#BWCA 2016 - Hansen Lake and the Falls Portage Part 3

 

The most beautiful part of our canoe trip was this area of the wilderness. The portage from Ottertrack to Ester Lake brought us to this gnarly old tree that had well worn roots from all the campers and canoes trampling across it. There was a steep uphill and again it seemed like we were going higher and higher in the chain of lakes.

 

The interesting thing about the BWCA is that not all the lakes connect, so some are higher elevations than others. This second day we were definitely climbing, and the pictures do not do it justice. There was a cute little passage thru weeds from Ester Lake to Hansen Lake that looked like a dead end until you got right there. 

 

 

 

Dead birch trees lined the portage trail. There were a lot of downed trees in the area since the summer was known to have had some bad thunderstorms happen. This area was still out of the burn area so it was lush and green.

Back behind all those downed trees was a nice waterfalls on the Hansen portage to South Arm Knife Lake.

In case you're just joining our adventure, please visit the previous excerpts of our trip at the links below https://goo.gl/photos/35Mj9spf1XEVTTm88

Part 1
Part 2