp stove and just roasted the water for our pouch dinners over an open flame. It took a little more time and we melted the pot handle a little, but totally worth it. When I do the packing calculations for our next boat trip, I’m totally packing fresh ingredients for dinner. Braaaaaats….

A photo of the same fire ring as above, though taken from farther back. Laura stands to the left of the fire, hands in her pockets. The lake in the background glows with the last of a sunset, with several clouds just above the horizon. — Sunset on our lovely stone bluff, hour three of the best-ever fire.

While I tended the fire and supervised the water-boiling, Dustin went off and did magical sunset things with his camera:

A vertical photo with the dark surface of a lake filling the bottom half, a evergreen tree-lined shore in the background, and a turquoise sky with a few grey clouds above. A wooden dock juts into the lake from the left side of the frame. A green canoe is tied to the corner of the dock. The sunlight hitting the dock, canoe, and trees is very warm and orange, implying sunrise or sunset. — It’s a really cute canoe.

Vertical photo of the lake and sky with a small lip of tree-covered shoreline visible on the left. The sky and the lake are a stunning shade of turquoise, with a pink cloud filling the center of the frame and being reflected in the water below. — One of my favorite photos from the trip.

The sun creates a starburst pattern as it shines from behind the branches of evergreen trees, which appear in silhouette on the right of the frame. The lake stretches left from the trees, reflecting sunset light and bands of clouds. — The sun winks goodnight.

A view straight out over the lake, with a small island interrupting the water on the right. The water reflects orange light from the setting sun and a band of dark clouds. — Such light! Such reflections!

A photo in muted blues, greens, and a surprising mauve splotch of cloud in the turquoise sky. A wooden dock stretches across the bottom of the frame with a green canoe tied to the end. — I love this color palette.

Photo taken from behind the branches of an evergreen tree, which frame the image on the top and bottom. The lake beyond appears very blue, with a pine-covered island in the middle and a cloud-striped sky above. — Stripes on land, sky, and sea. Uh. Lake.

Fires are even better after the sun properly sets, of course. Having overdone the food packing so heartily on the Appalachian Trail, I proceeded to overcorrect for this adventure. The 400-calories-per-person dinner pouch proved insufficient after 7 miles of paddling in adverse circumstances, so we went ahead and cooked up our breakfast, as well.

Laura sits to the right of a fire ring with a large fire burning in it. The sun has set and the sky is almost entirely dark. Laura is lit orange by the reflected firelight.

And then, of course, there were s’mores. I cannot overstate how much I love s’mores. (I love them SO MUCH.)

A closeup shot of two marshmallows on a stick with a burning fire filling the entire background.

Dustin, left, holds a stick with two marshmallows over a fire to his right. He watches the marshmallows intently. This is serious business. — Dustin practices the fine art of melting but not burning the ‘mallows.

And then Dustin went to do some starry photo magic. More clouds floated about this evening than the one previous, but the photos are still gorgeous. AND he managed to catch a couple of my meteors. (He says they might be satellites, but I maintain that satellites go the other direction.)

A vertical photo mostly filled with the Milky Way Galaxy stretching up from the lake. A few clouds dust the sky to the Milky Way's left. — Do you see them?? Do you see my meteors?

The clouds from the above photo have moved to cover the portion of the Milky Way closest to the horizon. A silhouette of an evergreen fills the foreground to the left of the photo.

The clouds obscuring the Milky Way Galaxy continue to increase. Behind them, the galaxy glows pink near the horizon. Starlight reflects in the lake water at the bottom of the photo.

All but the lowest part of the Milky Way Galaxy is now obscured by clouds. The silhouette of an evergreen tree fills the left side of the frame in the foreground.

It was a perfect night for sleeping outside: crisp without being to cold, and so incredibly quiet. Not even tiny forest critters bothered us.

Dustin got up before sunrise to catch some more lovely photos. He was disappointed that after all the clouds in the way of his astro photos, none had stuck around to light up the sunrise, but I think the shots he got are still stunning.

This photo is almost entirely turquoise, which is the color of the sky above and its reflection in the lake below. A line of trees marks the boundary between sky and water in the distance. A canoe floats at the center of the photo on an almost perfectly calm surface.

The sun appears in a starburst pattern through the silhouette of trees. The sky behind the trees is orange, and the lake below the trees is silvery.

A vertical shot of the sunburst pattern produced by the rising sun shining between trees in the distance. The sky is deep blue at the top of the photo, fading to orange on the horizon. The lake reflects all these colors below.

A brightening sky lights up the lake on the right of the photo. On the left, evergreen trees finally take on color and cattails rise up from the water along the shore.

Given the paddling struggles of the previous day, I fully expected the pain and suffering of the following morning to be profound. In fact, it was more of an angry mutter than a raging scream, and for this I was grateful.

A photo taken from the back of the canoe showing Laura rowing in the front. The lake water is very, very blue, reflecting the clear sky above.

We got back to the hotel not just in time to catch the shuttle, but in time to make up for the fact that we ate our breakfast for dinner the night before with some hot beverages and toasted english muffins.