A friend from work and I had a chance to get out and explore Voyageurs National Park by kayak. We had originally planned on canoeing from Woodenfrog State Forest Campground to the rapids at Gold Portage, but a forecast of high winds for the afternoon changed our plans and instead we opted to paddle to Lost Lake on Kabetogama.
After we grabbed breakfast to go at Tim Horton's, we made the drive down to Ash River and after a pit stop for the bathrooms, made our way out onto the water.
The wind was relatively calm in the morning, but there was still a bit of chop on the lake. We made quick time paddling across the navigation channel and into Lost Lake.
We paddled the entire circumference of Lost Lake
and then headed over to the portage connecting Lost Lake with Long Slough. I made it to the dock at the portage with out realizing I had paddled within 4 feet of a loon on her nest. As my friend approached, he was a little bit closer and upset mama loon quite a bit. While we were sorry to have disturbed the loon, it was cool to see an active nest with a solitary egg.
We tried walking the portage trail without our boats, but the mud, mosquitoes and ticks forced us to turn around. We paddled past mama loon again and headed back out across the navigation channel. With a wind out of the south, we headed to the southern shoreline of Kabetogama Lake where we would have less wind to contend with.
We paddled back into Blind Ash Bay into a strong headwind and turned around and allowed the wind to do most of the work for us.
When we returned to Kabetogama, we had more headwind to deal with, but not as strong as what we had to contend with in Blind Ash Bay. We made fairly quick time back to the put in and were off the water before the winds started to pick up even more.
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