Canoe Capital Of The World

13th – 18th June: Days 66 to 71

Ely, Minnesota is the self proclaimed ‘canoe capital of the world’ and it probably is.  It is a small but perfectly formed town which functions as the gateway to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, or BWCAW (a place with a less-than-catchy acronym). This is a 2 million acre park of even more watery wilderness with endless interconnecting lakes and forested shores and islands. It is devoid of human habitation and motorised access is strictly limited.  The town is full of businesses that organise canoe trips, with racks and racks of canoes stacked up on their lots and every other vehicle on the road has a canoe strapped to its roof.

We drove from Lake Kabetegoma to Ely in another thunderstorm and had our picnic lunch in the car along the way, parked up on a lakeshore watching the wild white horses on the water. We provisioned up in Ely, then drove the 5 miles out to our camp site on the shores of a lake called White Iron Lake.

We had high hopes for this camp and had booked 6 nights in a lake-front site. The camp did boat and canoe rentals and we were looking forward to many days cruising around in the sunshine exploring the edges of the BWCAW…

It wasn’t just about the shonky weather, but the place didn’t really live up to our expectations. It was tired, had mediocre facilities and the lady in the office was surly. The sites at the lake were very pretty but minuscule and we were allocated a site right next to the only other rig in an otherwise empty area of the camp. The surly lady assured me that there was no option to be moved as the camp was going to fill up over the next few days. So we sucked it up, set camp and introduced ourselves to our (very close) neighbour, a very laconic pipe smoker called Rich. He didn’t seem to care.  That evening we holed up and were treated to the most amazing lightening storm we have ever witnessed. Hours and hours of flashes that lit the sky almost once every second and  constant rolling thunder. Once we got bored of watching it out of the back window we strangely slept like babies.

The next day was sunny but far too windy to consider taking to the water. We initially set off on foot up behind the lodge to find their advertised walking trail but after 20 minutes of blithering around, over dressed and now far too hot, all we could find was a quarry. So we bailed, went ‘home’, took some clothes off and headed off on the bikes instead.  We explored down the road until we hit the end, then came back. Enough activity to partially earn sausages for our dinner.

The day after that was finally sunny with only a light breeze. Hoorah. We packed a picnic and a rug, hats, suncream, bug spray and our books and headed out in a Canadian canoe for the day.  The day started excellently as we gently blew down the lake, paddling in perfect marital harmony, admiring the lake shore homes with their docks and nice boats on their boat lifts. Around lunchtime (Ok, 1130, as all this activity was making us hungry) we found a perfect little island in the lake for a stop. We managed the canoe dismount without incident (but perhaps limited harmony and elegance) and had our picnic lunch on a lovely rocky outcrop in the sunshine. The entertainment was provided by the resident American eagle who was only party perturbed by our presence.

After about 2 minutes of post-lunch relaxation, sunbathing and reading the weather changed for the worse. We packed up and headed for home. Upwind. Into a thunderstorm squall.

Things became a bit dicey for 20 minutes, during which we pulled up to a private dock and sheltered from the brief downpour under our semi-waterproof picnic rug. I hadn’t reckoned on its potential as a survival tool as we were buying it in Walmart many weeks ago. It is slightly ironic that it has now been used as much to huddle under as to sit on. Once the storm had past we carried on paddling and reached our home dock safely: enough excitement for one day. Back at our camp site we found we had a new neighbour on the other side. Cheek by jowl. Still with the rest of the camp empty. Very bizarre.

The morning brought more sunny but windy weather, so we stayed off the water and cycled the 5 miles back into Ely. We checked out another RV camp in town, and decided that we would move the next day, rather than continue our sardine existence on the lakeshore, especially as the weather was forecast to be ropey again. That evening was beautifully calm and we finally got a chance to light a campfire and sit out all evening.  Now we saw the lake at its best. Strangely the rest of the campsite never did fill up.

Our stay in the town campsite was very civilised. Spacious with great facilities, friendly staff, fresh donuts and a big TV in the office on which  we managed to watch the first 2 races of the much anticipated Americas Cup. We walked the short mile to town for dinner and found a brew pub that was renowned for its burgers. Nick is a homing pigeon for this stuff. I had a Jucy Lucy burger, a Minnesotan speciality. This is a burger patty with a magma pocket of melted cheese on the inside. Delicious but potentially dangerous if you are hungry.

This whole area was quite unexpected. A real life wilderness that we didn’t get the chance to fully explore or appreciate. This is the first area on our travels that we feel that we would love to come back to and do a fully outfitted canoe trip into the wilderness proper. One day, one day….

Next stop Duluth.