An Autumn Tour of the Great Lakes by Car, Canoe and Foot

We're just back from a 3000 mile tour around the Great Lakes in 16 days. This post is a retrospective summary of our adventure from the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota and everything in-between.

Part 1: Ohio to Minnesota, The Loooong Way

We began our 2-week adventure by heading east to Pennsylvania, to an area that was completely new to us. Wellsboro PA is a is a tidy little town built in the early 1800’s with well-preserved historical buildings and gas lamps that line the main street. It’s the central hub for the Pine Creek Gorge (aka the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon) and some impressive hiking and biking trails.

Wellsboro was intended to be a rendezvous point with a British friend we met while walking the Coast to Coast earlier this year, but COVID spoiled his plans. We were disappointed that he couldn’t join us, as we had a couple of days of good walking, talking, and drinking planned. Alas, Mr. Justice and the Americans will have to meet another time.

Bob and I continued our plans to explore the area for a couple of days. The fall colors were just beginning to change. On our first day, we explored the PA Grand Canyon, where we took a short but steep trail down to the Pine Creek.

Overlooking Pine Creek Gorge at the PA Grand Canyon

Waterfall on Turkey Path Trail

A rail-to-trail follows the Pine Creek and would make for a nice bike ride... another day!

At the bottom of the Pine Creek Gorge

Hickory Tussock Caterpillar. Common in the area, but we'd never seen one before.

After our hike to the bottom, we treated ourselves to some maple ice cream.

Our trail map of the area highlighted one specific trail as “the best day hike in all of PA”, so of course we were intrigued. The Golden Eagle Trail was a 10-mile loop and I can see why the map printer gave this trail such high marks. It had diverse geology and flora, included some fantastic vistas and was just a fun way to spend an afternoon.

It rained nearly the entire way, but it didn’t dampen our spirits – it was a great hike full of interesting rock outcroppings, a meandering walk along a beautiful stream and a gradual climb to a couple of lookouts.

Our timing was perfect for mushrooms. It was a fungal wonderland!

This is the most adorable mushroom I've ever seen... I may have said that about several mushrooms on this hike!

We didn’t get too many pictures of the house we stayed in Wellsboro, but it was a great vacation rental. It was a house built in the 1840’s and was well furnished with antiques.

After departing Wellsboro, we headed north to Canada. Our destination for the night was Redbridge, Ontario, a 7-hr drive. Bob’s cousin Donny lives in Redbridge part-time with his friend, Bev. She has a beautiful, wooded property and a well restored old house that she’s owned for over 50 years. We had a lovely stay with them, and a delicious home cooked meal. We were introduced to Butter Tarts – a Canadian dessert that we will certainly be making back in Ohio!

Bev first remembers seeing this home when she was 5 years old and she loved it then. It’s now been in her family for over 50 years.

From Redbridge we continued north to Wawa Ontario on the eastern shore of Lake Superior, another 7 hr drive. As we progressed farther north, the fall colors became more and more intense.

The maple trees were vivid red. Unfortunately, we didn’t stop to take proper pictures – so everything was through the windshield.

We experienced our first snow of the season along this stretch of road.

We celebrated our arrival to the Wawa Motor Lodge with Spiced Mules.

We learned that Wawa means ‘wild goose’ in Ojibwa

The town’s most notable landmark is a 28 ft metal Canadian goose… or should I say Wawa.

After a night of rest, we said goodbye to Wawa to continue our way around Lake Superior and into the Boundary Waters of Northern Minnesota, north of Grand Marais.

If you'd like to see the rest of our photos from this Part 1 of the trip, go to the Gallery in the upper menu or click this button:

Gallery: Pennsylvania to Minnesota

Keep reading to hear about the Boundary Waters canoeing leg of our adventure!

Part 2: Seven Days of Paddling in the Boundary Waters of Northern Minnesota

Twelve years ago, we set out on a similar adventure. Two lone paddlers, one kevlar canoe, seven days in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA). This time around, we hired the same canoe outfitter to help us establish a good route and set us up with a canoe and maps.

In 2010, we followed a paddle route that was primarily in Quetico Provincial Park, Ontario. For no reason in particular, this time we chose a route that kept us on the US side of the Boundary Waters in the Superior National Forest. We didn’t realize it at the time but staying on the US side meant that we’d have well established campsites, including a pit latrine (yay!), fire grates and flat tent pads. This was quite a luxury compared to our last canoeing experience in the area.

Rather than tire our readers with daily accounts, I'll highlight some of our favorite memories with photos and captions.

Our load consisted of two 115 liter dry bags (for our tent, sleeping bags and clothes) and a large portage pack for our food and cooking supplies.

It seemed like a lot of gear for 7 days, but we had to be prepared for cold conditions and extra days of food if we got lost or snowed in (snow was in the forecast after all).

Our outfitter supplied us with maps marking the route. We did most of our navigation by map and compass, but had a GPS as backup.

Most mornings were very foggy. We didn't break camp until the fog cleared and we could navigate more easily.

We didn't carry a bear canister on this trip, but we always kept our food bag tied in a tree to give hungry wildlife a little challenge. We didn't have any problems.

Enjoying some hot coffee while giving the fog a chance to clear.

We heard lots of animals in the night. They were probably very tiny rodents, but in our imagination they were enormous terrifying beasts. On our first night, a creature let out a loud startled screech very close to our tent. We were sufficiently spooked. Bob was less concerned about the source of the noise and was more worried about what caused it make such a terrifying noise.

On another occasion we were camping on an island. Bob thought he heard a large animal come ashore and shake off. He decided it was worth waking me up to tell me what he'd heard so I could stay awake, listening intently and he could go to sleep and snore. It wasn't a restful night.

We had at least 6 or 7 miles of portaging on this trip. We'd each take turns carrying the 43 lb kevlar canoe. It wasn't particularly heavy, but at 17 ft long, it was awkward to carry along the trails.

The one who wasn't carrying the canoe ended up hauling the bags....

... and required a rest at the end of the portage. Our longest portage was 1.3 miles and it took us 70 minutes to cover that distance with all our bags and the canoe.

Sometimes the portages were inhospitable and downright mucky so we'd carry the canoe and bags in two separate trips - tripling the portage distance but making it easier to traverse.

Although we never actually encountered a moose on this trip, we did see evidence of them - especially during portages.

One of our portages led us to a sandy beach where we spotted tracks that we later identified as wolf. We also saw lots of wolf scat along the trail.

Our outfitter disclosed the location of some impressive pictographs on a cliff bordering a river along our route. These ancient native American paintings are 500-1000 years old.

The Ojibwa people created these pictographs. The red ochre pain was created by mixing iron hematite with boiled sturgeon spine or bear grease. It's remarkable they've lasted so long.

Our morning meal would consist of high protein oatmeal, nut butter, dried fruit and a cup of freeze dried coffee. It kept us going until our mid-morning snack of meat sticks and granola bars.

During portages, we'd stop for a lunch of packaged tuna and crackers. It was difficult to get enough protein and calories on this trip - we were burning a lot of energy.

After a day of paddling, we'd select a camp site along our route, set up our tent and then get busy with our chores...

I was in charge of pumping water ...

... while Bob was responsible for turning fallen trees into firewood.

Dinner consisted of a freeze dried meal, some whiskey and a piece of chocolate. I must say that freeze dried meals have come a long way since I first started backpacking as a teenager.

I'm all for roughing it, but it was so nice having a pit latrine a short walk from the campsite. This was high-falutin compared to our last trip to the Boundary Waters!

There was snow and rain forecasted for the last couple of days of our trip. We woke up one morning to frosty tipped pines.

Although it was downright freezing, it was gorgeous.

Getting on the water with our neoprene gloves and booties was a good way to warm up on a wet, cold morning.

Doing this trip in the Fall was certainly a challenge weather-wise, but there were no bugs, no crowds, and the leaves were spectacular!

Our route from South Kawishiwi River (near Ely) to Round Lake (on the Gunflint Trail)

If you'd like to see the rest of our photos from this leg of the trip, go to the Gallery in the upper menu or click this button:

Gallery: Boundary Waters

Part 3: Getting Ourselves Home

We decided to take our sweet time coming home and savor the vacation a bit longer. We spent the night in Grand Marais Minnesota along with many Fall Color enthusiasts. The small town was extremely crowded!

We then made our way around the south side of Lake Superior, in the Michigan Upper Peninsula (an area that was completely new to us both). We're certainly looking forward to coming back to this area on a future trip.

We stopped for a night in Traverse City and enjoyed the wineries and local pubs.

In Traverse City, we stayed at a historic B&B that was built in 1905 by a local lumber baron.

This wraps up our Fall Road Trip. We look forward to hitting the trail again soon!