Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road / On The Road – BarcaChicago – Off the Gunflint Trail/Boundary Waters

On The Road – BarcaChicago – Off the Gunflint Trail/Boundary Waters

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BarcaChicago

I grew up from a very young age going on canoe trips through the Boundary Waters and Quetico with my father and brother. Eventually, my father bought land In the Superior National Forest off the Gunflint Trail, on Greenwood Lake. After using very impressive machinery to dig a well (the experts of course, not us) and building a house with two stories of windows facing the lake, we are extremely fortunate to have a beautiful house in the wilderness. It is one of my favorite places in the world. Moose, wolves, bears, pine martens, foxes, lynx, loons, eagles, osprey, and a mind-boggling array of birds. I always go at peak spring migration and can just sit in one place and see about 15 different kinds of warblers. It’s an official dark sky area, where you can see the entire Milky Way. It’s incredible and we love it dearly.

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On The Road - BarcaChicago - Off the Gunflint Trail/Boundary Waters

Reader Interactions

26Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    You’re quite good at composition.

    I suspect we’ll be seeing those lake shots in the side bar soon.

  4. 4.

    MagdaInBlack

    You have tapped into my envy gene: Gunflint Trail area is one of my happy places. Is this a year round home? If so I’m even more envious =-)

    p.s. Thank you for the beautiful Lady’s Slippers.

  10. 10.

    narya

    Have you read William Kent Krueger’s novels? His Cork O’Connor series is set in that part of the world. Your photos confirm what the novels made me think, that it would be beautiful up there.

  11. 11.

    mvr

    These are great!

    Is the last shot of a pine martin?  We have them in the rockies in Southern Wyoming where I built a very tiny cabin.  But I mostly have seen them in winter and usually just their tracks.

    Must be very nice to have a place on the water with good window views!

  16. 16.

    Old School

    I went camping/canoeing in the Boundary Waters multiple times as a teenager.  These photos take me back.  Thanks for sharing!

  17. 17.

    MazeDancer

    Beautiful photos!

    What is a dial-up from envy for having a house in such a scrumptious location? Covet? Long for?

    Whatever the verb, can join with crowd exhibiting it. And lucky you!

    Going to assume it has voracious mosquitos all Summer to feel better.

  18. 18.

    BarcaChicago

    Thank you, everyone, for the kind comments!

    • The mosquitoes up here are something else – I have had to wear a head net at times, usually in spring, to even be outside. But September/October are pretty much bug-free – a great time to go.
    • We are so happy to have the Lady’s Slippers! They are making a comeback apparently.
    • That IS a pine Martin! We leave out loads of sunflower seeds at a couple points in front of the house and everyone eats them – foxes, pine martins, red squirrels and chipmunks, along with the birds. Luckily no bears….
    • The main obstacle to going in deep winter is access: it’s a rough logging road to the lake, and the smaller road to our place has a very steep incline – getting snowed in is an issue.
    • I’m about to leave for a two week trip. Did I say we have no cell service/internet? We will be getting it in as soon as the grant-funded broadband crew gets to our place (probably next spring) but it definitely is a place to get away from the current horrors of our American reality…
    • Yes, I obsessively document the constantly changing sky show from this point on the lake. It never fails to thrill me.
  22. 22.

    R'Chard

    I camped at Iron Lake, my happy place, several times around 1990. Back then you could just wander in, if you made it that far. Heard wolves howling at night, saw a moose swimming across the lake, got bluff-charged by a mama ruffed grouse… good times.

  23. 23.

    BigJimSlade

    Beautiful! Y’all do fish fries up there? (I’ve been to some in WI, quite a while back.)

  24. 24.

    Pavlov’s Man

    I’ve been camping on both sides – Boundary Waters and Quetico. They have radically different forest ‘management’ policies in the two (or had, as this was 30 years ago.) On this side, they cleared a fallen tree from a portage trail, some camp sites had grates for cooking, more camp sites and people allowed per square area, as well latrines. Also, more people allowed than in Quetico. In Quetico, if a tree fell, they let it be – folks had to climb over them. Quetico was wilder, the critters less wary of humans and all in all, SO much better.

    Wolves’ howling is hauntingly beautiful – I guess from the perspective of a human safe from them…

    I’m glad I went then as getting permits was so much easier than now.

  25. 25.

    S Cerevisiae

    Great photos from my old stomping grounds, I grew up in Grand Portage and went to high school in Grand Marais. I’ve been up on the Greenwood Lake Road many times and love to stop at Trail Center for a malt.

  26. 26.

    Embra

    I’m behind in reading some posts; so glad I caught this one. In high school some 55 years ago I went to the YMCA Camp Menogyn on Bearskin Lake which served as base for week-long wilderness canoe camping. These lovely photos help bring back some very fond memories. Thank you!

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