The Cook County news-herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Cook County, Minn.) 1909-current, 1922-11-09

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through Hungry Jack, lake, COM
Portable portage of some $50 yards
leads into West Bearskin. The i'm
pressive beauty of the scenery imme
diately becomes apparent. TOWERING:
rocky hills-almost deserving to be
called mountains-rise abruptly from
the lake shores All are clothed with
the virgin forest which has never
been desecrat ted by the woodlands
axe or swept by destructive fires.
White pine, Norway and iackpine.
balsam, spruce and cedar in varying
shades Of green form a BACKGROUND
for the brilliant yellow Of the autumn
birch and poplar, a more gorgeous
touch being given here and there bv
dash Of color-various shades of
red and Orange-Where heavily laden
mountain ash display it's fruit, or
maple. or sumac exhibit their warmer
| hues.
After Wet Beorskin comes Dun
can lake. in some respects the most
beautiful of them all, then down the
, famous StairWv portage where the
water drops about 800 feet in as
| many yards into Rose lake in a sue
ces'5ion of cataracts and rocky
tslope5.
The scene on entering Rose lake
is Impressive. On the left is per
pendlculAr cliff rising hundreds Of
feet direct from the water, and op-
poslte, down the international boun-
diary. are the jagged, sawtooth
peaks OF the ridges separating the
intervening waters.
The lakes are for the most part
very deep and cold, and on account
Of low temperature and rocky
bottoms have little vegetation. The
most common varieties Of FISK found
in them are the AXE trout and nor
thern pike, aS we'll as some whitefish
and perch. There are few if any
bass, crappies or sunfsh and, strange
to say, no Wall-eyod pike. The trout
is the most valuable and most high
Iy priced of the fish found. We
caught what fish we required but
found they were not easily taken.
Passing on from Rose lake. through,
Rat lake and South lake it grew dark.
but we continued on, portaging into
North lake, and reached the North
| lake ranger station OF the state for
esj service, where we put up for the
night. We observed that the ''divide'
or watershed lies between South and
! North lakes, though only a few rods
between, the waters Of the former
going into the Pigeon river and Lake
Superior, and the latter finding their
way by devious routes into Hudson
bay.
After a refreshing rest at the
ranger station we continued next
morning through North lake, Little
GunFlint, and into Gunflint. Here
we encountered 4. strong head wind
| with eight miles of real labor ahead
! Of Us. Resting and making tea on
charming sand beach about midway
up the lake on the Canadian side
| (Sanh beaches are as scarce as hens
teeth up here) we made the outlet
IN tn" afternoon slipped through into
Magnetic lake and on down the Gran
ito river toward the north. through
succession Of rapids, to Little Rock
portage, where we camped for the
night. resting on an improvised bed
Of halSam and sleeping the sleep of
weary paddlers-on Canadian soil
| should say Canadian rocks.
We continued down the Granite
liver the next day over Wooden
Horse portage, which should be re-
christened "Rocky Horse to con-
form to it's character, the difficult
portage on the route. Saganaga
axe was our objective for the day,
and we FASTENED on through Gneiss
lake, Glove lake, Marabeouf lake and
the connecting stretches of the Gran
lite river until we emerged about 4
o'clock in the afternoon into mag
nificent Saganaga with it's 800 unde-
filed pine-clad islands. Camping in
the midst of the lake and on one of
these charming islands we remained
Antil noon the next day thoroughly
enjoying tho constantly changing
beauty of the scene. Here is the
heart CT a country which has not yet
been spoiled by numbering and which
should by all means be- taken over by
federal or state government and held
for all time in it's virgin condition as
a national or state park.
The return journey covered the
same route. The second night of the
return trip was spent in camp on the
sand beach of Gunflint lake, above
referred to. During the night WEI
were visited by two moose. bear, a
deer, and several smaller animals,
the tracks eff which were plainly re-
corded on the sand in the morning,
only a few rods from our tent It
may seem strange that we did not see
| any big game on. the trip, but did
see many signs in the forest and
| sWamps where short tours were made.
At this season, of the year the large
game animals. do not frequent the
water for food or protection form in
sect pests as they do in the earlier
summer.
Of special interest to me was the
bird life of the region. The ruffed
grouse or Partridge were everywhere,
and in places the Canadian spruce
rtridge seemed almost as abundant.
The pileated woodpecker was very
common, but other swoodpeckers,
save an occasional Arctic three-toed,
were scarce The nine SicL;n Ir,oc 4ho