Welcome to the BWCAW blog of Ely Outfitting Company and Boundary Waters Guide Service!

See our websites at ElyOutfittingCompany.com and BoundaryWatersGuideService.com.

We are a Boundary Waters canoe trip outfitter, Quetico outfitter, and guide service in Ely, Minnesota. This Boundary Waters blog shares photos, stories, humor, skills, and naturalist insights from guiding in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW).

Most entries are from our founder and head guide, Jason Zabokrtsky. He is the Boundary Waters Blogger.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Last Boat Ride of 2009

Most folks had their motorboats winterized by the end of October. Virtually all other boats were tucked away by mid-November. But, this photo shows how one motorboater can lay claim to the title of last boater on Shagawa Lake in 2009.

To say the least, it's unusual to be boating on an ice-covered lake. But that's what happened here. Someone used the Shagawa Lake landing for its intended summertime purpose near Grand Ely Lodge on the edge of Ely today.

Shagawa Lake was open water yesterday, and froze over night. This morning the sound of a boat crashing through ice resonated all the way to the Grand Ely, and people peaked out the window at the sight of a motorboat breaking its way through an apparently fully iced-over Shagawa Lake.

I don't know why the boat was out there, but some have speculated that the boat may have been retrieving nets from netting whitefish, or maybe he just wanted the title of last boat on Shagawa 2009.

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