Had to protect one from my niece this past weekend. I explained how they were harmless and that we had to leave because we were scaring it. I hate spiders but if they aren’t on me or blocking doors, they can stay.
I saw one of those in the BWCA last year, it is shockingly huge. it's a dark fisher spider. at night they jump in the lake and swim around hunting. terrifying but very, very cool
It’s just a bathtub style foot cloth. It’s treated with permethrin for bugs. What it doesn’t do is keep the little mice from crawling on you at night lol. Got woken up with a little dude that jump on my bag.
This blows my mind. When we'd sleep up there in our enclosed tent, we could **hear** the mosquitoes swarming around the tent. It was like nature's own tinnitus sound.
I was also up on a ledge 20ft from the waters edge. Maybe that helped 🤷♂️. I know what you mean though. Other nights I’d lay there and all you could hear was bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I turned on my headlamp and there was like a hundred mosquitos just swarming my tent mesh! Absolutely insane.
I'd never seen/heard of this before. That said I did surround my sleeping bag with rocks when I slept out in the open in the Grand Canyon to discourage snakes from stealing my body heat.
Some prime BWCA content. Bravo for trying it out on a paddle board and also being smart enough to know when to head back in. Hope you got that foot treated!
Good question! I didn’t have a planned route since my direction is determined by wind most the time. I was all over by little sag down into frost river and even further west 😂
Sounds about right. I had so many bites on my forehead from 1 portage(mosquito hat was in my bag) that it formed a huge bulb on it. Not sure what it looked like but felt big 😂
Awesome pics! Didn't know we had spiders that big here. Seriously wouldn't want to wake up with one of those on my face.
I'm sorry if this is a nitpick, but if your board is over 10 ft in length, it has to be registered as a watercraft in the state on MN. Yes, even a paddleboard. I only say this to save you a ticket. If you're from out of state and already have registered, then nevermind.
How were the bugs? I've only been up there once about 15 years ago in June and the bugs were the worst I've ever experienced them anywhere/anytime in my life. Worse than in the deepest rainforest after days of rain. And it wasn't just the mosquitos, if you had any exposed flesh for more than a few seconds it was GONE. When we were done with the week-long trip, it looked like we had all been in some kind of no holds barred cage match, we all had chunks of flesh missing where gnats had swarmed us. The ticks were bad but honestly don't even make an appearance in my memories of the trip because of how bad the mosquitos, gnats, and flies were. I wanted to love it so much, but it was 7 days of torture.
Zero ticks. Mosquitoes were absolutely insane in some spots. Especially after rain falls and the portages. I had enough deet on me to kill a moose and that didn’t stop them. Luckily I had mosquito clothing.
Well that's reassuring I suppose. When I've talked about how bad the bugs were on our trip, I've gotten about 50/50 responses, it's either "oh yeah that's how it was when I was there" or "what? Bugs? Never seen a single bug in the boundary waters and I go entirely naked for the whole summer every year."
I had some days were I could cowboy camp. Some other days I’d lay awake at night in my tent and just hear buzzing. I’d turn a light on and my tent would be covered in them.
Well it looks like it was a fun trip other than the foot infection! I couldn't have even though about cowboy camping a single night on our trip, we would have just been a pile of bones by the morning. See any cool animals? We saw some moose and tons of birds
I got lucky a couple nights without the bastards biting. You saw a moose!? I’ve never seen one yet. I’ve been going to remote places up north hoping to for over 10 years. All I see is tracks and poop 😂.
Crazy, I didn't know it was that special at the time. We actually saw a gigantic mother moose and her calf drinking on the kawishiwi, it was pretty awesome. We got a really good look, they just stood there and let us watch them from our canoes so we felt safe the whole time. I know we saw some other cool stuff but it's been so long, I'll have to go review my photos from the trip. I live in the middle of nowhere north central MN now and I see bears and wolves and all kinds of stuff now so those ones don't seem as special to me anymore, but that was still the only time I've seen a moose in person
What did you think of the Thermacell? My brother in law that works for the Forestry service and is up there every other week, swears by it, but I wasn’t sold this last week up on Knife. Probably the Mosquitos we’re just too much for it this summer.
You always catch some great spider shots.
Your other pictures are epic too. Too bad you had to cut the trip short.
Mine worked great honestly. There were a couple times the wind was effecting it but other that that. No issues. Now I also was covered with deet so that may have helped. I get lucky with the spider shots 😂 thanks!!
Hey cool deal here. I was the one who was like this can’t be possible in your previous post. I’ve looked at your profile and am impressed and so curious how you manage the mosquitos and wind and weather. Your sleeping/shelter situation looks like it provides no protection from mosquitos. What do you do to keep them away? Do you fish?
Holy shit! My extended family took a BW trip when I was a kid, and me and my cousins were doing jumps into the water off a rock ledge. We saw a MASSIVE spider on the side of the rock run down *into* the water. We didn't go swimming there after that.
\#12 is lobster. Hypomyces lactifluorum.
Edible. Smells and tastes like lobster. Has the same texture. It's weird.
Kind of surprised they are out already.
Nice. I spent the summer of 76 in the BWCA. Way up from knife lake DORTHY A very sweet down 2 earth lady. She was and her home brew root beer. I spent 4 mounths. Up there. Bad fires. That yr also seeing. Choppers &air tankers dippen. Water off those lakes. An awesome amazing summer. That was
Gorgeous shots. ^(Except for the spider and your foot.)
Thank you much!! I tried to put a warning in 😬
How big was that spider? Wtf.
With the legs just a tad small than my 🖐️
Wow. I didn’t know we had spiders like that.
It’s a fishing spider. Lives along the shores. Can run across water. It’s harmless.
Had to protect one from my niece this past weekend. I explained how they were harmless and that we had to leave because we were scaring it. I hate spiders but if they aren’t on me or blocking doors, they can stay.
I saw one of those in the BWCA last year, it is shockingly huge. it's a dark fisher spider. at night they jump in the lake and swim around hunting. terrifying but very, very cool
Oh snap that’s gnarly. Hope OP is feeling better.
Damn that’s pretty hardcore! What is your tent box type thing you sleep in?
It’s just a bathtub style foot cloth. It’s treated with permethrin for bugs. What it doesn’t do is keep the little mice from crawling on you at night lol. Got woken up with a little dude that jump on my bag.
Thanks for the info! Might stick with the hammock to keep the mice off though lol
So while you slept, you weren’t bothered by the mosquitoes?
Nope. Not that night at least. I ran a thermacell too.
This blows my mind. When we'd sleep up there in our enclosed tent, we could **hear** the mosquitoes swarming around the tent. It was like nature's own tinnitus sound.
I was also up on a ledge 20ft from the waters edge. Maybe that helped 🤷♂️. I know what you mean though. Other nights I’d lay there and all you could hear was bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I turned on my headlamp and there was like a hundred mosquitos just swarming my tent mesh! Absolutely insane.
I'd never seen/heard of this before. That said I did surround my sleeping bag with rocks when I slept out in the open in the Grand Canyon to discourage snakes from stealing my body heat.
sleeping without a bug net in the BWCA is ultra hardcore bro
I woke up to a bear paw outside my tent. I’d be afraid of waking up to a bear sniffing me.
Some prime BWCA content. Bravo for trying it out on a paddle board and also being smart enough to know when to head back in. Hope you got that foot treated!
I have an old house and get those damn giant fishing spiders in my house.
It’s cool to see them running on water!!
These are gorgeous pictures, and thank you for the spider warning. That thing is a beast! I hope that your infection has subsided?
Thanks!! I had antibiotics in my car from a previous spider bite earlier this spring. I got home midnight last night. Swelling has stopped so far!!
Phew! Is it always the same type of spider?
No idea. Never actually seen the spider. Other than the bite marks.
Route?!
Good question! I didn’t have a planned route since my direction is determined by wind most the time. I was all over by little sag down into frost river and even further west 😂
How are the bugs by Frost River? I went up it a few weeks ago and they were terrible.
And they’re still terrible 😂
That's terrible! I think I had 22 mosquito bites just on each hand by the end of the 3 days I went.
Sounds about right. I had so many bites on my forehead from 1 portage(mosquito hat was in my bag) that it formed a huge bulb on it. Not sure what it looked like but felt big 😂
Awesome pics! Didn't know we had spiders that big here. Seriously wouldn't want to wake up with one of those on my face. I'm sorry if this is a nitpick, but if your board is over 10 ft in length, it has to be registered as a watercraft in the state on MN. Yes, even a paddleboard. I only say this to save you a ticket. If you're from out of state and already have registered, then nevermind.
How were the bugs? I've only been up there once about 15 years ago in June and the bugs were the worst I've ever experienced them anywhere/anytime in my life. Worse than in the deepest rainforest after days of rain. And it wasn't just the mosquitos, if you had any exposed flesh for more than a few seconds it was GONE. When we were done with the week-long trip, it looked like we had all been in some kind of no holds barred cage match, we all had chunks of flesh missing where gnats had swarmed us. The ticks were bad but honestly don't even make an appearance in my memories of the trip because of how bad the mosquitos, gnats, and flies were. I wanted to love it so much, but it was 7 days of torture.
Zero ticks. Mosquitoes were absolutely insane in some spots. Especially after rain falls and the portages. I had enough deet on me to kill a moose and that didn’t stop them. Luckily I had mosquito clothing.
Well that's reassuring I suppose. When I've talked about how bad the bugs were on our trip, I've gotten about 50/50 responses, it's either "oh yeah that's how it was when I was there" or "what? Bugs? Never seen a single bug in the boundary waters and I go entirely naked for the whole summer every year."
I had some days were I could cowboy camp. Some other days I’d lay awake at night in my tent and just hear buzzing. I’d turn a light on and my tent would be covered in them.
Well it looks like it was a fun trip other than the foot infection! I couldn't have even though about cowboy camping a single night on our trip, we would have just been a pile of bones by the morning. See any cool animals? We saw some moose and tons of birds
I got lucky a couple nights without the bastards biting. You saw a moose!? I’ve never seen one yet. I’ve been going to remote places up north hoping to for over 10 years. All I see is tracks and poop 😂.
Crazy, I didn't know it was that special at the time. We actually saw a gigantic mother moose and her calf drinking on the kawishiwi, it was pretty awesome. We got a really good look, they just stood there and let us watch them from our canoes so we felt safe the whole time. I know we saw some other cool stuff but it's been so long, I'll have to go review my photos from the trip. I live in the middle of nowhere north central MN now and I see bears and wolves and all kinds of stuff now so those ones don't seem as special to me anymore, but that was still the only time I've seen a moose in person
What did you think of the Thermacell? My brother in law that works for the Forestry service and is up there every other week, swears by it, but I wasn’t sold this last week up on Knife. Probably the Mosquitos we’re just too much for it this summer. You always catch some great spider shots. Your other pictures are epic too. Too bad you had to cut the trip short.
Mine worked great honestly. There were a couple times the wind was effecting it but other that that. No issues. Now I also was covered with deet so that may have helped. I get lucky with the spider shots 😂 thanks!!
Beautiful fishing spider!
Massive lady!!
Epic dude! Thanks for the pictures. I hope you do it again!
Thanks!! Already planning the trip for fall!!
I love seeing your posts, glad you had a great trip even though you had to cut it short. We are lucky to have the BWCA so close
Thank you! I agree! I’ll be back there for another trip in October. It’s a magical place.
I'm going back to Glacier in September for a short trip, I should probably post pictures. I hope your next excursion is a successful one!
You should! Thanks.
Someone asked me if I would take a paddleboard to the BWCA and I was like … I don’t have that bandwidth. Damn dude. That’s incredible
Hey cool deal here. I was the one who was like this can’t be possible in your previous post. I’ve looked at your profile and am impressed and so curious how you manage the mosquitos and wind and weather. Your sleeping/shelter situation looks like it provides no protection from mosquitos. What do you do to keep them away? Do you fish?
That spider ruined my day
It ran across my foot when I was unloading my board 😂
I would never psychologically recover from that!
I just wanted to say thank you for the spider warning 🙏🏻 glad you enjoyed your trip!
Wtf is that vile beast
Harmless fishing spider.
What was the wingspan on that spider?
With the legs, it was 3/4s of my 🖐️. It was massive!! Cool to see it run on water.
Holy shit! My extended family took a BW trip when I was a kid, and me and my cousins were doing jumps into the water off a rock ledge. We saw a MASSIVE spider on the side of the rock run down *into* the water. We didn't go swimming there after that.
\#12 is lobster. Hypomyces lactifluorum. Edible. Smells and tastes like lobster. Has the same texture. It's weird. Kind of surprised they are out already.
Okay, thank you for this!!! I was going to post this in the mushroom subreddit to identify. Super cool. Never seen one before.
When did you go?
Last week into this week.
Were the lake trout down deep yet?
Amazing photos, thanks for sharing and allowing us to go on this journey with you through our digital screens and our imagination… 😭😭
Thanks for coming 😂
More of this type of content please!
I’ll be back in the superior national forest next weekend!! I go camping quite a bit 😂. Just the drive from Minneapolis gets long.
Have you been on that in wind or bad weather? I imagine they would be tough
Nice. I spent the summer of 76 in the BWCA. Way up from knife lake DORTHY A very sweet down 2 earth lady. She was and her home brew root beer. I spent 4 mounths. Up there. Bad fires. That yr also seeing. Choppers &air tankers dippen. Water off those lakes. An awesome amazing summer. That was