With the Border Closed, Ogichi to Explore the US Side
By Sammi Armacost
Late in 2020, I started researching alternative trip routes for Ogichi, in case the US-Canada border did not open in time for our summer season. The task was daunting at first: blueprinting experiences that parallel the wilderness trips we take in Canada while minimizing potential exposure to the coronavirus along the way.
Chickadees paddle through reeds on the Lake Kabetogama Trip in 2019. (Libby Dix)
But when I pulled up Rainy Lake on Google Earth, I didn’t have to zoom out very far to realize how much we have access to, right from Ogichi’s own backyard. With Voyageurs National Park next door, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness a mere 50 miles away, and Lake Superior and the Mississippi River not far beyond, there are well over a million acres of Minnesota land and water to explore, just in our corner of the state.
This summer, our Chickadees and Voyageurs will spend 3 and 8 days, respectively, in Voyageurs National Park, while our 11-day trippers will make their way into the Boundary Waters.
For the LDACs, we will offer a few different two-week routes. One, known as the “Border Trail” will take them from Ogichi’s docks to Lake Superior, following the US-Canada border. Another group will travel down the historic river highway, the Mississippi, while yet another will paddle an exploratory route, of their own design, through the Boundary Waters.
Our CITs, like hikers on the Appalachian Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail, will paddle a portion of the aqueous trail that flows from northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. This group will spend three weeks navigating the Mississippi, from its headwaters on Lake Itasca all the way to Minneapolis.
Chickadees set up a tent on the Lake Kabetogama trip. (Libby Dix)
Our First Session backpackers will spend 11 days hiking on Isle Royale, an island within an archipelago on Lake Superior, while our Second Session backpackers, in two groups, will head out to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, a stretch along the south shore of Lake Superior, and the Superior Hiking Trail, which follows the north shore of Lake Superior from Duluth, Minnesota to the Canadian border.
If I have learned anything after a year in quarantine, it is to make the most of what is closest to home. As we emerge from a pandemic that has kept us apart far longer than we ever expected, I look forward to a summer where we will finally get to reconnect with each other and explore what’s been there all along.
This article was originally published in the Spring 2021 issue of Songs of the Paddle.