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Listening Point - General Discussion

Most Interesting thing you've seen/experienced in the BW ?

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toonces300

06/14/2012 03:47PM

For me, it would be some of the pictographs..grasping that whoever drew the images, lived quite a ways back..and yet, there we were, at that moment, connected somehow.

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Goby

06/14/2012 03:50PM

Watching a huge bull moose swim across the lake, get out 50 yds down from my camp, then trapse through woods about 10 ft. behind the tent. That was amazing.

Tight Lines

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CrookedPaddler1

06/14/2012 04:04PM

There are way to many great things i have seen in the BWCA / Quetico but if I had to pick one.................

I would go with the bald eagles dive bombing the canoe on Jackfish Lake!

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fitgers1

06/14/2012 04:10PM

Most interesting thing? Many moose.
Most interetsing experience? Dragging my lard**s and gear through many feet of muck on a portage. One of my favorite things to do up there.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” Ralph Waldo Emerson...and...“Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading".

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Jeriatric

06/14/2012 04:18PM

I am from 2,000 miles away. We don't have loons or moose where I live. We don't have white cedar or jack pine. We don't have walleye, lake trout or northern pike. Canoe trekking is nearly non-existent here. Everything was interesting to me my first couple of trips.

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alpine525

06/14/2012 04:24PM

It's really hard to pinpoint just one thing. But if I had to say just one thing, my favorite experience was listening to a pack of wolves howl right about sunset on Alpine Lake. I will never forget this sound as long as I live. They kept it up for a few minutes, and then it stopped and never started again. It was beautiful.

Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace. Dalai Lama

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FoxRiverRat

06/14/2012 04:36PM

quote CrookedPaddler1: I would go with the bald eagles dive bombing the canoe on Jackfish Lake!
"

Wow! were you near a nest or something? What did you do to get them to stop?

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gutmon

06/14/2012 04:47PM

I've stated this before, but since you asked- watching a cougar walk along the shoreline of Brule Lake at dusk last September.

"The trouble with the world isn't that people know too little, but that they know so much that just ain't so." Mark Twain

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missmolly

06/14/2012 05:10PM

I've never been to the BW, but I've spent about two years north of there in the bush and the most interesting thing I've ever seen is the end of a rainbow, which is a supposed impossibility, but I paddled up to it and into it. No gold, but it shimmered like gold. I also had it happen on the Ohio River.

I wish I could trade one of those end-of-the-rainbow moments for a cougar on the shore and not Susan Sarandon 'cause she probably can't even cast or unhook a thrashing pike.

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kanoes

06/14/2012 05:13PM

horse lake, 2006....the first time i ever heard wolves howling.

i think bigfoot is blurry. (mitch hedberg)

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joetrain

06/14/2012 06:41PM

quote missmolly: "I've never been to the BW, but I've spent about two years north of there in the bush and the most interesting thing I've ever seen is the end of a rainbow, which is a supposed impossibility, but I paddled up to it and into it. No gold, but it shimmered like gold. I also had it happen on the Ohio River.

I wish I could trade one of those end-of-the-rainbow moments for a cougar on the shore and not Susan Sarandon 'cause she probably can't even cast or unhook a thrashing pike." Once after a storm my son and I were able to see both ends of a rainbow and were able to shoot some photos of it. Way cool. ~JOE~

al dio sia la gloria

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Beaverjack

06/14/2012 06:49PM

I once saw both ends of a rainbow, with a leprechaun scampering around and trying to hide. When I caught him, he kept claiming he was a mailman, but I wasn't fooled. So, I tied up the leprechaun up and set him on fire when he wouldn't tell me where his pot of gold was. Never did find the pot of gold, and the only thing I got out of the episode was a leather sack and a pithe helmet.

Tony

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Canoearoo

06/14/2012 10:43PM

ball lighting

Life jackets float, you don't!

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kanoes

06/14/2012 11:11PM

quote Beaverjack: "I once saw both ends of a rainbow, with a leprechaun scampering around and trying to hide. When I caught him, he kept claiming he was a mailman, but I wasn't fooled. So, I tied up the leprechaun up and set him on fire when he wouldn't tell me where his pot of gold was. Never did find the pot of gold, and the only thing I got out of the episode was a leather sack and a pithe helmet. "
youre just too cute (sarcasm)

i think bigfoot is blurry. (mitch hedberg)

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wetcanoedog

06/14/2012 11:39PM

thing seen,the geology.the exposed mountain roots billion's of years old and the effects of the glaciers on the rock always impress me.thats one of the reasons i shoreline the lakes rather than travel point to point.
thing experience,the weather.looking thru my photos i find i took a lot of shots of the clouds,passing storms,storms i was in! with the vast open views you get out on the lakes with no interference from power line towers,buildings and such the sky view is impressive as it changes thru the day.

it's just a level trail thru the woods.

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bruceye

06/15/2012 12:18AM

Three of us were Winter camping and ice fishing up on Bower Trout 20 years ago. We were out on the ice, well away from camp waiting for flags. It was that classic cold, clear, arctic high pressure perfectly still night and our eyes were glued to the brilliance of the heavens when Mark said, "look at that satellite". We watched it sail through it's orbit at a pretty good clip like they normally do till something occurred that was anything but normal. It stopped dead! For maybe 2 seconds before taking off again.... at a 90!! We watched it go till it disappeared then we just looked at each other with that Barny Fife expression till somebody said "what the hell was that"! Never seen anything like it before or after.

Bruceye

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h20

06/15/2012 01:12AM

Watched a tiny red spider navigate a clump of caribou moss for ten minutes. Made my trip seem simple.

Buy the ticket, take the ride .Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

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The Lorax

06/15/2012 08:29AM

Watching a wolf chase a deer right behind our camp, up over the hill and then the deer swim away to a close island. The wolf stopped at the gravel bar, turned and looked at us for five seconds and then continued on swimming after the deer.

I love the smell of silnylon in the morning. It smells like........victory!

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FoxRiverRat

06/15/2012 10:05AM

Saw a big black bear about 20 feet away from our campsite on Crab lake (08'). We were making noise too...didn't like it getting THAT close. It wandered off...

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RaoulDuke

06/15/2012 10:13AM

My first trip...we went in at Saganaga and did a fairly extensive loop. We paddled into a small bay close to sunset. There was only one campsite there (luckily it was open). We saw something up ahead in the water (looked like a log). We got closer and saw it was a moose. She swam around for a bit before climbing out of the water. A minute later her calf ran up to her from down shore further. They slowly walked into the brush...great experience.

"Is that right? Well... I guess you're about ready, then, aren't you?"

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FoxRiverRat

06/15/2012 10:23AM

quote The Lorax: "Watching a wolf chase a deer right behind our camp, up over the hill and then the deer swim away to a close island. The wolf stopped at the gravel bar, turned and looked at us for five seconds and then continued on swimming after the deer."

doesn't get much cooler than that! did you watch to see if the deer got away?

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walllee

06/15/2012 10:28AM

While drifting along the shoreline, we spotted a wolf just sitting on shore watching us. He stayed there for over a minute just observing.

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gutmon

06/15/2012 10:41AM

My buddy watched a wolf tearing into a beaver lodge for over an hour during one of his trips. He said it was mesmerizing.

"The trouble with the world isn't that people know too little, but that they know so much that just ain't so." Mark Twain

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CrookedPaddler1

06/15/2012 11:09AM

The eagle dive bombing us was a cool experience. At first we heard a sound, like something falling from the sky. As we looked up we could see 2 small dots coming straight down at the canoe. We sat and watched the dots becoming bigger and bigger until we could see that it was two eagles with their wings tucked into their bodies doing an all out free fall. When they were about 30 feet above the canoe, they stretched out their wings and came within a few feet of the canoe. They then landed in tree near the shoreline and sat there. It was a pretty amazing sight! One that I will remember forever!

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Minnesotian

06/15/2012 02:57PM

By far my most favorite experience has been staying up all night and watching the Perseid Meteor shower peak back in August of 2010. We had taken the Louse river from Malberg all the way to Wine Lake. There we got the island campsite and spent the next 2 days there. I will always remember falling asleep on the rocks at the landing at dawn after spending the whole night watching shooting stars overhead.

"We should go forth on the shortest walk, perchance in the spirit of undying adventure, never to return - prepared to send back our embalmed hearts only as relics to our desolate kingdom." - Thoreau

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Scout64

06/15/2012 05:13PM

The year was 1976, I was 12 years old and it was my first trip to the BWCA without my Dad. I was at summer camp and we were headed into the BWCA for seven days. We started out on Hungry Jack Lake with Rose Lake as our base camp destination. On our third night we decided to sleep out on a rock point. It was my first time sleeping under the stars. As luck would have it, the sky was clearer than anything I had ever seen. The stars were so close; it seemed like you could reach out and grab them. Satellites and a meteor shower entertained us for much of the night. You should have seen us - ten 12 year old boys awestruck by the night sky. None of us said much that night; we just watched the celestial show. But we sure talked about it the next day. I think that night is what made me want to come back.

"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit."

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TuscaroraBorealis

06/15/2012 07:57PM

A somewhat similar thread

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Quiviracabin

06/15/2012 08:39PM

Woke up to a cow moose just 10 feet out in the water from our campsite one morning. Me being from Kansas and never seeing a wild moose before was a pretty cool experience.
The best thing that I have seen in the BW has to be the northern lights. One night we had enough breeze to keep the skeeters off of us and we slept on the rocks by the water. I woke up in the middle of the night to an amazing display that I will never forget. We don't see those in Kansas either.

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gsfisher13

06/15/2012 10:46PM

quote bruceye: "Three of us were Winter camping and ice fishing up on Bower Trout 20 years ago. We were out on the ice, well away from camp waiting for flags. It was that classic cold, clear, arctic high pressure perfectly still night and our eyes were glued to the brilliance of the heavens when Mark said, "look at that satellite". We watched it sail through it's orbit at a pretty good clip like they normally do till something occurred that was anything but normal. It stopped dead! For maybe 2 seconds before taking off again.... at a 90!! We watched it go till it disappeared then we just looked at each other with that Barny Fife expression till somebody said "what the hell was that"! Never seen anything like it before or after."
It was a weather balloon :)

Not all those who wander are lost - J.R.R.Tolkien

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bwcadan

06/15/2012 11:01PM

Garter snake eating a toad which seemed impossibly large to fit in mouth since it had been captured feet first. took a half hour to get it all in.

the greatest come backs are reserved for those with the greatest deficits.

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TeamTuna06

06/15/2012 11:27PM

Something about loons for me. I don't think anything encompasses the feeling you get up north, than hearing a loon. They're always a highlight of my trips. Last week we were able to get within 20' of a couple loons with a little one. After a couple minutes, it climbed up on mom's back and we watched them swim off. I'm smiling now just thinking about it. Cool animals.

"If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there’d be a shortage of fishing poles." -Doug Larson

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analyzer

06/15/2012 11:42PM

Hard to narrow it down.

The blow down has to be number 1 for me. Crazy afternoon. The stacks of trees along the sawbill was even interesting.

I was caught in a sudden fog, and paddle up on a deer swimming across munker narrows. I don't think either of us knew which way shore was.

I have paddled near a swimming moose. The power was amazing.

Bear in camp leaves you a little breathless too, well, I'm sure not some of you that live up that way, but for me atleast.

Watching a loon swim UNDER my canoe. That was cool.

Watching 4 young eagles tear into something small brown and furry, likely a young beaver.

3 or 4 hour electrical storm, with lightning strikes every minute or two. I'd rather suffer through the blowdown I think. It was over faster.

This little guy was pretty damn interesting this trip. Hadn't seen a fisher in 35 years....

Watching my son land 2, 2lb smallies simultaneously on the same rapala.

Watching my daughter land her first smallie. She hadn't been back since the 99 blowdown, and it was wonderful to see her excitement...

I hope to have many more....

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JJ396

06/16/2012 07:03AM

I had a loon swim under my canoe in May. It was very cool.

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river rat

06/18/2012 08:47AM

I have to agree with the others about the wolves howling early one morning on north Fourtown. No one else heard them, they were still asleep.

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Zulu

06/18/2012 08:55AM

Looking across Lake Three from the narrows going into Lake Two Sept. 11, 2011.

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mooseplums

06/18/2012 09:15AM

watching a bear ransack a campsite on Crooked Lake (not our site)

"I am haunted by waters"~Norman Maclean "A River Runs Through It"

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BWPaddler

06/18/2012 12:14PM

Moose carcass one spring, from a moose that had gone through ice and was mostly "still there".

Otters (multiple) - yelling at me to leave, and scamperin and playing.

Wherever there is a channel for water, there is a road for the canoe. -Thoreau

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lazypaw

06/18/2012 10:52PM

Following on Otter on his rounds for most of the day. My wife and I had a great day.

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TomT

06/19/2012 02:17PM

Sept. 2011 on Kett Lake in Quetico I watched a bald eagle chasing another one at tree top level when they clasped talons and did a cartwheel together before resuming the chase. My jaw literally dropped open. I was fairly close - maybe 75 yards away.

The same trip, as I lay in my hammock just after dark, I heard a moose noisily walk into the small bay I was camped on. It swam around and I could hear it taking long inhales and exhales. It was undoubtedly a very large animal. Suddenly the noisy breathing stopped. About 2 minutes later I heard the breathing again. Then it would stop.

Later in my trip I read about how moose dive and hold their breath under water while they feed on the bottom plants. I'll never forget the sound of that.

Also during the same trip I saw a pack of 12 loons and 1 seagull fishing together. It was amazing. I have a short video of it on Burt Lake. Loon pack feeding

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mr.barley

06/19/2012 03:56PM

Watching a wobbly calf moose come out from behind a big rock on a back bay beach on Lac La Croix while it's mother nervously ran in and out of the woods.

Because I'm wearing one and I just did....

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wb4syth

06/20/2012 07:45AM

I've mentioned this one before:

While day tripping from Horseshoe to Vista one late September we saw a bull moose on the left shore of the narrows we were approaching. He walked out to the middle of the narrows, stopped and stared at us for a couple of minutes (were were a good 100 yards away). He turned back and went to shore (it seemed like a posturing/territorial move).

He moved around the bend and into the woods so we continued on to the narrows. After we rounded the bend we saw him standing next to a cow and her calf. We watched as he shoved the calf off into the woods. The calf returned and he did the same thing. This happened a couple more times. Realizing he would have no trouble walking out to us, we quickly paddled on and left him to his courting attempts.

Watching a loon swim under our canoe on Winchell was pretty cool as well.

Last year at about 6 pm, for three nights in a row, a large rabbit would run through camp and very shortly after a fischer would follow. It seemed like they had a routine.

"I'm not superstitious. I'm a little stitious" - Michael Scott

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misqua

06/20/2012 10:44AM

On a fall trip, on the Isabella River between Rice Lake and Isabella Lake a huge bull moose was on the shore watching us, so we stopped to watch him. Well he was not the least intimidated by our presence, in fact he got in the river and began very quickly coming straight for us. Theres no doubt that the rut was on and he was not happy with us being in his territory. We paddle downstream and to the other shore. Then he actually charged at us. We left as fast as we could. I'm sure he meant to do us harm if he got close enough to us. It was pretty cool.

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Flatwater5

06/20/2012 10:55AM

May 1985, last day of a 10 day trip. Paddled till past sunset and made camp in the dark. We ate everything in the food back which i think was one box of Uncle Bens between five of us. Too tired and hungry to sleep we stayed up that last night recounting the trip and watching the stars. The northern lights started to flare. I'd seen them from NW Iowa a few times before this, faint white, brief flashes in the northern sky but this was incredible. Violet, green, blue,yellow bursts of colored light spread from the north to the southern horizon. It was like a fireworks display. A fantastic end to our trip.

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Spartan2

06/20/2012 11:07AM

I guess I can't point to any one big unusual happening. There have been moose sightings, but they weren't all that out of the ordinary. I love the loons, and the misty mornings, but they are not in the category of "most interesting".

I am going to nominate my first canoe trip. All if it, in totality. It probably wasn't a trip that was out of the ordinary either, but it changed my life. I was a certain person before that trip, and after it I was another person. In those six days I changed my mindset in ways I hadn't anticipated, we conceived an amazing second child, my relationship with my husband and with God's creation (nature, if you prefer) changed forever. I challenged myself in ways I had never done before, and I learned who I was and who I could be.

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