BWCA: snowshoes, otters, and falling through the ice

This is a summary of a snowshoe trip to the BWCA with my good friend, Jake, in March of 2009. We also went more recently in December of 2010, but I thought I should write about these in chronological order, even if the rest of the blog is more haphazard.

[Chris] Emily is fantastic, but she apparently has no interest in winter backpacking (yet). Jake and I talked in the fall about a winter backpacking trip but our free time did not align until March. I always like trips with Jake. He can take care of himself, never complains about a little pain, and is always willing to push the pace if we need. I don’t know if these things are because he’s a Marine or if he decided to join the Marines because of these things; it works for me either way. Emily is baffled that Jake and I are perfectly content talking or not saying a word for hours.

We drove up to Snowbank Lake and headed straight across the lake, avoiding the winter-use trails. Within an hour we were breaking trail and we wouldn’t even see a sign of people for the next few days. The first night was the coldest of our trip and we slept in a snow cave dug out of a 6-foot snow bank. We saw some beautiful sights, snow-covered waterfalls, moose tracks, otter tracks, and quite a few otters. As I’m writing about the otter tracks—foot prints from bounding through the snow and then sliding on their bellies—the Lupe Fiasco song keeps playing in my head… kick, push, kick, push, coooasssssst. We saw otters playing in the open water by inlet streams where the water stays open all winter and one curious otter poked his head up through the snow beside the trail about 20 feet away from us before retreating to his subnivean playground.

Speaking of the inlet streams, I think they were to blame for most of the times we fell through the ice. The underwater current and the warming temps kept the ice near the shores thin and gave us some wet feet. I think the worst break was when we were walking through a narrow cove, with cliffs on the left and huge boulders on the right. With my heavy pack adding weight to each step, my foot punched through the ice and I fell forward. Unlike our previous experiences, the space of open water grew with each step I took as I tried to regain my footing. I bet I looked like a fool, or at least a cartoon character, somehow scrambling over the water and breaking ice toward the shore. Fortunately, I never sank past my legs. Jake was behind me; he took a different route.

Note the water (Disappointment Lake)

As the days went on, the temperature warmed. And each night our shelter needs decreased until the last night we simply used a tarp as a lean-to. On the last day, the sun was bright, not a cloud was in the sky, the air was warm, and the waves on the lake shimmered with sunlight. Yes, there were waves on the lake. It had got so warm that all the snow on top of the ice had melted, leaving a foot of icy water. It was a beautiful sight and a sign that we needed to leave a day earlier than planned. We put in a long morning of snowshoeing through wet snow that clumped to our snowshoes and slogging through icy water that soaked and number our feet. Needless to say, we did not move terribly fast. We were further delayed when we had to stop and fix a strap on Jake’s snowshoe, but we eventually made it back to the jeep, albeit a little waterlogged.

I always say, the BWCA is amazing in winter and offers perfect solitude.