2020 - Sept 26-27 Kayak Trip – North Shore MN

Solo Trip;  Tom L / Scott Laven – had interest in trip but had to cancel.        Drove up Friday, 9-25 evening; stayed at Scott Laven’s(Tom’s house). 

SATURDAY 

Got up 6:00 AM Saturday.. packed up car with add’l camp items from Tom’s garage.   Drove to Two Harbors / Betty’s Pies parking lot.  Betty’s Pies didn’t open until 9:00 AM – line started forming at 8:30, so – just had muffins instead.  Packed bags and got ready.  Launched from parking lot across from Betty’s Pies – Stewart River

Weather was FOGGY / after 1 hour of paddling, light rain started.  Paddled ~ 9 Hours – light or steady rain nearly the whole day.  Always foggy with exception of a few 20 minute periods where the fog lifted temporarily.

Kayaked approx. 12 miles without stopping – then stopped in Gooseberry;  lots of tourist/hikers about on other side of river.

Continued on / stopped again just past Nadine Blacklock lakeshore (Mile 60)

Wanted to get to Campsites near Tettegouche – but, was getting dark – so, stopped at Black Beach Park (Just past Beaver Bay)  (Mile 68.8)

Poached camping – marked no camping; but – arrived at dark; most people leaving.  Talked to a guy, Drew from Marquette – who has kayaked all around Superior.  Setup small tent; slept a little – got up at 7:00 AM.

SUNDAY

Beautiful day.. Wind – but didn’t look too bad.  But – needed to skirt up;  and – was sketchy near Palisade head – started getting nervous;  Wind/waves pushing kayak around from stern.  But finally got in a rhythm.  Made it to Baptism River;  Had to paddle HARD thru narrow river channel to get up into flat river water; just made it.  Was very nice in river / went upstream ¼ mile;  rapids were flowing.   Lots of tourists around.

Scott met me at Tettegouche to pick me up;  THANKS SCOTT!!! – did have to haul gear & kayak up 150 Yards from beach up to Parking Lot.

Great Weekend!

 

 

DAY1

START:  Stewart River Mile 39.1
FINISH: Black Beach Park (Just past Beaver Bay)  68.8

Total Miles (GPS / only partial distance) = 29.7 Miles

 

DAY2

START: Black Beach Park (Just past Beaver Bay)  68.8
END: Tettegouche / Baptism River  72.5

Total Miles (GPS / only partial distance) = 3.7 Miles

Black Beach Park – Launch – View above campsite. (Tent/Kayak)

 

Black Beach Park – Launch – View above campsite.  Palisade Head (looking to NE – direction of paddle on Sunday)

Black Beach Park – Launch – View above campsite.  II

Black Beach Park – Launch – View above campsite.  Towards Northshore Mining (Beaver Bay)

July 22 Kayak Expedition – Apostle Islands, WI

 

John Lynch - Solo Trip     

Drove up from Seeley early 7-22 directly to Little Sand Bay

Got to Little Sand Bay later than desired – arrived at ~ 10:00 AM.  Took 2 full hours to pack up, fix jammed rudder peddle, check weather, etc.

When in process of launching – Park ranger warned about Small Craft Advisory..  I told him, it’s OK, I’ve got lots of experience, paddled Canadian shoreline of Lake Superior, etc.   But – I was worried!

Strong NE Winds – definitely 20 Knots;  And – I was starting out around peninsula to NE!   Hadn’t had kayak in water in 2 years!!!   I had to fight to get to Point Detour – Little Sand Bay was very sketchy with 3 to 4 ft waves – dead into the wind.

Stopped in Raspberry Bay – there was a dock with small commercial operation – no one around;  definite worry about stopping somewhere, and not be able to launch / large surf/waves pretty much everywhere.  But – was able to find a good spot near dock – and easy to launch

Once I got to Raspberry Point, started heading SE , then South.  Wind was trailing, water much calmer – it was smooth sailing all the way to Bayfield.  Stopped in Red Cliff Bay – near shipwreck to eat and drink – then took off to Bayfield.  Got some sun, and fast paddling – clocking close to 5 mph near Red Cliff.

ROUTE:

-        Little Sand Bay / Beach/Campground

-        Point Detour

-        Across Raspberry Bay

-        Raspberry Point

-        Across Frog Bay

-        Red Cliff Bay

-        Across Red Cliff Bay

-        Past Red Cliff

-        Bayfield

 

DAY1

Total Miles (GPS / 3 sections) = 17.5 Miles

 

Lake Superior, St. Ignace Island – Nirivia Invasion

I'm still getting caught up posting for past kayak trips. This post from our trip to Rossport Ontario and the St. Ignace archipelago from back in Sept, 2005. Sad to say, but I have not dipped the paddle in the water yet this year. I hope to get out for a paddle in the Bayfield area at the end of June.

2005 September 10 – September 14: Rossport Ontario to Armour Harbor on St. Ignace Island and return to Rossport.

Camp I: Simpson Island
Camp II and III: Nirivian Dome Cabin in Armour Harbor.
Camp IV: South East beach on Simpson Island in the Simpson Channel.
Expedition Team: Tom Lynch, Scott Laven, Kenji Ogura, Tom Bray

Sunday September 11

We broke camp early and had a nice easy paced paddle southward up the channel between Simpson and St. Ignace Islands. After lunch we encountered what can be described as typical weather for September on Lake Superior – moderate to strong SW winds and mostly sunny. As we neared the SE corner of St. Island, the combination of large waves, dangerours shoals, cliffs and rebound waves had turned our easy going morning paddle into an extreme Sea kayak outing. Lake Superior was the boss on this day, so to be on the safe side, we spent 3 hours wind bound on the South Eastern shore of St. Ignace Island. Once the seas calmed a bit, we launched and we finally made our way around the point and into Armour harbor at 6:30 pm.

For this expedition, we had the pleasure of being joined by Kenji Ogura of Duluth, MN. Kenji’s expertise in geology was a plus in explaining the interesting geological features of the St. Ignace archipelago. Kenji also takes great photo’s and you check them out here:

Our two night stay at the Nirivian embasy base camp afforded us an off day in which a planned hike up to the summit of Mount St. Ignace was in order. Mount St. Ignace is the high point of St. Ignace Island, the third highest point in Ontario Canada and is also the highest elevation of all the Lake Superior Islands. This hike proved to be very challenging as the trail from the Nirvian Embassy was difficult to follow. The trail was flagged but it was obvious that it had not seen much traffic in the last several years; thus, after a difficult 4 hour hike of bushwhacking at times and only half way to the summit, we turned back for base camp at the Nirivian Embassy. We were not prepared for an overnight hike and we did not want miss out on our comfy cabin, sauna and cold beer back at Nirivia. We were informed later from Jim Stevens, the Earl of Nirivia that an easier and shorter route to the summit exists from a bay on the South East side of the Island. We’ll have to wait for our next visit to bag the summit of St. Ignace.

We stayed two nights at the Nirivian Embassy Geo dome cabins which include a very nice sauna.


More photos from this trip: click here.
Scott Laven's photo's: Click here

For more information on Nirivia, check out this article from Minnepolis Star/Tribune click here.

Ice Road to Devils Island

A group of guys from Madeline Island went for a joy ride out to Devils Island on the ice for a picnic. Sounds like a blast, I wish I could have joined them! I cannot take any credit for these excellent images. My brother Jim forwarded these pixs to me.

Below is a description by Tibbs of his and Bob Teisberg’s jaunt out to Devils Is. last Sat. on an ice road which was plowed by believe Arnie and Wayne.


"Long Ice Road to Devil's Island yesterday! In fact it was 21 miles from the Red cliff marina to the cliffs at the base of the lighthouse on Devil's. It was a surreal drive, the road just kept going and going and going. It swung right up to the shore of Manitou,we got out and checked out the park service's fish camp and then drove on. As we passed Rocky on our left there was absolutely nothing ahead

but ice to the horizon. Once past Rocky we turned left and you could finally see Devil's but it seemed really far away. As we closed in on the island we also closed
in on the edge of the open water. There were probably fifty people out there grilling brats and wondering around looking at the ice caves and the incredible jumble of shove ice that had ground against the island."

Here is really cool Satellite photo of ice on Lake Superior:
More photos here:

Lake Superior South Shore Mileages

Playing with google earth this morning I plotted out using most likely kayak path and came up with approx distances from Lower Entry to Agawa Bay (distances are in miles, even when in Canada)

Route Leg, Cumulative
Lower Entry to Baraga: 15, 15
to Point Abbaye 23, 38
to Big Bay 34, 72
to Marquette Light 29, 101
to Grand Island 42, 143
around Grand Island 19, 162
to Grand Marias (MI.) 36, 198
to Whitefish Point 50, 248
to Sault Ste Marie 50, 298
to Batchawana Island 50, 348
to Agawa Bay 40, 388



388 miles/20 miles a day = ~19 days = 2 long trips to 4 short trips

Scott Laven.

Circle Tour Map

The blue line on the map below illustrates our progress to date for circling Lake Superior via Kayak. Please click on "View Larger Map" link for a more detailed view of our progress including trips dates and team members.


View Larger Map

Keeweenaw Krush Trip Log

2008 June 22 – June 27: Upper Entry of the Keweenaw Waterway FJ McLain State Park MI to Lower Entry Boat Ramp MI

Expedition Team: Tom Lynch, John Lynch, Scott Laven, Tom Bray

Camp I – Just West Eagle River MI
Camp II – King Copper Motel Copper Harbor MI
Camp III – East Tip of Manitou Island across from Light House
Camp IV – 2 miles west of Montreal River
Camp V – Stamp sand flat south of Gay MI

For me, this adventure started after completing the Gary Bjorkland half marathon in Duluth, MN. Up at 5:00 AM, run race at 6:30 am, done at 7:45 am and on the road with Scott Laven by 11:00 AM. We loaded up Scott’s pickup, gathered a few additional provisions in Superior WI and then on down the road to the Houghton/Hancock area of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

This road trip took several hours longer that it should have as a few miles East of Ashland, WI, the muffler parted from the tail pipe on Scott Laven’s truck. The screeching sound of metal scraping on asphalt, forced us to stop and forced Scott Laven (an all around moter head and handy man) to rip out muffler and lash the tail pipe to the frame. A short time later, this time in the parking of Walmart in Ironwood MI, Scott was at again, under the truck this time to rip out the tail pipe. With muffler and tail pipe now secure and in the bed of the pick up, we we’re back on the road to the Upper Entry. Scott and I both commented how the loud reverberating sound of Scott’s boss truck (sans muffler) made us feel like some “real” down home local yoopers.

Tom Lynch

June 23, 2008

The day started with usual last minute packing and schlepping of equipment and provisions to the beach launch site. Year after year, it never ceases to amaze me that after seeing all of the provisions, gear and other equipment spread out all over the beach that we manage to get it all stuffed into our 4 kayaks. Mission accomplished once again as we had room to spare. For this trip, we also had the good fortune of having Scott Laven’s sister Julie and friend help us move our vehicle from the upper entry to the lower entry. Many thanks to Julie Laven and friend for helping us out.

Day one was mostly uneventful as we rattled off 18 miles of easy paddling in light wind and little seas. We found a suitable camp site just to the south west of the town Eagle River.