Come and join us for a paddling
day trip to the beautiful Boundary Waters Canoe Area. This is
not the official 3rd annual event normally held in Cannon Falls
each year but a mere warm up to the season to help rid ourselves of
six months worth of pent up cabin fever.
Paddling is encouraged but not
required. Kayaking is discouraged as we need as many seats as
possible (there are boat limits for groups in the BWCA). If
you don't own a canoe, find a friend with an open spot in a boat or
utilize the outfitter service at the Sawbill Lake
landing.
Where: Boundary Waters
Canoe Area, at Sawbill Lake landing N47 51.866 W90
53.244.
When: Saturday May 29th,
2010 (Memorial Day Weekend)
Who: Any geocachers,
paddlers, paddling geocachers, families, friends, ALL are
welcome! It might be wise to come in groups sized properly to
fill boats.
General Event
Info:
- We welcome
everyone to join us.
- There are
numerous campgrounds in the surrounding area. I ALREADY have
my campsite reserved at Tetteguche State Park for the
weekend. I will be at campsite 20E.
- Morning pastries
and some unknown brand and flavor of coffee will be
provided.
- If you continue
on to paddle following the event, bring your own picnic: that
includes your own meal and drinks. Whatever you bring, you
carry it in and then you carry out ALL leftovers and trash.
Garbage collection is NOT provided.
- ANYONE wishing
to continue on after the event to paddle must read, understand, and
obey ALL of the rules and regulations for entering this wilderness
area.
- I've tapped the
incredible adventures of those before us (King Boreas and Jrest)
and have massive amounts of notes, routes, and advice in order to
make this adventure safe and fun.
- If you paddle, it
is Minnesota state law that says to bring BRING life preservers. I
also believe children are mandated by law to wear them. Be
responsible for yourself. You will be attending this event and the
paddle that follows at your own free will. Therefore you can
hold no one else responsible or liable other than yourself for the
dangers involved. You paddle and geocache at your own
risk.
- Admission and
parking is FREE! (unless you paddle and boat or equipment
rental is required)
- Following the
morning event, everyone is welcome to join my group to paddle to
the famous
Mystical Dolman Rock (GC587F) N47 55.202 W90
54.580. Following that, you may also join us on the paddle to the
nearby virtual geocache
Kelly-Jack (GC2878) N47 53.319 W90 47.834.
- Come prepared for
"changing" weather. This IS Minnesota, ya know.
- CARPOOLING FROM
CAMPSITES to the event IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. THE
LEAST AMOUNT OF CARS PARKED IN AND AROUND THE WILDERNESS, THE
BETTER.
- Unless there
is electrical activity in the sky or a freak blizzard blows in,
this event WILL take place RAIN-OR-SHINE. Plan
accordingly.
Schedule: (this schedule
will evolve somewhat as we confirm details)
- 7:30 AM: Morning Meet and Greet at the
Sawbill Lake landing N47 51.804 W90 53.257.
Coffee and morning pastries provided. MapSource estimates the
drive from Tetteguche State Park to Sawbill Lake landing as being
exactly an hour. PLAN ACCORDINGLY.
- 8:15 AM: Raffle for
a door prize. You must be present to win.
- 8:30 AM: SHARP. Event
complete. Depart Sawbill Lake for Dolman
Rock. The route from Sawbill Lake landing to the Dolman Rock
is approximately 4.5 paddling miles. I estimate the paddle to
take, in ideal conditions, less than three
hours.
- 11:00 AM to 11:30 AM:
Arrive at Dolman Rock. Explore, geocache, group
photograph.
- 11:30 AM: Depart Dolman Rock.
- 2:00 PM: Arrive back
at Sawbill Lake landing. Move boats to Baker Lake
landing N47 50.717 W90 49.058.
- 2:30 PM: Depart
Baker Lake landing for Kelly-Jack. The route from Baker Lake
landing to Kelly-Jack is approximately 3.5 miles. I estimate
the paddle to take, in ideal conditions, to be 2
hours.
- 4:30 PM to 5:00 PM: Arrive
at Kelly-Jack. Explore, geocache, group
photograph.
- 5:00 PM: Depart Kelly-Jack.
- 7:00 PM: BWCA adventure
over. Bart's group will rendezvous back at camp for dinner.
All are free to join us. However, bring your own eats and
maybe a dessert to pass. Bart will be grilling chicken for
his family.
Important Note:
If you join us at the event, it is important in a group setting to
stay focused with the task at hand. With more bodies will be
more socializing. Those paddling will have a lot of ground to
cover in order to return at a reasonable hour. Hint
hint.. let's not inadvertently hijack the paddling adventure
following the event.
If you are planning on joining us,
log a "will attend" on this page, with how many will be
coming, AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. I also recommend adding to your
log your camping details. If you need to rent a boat or
equipment, I HIGHLY recommend contacting the Sawbill Outfitters for
availability, reservations, etc. I will be bringing my own
boat so will NOT be managing any details with the
outfitter. Put this cache on your watch list so you will be
informed of all the updates.
ToDo
Items..
- Confirm Sawbill Outfitters can shuttle paddlers to Baker Lake.
CONFIRMED. Confirmed by using
the Sawbill Outfitters website that they can provide transportation
between Sawbill and Baker Lakes. It is $40 per van load of
paddlers. I still need to put them on alert that we'll be in the
area and will need services.
- Confirm the size of our group. A call to the state forest
office in Tofte, MN stated groups are limited to 6 boats and 12
people but another website indicates a 4 boat, 9 person
limit. If we exceed this, we may have to go as two different
groups following the event. CONFIRMED. There is a 4 boat, 9 person limit per
group. We will for sure have to break up into groups. If the group
grows too large we could be in jeopardy of violating wilderness
rules.
- Confirm day trip permit process. COMPLETED. Day permits required for each
group but permits are FREE and self issuing at each official
landing. Look for kiosk.
Other Information..
Bflentje and his geocaching family will be camping at Tetteguche
State Park the entire weekend. Our campsite is 20E and the
reservation has already been confirmed. On Sunday, we have
caching plans that anyone is free to join us on. However,
because of the distance needing to be covered, I'd prefer to follow
my goals which are the following:
- We will be completing the State
Park Critter geocaches along the north shore, excluding Tetteguche
and Jay Cook, which will be done on Friday. We will be
driving to the top at Grand Portage and working our way
down.
- On our way south, there will be a
quick stop in Grand Marais to grab some World Famous
donuts.
- Besides state park caches, we
will be grabbing a select few other higher profile caches along the
way including any earthcaches.
- The goal is to be back in the
area soon enough to complete the Black's Beach and Silver Island
Treasure caches BEFORE dark.
Click here to view last year's event listing
Click here to see pictures from last year's event
Click here to see the FIRST ANNUAL event listing
Click here to see pictures from the FIRST ANNUAL
event
Any questions or suggestions?
Send me a private message through geocaching.com with your
input.
SEE
YOU THERE!!