This race has captured the imagination of Minnesota paddlers because of the mystique of the Quetico Wilderness. Who among us has not paddled through Agnes, Basswood, Kawnipi or Yum Yum? Who has not dreamed of the Hunter's Island route? Here in two days, an intrepid pack of modern canoe racers took up the challenge of a cross-Quetico race and return over a single weekend.

Joe Webmaster

Hey Joe Webmaster, here's our race summary:

The race start Saturday Morning, 6am, was what one might expect for such a long ride. Nobody went too fast right away. Kjell and I pressed a little bit in the French River because Kjell wanted to show me his special shortcut for the trip back without an audience--if it was needed for the trip back. Everyone knew we weren't going anywhere, so they hung back. We waited and the canoes formed up a pack once we got out onto Pickerel Lake.

The trip across Pickerel was long but easy, as the temperature was in the low 60's with no wind or sun. Perfect racing weather. Eleven canoes packed up and made their way to the first portage into Dore Lake. With the recent rains and lack of wind the mosquitoes were in rare form making the portage rather nasty with the front canoes kicking up all the bugs. Dozens were on both arms and legs during the crossing.

About 9 canoes packed together for the trip down Deux Riviere, where James Burns, a Quetico park ranger, promised us a moose sighting. Alas, no moose to be seen this time. In this pack were Kjell & I, James & Dusty, Todd & Kate, Al & Tim, Bob & Steve, Fred & Darcy, Steve & Dan, & others. We found some shallow water on Russell Lake behind an island where we all had to get out and run. Al jumped back in the canoe, started paddling with Tim chasing him down. It was pretty funny.

Dusty showed off his trail-running skills on the next portage, a 350 meter trot ending with a steep, rocky descent into Keats Lake. It was all Kjell and I could do to keep up, yet double carrying the canoe saved us lots of time on the transitions, and it was a little faster where the footing wasn't quite so treacherous. We made our break in Keats, making sure to get out first at the portage into Baird and running the portage hard. Al & Tim almost got out ahead of Dusty there, but Dusty found a hole and got ahead of them before the trail narrowed. We opted for the Baird, Metacryst, and Cutty lake route. Some others took the longer Shelly lake route with less fearsome portages.

It quickly became clear this race was as much a track meet and orienteering race as it was a canoe race. Stock canoes in deep water will go about 6.2mph with 100% effort, and about 5.9mph with 50% effort. There's not much to be gained from pressing at 100% for long periods of time when minutes can be lost on each portage, and much more time can be lost when you're…well…lost. James & Dusty were the perfect pairing for this race, as James is a Quetico park ranger and Dusty is an ultra-marathon runner, cross country skier, and ex-bike racer.

We led the way pressing through Baird, Metacryst, and Cutty with James telling us where to go. When we'd get out first to run the portages, Dusty would trot behind us with the canoe and call out "Can you go a little faster?" when we were going as fast as we could go. Sick! There's a hidden corner on the south end of Cutty lake where you have to take a sharp left, then a sharp right. That corner is difficult to find with just map and compass, and we wanted to reach that point without the other teams seeing us.

The trip down Sark, Keefer & Kashapiwi was uneventful, with the dreaded Yum Yum portage coming up next. Yum Yum wasn't too bad, except the steep scramble down the rock face near the Yum Yum end. Portage from Yum Yum to Grey was fine, but the next one from Grey into Unnamed was pretty ugly. You go through a very wet meadow, where both Kjell and I spent quality time up to our armpits in the mud. Kjell was a bit irate when one dive into the mud featured a large stick testing his virility. We still don't know how James made it across unscathed, the dirty rat.

We stayed together through Shade Lake, West & South, then down a small river leading into North Bay (Basswood), into Burke, then into Bayley Bay where we finished the day in just under 12 hours.

Fred & Darcy had a good day, finishing third with Steve & Dan hot on their tail.

It was getting close to dark when Al & Tim and Kate & Todd finished. We expected them to finish ahead of Fred, but they missed the portage from North Bay to Burke to the west and wound up going back & forth on the south shore of North Bay for 1 1/2 hours looking for the portage into Burke. Ouch!

Three teams trickled in after dark. Not much rest for them as they needed to grab some dinner, pitch tents, and get a quick few hours of sleep before the 5am wakeup Sunday.

Sunday dawned cloudy and cool as well. We had about 12 boats packed up before the portage into Sunday Lake. Kjell & I got out first with the memory of mosquitoes very fresh, but Kjell had too much for breakfast and couldn't run very well. We pulled over when Dusty said "Can you run a little faster?" We put in 15 seconds behind them and it took us about 10 minutes to catch them on Sunday Lake. So much for pulling them all day. Two more long portages brought us to Agnes, which is a monster…a pretty monster but still a monster. It's imposing because it's big (probably 15 miles end to end) and some parts are two miles wide. Long stretches of steep banks and few rocky islands with no cover make Agnes a real hazard with any wind at all. We felt fortunate to have none during our traverse.

Kawnipi was the next lake, another long one we covered on the far west side. More cover, but still a really long stretch. The rapids to Shelly Lake were a riot. James and Dusty went first with shouted instructions to us to go from left to right to avoid the haystacks. Somehow they managed to go right through the heavy stuff and swamped their boat and wound up going in circles in a back eddy with nowhere to get out. We stopped and checked for floating gear, and had to do some tricky maneuvers to keep ourselves out of trouble. Dusty found a ledge to stand on to empty the boat, and they were off again. James said "I'll be happy to answer any more questions about shooting the rapids…"

A short portage got us into Alice for the second checkpoint. The two longest portages were next - Bonhomme and Sauvage. Bonhomme wasn't too bad, a little twisty with us double carrying, but Kjell & I were now getting pretty good coordinating each end of the canoe. The Sauvage was another story---1690 meters of pure torture. Both our legs were starting to get a little wobbly after 8 hours in the boat. Slipped on a rock in a mud puddle somewhere in the middle and went down face first. Fortunately nothing broken, but lost my glasses. After an endless 17 minutes, we reached Fern Lake. Bud, Beg, Bisk, and Pickerel followed with short portages up around picturesque waterfalls.

The trip across Pickerel was…hot. A light west tailwind left us in a bubble we could not escape. Had to dunk my hat in the drink many times to keep cool. Finally reached French River and we stepped on it when James started singing "Rocky Racoon".

Dan & Steve from Ely finished third about 15 minutes ahead of Fred, who took a wrong turn on Alice Lake. Al & Tim and Kate & Todd finished with them.

Al was suffering from several cracked ribs after a fall on Sauvage. Keith and John had a pretty good day too. They were a little faster on the water than the young Atikokan team of Branwen & Holly, but slower on the portages. Keith & John would pass the girls on the water, then stand aside on the portages as they ran by. Keith's footing isn't what it was in his younger days and he would stumble here and there. Branwen was kind enough to go back to pick him up and dust him off when that happened. Branwen said after the race she lost count of the number of times she went back to check on him, and wasn't entirely sure Keith wasn't faking it after awhile. The girls dumped them for good later at the Shelly Lake rapids when Keith & John went through the rapids down the middle and filled their boat.

James Burns, Chris Stromberg, Elizabeth Fiore, and several others did a fantastic job of selling the concept to their supervisors and handling the daunting logistics. Our gear was flown down to Prairie Portage, and checkpoints had to be equipped with tents & food for those who didn't make the cutoffs. They worked with sponsors, and took care of all the unseen details that made the race the success it was.

Joe Manns