Boundary Waters Solo - 2025 Edition

The past couple of years have been a crazy whirlwind, between finishing up my engineering degree, taking a new job and having a daughter. There was enough going on where I wasn't able to make it up north to the BWCA... However, the itch to paddle was really getting to me. In January 2025, I booked a September permit to entry point #61, Daniels Lake. I knew this lake was an easy destination with high quantities of fish, so why not give it a try!

My first morning headed in, it was an easy 2-hour paddle and 90-rod portage to get to the eastern campsite on the north side of the lake. A good 3.5/5 star site, where the only thing I'd change is less foliage blocking views of the lake. I'm very impressed by the water clarity, underwater structure, and cool topography around Daniels Lake! If it wasn't for the bruiser portage heading out the East end of the lake to Rose or Rove lakes, I imagine it would be much more popular.

I wanted to break my BWCA dry-spell for lake trout, and put in some hours trying. However, I wasn't succesful - probably due to my inexperience. However, there were plenty of willing smallmouth bass that took my bait and it made for a fun time! Those lake trout will still be there waiting for me next time, when maybe I'll be a bit better prepared.

I took in some radio gear with me as well, and had a couple of great experiences. First, the local amateur radio operators put together a linked repeater system on 2-meters, which made for a very lively and interesting "weekly net" to listen to on Sunday evening. I wasn't quite able to get into the Gunflint repeater well enough with Explorer QRZ-1 HT, however I was able to listen fine and pick up a lot of APRS stations.

I also lugged in my Xiegu G90 for some HF action using a QRP EFHW antenna. I was able to make lots of contacts running FT8 from a WSJT-X app running on a DigiPi. I'm probably part of a select few people that have ever brought a Raspberry Pi into the BWCA! My only regret is that in my inexperience, I didn't hit the "Save Configuration" button on the DigiPi before turning it off. This meant that the WSJT-X .adif log files never were saved from volatile memory to the DigiPi's SD card... Therefore, I don't have any POTA logs to upload from my trip while inside the wilderness... If you have any logs from 9-14-2025 or 9-15-2025 with KF0UUY, reach out to me on QRZ and I'll make sure to get your hunter QSO logged!

Overall, it was an excellent trip where I had a lot of time to reflect and enjoy myself. It was enough solo to scratch that itch for a couple of years. However, I'll be ready for a group time come springtime - I'm already looking forward to it! The BWCA is a special place, no doubt!