BWCA Lob Pines Boundary Waters Listening Point


BWCA Messageboard

BWCA and Quetico Park Books and Magazines

Find Outfitters for the Boundary Waters Quetico

Boundary Waters (BWCA) photo gallery and individual photo journals

Boundary Waters Message Board and Forums.

username

password

Remember Me

Tuscarora Lodge & Outfitters
Site Search
	Contact Us
	Route Guide

Chat Rooms (0 Chatting) | Search | Login/Join

* For the benefit of the community, commercial posting is not allowed.

View BWCA Photo and Trip Report Contest Page

Poll: What is your favorite month in the BWCA/Q?
(512 responses)

2012 BWCA Photo Contest Results

Boundary Waters Quetico Forum

Listening Point - General Discussion

Lob Pines

View Boundary Waters Map Locations

Route Guide

community sponsor

Sawbill Canoe Outfitters

Last Visit: 05/25/2013 12:07PM
Sort by

Author

Message Text

Troll

Guest Paddler

04/05/2011 11:13PM

Has anyone ever seen or heard of any lob pines that still exist in the bwca, Q, or anywhere else in the north woods that still remain from the voyager days? A Lob pine is a pine tree that the voyagers would climb and lob off branches in the middle of the tree so it would stand out from a distance marking the way of travel.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

bruceye

04/05/2011 11:27PM

I have seen what looked to be lob pines but in all honesty, can't really say if it was that or lightning strikes or wind sheer.

Bruceye

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

wetcanoedog

04/06/2011 12:03AM

Yes..on Cecil Lake in the Q there is a authentic lob tree.

it's just a level trail thru the woods.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

Ho Ho

04/06/2011 06:43AM

Where is it on Cecil? I don't think I noticed it when we went through in 2005.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

nojobro

04/06/2011 08:06AM

For a troll, you sure are polite!

To answer your question...I don't know.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

jwartman59

04/06/2011 10:27AM

this photo is a scan of the lob pine on cecil lake, photo used without permission, from the book lob trees in the wilderness, by clifford and isabel ahlgren, u of minnesota press, copywrite 1984. this is an excellent book on the forest ecology of the north woods. i have no personal info regarding this tree. also note that scanned photo is prior to 1984.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

mooseplums

04/06/2011 12:08PM

quote jwartman59: "

this photo is a scan of the lob pine on cecil lake, photo used without permission, from the book lob pines in the wilderness, by clifford and isabel ahlgren, u of minnesota press, copywrite 1984. this is an excellent book on the forest ecology of the north woods. i have no personal info regarding this tree. also note that scanned photo is prior to 1984."

Cool photo!!!!

Troll! you should join us!

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

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

Kevlar

04/06/2011 02:59PM

I remember one on Crooked Lake back in the 1970s, but it was gone in the mid-80s. And I seem to recall one on either Mountain or Pine Lake back about then, but it also is long gone. I wish I had documented them.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

Banksiana

04/06/2011 03:25PM

There is one on Meadows (between Sunday and Agnes in the Q). And it appears there is one on the south end of Fourtown. If the one on Fourtown is not a true lob tree, it certainly functions as one- perfect for taking a bearing on when shooting for the bay that holds the portages to Mudro.

Steal a little and they throw you in jail. Steal a lot and they make you king.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

Savage Voyageur

04/06/2011 03:55PM

"So many lakes, so little time."

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

solotrek

04/06/2011 04:27PM

There is a book on Amazon.com entitled "Lob Trees in the Wilderness" by the Ahlgrens. $16.95 brand new in paperback, June, 2001. Looks like a great book. All about the BW.

"It is in solitude, in quiet communication with nature that we reach most deeply into truth." Sam Campbell

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

Ho Ho

04/06/2011 06:03PM

The Ahlgrens' book is great. I read it, but I did not remember they showed a lob tree on Cecil. Anyway, the book has a bit of an agenda (wilderness needs management would be my paraphrase), best to keep that in mind as you read, and with that in mind, it is totally fascinating and informative.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

TuscaroraBorealis

04/06/2011 07:19PM

Very interesting thread. Thanks for the heads up about the book.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

SevenofNine

04/06/2011 08:17PM

Just an observation here. Lob as I understand it is to throw. Lop is to cut off or remove. Just an observation...

The amount of satisfaction you get from life depends largely on your own ingenuity, self-sufficiency, and resourcefulness. People who wait around for life to supply their satisfaction usually find boredom instead.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

paddlefamily

04/06/2011 08:51PM

They were made by voyageurs as a marker. Somewhere I read (maybe in Ahlgren's book) that the "newbie" voyageur would shimmy up the pine to cut off the branches, and hence create a Lob Pine. They were the traffic signs of old.

Great photo, I'd love to see one.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

Troll

Guest Paddler

04/06/2011 09:01PM

Thank You Nojobro! That is the second compliment I have received here in the last week.

And thank you to every one else that replied!

SevenofNine, I agree with your observation, however every time I have read about this in a book or historical documentation they refer to it as Lob. Maybe those voyagers just had too much snuff in the mouth to pronounce it correctly.

Thank you, the Polite Troll

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

maxxbhp

04/07/2011 08:54PM

They tell me them voyageur fellas spoke a foreign language. Just what I heard...;-)

"Old Nashville still has a song and dance, and the Florida girls still wear no underpants. And we all get drunk at the football game, yeh the new south, thank God is still the same" Hank Williams, jr

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

Bannock

04/08/2011 12:36AM

I saw a very obvious one several years ago. However, it wasn't in the BW or Q. It was on a "Primative Canoe Route" in Wasburn County near Birchwood WI and was either the Loyhead or Sawmill Canoe route. I did both during the same visit but don't recall which it was.

It was funny because I had recently read the Lob Tree book and there one was.

Birchwood Canoe Trails

Bannock

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

BWCA Messageboard