Pictures

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Many visitors to the Boundary Waters do the Grand Staircase Portage. This is Staircase Falls, complexly frozen over except for a small flow down at the bottom.

I generally stayed away from the lakes during this trip. Being from Massachusetts, I grew up being told that "no ice is safe ice." They know differently in Minnesota, where you'll often see fishing huts, snowmobiles, and even F-350's out on the lakes. I did walk across Gunflint Lake, in this photo, in order to reach Gunflint Lodge, a resupply point, just before nightfall. This night was an exception in that I did not turn on my headlamp: most nights I was hike 2-3 hours in the dark in compensate for having less than 10 hours of daylight.

Magnetic Rock, which was plugged into the ground during the last Ice Age. Notice my trekking pole at the bottom, for scale.

More devastation from the Big Blow, now about 30 miles to the west of where I first started encountering damage.

Like the Border Route Trail, the Kekekabic Trail (often referred to as "the Kek") has good and bad sections. This is one of the best, through this beautiful forest of white pines, red pines, and balsam firs.

Function #73 for duct tape: to protect your nose from the wind, after you've already gotten frost nip on the tip of your nose because you foolishly were hiking around at 7:30 PM by headlamp in 5 degree F temps and breezy conditions.

Clearcuts with Character? Hmm, sounds oxymoronic to me. I agree more with the vandal who scratched a couple of choice words into the post.

At the western terminus of the Kekekabic Trail, some 380 miles and 16 days after starting from Duluth. Throughout this trip I pushed the limits of lightweight gear and technique, but I have to say that in this photo I think I was probably going a little too light for the 5 degree temperatures!

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