August 2, 2009
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Alton Lake BWCA Wilderness
Adam and I along with some friends were able to spend three days this week in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. We were lucky enough to find a five star campsite on Alton Lake. We were going to portage in farther but when we found this beautiful site on the top of a high rock outcropping we just couldn’t pass it up.
The site was situated on the North end of the lake giving us views of the rising moon. There is something very relaxing about sitting by a campfire, listening to the loons and watching the moon rise over several miles of calm water.
Loons Alton Lake BWCA Wilderness
Alton Lake has several resident loons that gave us entertainment all three days. The loons must have been overly playful. We were watching one loon when all of a sudden another one came torpedoing up from the bottom and put his beak right into the second one’s underside. Both came exploding out of the water and continued to scuffle. Our second loon encounter was just as exciting. We were watching a family of mergansers going by when all of a sudden they also exploded out of the water swimming in all directions. A loon came up from the bottom and surfaced right in the middle of the group. It didn’t seem like it was trying to eat any of them just playing around. The baby mergansers thought otherwise.
Canoeing The Kelso River BWCA Wilderness
We took day trips into several adjacent lakes experiencing the sites and sounds of the wilderness. Between intermittent showers the sunshine illuminated the surrounding landscape making us glad we have places like this to enjoy.
Pitcher Plant Kelso River BWCA Wilderness
We had heard about an interesting rock formation on Lujenida Lake that we wanted to see. There are a lot of rocks in the BWCAW in some pretty precarious locations but this one is different. It looks like it was placed there by people. It has three evenly spaced small rocks that hold this massive three ton boulder above the bedrock surface. We canoed up the Kelso River to get to Lujenida Lake. Along the way we found thousands of pitcher plants. The Kelso has more of these carnivorous plants than any other spot I have ever found. They cover the side of the river for about a half mile.
