The Knife River Portages

At the first portage in the Knife River area, we met up with a scout troop going the other way. I think they were from the Cleveland, Ohio area, 'cause they were mocking my Tigers hat. They were most likely headed back to the Scout High Adventure Base on Moose Lake. They were pretty cool and told us that none of the portages on the Knife River were too horrible. That was good news, as there were five of 'em. They also showed us where a really nice campsite was on the Knife Lake. We were psyched to go snag that site, 'cause it sounded great. After we brought some of our stuff over, we helped one of the scouts get his canoe out of the water (he was trying to do it himself). Then we tried our canoe. We tried to carry it at our sides with all three of us carrying. The portage trail got really narrow in places and stopped that altogether. So we decided to have one person carry it on his back, and that worked much better.

We quickly travelled across Carp Lake and headed to the next portage. While we were portaging around some rapids on the Knife River, we heard some people trying to run the rapids (we were going upstream). There was a scream, a thud, and then laughter as I think they didn't make it. We did see them heading across Carp Lake when we returned for the canoe, so I think they made it.

Next, we had another mini-portage to Seed Lake. While halfway across Seed Lake, a sudden gust of wind blew Shawn's hat off! We turned around in time to watch it sink underwater. Thankfully Tracy and Shawn maneuvered close enough for Brian to reach out and snag it from the middle seat. Our last portage was around a small waterfall on the Knife River. Of course we stopped to check it out. We even walked in the middle of it. Pretty cool... Then we heard some weird noises coming from the side of the portage trail. Upon further inspection, we found some wood ducks lurking in the weeds off to the west of the trail. They were kind enough to pose for pictures.

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