Off the beaten path

But it's not for the faint of heart. If all you're looking for is some base camping and leisurely paddling, stop reading now. Although I, too, delight in the occasional relaxing trip to the BWCA, that isn't the trip I'm about to describe.

This three man, one canoe trip pushed us to our physical limits. But we made it back again with a well earned sense of accomplishment. It was a exploration of parts virtually unknown.

The Forest Service doesn't maintain the portages in these areas, meaning the routes between bodies of water are strewn with beaver dams, downed trees and any number of other obstacles. Lake names in PMA regions include Tick, Spider and Fungus. They don't sugar coat what you're in for there. You better be prepared.

The Sundial region is located southwest of Crooked Lake, an immense river-like lake along the Canadian border. The most challenging part of the Sundial region is a small, grueling stretch along the southern part of the Beartrap River. This is where our route gets exciting. Get yourself a mandatory camping permit and take a full day to make it through. At the end of this day, you'll be happy to rest your weary body in the clear waters of Sunday Lake.

Getting to the Beartrap is no problem. On Day 1, my crew took entered Mudro Lake through Fourtown, Boot, Fairly, Gun and Gull lakes. These are all straight-forward, paddle-and-portages, but by no means boring. We encountered three moose along the way. Two on the portage from Fairy to Gun and one giant bull moose slurping from the bay of Gull Lake. The latter one stared us down, waiting for us to back paddle. When we didn't he resumed slurping his crystal clear beverage.

After Gull Lake, we encountered Mudhole Lake is aptly named. It looks no bigger than a pond and is more like wetlands than a lake. Two of us sunk hip deep in the mud along the shore. After two more beautiful lakes - Thunder and Beartrap - it was time to find the Beartrap River. We strapped on our PFDs and started paddling. This is where things got interesting.

My group cruised the western shore of Beartrap Lake three times, struggling to find the mouth to the river leading to the Sundial PMA. Finally, we floated up to the only place that could possibly match the location of the portage on the map. Staring at a pile of boulders, under which a small trickle of water dripped, one of my traveling partners said what we all were thinking: "This can't be it."

But it was.

Searching the ground-level vegetation, we found a freshly gnawed cluster of trees and a beaver trail to the dam that had reduced the river to a trickle. We hauled our packs out of the canoe and I hoisted the Minnesota 3 We-no-nah Canoe onto my shoulders. After about five steps, I knew we had made a mistake. We should have left the canoe at the outfitters and opted for three solo boats. Plan A wasn't going to work. Even a solo canoe or a kayak would be virtually impossible to maneuver through the trees alone. A Minnesota 3 didn't have a chance.

But the three of us managed. We bent that boat around trees, lifted it vertically and squeezed it through narrow passages. Tree branches scraped against the canoe like fingers on a chalkboard. It was brute force that got it through.

We decided we had probably made it through the worst. And indeed, the trickle of water seemed to open into an actual stream. We doubled back for our packs, returned to the canoe and hopped in. It had been tough, but we were through it.

Then we rounded a bend and groaned simultaneously. More boulders. No water. No portages. That's the thing about Primitive Management Areas. You never know what's coming next.

We sat and stared at what lay in front of us. We discussed turning around but something inside all of us longed to push on. We were really out there where very few people travel. This is what wilderness travel is all about, we decided. So we hauled the canoe onto our shoulders and began bushwhacking.

If we had known what lay ahead, we probably would have turned around. The next seven hours consisted of short paddles followed by strenuous, complicated bushwhacking with a three-person canoe in tow. The mid-summer heat wave made what would have been uncomfortable into something nearly unbearable.

At one point, I plopped onto the ground, put my face in my hands and rested until I could summon the energy to continue. Since the portages aren't marked on the map, we had a hard time agreeing how far up the river we had traveled. Not knowing how much farther we had to go required a kind of mental toughness I wasn't sure I had. Once I found myself in that predicament, there were no other options. We had to press on.

After a swim in a wide section of the river, I felt reenergized. For awhile at least. At the end of the day, the Beartrap River opened into Sunday Lake. It was a view I'll never forget

We were treated to a beautiful campsite on Sunday Lake and a relatively easy paddle to one of the BWCA's best lakes, Iron Lake. We portaged past Curtain Falls, the biggest waterfall in the BWCA, paddled Crooked Lake and made our way back to civilization.

It was a trip that pushed us out of our comfort zone. It required every drop of energy and every bit of effort we had. It made us feel like real adventurers.

Next year, though, I think we'll base-camp.