Boundary Waters Animal Sightings
Whenever we're in the boundary waters area, animal sightings are always
a highlight of the trip. Please share your experience with us. Send your
encounter stories to : davis@inav.net.
Indicate your name, date of the sighting, location, and a brief description
of the encounter. I will post it here as soon as possible.
Which would you like to see?
Wolf
This interesting sighting is from Will Gallant of Winton,
Mn. Of a black wolf, he writes:
Sept 23, 2006
There is a pure black Wolf currently traversing the area
between Fall
Lake and Cedar Lake in Northeastern St, Louis county, Minesota. The
animal has a very healthly looking coat and somewhat bushy tail. It's
ears were held up as it trotted down and crossed the road in front of
us. There was a light spot centered on it's left side, rear of the
middle. The spot may have been dirt or the result of a wound rather
than white fur. There are a number of grey wolves living close by.
This animal may be someones big dog. However, it reacted more like a
wolf as it ducked off into the woods. There was no collar visible.
The nearest cabins are about 3 blocks away, North of the Cloquet Line.
This story came from Daniel Moores of Saratoga, California.
Daniel writes:
Returning from our trip to the BWCA on Saturday, June 3rd and heading
south on Hwy 61 a few miles out of Grand Marais, we saw a gray wolf standing
on a bluff at the forest's edge, observing traffic and possibly contemplating
a dash across the road down to Lake Superior. Having viewed many nature
films and read several books on the wolf, there was no mistaking him for
any other species. Though it was relatively early, we were surprised by
how calm he appeared, and we happened to be going slow enough so that the
image will be forever imprinted in our memory. A fitting end to a wonderful
(but wet) week.
This is contributed by Joyce McMahon
I have had several animals encounters in the BWCA. The first one
was around July 7, 1993. We camped on Crooked Lake for the night. About
midnight, we were hearing a lot howling. The howling got to be what I thought
was fairly close. I told my husband that we were hearing wolves. We got
through the night and the next morning, I check our camp area. Several
spots next to the tent and lake were wolf prints. They came to visit us
that night. Two other incidents occured June 2, 1994. We had got off of
Edith Lake and my husband carried the canoe to the other side. I picked
up my pack and off to my right side was a beautiful black wolf attempting
to get a drink out of the lake. I have never seen a wild wolf outside of
zoos or animal preserves. He was beautiful. He did not offer to harm me,
instead he took off and went back into the woods. We travel on and we took
a route that follows the appalachian trail. I know that wolf sightings
are very rare. I also realize that I may never see one again in the BWCA
because of their shyness to humans. I will remember it for a long time.
The following was submitted by Jaclyn Schreck
in July, 1996.
I have only been 'home' two weeks and the sounds and sights of the
boundary waters are fresh in heart and mind. My brother and I had the profound
privlege of waking to the haunting calls of wolves while camping on Afton
Lake. We went down by the water's edge and listened for an hour or so while
the pack circled around to the south. For several days after, I swore I
heard them again, but it was only their echo. I hope I will always hear
them....
Bear
This nice description was submitted
by Gary Hunt.
Actually, this was a Quetico
encounter.
My brother and I traveled into the
Badwater chain of lakes in early
June of 2001. One afternoon we took a day
trip back into Wild Goose Lake.
The water was relatively high, and we
therefore had only a short portage
out of Your Lake to a stream connecting
with Wild Goose Lake.
That stream meandered through a broad swampy area
between two rocky ridges.
As we followed that stream we were required to
cross many old and active beaver
dams. As we approached Wild Goose Lake, we
came to the largest of the dams,
which was obviously active. The dam was at
least 100 feet long and the
water level was at least 2 - 3 feet higher above
the dam than below the dam.
As we paddled into the pool above the dam, we
stopped our progress to evaluate
the best way to cross the dam. At that
moment, we saw a very large
black bear emerge from the brush on the left
side of the dam and begin to
tread slowly across the top of the dam. The
wind was quartering from our
left, and he therefore did not scent us. As
soon as we saw him we sat absolutely
still to observe him. We were within
40 feet of the dam, but he apparently
did not observe us, as he continued
his progress across the dam
in a very deliberate fashion. When he reached
the point where the breeze would
carry our scent to him, he stopped and
looked in our general direction,
raising his nose and testing the breeze.
He did not appear to be the
least bit alarmed, and proceeded at a very
deliberate pace across the dam.
As he approached the end of the dam, he
again stopped and again looked
in our direction and tested the breeze. He
then came to the end of the
dam, walked a few feet into the brush, turned
away from us and seemed to simply
disappear. We were both amazed with the
gentle grace of his progress
across the dam. He was a very large bear, very
black, and conveyed a sense
of great strength, but his steps across the dam
were almost dainty. We
were also both amazed with the manner in which he
simply blended into the brush
so quickly. We continued our progress across
the dam and into Wild Goose
Lake, but I must admit to some slight
nervousness as we paddled down
the last narrow stretch of the stream, which
paralleled the track he took,
and with thick brush right up to the edge of
the stream. It was a wonderful
moment which I will never forget.
This story of the
bear was sent to us by Paul Q. Geisthardt.
I spotted a small black bear behind a tree near one
of our tents, when I went over to investigate it was already gone, but
when I turned around it was underneath our food pack, where I had just
been standing 15 seconds before. Luckily we had already hung the pack and
we were able to scare the bear away easily. About 1/2 hour later we heard
the next camp down the lake yelling and banging pots together too. Scaring
off the same bear I'd imagine.
Josh Hall from Duluth, Minn. submitted this:
The first year I went to the BWCA I saw a black bear. My cousin and
I were fishing from shore, while the others were in the canoes fishing.
I went up to the campfire to get a different hook from my tackle box. My
cousin was on the side of the campfire where he could see the woods. When
I was tying my hook he said there was a bear behind me. I thought he was
just kidding so I told him to shut up. He said it a couple of more times
before I looked. I saw a big black bear and it was only about ten to fifteen
feet away. We left the fire and sat next to the lake. He checked out the
camp and kept walking through. I'm glad he didn't decide to check us out!
(Josh--ALL bears look big when seen unexpectedly from 10 feet
away! Jim D.)
This story was sent to me by Deb Mueller (Debmuel@aol.com).
I think it points out what can happen when bears become too accustomed
to being around people to the point where they lose their natural fear.
Though this family did everything right as far as hanging their food and
trying to discourage the animal, clearly not everyone else in the past
had been as careful.
Wanted to share our closest ( and only scary) bear encounter with you.
During the summer of 1996 (I think) my husband and I were camped on Lac
LaCroix, before heading out to Moose river to go home. This was our
last night of a two week trip, and we were getting tired. At shortly
after dusk we retired to our tent. (The curfew was being vigorously
enforced by the air-patrol that evening.) Just as we began to settle
in, we heard someone come trotting into our camp. Seeing we had a
bear visiting, we began our usual racket to scare her off. What we
hadn't seen was that she had three cubs with her, which she proceeded to
tree while she continued to explore our camp looking for food. She
showed absolutely no fear of us as she made her rounds. She first
looked around the fire grate, and then checked under the canoe. Fortunately
we have always been very careful to hang our foodpack out of reach, so
she was disappointed. However, she persisted in wandering about our
camp, even walking around our two man tent,placing us between her and the
cubs. She stayed for over an hour, came back around 2 am and sunrise
for repeat performances, and then again as we were making breakfast.
What frightened us about this encounter was her complete lack of fear of
people and obvious knowledge of usual camper mistakes (such as putting
the food pack under the canoe). That she was willing to stay in the
camp with her cubs(!) for extended periods, repeatedly, left us very concerned
for their futures and the safety of others using this campsite. We
did report this encounter to rangers the next day, but don't know what
actions, if any were taken regarding this potential problem bear.
So, you thought you had an unusual
animal encounter. Think again. Check out William Alpaugh's
Brent Lake, Quetico, experience. Submitted October, 2000.
Well let me tell you about a
very interesting encounter I had with a bear while camping on Brent Lake
in Quetico.
I was eating dinner, another
meal of fresh walleye fillets...when out of the bush came a big black bear.
To say the least I was a little perturbed. It had been a long day,
I was tired and very hungry. The bear, having smelled the fillets
himself, was obviously very interested . He stalked around
the campsite grunting, huffing and
puffing waving his arms,
but I just kept eating. He stopped that abruptly when he seen
I wasn't going to stop eating. Then he began to bang my pots and
pans together to try to scare me off, but I just kept eating.
Finally, he offered to wrestle me for the fillets. I was feeling
pretty good about myself having got up to Brent Lake in
just three days so I took him
up on it. If he wins he gets my fillets, if I win, he
will show me a Blueberry patch not far from camp, this was our deal.
We must of wrestled I would
say for maybe 40 minutes, but in the end he beat me. His technique
was too good, and he got me into one of the new fangled holds.
When he was done he left
with out even saying thank-you, and he washed down the fillets with
the rest of my lemonade, which really wasn't part of the deal,
but I didn't want to seem picky or a sore loser.
Well I can tell you this,
I'll never stay at that campsite again. And to tell you the truth
I didn't report the incident to the rangers because I was too embarrassed
I lost.
All I can say, Bill, as a long-time
Iowa wrestling fan, is that Dan Gable and the hawks would just be shaking
their heads. Next time, maybe arm wrestling would be the better option.
Moose
Cheryl
Smrekar wrote in March, 1999:
A friend and (I) were
driving down the Gunflint Trail December, 1998.
We rounded a corner and there
in front of us stood a cow and calf. We
stopped about 50 feet from them
and watched them for about 5 minutes.
Two different cars passed on
the road and each time the moose ran into
the woods but came back within
seconds of the car passing. A car came
from behind us, honking it's
horn and both moose ran into the woods, the
calf scrambling, slipping and
sliding to get off the road. but again,
they returned. As I got
out to take a picture, I noticed a sign
directly next to the calf.
The sign read "moose viewing trail!" The
two finally ran off into the
woods and we drove on. within the next
mile, we were lucky enough to
see 2 more cows, one with a calf and a
bull. The bull was the
only one to run away from us !! Noticed he only
had one half of his antlers.
Would have been fun to find the other
half.
Martin Richards of Dubuque, Iowa, writes
about his experience from August, 1998.
My family and I were so anxious to get back to the Northwoods
this past
August that we departed for the Ely area from Dubuque,
Iowa at 6:00 PM with
servere thunderstorms forcast for the area. The primary
problem with this
plan is that it takes 10 hours of travel during daylight
to make the trip.
I'm not sure we planned out what we were going to do
upon arriving in Ely
at 4:00 or 5:00 AM.
Not to worry however Mother Nature found the answer for
us upon arriving in
The Superior WI area at 1:30 AM ( on schedule mind you)
we ran into a
terrible fog problem. It was so dense and I was so tired
that we pulled
into a rest area along Rte 61 on the Lake Superior Shore
north of Duluth
and went to sleep. This stop was to be the reason for
a most interesting
Moose encounter.
After I had slept for two hours in the car I awoke much
refreshed and the
fog had lifted a great deal. We continued our drive to
Highway 1 and the
Ely area. We drove steadly through the very early morning
and I began to
watch closely for moose as we entered the Finland and
Isabella areas. No
moose to be seen. As we got closer to Ely I began to
think more of
breakfast at one of the local cafes and was paying less
attention to the
roadsides. As we rounded a bend a great big surprise
was there in front of
me. A 2 or 3 year old bull moose in the middle of the
road and he wasn't
interested in moving. As I stopped the car and stopped
sleeping body parts
from flying around the big fella just watched.
As my family woke up and saw the moose he became somewhat
interested in us
and moved towards the car As I began to back up trying
to watch for traffic
he can on faster. When I stopped he stopped. Many thoughts
crossed my mind,
as you might imagine. After what seemed to be eons he
proudly strode off
the road and into the nearby marsh. The most amazing
part of the story is
that not one car can from either direction during the
15 minutes that we
and the moose observed each other.
All in all moose encounters are always exciting but this
one was even more
so. Needless to say we had a great trip and are planning
1999.
This offering, "Ms. Moose", was sent by Tom and Holley
Klune of Chisholm, Mn. kb0mhe@the-bridge.net
While camping on Fall Lake north of Ely,Mn., I noticed we were getting
low on firewood. While the wife was taking her afternoon 'siesta', I ventured
to an island and found all the firewood you could use. Returning back to
camp with a canoe full of firewood, my wife was awake and sitting by the
campfire.'Boy did I find a great spot to get firewood' , I told her. "Let's
go back for more!" Back to the spot on the island we went. I just got out
of the canoe and picked up my first piece of wood, when my wife whispers
"get back in the canoe!" After asking 'Why" , and her telling me a couple
more times, I got back in. A large cow moose (who was lying in the brush
15 feet from me ) stood up! We paddled out from shore a bit and sat to
watch her. (Of course,my camera was back at camp!) When ms. moose stopped
moving her ears and etc and got very quiet and still, we decided it was
probably time to leave! To all outdoor men and women--DONT FORGET YOUR
CAMERA! WE SURE DON'T ANYMORE!! See you on the waterways and portages!
This is an offering of my own.
I was fishing with my brother on a still, foggy morning. We were just floating
when we saw moose feeding ahead of us. We drifted silently until we were
about 20 feet from a cow. My brother, in the bow, got a little nervous
and finally said "Hi, Mr. Moose". The moose lifted her head, turned and
decided to eat elsewhere.
This story is offered by Shawn Kelly, a senior at
the University of Wisconsin--La Crosse. One night, about 10:30,
I was biking on the Gunflint Trail. I had been visiting a friend at Rockwood
Lodge, a pretty good bike ride, especially at night, especially at night
and in the middle of nowhere. It was pitch black out, I mean so dark you
could hardly see your hand in front of your face. As I was biking along,
I heard a familiar, "clip - clop, clip - clop." All I could think was,
"I know that's not a horse- wow!" A moose! Rather than using my head, I
started pedaling faster to see if I could actually get a good look at him.
As the story goes, the faster I pedaled, the faster the, "clip - clop,"
went. Pretty soon, there I was, pedaling my bike as hard as I could down
the Gunflint Trail, chasing a moose! This was better than any dream I could've
had! Finally, I could see him, and it seemed at this point he either got
tired of the game or he realized it was just a pukey little human chasing
him. At any rate, the moose stopped, and so did I. For what seemed like
an eternity, we stared at each other, not more than 20 - 25 feet away,
his ominous black shadow and my trembling wreck of a body. I don't know
what an angry moose looks like, but if I had to describe it, it would be
just the way this one looked. I went into total panic. My heart was going
to pound out of my chest! I figured then that I had better do something
to save my hide, just in case he had any funny ideas, and the only thing
I could think to do other than pedal the other way was scream.... So I
did. Loud. And I kept screaming. Ahhhhhhhh! You won't want to print this,
but I swear that moose shit his pants right then and there, because he
was gone, off in the woods taking trees down as he went before I got my
second scream off. After I got over the initial shock, I think I laughed
for a good 5 minutes straight. The whole scene of myself, "a grown man
(21 years - however you want to classify that)" screaming at the top of
my lungs at this moose out in the middle of the woods, I laugh every time
I think about it. So much for macho. So much for Grizzly Adams and being
one with nature. I was scared, and I am forever grateful that no one was
there to witness my complete cowardice that night (although I contend it
was a good decision on my part, most get a good chuckle out of the thought
of my screaming for my life).
This encounter is described by Doug Mulley, from
Kenosha, Wisconsin.
While portaging between Upper and Lower Pauness Lakes, I noticed
several moose tracks in the mud pools in steps created by roots in the
sloped trail. Some of them had not filled with water as many of them had,
so I knew that the tracks were relatively fresh. As we came around a slight
bend in the trail, a long, flat stretch of the trail came into view from
behind a brush curtain. I happened to look up over my dad's shoulder to
see how much further Lower Pauness was down the trail to see a large cow
moose standing in the trail only about 20 feet ahead of us. She appeared
just as surprised as we were to see her. It seemed like an eternity that
we just stared at each other. Finally, she broke the stand-off and went
off crashing through the brush. It took several minutes to recover from
the surprise encounter.
Other
They say mosquitoes in Minnesota grow
bigger than elsewhere. I don't know about that, but they sure bring
a lot of friends when they visit. This entry by Cindy Butze of Blaine,
Mn., confirms this.
My fiancée and I go up to the Boundary Waters every year. 2 years
ago (2000) while we were fishing on Cummings Lake, we heard a loud buzzing
noise. We thought it was a swarm of bees, we looked ahead of us and there
was a swarm of about 2,000 mosquitoes. They buzzed about 3 feet above our
heads. We were so scared they were going to attack. We slowly paddled away
from them, but they followed us, so we started paddling faster and faster
back to our campsite. We got about 15 feet from shore and they came down
at us. All we could do was jump in the water, flip our canoe and hide under
it. We hid there for about 15 minutes to make sure they were gone, and
they were. Never seen anything like that before or since.
I have to share this little tale of
my "encounter" with a fearsome mink.
We were coming out of Daniels' Lake on the portage to West Bearskin. We
had several nice bass that I slipped into the water while we finished getting
our gear and taking a little snack break. One of the kids began yelling
near the lake's edge and I ran over to check it out. A mink had one of
the bass in its mouth and was tugging with all its might trying to pull
it off the stringer. It was darn near succeeding! I grabbed a paddle and
hoped to scare it off with a show of force. It wasn't impressed and before
I knew it I started having the feeling it would abandon its quest for the
fish and go after bigger game--namely, me! I backed off a bit, and finally
managed to grab the end of the stringer and run off with the fish when
it momentarily released them. We waited awhile for it to give up its search
for the missing fish before we headed out.
Jim Davis
Brad Irving, of New Concord, Ohio, writes...
I was in Quetico with a church group trip July 16, 1996. Our route
took us through North Bay, to Lake Agnes, then back down to Moose. On a
water break in the inlet of Jeff Lake going NE to East lake in the distance
we saw a grown bald eagle coming our way. It kept getting closer and cloer
until it flew five feet over our heads. Once over us, it took a big loop
up, and came back and perched on a dead tree to pose for photographs. After
posing for photos, and lightening its load (of feces), it took flight again
and spotted a seagull's nest about 500 meters in the distance. The mother
of the nest was doing everything it could to protect its eggs, but with
the laws of nature and survival its the way it goes. Our group in awe still
remembers the grace of its flight. And also the demonstration of a kill
or be killed world out there.
This interesting beaver tale is brought to you
by Howard Caplan .
He writes:
Last June I took a solo trip. I entered through Baker Lake and my
intention was to go north for quite a distance and circle back around through
lakes whose names I am not recalling now. I got to Wierd Lake and between
liking the name of the lake and the small waterfall at the outlet of the
lake, I decided to set a base camp there.
Immediately upon entering Wierd, I saw a beaver, busily working from one
end of the lake to another, adding fresh branches to his house. The house
was in a small bay not more than 1000 yards from my camp, but around the
bend, so I could not see it from the camp. After I unloaded my gear, I
took a cruise around the perimeter of Wierd. I entered the Beavers' bay,
but steared a wide berth around the house. On my third day, I got back
from my travels early in the afternoon, and spent the rest of the day just
observing the beaver going back and forth with a full load toward his house
and deadheading the other way to the felled tree across the lake.
I started dinner early as the bugs were getting awful and I wanted a smoky
fire to keep them down. (it didn't work). By dusk, I was going crazy with
bugs, so I jumped into my canoe and started paddling as fast as I could
to create a breeze. I paddled into the Beavers' Bay and feeling half nuts
with bugs, went very close to the house. Remember, I was half nuts. I called
to the beaver to come out and play and then paddled out of the bay.
It was still partially light as I sat on the rocks overlooking the lake.
I was staring straight out across the lake when I noticed a "log" about
100 yards away. I glanced out a moment later and the "log" turned into
my beaver, on a suicide torpedo style mission, heading right for me. He
got within 50 feet of my camp before he veared off, turned and with a splash
of his tail, disappeared.
I was alone and half crazed by the bugs, but I swear, that Beaver, did
to me and my house, exactly what I did to him and his house. My respect
for this noble rodent grew that evening. My friends, who I tell this story
to, are convinced that I was alone too long. That may be.
