Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Appler, Cross Bay to Poplar Lake
by Patuxent

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 09/15/2023
Entry Point: Cross Bay Lake (EP 50)
Exit Point: Lizz and Swamp Lakes (EP 47)  
Number of Days: 7
Group Size: 1
Trip Introduction:
This was my first BW trip after 2 nights the year before in the UP in the Sylvania Wilderness Area. This 7-day BW trip may have been too ambitious for a 67 year old novice and loner, but I survived.
Report
This was a grueling trip for me, which left me with an injured tail bone and lots of ideas. The most important one for me was to not go solo again. Apart from the want of comradery, there is too much work to do alone and too much danger of facing misshaps unaided. I did some falling, some sinking into the mud, and some capsizing at landings. I quckly learned how to assess landings better. I had a windy paddle along the length of Winchell in my smallish rented Prism; earlier I had a miraculously calm paddle along much of Brule Lake. My equipment and food loads could have been lighter. So it was a hard shake-down trip that might lead to more pleasant trips in the future.