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

~ ee'o!o Pot gage Ol SOME ooO yafQS
leads into West Bearskin. The i'm
presslve, beauty of the scenery imme-
d1ately becomes apparent. Towering
rocky hills-almost deserving to be
| called mountains abruptly from
the lake shores. All are clothed with
the virgin forest which has never
been desecrated by the woodlands
axe or swept by destructive fires
White pine, Norway and iackpine,
Ebalsam, spruce and cedar in varying
shades Of green form background
for the brilliant yellow of the autumn
birch and poplar, more gorgeous
touch being given here and there bv
a 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 West Bearskin comes Dun
can lake, in some respects the most
! beautiful of them all, then down the
famous StairWy portage where the
water drops about 800 feet in as
| many yards into Rose lake in a sue
| cession of cataracts and rocky
tslopes.
The scene on entering Rose lake
is impressive. On the left is a per-
pendicular cliff rising hundreds of
feet direct from the water, and op-
posite, 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 fish found
in them are the lake trout and nor
thern pike, as' we'll as some whitefish
and perch. There are few if any
bass, crappies or sunfish and, strange
to say, no wall-eyed pike. The trout
is the most valuable and most high
ly 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 sreached the North
lake ranger station OF the state for
EST 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 a. strong head wind
with eight miles of real labor ahead
Of US. Resting and making tea on a
charming sand beach about midway
up the lake on the Canadian side
(sand beaches are as scarce as hens
teeth up here) we made the outlet
in the afternoon slipped through into
Magnetic lake and on down the Gran
lite river toward the north. through
succession Of rapids, to Little Rock
portage, where we camped for the
night, resting on an improvised bed
of balsam and sleeping the sleep of
weary paddlers-on Canadian soil
| should say Canadian rocks.
We continued down the Granite
river the next day over Wooden
Horse portage, which should be re-
christened Rocky Horse to con-
form to its character, the difficult
portage on the route : Saganaga
lake was our objective for the day,
and we hastened 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
nifcent Saganaga with it's 300 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 Of country which has not yet
been spoiled by numbering ana 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. - Z 49,,
The return Journey covered the
| same route. The second night of the
| return trip was spent in-camp on the
sand beach of Cunt lint lake, above
referred to. During the night we
We're visited by two moose q bear, a
deer, and several smaller animals,
| the tracks Of which were plainly re-
corded on the sand in the morning,
| only a few rods from our TENT 1t
may seem strange that we did not see
any big game on the trip, but. did
see nanyssigns in the forest ard
IsWamps where short ltours were made.
/ AT this season Of the year the large
game animals. do not frequent the
water for: food or pfetection form in
sect pests as they do in the earlier
+ summer. IS s.
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
partridge seemed almost as abundant.
The pileated wood pecker was 6 -very
Icommon, but other swoodpeckers,
save an occasional Arctic three-toed,
were scarce. The pine siskin was the
most common bird and the hermit
thrush was frequentIy observed. Dis
Iarpoint nent was experienced iii not
finding the pine grosbeak evening
II