the border country`s inside story

THE BORDER COUNTRY'S
INSIDE STORY
SELBY N O R H E I M
Millions of Americans are attracted
by the adventure suggested by the
Boundary Waters Canoe Area, thousands enjoy the adjacent campsites and
fringe areas, but few are willing to
sacrifice the time, somewhat excessive
labor and periodic misery necessary to
portage into the remote areas where
the real rewards are found.
The BWCA is like a coconut. Anyone who penetrates the rough exterior
will find tasty meat, delightful camping
areas where tables, fireplace grills and
latrines are provided and where fishing
is good. But anyone willing to bypass
the tasty meat to reach the sweet coconut milk will find cathedral-like forests,
magnificent rivers and lakes where fishing is excellent and an indescribable
solitude and contentment which drains
away the stress of everyday life.
Our trip into the BWCA — your reporter and his 15-year-old son — began like that of all other canoeists, with
a visit to the Forest Service office to
register and obtain a free permit. Along
with the permit you receive a variety
of literature, most of it interesting and
Mr.
luth
Norheim,
for
the
Du-
News-Tribune, takes on
staff
writer
an
"in-
side" trip t h r o u g h the f a b l e d
Waters Canoe
Country.
J A N U A R Y • FEBRUARY 1968
Boundary
all of it educational, having as its objective an enjoyable excursion for you
along with the preservation of the irreplaceable forests.
Everybody gets something. Smokey
Bear comics for the small fry, Smokey's
Story of the Forest for the older youngsters, and for the adults, canoeing and
camping tips, codes of ethics, campfire
safety rules, a general map of the area,
a booklet on passages in the Bible relating to forests and flames, and a statement made by Secretary of Agriculture
Orville Freeman on regulations for the
BWCA.
Next we stopped at Sawbill Lake, 24
miles up the Sawbill Trail from Tofte
on the North Shore, where we informed
outfitter Frank Hansen that during this
visit — our fifth — we wanted privacy.
He routed us into an area where, in his
words, "not a hundred people in a
year go," and we were into this area in
less than an hour.
A short portage f r o m Sawbill Lake
brought us to Kelso Creek and suddenly we were cut off f r o m civilization.
Two and a half days later we reached
more popular areas and met other humans and they were the only ones
until the fourth day out when we saw
a second party.
We paddled up Kelso Creek, lake
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and river and across Lujenida Lake
where we found over first portage. The
Forest Service sign said Zenith Lake
was 422 rods ahead. Our m a p said 480
rods, but we maintain that the combined figures is much closer to the
truth. (Rods become shorter each day
on the trail.)
The trail was often barely discernible
and at two points it disappeared into
the water which had been backed up
by beaver dams. At the first trouble
spot we had to detour through the
brush, dragging the canoe along for
100 yards or so. At the second spot,
encountered our third day out, the trail
disappeared into a swamp and after
traversing that area we were certain the
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Louisiana bayou country would be a
snap.
But this effort and misery only spiced
the experience that lay ahead. We were
in an area where we aroused curiosity
in the forest animals, instead of fear.
Instead of the distant lonely whistle of
an occasional loon, many of them
played a noisy concert while the beavers, swimming close by our island
campsites, provided the percussion section of the wilderness orchestra with
the explosive slap of their tails. Then,
the concert completed, the sounds subsided and the wilderness was turned
over to the quieter denizens for the
night. And we slept.
As we paddled along various rivers,
CONSERVATION VOLUNTEER
ducks would wait until we were almost
upon them before moving out of the
way of our silver canoe. Between fabulous Malberg Lake and Kawishiwi
River, a healthy spike buck spotted us
and bounded to the top of a 30-foot
river embankment where he stopped to
watch us for several minutes and then
turned, disdainfully kicking his hindquarters into the air before disappearing into the trees.
Although we saw no moose, their
tracks were everywhere along the portage trails and we concluded that either
the forests were well-populated with
moose or the same huge moose was
preceding us down every trail.
Many portages were unmarked, and
this we considered a deficiency that
should be remedied, but compasses and
the shapes of the lakes on our map
were invaluable in locating the routes.
Mosquitoes were bothersome only
during the longer portages, when we
used repellent effectively, and for a
brief period during the evenings. But
our small mountain tent was a fort repelling the invading forces. And if a
few of the enemy infiltrated, they were
bug-bombed in short order.
On famous Little Saganaga Lake, we
met the first bunch of humans, a group
of five fishermen who had portaged
down from the Gunflint Trail. They
had beautiful messes of northerns, walleyes and trout. The next day we met
them on Kawishiwi River — 10 portages to the south including two small
ponds provided by the beaver — and
they had made the trip just for the
fishing and then portaged back to their
base camp on Little Saganaga. Again
they had strings of four-to-eight-pound
J A N U A R Y • F E B R U A R Y 1968
fish and they had been on the lake only
a short while.
We also found fishing terrific but
caught only what we could eat, which
was considerable. Total take — five
three-to-six-pound northerns and a
small walleye.
Every campsite was completely free
of litter and previous campers had left
supplies of firewood. We followed suit.
Only when we returned to the fringe
area did we find empty cigarette packs,
candy wrappers, etc., along the trails
and at campsites. On Beth Lake, we
found a favorite camping spot marked
by the Forest Service, "Closed for Rehabilitation." This step has been necessary in several fringe areas, we were
told, to allow the sites to return to their
native state.
On K o m a Lake, our fourth day, we
met the second humans, a party of Explorer Scouts on a brief forray into the
wilderness. On the fifth day we met two
fishermen on Beth Lake, just a portage
away f r o m Alton Lake, adjacent to
Sawbill Lake. Five days, three groups
equals privacy.
As we left Beth Lake on our sixth
day, we were acutely aware that we
were in the fringe area when we met a
party of four men and four women.
We called them "fringees" and they
played the part. Bermuda shorts exposed manly legs to the mosquitoes
while jungle net hats protected their
heads. One woman had a winter parka
pulled so closely around her head that
only her nose and part of her eyes
were exposed. Boxes of delicacies
dropped from their knapsacks and
when they exhaustedly placed the
packs on the ground, food spilled in
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every direction f r o m the unsecured
tops.
One fellow, between painful breaths,
asked the distance to the lake and I answered, "Two hundred twenty paces
with the left foot." As we neared Alton
Lake, I mistakenly asked my son, who
had gone ahead earlier with a pack,
how far to the lake and he answered,
"Two hundred twenty paces with the
left foot."
When we discussed the fringees with
Air and Water Pollution?...
Now add "noise pollution"
to the growing list of threats to our
environment. Not that it's a new threat. Some 60 years ago, Dr. Robert
Koch, renowned bacteriologist and Nobel Laureate, warned: "The day
will come when man will have to fight merciless noise as the worst enemy
of his health."
Almost 30 years ago, the American Medical Association put us on
notice that "the multiple and insidious ill effects of noise constitute an
inadequately recognized, baneful influence on lives of millions of persons
throughout the country."
But man. in his infinite capacity to defile his environment, hasn't heard
the message. Maybe he can't, what with all the noise.
Result: Noise "is one of the chief drawbacks to the enjoyment
of
modern urban living," according to Dr. Vern O. Knudsen, physicist and
former chancellor of the University of California at Los Angeles.
Even if the decibel din should be held to its present level — which it
will not — the total mix of environmental pollutants ought to jolt us into
action. For as a task force reported to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare last summer:
"An individually acceptable amount of water pollution, added to a
tolerable amount of air pollution, added to a bearable amount of noise
and congestion can produce a totally unacceptable health
environment."
About the same time, Dr. Leo L. Beranek, a leading acoustics
expert,
sounded this cheerful note: "In all probability the noise level will grow
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CONSERVATION VOLUNTEER
the outfitters, they commented, "You
can tell some people over and over
again how to dress properly but they
still go out in Bermuda shorts, halters
and whathaveyou."
As before, we found the BWCA
truly magnificent. It's a wonderland
that more and more thousands will enjoy, but only through the cooperation
of its users will it maintain its primitive
state. The premiums are minute compared to the dividends.
What About the Decibel Din?
not only in urban centers, but with increasing population and the proliferation of machines, noise will invade the few remaining havens of
silence in the world. A century from now, when a man wants to escape
to a quiet spot, there may be no place left to go."
The hope, of course, is that voices of sanity will break through the
noise. Concern about noise spurted when large numbers of aircraft, piston
and jet, started to fly low over communities in takeoffs and landings. It
was further sparked by the feared effects of sonic boom from the proposed commercial supersonic transport (SST).
But the sources of today's barrage of noise are varied and seemingly
limitless: Traffic (particularly heavy trucks, scooters, motorcycles
and
sports cars, as well as horns of all vehicles); private planes and helicopters
in addition to commercial and military aircraft; motor boats; sirens from
fire engines, police cars and ambulances; garbage trucks and garbage
pails; power lawn mowers, snow shovelers, snowmobiles and leaf rakers;
outside air conditioners; construction equipment such as
jackhammers,
air compressors, riveters and pile drivers; gunfire; household
appliances
such as dishwashers, blenders, garbage disposals, vacuum cleaners, radio
and TV sets (including those commercials
which are louder than the
programs); and a wide assortment of others such as public systems, twoway radios, telephones and transistor radios.
Add them up and noise is clearly another waste product of our technological proficiency. (Contributed by the Conservation
Foundation.)
J A N U A R Y • F E B R U A R Y 1968
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