GRAND PORTAGE: "grann poortaajj" (noun): from the Latin root GRANDIO meaning "Outrageously long" and PORTAGEE meaning "Something you'd rather not do."
Grand Portage. Something we had heard about but never thought we would do. It was the mythic beast all other portages were compared to: "Well at least this isn't Grand Portage!" And then that excuse became very unhelpful...because it WAS Grand Portage.
The historic 13.7 km trail was used by Ojibway for centuries and Voyageurs during the fur trade as a connection between Fort Charlotte (and the North) and Lake Superior (East to Montreal and beyond). Voyageurs carried multiple 90 lb packs of furs and barrels of goods along the portage without hiking boots, rain gear, or Watkins bug lotion. So our new mantra became "Well, at least this isn't the fur trade!"
After struggling through the regular portage pains for 2.5 hours and having just 6 km behind us, Ol' Grandy threw her first curveball our way. We had just restarted after a well deserved break when out of the corner of his eye, Paul spotted the long brown legs of the portager's worst nightmare...the moose. With a quick "YELP" we darted into the bushes, remembering from our previous wilderness training that the best place to hide from a moose is in the thickest foliage. Showing his true colours, Paul sprinted ahead with only a mini-barrel on his back, leaving his beloved behind with the unmanageable 100 lbs of gear strapped to her front and back. As we turned to assess our impending doom, we saw the strangest sight--the moose was wearing rubber boots, a tilly hat, and was in fact a man named Rod from the National Parks Service leading two young bird watchers from Bemidji College. Relieved but horribly embarrassed, we introduced ourselves and bid them good luck as they continued their trek to Fort Charlotte. We would cross paths and chat with this trio again on their return journey...they had seen no birds.
We were down in the count when Ol' Grandy threw us her unexpected slider. We were 5 hours in and having already drank our 4 litres of reserve water, we were down to our last 300 ml each. Two hours since we had last seen a creek, we were getting thirsty and desperate to re-stock our water supply. We kept walking. And walking. And walking. No creeks. We had to get water. It was at this point we decided that the puddle we had just trudged through would be our next drink. Paul strained the puddle water through a bandana into the gravity bag that Hadley held open. There is no truer test for Wilderness Supply's Platypus Gravity Works water filtration system. We are happy to say it passed the test. That puddle water would take us through the next 5 km to the glorious Fort Charlotte (there's no fort, but there is an outhouse).
Although Ol' Grandy pitched one heck of a game, we managed to come out on top. All in all it would take us 6 hours and 55 minutes to complete the harrowing journey. Looking back, it was challenging due to its length, but not its terrain. It is in fact quite a beautiful hiking trail. That being said, we will likely wait a few years before taking on Ol' Grandy again.
We would also like to give a gigantic shout-out and thank you to POPA members Ed and Jim. They picked up two of our barrels of food and gear at the start of Grand Portage and reunited us with it 4 days later at North Fowl lake. This meant that we were able to compete the trek in just one go
of 13.7 km instead of the 42 km it would have taken us with multiple trips!