Not your average afternoon paddle trip

Not your average afternoon paddle trip.

My 12 year-old son Tommy and I got the opportunity to go for a paddle yesterday, but it was just a little different than our typical shenanigans.

I was asked by the Sheriff’s Office two days prior if I could recover a canoe and gear that had been left on the north end of Agnes Lake in the BWCA. Or more accurately, I was recommended to do the recovery.

The location is 9.5 miles from the nearest road. It’s mostly small windy river and a couple lakes. “Windy” as in curvy, but also quite blustery… both meanings of the spelling are accurate. The route has five portages and a few beaver dams. The longest portage is a little over half a mile.

It was Mother’s Day, so we slept in and Tommy made eggs and we had a fantastic breakfast with Jess and Chloe. Kia was out fishing already. Then we went to church for a bit and Tommy and I left early to head up to the trailhead about 45 minutes away.

We started portaging at 11:20 a.m. The wind was pushing around our mostly empty canoe. It was just the two of us and a small day pack. Tommy was paddling hard and doing some great bow maneuvers to keep us from hitting shore while going around the sharp corners of the river.

Soon we reached Nina Moose Lake where the wind and waves were rolling. Whitecaps slapped over the side as we arced into the side wind. The air was thick with Canadian wildfire smoke as well, so it was a little hazy.

Two portages and some more river and we arrived at the south end of Agnes Lake. I was expecting to get pretty punished in the wind during the one and a half mile stretch of wide open lake, but our prayers were answered and the wind was not bad at all.

There were still some good sized waves out there, but we were able to make it across with relative ease.

Arriving at the drop pin location, I walked down the shore to where I thought the canoe would be, and I told Tommy to head the other direction to look. He found it shortly after.

The gear was very waterlogged because it had been floating in the water before it was found. I tried draining some of the water, but it was still close to roughly 75 pounds. The canoe is a solo canoe and it had a few wear spots from bouncing and rubbing along the rocky shore.

We packed everything up and started heading back. It was now 2 p.m. It took us two hours and 20 minutes to get there and the trip back was going to take just a bit longer.

I started out with the heavy pack in the solo that we were dragging behind on a short leash. This worked well for a while because we were going into the wind again. (For some reason it decided to switch directions on us.) The solo canoe tracked pretty well behind us all the way to the river.

It was like a wind tunnel in our face going through the pinch point narrows. I heard it was 25 m.p.h. gusts. We got in and around the corner and eventually turned more southeast so the wind was now at our backs when the solo decided to try and pass us sideways and it rolled right over in the wind.

I pulled out the now even more water logged pack and put it in our canoe. Tommy and I then rolled the water out of the other canoe and flopped it back on the water and then Tommy paddled and directed our flotilla toward the next portage while I held one end of the solo up so it wouldn’t tip again.

It was riding alongside us kinda parallel. We got to the portage and Tommy took the day pack and the two person canoe. I took the big pack and solo canoe. The solo didn’t have a portage yoke so I had it slung over my shoulder. At the end of the portage, I rigged up a better harnesses system to the front of the solo so it pulls from just under the bow.

The canoe was tipping because of several forces pulling it different directions. It’s a fine boat. It’s actually my preferred solo model personally. But when the wind blows hard from over your right shoulder, the canoe starts jackknifing to the left which pulls our rear end that way a bit, so we instantly do back strokes to slow us.

But sometimes the combination

of our boat pulling, the wind pushing, and the water flowing under the opposite way, it’s almost like a snowplow. It’s bound to flip if it’s just the right recipe like that.

We were soon back on Nina Moose where the wind was a steady side wind again. The solo still wanted to flip in the wind, so I ended up with it on my lap at one point, and then I held the rope with my teeth for a bit until I pinched it with my leg.

I eventually had the bow tied on our yoke with the other end bobbing out to the left because that’s where the wind wanted it to be. We could then cruise a little better until we got out of the wind on the narrow river where I reattached it to track behind us. The water levels were pretty high and the current was significant as we paddled upstream to the next portage and over a couple dams.

Tommy is my 12 year-old son. He is a very capable paddler and he rocked it on the portages as well carrying around 65 pounds of weight between the pack and canoe. He has the best attitude and just keeps going. I am very proud of him. He often guides canoe trips.

And I should mention that I brought him along, it’s not like the sheriff sent a 12 year-old to do this mission. I asked him if he wanted to come along because we wanted to go paddling anyhow, and he of course said yes! Two years ago, we did a 55 mile day trip paddle where we happened upon some injured people that we rescued. That’s a whole other story… A couple more portages later and we were arriving at the parking lot at 5:56 p.m. My estimated time of arrival was 6 p.m.

We met the family that the gear belongs to at the parking lot. Their family member was found deceased in the water on Friday evening and flown out on a float plane.

My sincere condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.