I don't know if this appeals as beautiful stuff to many of you, but it does to me. These are pictures I took of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in the Northwoods of Minnesota. In the boundary waters, the only manmade structures are fire grates and latrines (semi-toilets), and the occasional historic artifact. Motors are only allowed in part of the BWCA...in almost everywhere else, you have to either canoe/portage or hike.
(For you FS peoples, hop in a seaplane and create a flight from CDD-0G5 to experience the Boundary Waters.)
This was a sunrise I took on our way through the town of Eveleth (where the US Hockey Hall of Fame is located).
Here are two pictures of a very pretty waterfall (we weren't quite in the Boundary Waters yet at this time):
(I didn't rotate the second one because it is clearer that way).
A photo of Jasper lake (again, not in the Boundary Waters yet)
The road to Snowbank Lake, which is where we put our canoes in the water.
A few nice pics of Snowbank (at this point we were finally in the BWCA!)
Of course, you can't just canoe from lake to lake all the way to a campsite. You have to portage sometimes. Thats when you take everything out of the canoe, put the packs on your backs, and go down the portage. Here is one of the portages (this one was on the harder side, probably the hardest portage of the trip
):
Here are some pictures of Ensign lake, where we first stayed the night.
Now these next two pictures are some of the most beautiful I have ever taken. This is Ensign Lake, from the portage between Ensign and Vera on our first day trip.
This is Vera Lake.
This is the most brutal portage I have ever been on. Luckily, I wasn't carrying anything because it was a daytrip, so it wasn't that bad.
Here are two great pictures of an Eagle I got on Knife Lake (right close to the Canadian Border!
)...
...and one of a loon...
It was then that my camera ran out of batteries
Other fun things we did during that trip were going into Canada (somewhat legally) just a few minutes after taking those last pictures, hiking up Disappointment Mountain (quite tall for Minnesota) and doing other fun things. ;D
