Just three days before, on July Fourth, the area had been struck by the infamous "BW Blowdown". The huge windstorm had damaged over a quarter of a million acres of the Boundary Waters. We had heard that the Temperance River chain of lakes had been hit by the storm. The Temperance chain is one of our favorite areas of the BW, and we were anxious to see how it had been affected.
We drove to the Baker Lake entry point, unloaded the canoes, parked the truck, and made the short paddle across to the first portage. As we approached the mouth of the river we began to see signs of the storm. Huge 100-year-old pines had been snapped off and tossed into the river. The portage itself was clogged with blowdowns and couldn't be found. We could see where a new portage had been started about 50 feet downstream of the old one. Shelly and I put in at the tangle and then helped Erik and Nancy in. (Not that they really needed any help, both are very good canoeists.)
Here's a shot of Erik and Nancy fighting the Temperance River current at Baker Lake. The current, combined with the tangle on the shore, made it necessary to back in to the portage.
