Voyageurs National Park: Paddle to Gold Portage

Today a friend from work and I had an opportunity to do some paddling in the park. The plan: put in at Woodenfrog State Forest Campground and paddle to Gold Portage to check out the rapids there. We arrived at Woodenfrog to light winds and cool temperatures, a perfect start to a day on the water!

From land I had scouted out a route using some landmarks I could identify. We would head for a point between Cemetery Island and another island just to the east that is unnamed on my map.

We ended up navigating right to where we wanted to be and after passing through the islands veered slightly to west, passing between the large Rottenwood and Chief Woodenfrog Islands. Shortly thereafter we found the entrance to Gold Portage. We paddled the Gold Portage stream with the current.

It was very easy going and the scenery was very pleasant.

We made our way further and further downstream until we came to a sign marking the rapids that lay ahead, along with a dock.

We pulled our kayaks up on the dock and put on some bug spray for the walk along the portage trail to the rapids. Along the way we saw some purple fringed orchis,

and lots and lots of deer flies. The flies were very annoying. At one point my friend said I had about 100 of them flying around my head. We spent a few minutes admiring the rapids

and then started to make our way back to the dock and our waiting boats. We were back on the water shortly.

The paddle back upstream was a bit more difficult than the paddle into the rapids,

but nothing too bad. After exiting the stream we took a short side trip to Day Use Site K10, Hacksaw Pass. The map says it has a sand landing and so I thought there might be a nice sand beach to swim at, but the shoreline was choked with cattails and so we simply moved on. We passed some interesting islands

and slowly made our way back to Woodenfrog Campground. The wind picked up quite a bit for the last 1/2 mile of paddling. We were paddling into it, which made for some slow going. Finally we made our way into the shelter of the point the campground lies on and then quickly to the beach. There was a big family of ducks waiting there to greet us upon our return.