Must of been a lot of sore backs. Talk about hard work and bugs.
Anyone been on it yet?

hard as rock

Over 130 check dams weighing between 80 and 100 pounds each were constructed by Great Lakes Trail Builders and a crew from the Conservation Corps of Minnesota and Iowa.

Old stairway materials were held at the end of the portage until they could be hauled out in January by Forest Service employees who own dog sled teams. Using two teams of 10 sled dogs, they made 14 2-mile round-trips over a frozen lake and through deep snow while enduring 30-below windchills over four days.

Ideally, the Forest Service would have rerouted the trail to even further reduce the human-made imprint, but area terrain was too rocky. This was the next best thing, Quinn said, removing creosote-treated wood with something natural that will last.

The check dams blend into the hill and eliminate the unnatural odor of creosote, an unexpected interruption to a wilderness experience, said Christine Kolinski, of the Superior National Forest.

"In addition to the smell as you paddle across the lake, you could probably see those steps quite a ways back," she said. "So the visual impacts on the landscape today with the rock is just night and day."

Funding for the $175,000 project came from the Great American Outdoors Act, BWCA permit fees, the Timber Sale Pipeline Restoration Fund and Secure Rural Schools grants.

Also redone in 2008: Home › News › One More Step
One More Step
SUE PROM POSTED ON SEPTEMBER 14, 2008 POSTED IN NEWS
I hope no one has been out to confirm the number of steps on Stairway Portage yet. If someone has then he or she may have been concerned when they counted 120 steps instead of 119!

I spoke with Tom Kaffine from the USFS and he informed me there are now 120 steps on the Portage. The new steps were put in by a crew of retired Smoke Jumpers. According to Tom it was an interesting group of men including a Rancher, Math Teacher, Physician, Lutheran Minister, a CIA Analysist and one person who cooked for the crew.

One of the Smoke Jumpers had just recently retired. Tom said something about this person who was considered "old" for smoke jumping and who had jumped for way more years than what most people do. I would have liked to have spoken with that man as I’m sure he had some amazing stories to tell.

120 STEPS and counting. Wonder how many steps now?
The old steps were spaced just so that I could take my Kevlar Souris river canoe, paddles, and one pack in one trip with no more than a few seconds for a break, never setting the canoe down at age 68. Those were the days my friend.

Wonder if the rocks will be a lot slipperier than the wood steps when wet?

I volunteerd for the wilderness crew out of the Gunflint and Tofte Rd's last sumer and climbed the new stairs a few times, They are pretty nice.
Here is a pic of an Aldo Leopold bench made by the rangers out of the old wooden stairways from the Rose Lake portage. Gunflint and Tofte Rd's each have one of these benches outside of their wilderness shop.

I have not been to the new Stairway Portage but I was very impressed with the new stairs on Flying Lake, which I understand were built by the same crew.

LindenTree: "I volunteerd for the wilderness crew out of the Gunflint and Tofte Rd's last sumer and climbed the new stairs a few times, They are pretty nice.
Here is a pic of an Aldo Leopold bench made by the rangers out of the old wooden stairways from the Rose Lake portage. Gunflint and Tofte Rd's each have one of these benches outside of their wilderness shop. "

Cool, that would be neat to have something like that.

We were on them last summer on a day hike. They were really cool but I couldn't help but think I probably wouldn't want to be carrying 100 pounds of canoe and pack up or down them compared to flat uniformly sized and spaced steps. I also wonder how they will settle and move as the hillside around them erodes in the coming decades. I suppose most all portages have hazards of some sort and there is always a tradeoff between safety and wilderness, and it's not like the wood stairs didn't have downfalls either.

They are definitely beautifully done.

I don’t think the stairs were old enough to be “creosote “ treated… they weren’t really that old. I remember the ones in the seventies… pretty sketchy on a rainy day but they did have a railing on parts. The price was steep as the stairway itself. But the good news it’ll last longer then any treated or otherwise wood stairway. So spend a little more and do it right! Good job!!!

I heard a lady bought the old stairway. She thought it was heaven at the top!!

pswith5: "I heard a lady bought the old stairway. She thought it was heaven at the top!!"

Nice Led Zeppelin reference Peter! :-)

Hans Solo

I've not been since the stairs were put in but looking forward to seeing/using them this year in August. The Friends of the Boundary Waters has a podcast called "Big Red Canoe" and they did a good one with one of the US Forest Sled Dog team who helped backhaul the old stairway out during the winter and help maintain all the sites and implements at the sites.

It's called "Working Like a Dog in the BWCA".

https://www.friends-bwca.org/podcast/

OgimaaBines: "I've not been since the stairs were put in but looking forward to seeing/using them this year in August. The Friends of the Boundary Waters has a podcast called "Big Red Canoe" and they did a good one with one of the US Forest Sled Dog team who helped backhaul the old stairway out during the winter and help maintain all the sites and implements at the sites.


It's called "Working Like a Dog in the BWCA".


https://www.friends-bwca.org/podcast/"

red canoe

I happened to be on the Stairway portage (solo trip) and on the Flying-Gotter portage (tandem trip) while the crew was working on the rebuilds. And I went back last summer to the Stairway portage. They did beautiful work. However, the Stairway portage has much bigger step up/down than before which is pretty tricky for my old knees. Haven't counted them, but definitely a lot fewer steps than before.

We went over the Stairway Portage back in August leaving Rose Lake. The stone work was beautiful and looked natural. Going up was a challenge but was not as bad as I had imagined. I feel the photo doesn't show steepness accurately.

Wow, that's interesting. So, they replaced 120 creosote treated wood steps with rock steps. What you are calling a check dam is the rock steps. Is that correct, how high does it go up. Must have been fun throwing those rocks around, sounds like I job I would enjoy. The way it was might have been easier as stcurly said, just start pumping those legs one after another, higher and more random steps can put more stress on the knees. I'd like to try it tho.

scat: "Wow, that's interesting. So, they replaced 120 creosote treated wood steps with rock steps. What you are calling a check dam is the rock steps. Is that correct, how high does it go up. Must have been fun throwing those rocks around, sounds like I job I would enjoy. The way it was might have been easier as stcurly said, just start pumping those legs one after another, higher and more random steps can put more stress on the knees. I'd like to try it tho."

You needed a strong back to throw those rocks around. They must have done a lot of splitting the rocks to get flat?