Northwoods Pipe Dream Family Paddle

I came up with the cockamamie idea to paddle the Escanaba, Lost Canoe, and Pallette Lakes, a chain of kettle lakes in the Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest, about two decades ago (and every time since) running on the Escanaba Trail. I always experienced the glacially formed Escanaba Lake area solo and I wanted to share the remote designated State Natural Area lake experience. This summer, our family hiked part of the trail and even scouted out two of the campsites along the shore of Pallette Lake, making my pipe dream a step closer. Weeks later, the dream came true.

While we were scouting out lakeside campsites earlier this summer we discovered some huge grubs in a rotting stump.

Deviation

Finding out Thursday night that our holiday weekend was suddenly wide open, I seized the opportunity to make my pipe dream a reality. Our biggest hurdle was overcome when we got to borrow a canoe from a church family. Bonus: it had a middle seat for the kids!

After realizing that our first canoe outing hauling excited kids (i.e. unpredictable kids = potentially tippy boat) and camping gear without sufficient dry bags could be a little too much of an adventure. Seeing the overnight low was predicted to dip to 40F (about 20F colder than what we have been used to this summer) we opted to deviate from my pipe dream and play it safe with a day trip. In hindsight we could have pulled off the overnight adventure but we still had plenty of time for our outing without the stress of and a potential wet and cold night.

The canoe (even with the kids) was significantly more stable than the race canoe I was in during my last paddle outing on a windy river loaded with deadfalls.

Escanaba Lake

Nestled just a couple of miles off the county highway on a gravel road, we immediately escaped the crowds of the holiday weekend. The moment we stepped out of the vehicle at the boat landing on Escanaba Lake, the wind slapped us and goosebumps immediately formed on our bare arms and legs. On the plus side I could forego sunscreen in place of long pants and sleeves! Fun fact: Every fish from this lake is recorded at the Northern Highland Fishery Research contact station located at the boat landing.

I was self conscious about the brevity of our adventure considering my husband can’t swim plus he hasn’t paddled in years. Add on that our kids have never done anything like this. And the handful of times I had paddled in the past couple of years was going along for the ride in the middle seat racing with national-caliber adventure racers! The kids’ excitement was obvious on the dock as they ran back and forth. Luckily they settled down when we got into the canoe.

Initially we paddled through a narrow bay to reach the main body of water, which must form a wind tunnel since the wind died down immediately. We had ideal conditions on the water throughout with the light breeze perfectly counteracting the sun in the cloudless sky. With the entire 303 acre lake DNR-owned, the unadulterated shoreline gave us plenty of nature to take in around the glacially carved landscape as we took in the east shore of the lake.

Snake Island

Our children love islands, so we landed on the smallest of four islands for them to explore. We made a novice error and landed on a slope too steep to comfortably pull up the canoe on shore. We were still tying off the boat when we heard an ear piercing scream from our oldest: she had spotted a water snake and overdramatized. As we finished tying off the boat I startled the same poor snake again and it sought refuge in the water. It nearly fell into the canoe! It was huge, no wonder my daughter was startled. The island was so small it took us longer to tie off the boat than walk what we named “Snake Island.”

We faired the 73 rod portage fine without portage wheels which I didn’t consider until the next day!

Missed portage

As we paddled north to our first portage, we realized the lack of detail on state map I had printed. More importantly, the portage location was incorrect. As we turned around, I embraced the mishap as part of the adventure. Hmmm…according to the map it was at a man made retention screen where we hadn’t seen any sign the first time we had passed. When we looped back we confirmed no sign or portage trail. Luckily I had enough cell coverage to do a quick internet search for more maps. The second map confirmed the portage at our location but it was just a straight line drawn on a map so I figured they just used the same source. Finally I found an old school hand drawn lake survey map that looked credible (if nothing had changed over the decades since it was produced). This map was accurate and the portage to Lost Canoe Lake was a hair beyond our first turnaround where we were 30 minutes earlier. We put the kids to work carrying our paddles and dry bags. Despite our lack of experience, we found all the portages very manageable and maintained, with some of this portage sharing the Escanaba Trail.

Lost Canoe Lake

Lost Canoe Lake (249 acres) had a number of cottages on the north shore along Hwy K and we met two pontoons. Although I didn’t like the idea of a boatload of people motoring by after we portaged 73 rods to reach this lake, we found most of the shoreline too shallow for motorists. We hugged the south shoreline and spotted two campsites, but opted to skip checking out the third campsite on the north shore and the out-and-back portage to White Sand Lake on the north side of Hwy K.

The portages mixed it up with each lake having a different character to discover. Hunting for portage and campsites signs kept the kids engaged as well

Instead, we explored a back slew on the west side of the lake located within the state natural area. The entrance was just deep and wide enough for our boat and we felt like entering a secret passage. This was the only place we saw pink flowers adorning the glass-like water surface complemented with golden blossoms of the lily pads. We backtracked and found a southernly portage to Pallette Lake through a waterfront campsite. We crossed the Escanaba Trail enroute to our third, and most remote lake of the day, Pallette Lake.

Pallette Lake

As expected, we were the sole boat on Pallette Lake. We immediately spotted two of the campsites’ beaches (which the kids thought would be fun to swim at during a future visit) on the east shore. I had looked forward for a decade or more to paddle this remote lake and it did not disappoint. not a single dock or cottage to be seen. The fresh air refreshed my lungs.

We opted to leisurely travel the long way around the lake counterclockwise and it still only took 20 minutes. Hugging the shoreline to spot the campsites made it more exciting than beelining the circular 180 acre lake where everything seemed visible. Plus we discovered a shorter alternative portage from Lost Canoe Lake. Of its six remote shoreline campsites I was surprised only one was occupied on a holiday weekend. The camper greeted us and reported that we were only the third boat on the lake today.

Return to Escanaba Lake

Our final portage was the shortest by design and it also left just 15 minutes of paddling back to the boat landing. Once again the wind chilled us as we landed and we layered up as we loaded the canoe.

Altogether we had a great first paddle adventure together. We covered about eight leisurely miles in 4 hours. We saw a plethora of wildlife on the lakes: ducks, eagle, loons, blue heron, dragonflies the size of small birds. and of course water snakes. Later, we speculated what our next wildlife would be. I wasn’t hopeful to see an orangutan, albino rhino, or giraffe as the kids predicted, but we spotted hooded merganser ducks. At one point, someone commented about seeing wildlife and my husband announced “water snake” seemingly on cue. Sure enough, a cute little water snake swam gracefully by. My oldest didn’t mine this one.

Knowing bugs could change the experience, we opted to ensure tackling this maiden voyage during low bug season. Based on my experience over Independence Day weekend last year on the Escanaba Trail that traveled along these lakes, swatting deer flies constantly would not have been a pleasant canoe outing. Altogether we saw a grand total of one mosquito during this Labor Day visit.

Based on this maiden canoe trip, we will be ready for another adventure at the Bittersweet Wild Lakes Area. Read about this adventure in an upcoming blog post!

Related: