In 2003, on a 14-day loop trip from the Canoe Country Outfitters Moose Lake base, we (my wife and our two college age sons and I) crossed from the Maligne R. to Minn Lake. I have only two faint memories of this crossing: One, that there were a number of portages and that we did struggle; and two, the last obstacle was a very high beaver dam over which we looked up a long expanse of Minn Lake. At the time it occurred to me that some mischief maker with a stick of dynamite could send millions of cubic meters of water into Martin Bay of Lac La Croix.

Fortunately though, my son Alex wrote a diary of that trip and following is his description of the Maligne R. – Minn Lake ordeal. “Leaving the Maligne River we portaged over a series of little land divides that split our canoeing route into tiny segments. The map shows four portages between the Maligne and Minn Lake but we had to add at least two unplanned ones to that. It was tiring but the creek was pretty. The red brown water was even darker than the Kawnipi Lake tea. Zero visibility down into the water made rock bumping and kevlar marking unavoidable. The creek then took us into a tiny section of Lac la Croix, which we then left via a 460m portage that seemed more like 800m. This portage, which should have taken us into Minn, led to a little pond and then an unexpected beaver dam that had to be surpassed before the gate to Minn Lake finally opened.”