In this day and age old-fashioned customer service is a rare thing. To own a family run business is becoming a thing of the past. Small-town values have begun to disappear. This year in Ely we will celebrate our 30th year of providing you with quality canoes, canoeing accessories and Boundary Waters trips. We are proud to have the name on the door be our name: Piragis. Our last name has come to stand for quality customer service. When you call, we answer and we assure you that will not change. We are here to help you anytime you need assistance with a canoe trip or with your order. We believe that the Wilderness we hold so dear has the ability to renew our minds and spirits, especially in these tough economic times. We encourage you to visit us in Ely and see for yourself how true this is.

Thank you for 30 great years!

Steve and Nancy Piragis

We are getting great interest in these trips, so call us soon to lock up your spot.

Our longtime favorites have people booking already and these are the dates for those trips:
Women Exploring Wilderness: July 11 - 17
Howling with Wolves: August 22 - 28
Autumn Colors: September 26 - October 2

Call Bert Heep or Drew Brockett to join one of our fully outfitted and fully guided group trips today!
1-800-223-6565

A canoe trip during the last month of the season is a wonderful thing. The fall colors are brilliant, the temperatures are cooler, there are no bugs and the number of people you see is minimal. My uncle comes up from Santa Fe, NM each year to join me in either the Boundary Waters or Quetico. This fall, we chose to make the Snowbank Lake to Lake One loop and enjoyed every minute of it. Join me as I take you along.

9/27/08 – We arrived at the Snowbank entry point just as it was getting light outside. We wanted to get an early start and try to beat any wind on Snowbank. The day started out cloudy and gray, but it was beautiful. There ended up being a strong wind from the north so it made paddling to the Disappointment portage a good morning workout. The rest of the day wasn’t too bad in terms of the wind. As we paddled across Disappointment, we noticed something on the water in the middle of the lake. As we got closer, we could finally identify it. It was a nice buck swimming across the lake. That was certainly a highlight of the day. A very special area was the narrows on the east side of Jordan. It was simply beautiful. Stroke after stroke eventually took us to Ima, which would be our first night’s camp As we paddled up to the site, a pileated woodpecker was looking for food on some of the trees along the shore, so we coasted by and watched it. That is one of my favorite birds up here and was a fitting welcome to our campsite. The sky became clear once we got to Ima and the afternoon was very pleasant and relaxing.

9/28/08 – A great day was in store for us even with an East wind. Today we were just going to head over to Thomas and spend a few nights there. It was a pretty simple day as we found a nice site on the north end of Thomas. One interesting thing that we saw as we loaded our canoe after a portage was a baby northern stalking the shallow waters. It was no longer than 4 inches and looked just like an adult, just a lot smaller - very cute. My uncle and I watched it for a couple minutes. It moved closer to a bug and then decided to strike, but then immediately spit it out. I guess northern pike don’t go for everything!

9/29/08 – This day we decided to explore the area a bit. First, we went to Harmony Lake and checked that out. Later, we headed over to Fraser where we paddled to Trinity and Muskrat Lakes. It was a day of paddling the little lakes off the main lakes. It rained off and on and we got quite soaked on our way back from Fraser to Thomas. That’s not a big deal as long as you are prepared for late season weather. A nice sight this evening was a pair of otters on Muskrat Lake. They gave us a fine show to remember.

9/30/08 – It was time to break camp and head to Alice for a few days. The wind was fairly strong from the northwest so at least it helped us along. The weather was off and on rain as we kept to our plan. The portage between Thomas and Alice was a bit wet. We actually loaded up the canoe and paddled a 50 feet section along the way. It was too deep to walk, so we paddled. It was a good plan. Alice had whitecaps and was really rocking, so we decided to go to the south campsite which is located on the way to Fishdance. It was sheltered from the wide open Alice Lake and the whitecaps and would work out well for what we needed. The afternoon was spent relaxing around camp.

10/01/08 – A day trip to Fishdance Lake was the plan for this layover day. It was a chilly day so we bundled up and headed over a few portages to our destination. First thing was to find the pictographs and they were wonderful. My uncle and I feel that the Ojibwe drawings located in the BWCA and Quetico are very special, and this rock wall is a good set for viewing. As we paddled further into Fishdance and decided it was time to have a little lunch, my uncle hooked into a very good-sized northern pike. This was the big fish of the trip. Later on, he caught a few nice smallies and I caught a walleye on this lake. I guess the fish really were dancing on Fishdance. The evening was highlighted by an incredible sunset. It was quite a fine way to close a memorable day.

10/02/08 – Insula was our destination on October second. It rained all night, but stopped at about 8:00 so we started our day a little later than usual. We skirted the bottom of Alice and headed into the wonderful Kawishiwi River area and then on to Insula. We wanted to find a site on the south side of the lake and checked out a few different ones and eventually settled on a perfect location. That is one of the best parts of early- and late- season trips. You can look at a few sites and then choose the one you like the most. We set up camp, relaxed and did a little fishing near camp. A bald eagle soared just above the trees and we sat quietly on the rocks and watched 30 mergansers swim by. In the evening, as the temperature started to drop, we enjoyed the campfire, and watched the moon set.

10/03/08 – Layover days are great for relaxing and exploring. We really enjoy them on our trips. It was cold the night before and we woke up to a heavy frost on the ground. Our last full day would be very easy-- spending time around camp, sitting and watching the wilderness, and eventually we did some fishing. Part of the day was spent gathering and cutting wood, and we left a very nice stack for the next person. I hope they enjoyed a few campfires, too.

10/04/08 – It was another cold night with frost, but the morning sun made the day warm up. We were ending our trip at the Lake One entry point and it was perfect outside for paddling. There was no wind and we couldn’t have asked for better weather. As we took down camp, there was a beautiful fog over the water. We also heard a moose calling from across the lake. Perhaps it was saying “good-bye” to us. The paddling was very easy the whole way. There were quite a few people from Hudson to Lake One enjoying the fine day. I didn’t think I’d see that many paddlers, but it was good weather in October and access into the Boundary Waters from Lake One is as easy as it gets. Lunch was on Lake Two, and then we headed to the landing. We planned on walking to Snowbank to get my vehicle, but we were offered a ride about a mile down the road. We eventually loaded all the gear at Lake One and headed back to town with fantastic memories of a fun loop.

We did this journey in many more days than it really takes, but it’s a fun way to plan a trip so you can really experience an area. This natural loop is wonderful, so think about doing it on one of your future journeys. Let me know your thoughts and if you have any great stories from a trip that you did in this area. I hope you enjoyed the trip recap as well as a few photos that I took along the way.

Call the Piragis Outfitting department anytime to start planning your next paddling adventure. Bert and I are ready to talk about a route that will be perfect for what you are looking for. Get ready for an incredible trip in 2009! Call us today and paddle with your Friends in the Great Northwoods!

drew@piragis.com

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