BWCA.net, Your Guide to Ely and The Boundary Waters Canoe Area

My last lake.

My daughter wanted to swim this one with me and we did.  I’ve never been to this lake.  There is a beautiful beach and little hiking area.   When we got to the lake I walked right out and jumped in.  My daughter inched out slowly.  After all of the years of watching me sit on the shore she couldn’t believe that I just jumped in.  I guess after 50 lakes in 50 days I’ve turned into a true Minnesotan swimmer!

This goal was fun!   Most days I hiked or biked to the different lakes and some days I found one while on a drive.  Almost never did I actually plan the lake ahead of time.  Each day was a new adventure.  Towards the end it became really challenging because of the amount of time it was beginning to take to get to these lakes.  All of the easy to get to lakes that are close to my house have been used up on days when I didn’t have much time.  Although there are still many, many lakes within 20 miles of my house, it would take me hours each day to continue to swim in a new lake every day. 

For the next 50 days I am going to continue to swim every day in a lake.  I’m just going to go back to all of my favorites.

I’ve never been to this lake in all of the time I’ve lived in Ely.  It’s a big lake and I’ve always wanted to visit it.  There is nice hiking trail that is about 25 kilometers that starts close by.  I want to come back and do an overnight hike here in late September when the leaves are changing.

This is a favorite ski lake for me so I wanted to swim here at some point.  I have now swum in most, if not every, lake I’ve skied on in Ely that is accessible by foot, bike or car.  I would have to go through these lakes by canoe to get to other lakes that I’ve skied on.

Swam in Lake Vermilion on the way to Virginia today.  I followed the Hoodoo point exit off of 169.  I would never have gone there if I didn’t have this goal.  Everybody from this area should be able to say they swam in Lake Vermilion.

 

I have ridden my bike down the Fernberg by this lake many times.  Today I rode past it a few times looking for a way to get to it.  I couldn’t figure out how to get to it.  I finally got off of my bike and started bushwhacking my way to it and ended up getting wet up to my waist.  I backtracked and tried again at another place and made it a little bit farther.  I realized that this was as good as it was going to get and pressed on even though I was getting more wet and muddy with each step.  I waded through the high grass or whatever it was until I finally made it to the lake.  I tried to take my jacket, sweatshirt and clothes off in order to swim and they ended up sinking into the wet marsh.  It was just like the name implied—pea soup.  After my mud bath, I put on my wet sweatpants, shoes, socks, sweatshirt and jacket and headed back to the road.  I got on my bike and started my return trip to Ely.  By the time I made it home (about 12-14 miles) my sweat pants had completely dried.  This lake takes the cake for my worst experience so far.  My friend Sarah suggested this lake.  I didn’t think she would lead me astray.  It turns out that she was just kidding.  The laugh is on me I guess.

The weather took a turn yesterday and the temperature has dropped drastically.  It is also very windy today.  As my friend Kitty and I sat in my car with the heater on high, we wondered what we were doing out today.  We finally got the nerve to run to the water and jump in.  The water was no colder than yesterday and we ended up grateful that we had come out.  We probably swam for 20 minutes.

I saved this lake for a party I was invited to at my friend Sarah’s today.  She sets more goals for me than I do myself.  For some reason I feel challenged by her goals and in the past these goals have taught me many news things and have provided many new adventures.  She is the one who challenged me to do a triathlon this year.  This goal led me to this goal of swimming in 50 lakes in 50 days.  

About 50 people attended this party.  We participated in fun, competitive events all day including swims, canoe races, cannonball contests, Duluth pack races, cupcake races in the water, 1 kilometer walk, egg tosses and more.  Fun, fun day.  I rode my bike and swam in the 200 yard swim. 

This lake is the last lake I ski on in the spring.  It is such a big lake that it stays frozen very late into the spring.  The sad day of my last ski this year was April 16.  As much as I absolutely love summer here in Ely, I don’t know if I love it more than fall, winter or spring.  Each season has so many fun things to do outside here.

This lake is about a seven mile bike ride from my house and another one of my favorite winter skiing lakes.  It’s the first lake I usually ski on because it freezes fast and early.  It turned out to be a nice swimming lake ,too.  While I was out swimming, a kayak was coming into the landing.  I met a new friend that was camping at the Birch Lake campground for the summer.   We talked for a while and she took my picture with my new bike.

After swimming at Farm Lake the other day I felt a need to swim in some of the lakes I skied on this winter.  Moose Lake was my entry point into the Boundary Waters.  I skied through Moose Lake, Newfound Lake, Sucker Lake, Prairie Portage, Inlet Bay, Basswood Lake, up to US Point, through Wind Bay and Wind Lake and back to Moose Lake.  Many days I skied some variation of this.  It was the highlight of March and April for me.   I swam for 15 minutes and was still close to where I started.  Kind of disappointing after skiing all those miles.

Another lake on the Highway 21 to Babbitt.  I used to take my dog to this lake when I made trips to the dump years ago.  This was my first time back there in years.  It’s a pretty lake.