Our 2008 “Round Robin” Trip
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008submitted by: Bob Evans
Our first trip of 2008 took us to a total of 14 pictograph sites around the periphery of Quetico and in the Boundary Waters. To complete our series of Northwoods Pictograph Bulletins, we committed to revisiting every site we have visited in the past to check the accuracy of our photographs and records, and to visit the few remaining sites we had not yet visited.
We began our trip from Oklahoma City up I-35 to Grand Marais, Minnesota, and the Gunflint Trial. Our plan was a day trip to the Sea Gull Lake site in the U.S., and a one-night trip to the Cache Bay pictograph site in Canada. At the end of the Cache Bay trip, while awaiting our tow, we made contact with another group who gave us information about a pictograph site about which we had not previously known. This part of the trip is detailed in blog entry “Round Robin Trip Part I” to follow.
On leaving the Gunflint Trail, we traveled north into Ontario to French Lake for a one-night trip. This entry point offers some beautiful paddling and we wanted to take our time and photograph some of the scenery along the way. This was a rest day and was the one entry point with no close pictographs. We needed to visit this entry point to complete the Quetico Quest.
On our exit the following morning we checked into the Atikokan Hotel for three days. We had planned some library research and to meet friends who were joining us for our next part of the trip. This part of the trip is detailed in blog entry “Round Robin Trip Part II.”
For the third part of this trip, we entered at Beaverhouse Lake, and visited seven pictograph sites along the route from Beaverhouse, through Quetico, Cirrus and McAlpine lakes. We also visited Sue Falls for the first time. Read blog entry “Round Robin Trip part III.”
We then traveled back into the U.S. to Crane Lake. We towed to near the north end of Argo Lake for a three-night trip, and visited the pictograph sites in Argo, Darkwater (formerly Darky Lake), and Crooked Lakes. The Crooked Lake site we had not visited before.
Lastly we traveled to Ely to visit several outfitters and spend some time with our friends at Williams and Hall on Moose Lake. While here, we took a day trip to the pictograph site on North Hegman Lake. Read blog entry “Round Robin Trip part IV” about this part of the trip.
Tags: Argo Lake, Atikokan, Atikokan Hotel, Beaverhouse Lake, Cache Bay, Cirrus Lake, Crane Lake, Crooked Lake, Darkwater Lake, Darky Lake, Ely, French Lake, Grand Marais Minnesota, Gunflint Trail, McAlpine Lake, North Hegman Lake, Ontario, pictograph, Quetico Lake, Sea Gull Lake, Sue Falls