Voyageurs National Park: Paddling Reuter Creek

The forecast called for calm winds this morning and so we got the canoe strapped onto the top of the car and headed over to the boat ramp at the Rainy Lake Visitor Center. We put in to Black Bay, and headed southeast along the shoreline of the Kabetogama Peninsula towards Reuter Creek.

Along the way we saw a few loons, ducks and leeches. At campsite R65 we turned left into Reuter Creek and started up the slow moving stream.

We crossed into the boundary of Voyageurs National Park

and almost immediately passed a beaver lodge.

No sign of the resident beaver though. Sierra got out the net she had brought along to catch aquatic creatures.

She was not successful in catching anything, but she did have fun trying. We paddled further and further upstream,

passing a mother duck and her chicks,

until we came to a beaver dam across the creek.

The dam would be our turnaround point and we started to make our way back downstream.

By the time we approached the campsite,

we were quite hungry and so we stopped on shore for a break and a snack.

The campsite was pleasant.

There were some wildflowers blooming here and there.

There were also some ripe blueberries.

However, I would say we're probably a week or two away from peak ripe berries. After resting for a bit, we headed back out onto the water. We hugged the shoreline of the Kabetogama Peninsula a little bit more closely for the return paddle and Sierra and I saw a curious otter peek its head out of the water to get a closer look at us. A slight headwind picked up as we neared the boat ramp, but nothing we couldn't handle!