BWAC Fall News and Notes

Dear Boundary Waters Advisory Committee (BWAC) Member,

As fall knocks on our collective door, I would like to thank our members for supporting BWAC’s wilderness trail advocacy and trail preservation mission. BWAC is grateful to your visits to our website and Meetup site, grateful for those of you who have been able to hike and spread the word about a wilderness trail this year, and grateful for the twenty-eight individuals who have made time to volunteer on a trail crew already in 2020.

How else can you help?

Our fall trips were posted mid-August and in just two weeks fifty-seven of you have registered for a September or October trip. Wow! August 29th the BWAC Duluth chapter launched fall trips, pulling shrubs and cutting trees in the gateway segment. A Labor Day weekend trip departs this Thursday followed by eight more trips through October 26. Trips are limited to six members this fall for safety and flexibility. Help the Powwow Trail, help yourself learn new skills, and help BWAC meet our goal of full trips--there are just a few spots left on crews. We would like each trip to be a full trip. Will you love it or will you hate it? Visit the BWAC Meetup site to scout out which trips have an opening. Message the crew leader to find out more or get on a waitlist. No experience required and BWAC provides trip guidance, tools, and training.

Powwow Trail Hiker Guide

BWAC is thrilled to announce the 2020 Powwow Trail Hiker Guide. It’s in print-on-demand format on our website, https://www.boundarywaterstrails.org/powwow-trail-guide/. This year our nonprofit has received more queries, and learned of more hikers visiting the Powwow, since before the 2011 Pagami Creek Fire. The Powwow is actively being restored: hikers will still find sections blocked and needing careful navigation, but thanks to BWAC volunteers finding and clearing the original tread, experienced backpackers are completing the loop.

Diana Bridge Project

BWAC and the U.S. Forest Service, Superior National Forest, are collaborating on replacing a wooden walkway at the Diana Lake outlet stream. Scouting of rot-resistant tamarack trees is completed. Next step, felling of the trees by the USFS, and a safe crossing before the end of 2020. Thank you, Superior National Forest rangers and BWAC for keeping the project progressing.

Minnesota’s BWCAW wilderness trails belong to all of us

View fullsize

BWAC will continue to forward what our allies, sponsors and volunteers already know: BWAC stewards wilderness trails in the BWCAW with integrity, hard work, and fun. I am happy to talk trails or trail advocacy with you. Email or call with any concerns or to find out more about how you can help.

Sincerely,
Susan Pollock
President
The Boundary Waters Advisory Committee (BWAC)

Fall Trip Openings Update

July Update :: Trips and More!

Dear BWAC members and Meetup/Friends-of-Trails,

 I hope that late July finds your and your loved ones in good health. BWAC is alive and well and will be getting back on trail with clearing crews this fall. Here is what’s been up with the club:

The Powwow Trail—current conditions. Spring and summer reports confirm that the Powwow remains the toughest trail in the BWCAW, but Boundary Waters Advisory Committee (BWAC) volunteers have made the Powwow increasingly navigable for experienced hikers. Thousands of massive tree fall tangles and unsafe, confusing post-fire growth have been largely removed.

2020 Spring and Summer clearing and surveys. Special thanks to all new and returning volunteers who had registered for our May clearing trips. The pandemic shut the door on what are traditionally optimal work days in the Boundary Waters—long daylength, insignificant foliage, crisp working weather. A couple dozen club members, and several groups or individuals we have learned about through the BWAC facebook page, visited the trail May-July. Winter damage was minimal. Priority segments for major clearing remain. Eighty percent of the trail, while navigable, needs clearing to U.S. Forest Service standards for a safer and more enjoyable wilderness experience.

Coming up—fall trips. We invite you to experience a hands-on, play-in-the-dirt environmental stewardship clearing trip this fall with BWAC. Our crew leadership is hashing out dates and routes right now for September and October clearing trips. Crews will be smaller and volunteers will be social distancing, but we expect a variety of trips and that many outdoor enthusiasts will be eager to be in the wilderness.

Tromp the tread! Trails are better defined and maintained when hikers and backpackers use them. As the Powwow sees more use, BWAC is working with our trail partner and Superior National Forest land manager, the US Forest Service, to prioritize locations for restoration of safe, hygienic campsites along the 30 mile trail.

Local events and hikes. Watch for local hikes during August posted on the BWAC meetup site, https://www.meetup.com/Friends-of-BWCA-Trails. Register for a hike to meet experienced volunteers or thinking-about-but-want-to-know more-potential volunteers, and to find out what happens before and during a BWAC trip.

Minnesota’s BWCAW wilderness trails belong to all of us. BWAC will continue to forward what our allies, sponsors and volunteers already know: BWAC stewards wilderness trails in the BWCAW with integrity, hard work, and fun. I am happy to talk trails or trail advocacy with you. Email or call with any concerns or to find out more about how you can help

Sincerely,

Susan Pollock

President

Volunteer Group Declares BWCAW Powwow Trail Rescued; More Work Ahead.

Minneapolis, MN. Minneapolis based non-profit, the Boundary Waters Advisory Committee (BWAC), had to table plans to put more than eighty volunteers to work on the Powwow Trail in the Boundary Waters this past May. Instead, two small crews ventured on the Powwow over Memorial Day weekend, concerned that winter had left a slew of tree falls blocking the trail again since the destruction of the Pagami Creek Fire in 2011.

“We were pleasantly surprised after tallying tree falls along the 30 miles long wilderness trail,” said Susan Pollock, BWAC’s new president. “We counted only 1,300 tree falls across the trail, and even more rewarding for our volunteers, we met three groups of backpackers along the way. We expected to find double that number of tree falls. Meeting backpackers on the trail interior--unheard of in the past five years--is a testimonial to BWAC work crews finding and clearing the impassable path over many seasons.”

BWAC has organized volunteers in both the Twin Cities and in Duluth for the past several years to rescue the Powwow. The effort is paying off. Organizers believe that they have turned the corner: the trail is now more welcoming as maintenance becomes increasingly manageable. In 2019 alone, BWAC recruited more than 180 volunteers to clear the path of dead trees and new growth. The number of dead standing trees is dwindling, but there is still more work ahead. BWAC is now working to develop screening and social distancing protocols with a goal of calling on volunteers for late summer and fall work crews.

Now that the trail is passable, BWAC is working with the US Forest Service to rehabilitate several closed campsites. Fire grates from eight campsites have survived, but new latrines and removal of hazard trees for safe camping are needed. There are also plans to replace an aging log crossing at a Powwow Trail interior destination, Diana Lake.

Hot summer months are not the best time to backpack the Powwow, but there are still opportunities to venture on the trail from the parking area at Isabella Lake; or from the portage from Lake Three to Horseshoe Lake, where a wilderness hike will now bring you to breathtaking views at either Rock of Ages or North Wilder Lakes.

Fall will be an easier time to circumnavigate this challenging trail. Most backpackers will be able to complete the loop in three to five days on what is undoubtedly the toughest wilderness trail in BWCAW if not in the Midwest. To make that challenge easier, volunteer organizers are busy this summer writing and preparing a hiker’s guide to the Powwow Trail. It will be posted on the club website and available for free to the public. Treefall density maps and other trip planning tools will be posted on the BWAC website in July, at www.BoundaryWatersTrails.org.

BWA Committee is a non-professional non-profit founded in 2002. Its mission is to preserve the existing historic and intrinsically beautiful trails in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of the Superior National Forest.  BWAC volunteers maintain hiking trails in the Boundary Waters under Volunteer Service Agreement with the USDA Forest Service.

Spring Trips Cancelled & Ongoing Advocacy

Dear Members,

Many of you are probably awaiting news about what will happen with BWAC May trips. As the COVID-19 situation is evolving from day to day, it has not been easy to forecast the future. The BWAC Board of Directors met on April 7 with May trail clearing trips at the top of the agenda. The board heard the advice of our volunteer attorney, suggestions on mitigating risks from a BWAC member who is also a physician, and decided that even if the MN Stay Home order was lifted, to cancel the trips in order to protect the volunteers and potentially, the communities we visit. Trip participants will be able to get a complete refund, or credit the registration toward future trips or make a tax-exempt donation to BWAC by contacting their crew leaders.

There is good news too. BWAC recently signed a Volunteer Service Agreement (VSA) with the U.S. Forest Service. This agreement allows BWAC to maintain the Powwow Trail for the next three years. What’s more, the Forest Service is very impressed by the magnitude of the BWAC volunteers’ accomplishments on the Powwow Trail and indicated that they will begin working on several improvements on the PWT this spring. Based on our discussion, we hope that the campsites will be restored or replaced within three years.

Another positive fact is that last year, BWAC completed cutting 99.9% of jack pines from the trail. Were those jack pines not removed from five miles of trail, we would need to devote 3-4 crews just to clear much bigger pines from trail this fall.

What are the future plans? We hope that as the plague subsides, to engage in small group survey hikes on the Powwow to determine which trail segments will need most work after winter storms. Depending on the Governor’s order and directions we may organize crews of 4-5 in summer to lower the health risk. And we are all looking to go on trips starting Labor Day weekend and through October.

Your enthusiasm, the engine that drives volunteer organizations like BWAC, is high. This was manifested by having all but one of eight trips filled to capacity--67 registrations--and again on April 9 when thirty-three volunteers attended the crew member training via Hangouts video conference. Keep your spirits high and look forward to trips later this summer and fall, because in addition to volunteering, BWAC has one hundred Powwow Trail maps/bandannas to give away to 2020 crews.

Thank you for keeping in touch and we will communicate with you again before the end of April, when we may be able to tentatively schedule local hikes.

Regards,
Martin Kubik, BWA Committee, Founder and President

BWAC Spring Orientation Moves to Online

Dear BWAC Members and Friends,

BWAC is less than one month away from our first spring trip, and a world away from plans and hopes launched in January. BWAC leadership now meets virtually, and the 2020 spring crew orientation will be online. Plan to log in on April 9th at 6:00 p.m. for trail and club presentations. Enjoy a few moments imagining yourself in the wilderness, whether you will be visiting the trail this spring or in the future.

Minnesotans have been social distancing since mid-March, and now “Stay Home MN” is in effect for at least the coming two weeks. While many of us are thinking creatively about how to go forward with BWAC spring trips, we also are aware it would be irresponsible to risk the safety of our members or of the people and businesses we will encounter if we leave home.

Planning for a month from now, or for two days from now, is difficult. BWAC has canceled the early May condo overnight and day trip to the Powwow Trail. Overnight trips are not canceled as of today, but doing so is a possibility. Anyone registered for a trip may cancel without penalty and receive a trip credit or full refund, or choose to use your fee to make a tax-exempt donation to the BWAC 501(c)(3). Contact me or your crew leader if you have made a decision or would like to discuss.

BWAC and U.S. Forest Service representatives met this past Monday and discussed campsite restoration and safety concerns along the Powwow Trail. You, the BWAC advocates and volunteers, are truly bringing back the Powwow for hikers today and into the future. The trail will be there when we are ready and able to visit.

Thank you for your support. Stay safe and well.

Sincerely,

Susan Pollock and the BWAC Leadership

Hello Volunteers and Friends of the BWCA Trails,

Prioritizing the safety of our members and volunteers is integral to the Boundary Waters Advisory Committee (BWAC) mission of preserving historic trails in the BWCAW. In light of the unprecedented spread of COVID-19, we have initiated steps to minimize our exposure to the virus. On March 18, 2020, the BWAC Trail Committee conducted our scheduled meeting by remote conference, a first for us. Here are the highlights of the meeting and how the spread of the corona virus could impact BWAC activities:

Powwow Trail maintenance trips. BWAC spring trips are departing between April 30 and June 11. Using best available advice, we will notify our volunteers immediately, or at a minimum, three weeks prior to trip departure if an individual trip will not go forward. If your trip is canceled or you choose to change your plans for whatever reason, your registration fee will be: a) fully refunded; b) credited to a future trip; or c) can be used as a tax-deductible donation to the Boundary Waters Advisory Committee.  Please contact your crew leader with your choice/ for more information.

April 9 crew member orientation and Duluth chapter events. All large group events have been canceled. We will be developing alternative ways to present crew training in the coming weeks and will keep you apprised.

Hikes. At this time we are leaving the decision for hike events to the crew leaders and participants. If you are symptom free, arrive to the hike by yourself and follow 6 foot social distancing, risk of contracting the virus should be minimal according to the authorities. The responsibility for making a decision is solely yours. Do not participate if you don’t feel comfortable doing so.

BWAC Volunteer Service Agreement with the US Forest Service.  BWAC Advocacy and FS liaison teams are planning to meet with the SNF Forest Supervisor Connie Cummings and Wilderness Managers on March 30 via video conference. The purpose of the meeting is to: 1) sign the Volunteer Service Agreement for Powwow Trail Maintenance; 2) propose a plan and time table for restoring the eight closed campsites on the Powwow Trail.

What can you do in the meantime?  It is not what life throws at you, but how you decide to cope with it.  Get out and hike in your local nature area and breathe in the fresh air of spring.  And if you run out of things to do, contact me if you would like to volunteer – there are several tasks BWAC needs help with and we are 100% volunteer run.

I will communicate with you in two weeks or so about May trips. Our number one concern, as with all trail maintenance trips, is your safety. Thank you for volunteering and feel free to contact me with any questions.

Regards,

Martin Kubik and the BWAC team.

March News from BWAC and invite to Kick-Off

March Letter to Friends of BWCA Trails

Warm weather is here and it is time to think about getting back on the trails! This spring we are on track to restoring the Powwow Trail in 2020 for hiking experience like not seen since 2011.

Your registrations for trips have so far filled 60 spots. There are twenty volunteers who intend to sign up. BWAC needs twenty more to meet our target of 100 volunteers on Powwow Trail this May. Powwow will still be a challenging hike, but our vision is that backpacking the loop after Memorial Day weekend will be much easier than a year ago.

The Forest Service is impressed with BWAC volunteers’ accomplishments and appears to be on board to restore the campsites. To help the Forest Service with trail restoration, BWAC had contacted several key legislators by letter, including Betty McCollum, chair of the Appropriations Committee of the Natural Resources, urging them to support key funding for “deferred maintenance” of hiking trails in the BWCAW. In addition, our Advocacy Team plans to meet with the Forest Service in March in Duluth to discuss priorities and tentative timetable to address the trail needs. This will be an opportunity to bring about change we have anticipated for several years and to collaborate more closely.

Now that we have support of the Forest Service, we need your continued pledge as well. With twenty openings on May trips, consider joining one of the backpacking or canoeing adventures. And whether you registered for a trip yet or not, I invite you to the 2020 BWCA Backpacking Trails Kick-Off this Saturday, March 7 at noon at Lebanon Hills Regional Park. Become more knowledgeable about both sides of the BWCAW: a) keynote speaker Dr. Mark Neuzil of University of St. Thomas will present “History of Canoe in North America,” and b) you will discover/get an update on three BWCAW backpacking trails: Kekekabic (40 miles), Border Route Trail (70 miles) and the Powwow Trail (30 miles). Registration is only $5 for pizza (youth under 18 for free, but let us know) and following the presentations, choose one of four of the 20 minute workshops: “What’s in my pack, Water purification, Camping stoves, and Map & compass.” In addition to pizza lunch, Trailtopia is hosting a demo of tasting their freeze dried foods and giving away a door prize of Trailtopia mix. Crew leaders will be on hand to answer your questions about the trips and gear. Please help us to get a head count for lunch by RSVP’ing today here.

Remember that when you volunteer with BWAC, you gain personally rewarding experience while you serve a higher purpose that benefits the society. Together, we are making the Boundary Waters better. Thank you for volunteering.

Regards,

Martin Kubik, organizer.  Questions?  Reach me at wtrails2@yahoo.com or call/text to 651-214-5849

PS  What's it like?  See photos from 2019 event here.

New Year Message to BWAC Volunteers

Click here for a photo album version on Smugmug.  Or read below and come back for photos.

Happy New Year to you.  In this New Year’s message I want to share our past accomplishments and a glimpse into BWAC 2020 plans.  Last year was nothing short of extraordinary.  More than 185 volunteers cleared 25 miles of treefalls.  The jack pines that proliferated after the Pagami Creek fire, and reached 12-16 feet in eight years, have been cut from the entire trail and no longer obscure the path.  For the first time since 2016, several groups of backpackers have been able to hike the entire loop.

This is a tremendous success we should be rightfully proud of.  Forest Service Kawishiwi (Ely) District Ranger Gus Smith was impressed and sent a thank you note to us, commenting on the high quality of trail clearing work by BWAC volunteers last summer.

What lies ahead in 2020?  Our work is far from complete and much more needs to be done.

1) We estimate there will be about 3,000 treefalls on the trail after winter snows, up from the 2000 treefalls counted at the end of 2019 clearing. Our trail committee has already met twice in December and is organizing ten trail clearing crews for May, 2020.  Be sure to look for your own 2020 adventure or two on Meetup in mid-January!

2) The good news: by Memorial Day weekend, the Powwow trail should be passable to most hikers with above average trail finding skills.  In 2020 the Forest Service plans to replace the PWT trailhead kiosk, including a map. The not-so-good news: eight unrestored campsites remain along the trail.  These have been removed from official maps and presently there is no timeline or plan to reopen them. Pose Lake is the only campsite that has been restored (2015).  Hikers need safe locations to camp, with fire grates and latrines and without danger of hazard trees falling. Camping off the trail is impossible due to the sheer number of treefalls and choking growth of new jack pines that blanket the ground.

3) The BWAC advocacy team plans to meet with the USFS this winter and lobby for renewal of the eight campsites.  In addition to asking the Forest Service for help, we intend to reach to our elected officials.  We will ask that “deferred maintenance” funds by the Natural Resources Appropriation Committee be specifically designated for trail maintenance on the Powwow Trail, so that the Forest Service has means to restore the sites.

4) On the organizational side of our work,  Duluth BWAC volunteers  successfully established a Northern MN BWAC Chapter with a sponsorship from Frost River Outdoor Store.  Thank you Duluth area volunteers for two years of maintaining Powwow Trail!

5) On the sponsorship front, BWAC has other good news. Kawishiwi Lodge / Lake One Outfitters, donates the use of Kevlar canoes and their lakeside bunkhouse for BWAC crews paddling to the west and north side of the Powwow Trail. Trailtopia offers a 20% discount for their nutritious and convenient backpacking food to all BWAC volunteers, and a 50% discount to crew leaders.

The Boundary Waters Advisory Committee has an awesome track record in trail advocacy and trail restoration. I believe that with your help and commitment, we will be successful in bringing about a complete rebirth of Powwow Trail experience for backpackers in the upcoming year.

To celebrate our successes and to learn more, I invite you to join us at the BWAC Annual Meeting and dinner on February 6, at REI Bloomington.  Meet crew leaders, reconnect with your past crew members and hear Cary Griffith author of  “Lost in Wild” an incredible story of survival on the Powwow Trail.  Please RSVP today at https://www.meetup.com/Friends-of-BWCA-Trails/events/267188399/

Thank you for your commitment to BWCAW hiking trails. The passion and energy of BWAC volunteers is not only bringing back the Powwow Trail, but makes BWAC a reliable partner with the Forest Service, land manager for the Powwow Trail.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions at wtrails2@yahoo.com or at 651-214-5849 cell.

Regards,

Martin Kubik,  BWAC president and public servant, ESL

Volunteers Are Making Progress to Restore the Powwow Hiking Trail in BWCAW

While most people think of the Boundary Waters as a haven for canoeists, fewer are aware that BWCAW has more than 200 miles of backpacking trails.  One such trail is the 30 mile long Powwow Hiking Trail near Isabella. Although most of the trail burned down in the August 2011 Pagami Creek Fire, it is making a comeback thanks to volunteers working with the US Forest Service.

After the fire, the Powwow Trail was cleared by the Forest Service and the Minnesota Conservation Corps in 2012. Since then thousands of dead, charred trees fell over the path. In seven years, hundreds of young jack  pines have grown five to eight feet tall, obscuring rock cairns and making the Powwow Trail impassable by even expert hikers.

“Backpackers and hunters alike have prized the Powwow Trail for its solitude and number of campsites that can’t be reached by a canoe.  This year, on the 40th anniversary of the BWCA Wilderness Act of 1978, volunteers are working hard to make this legacy trail hikeable again for our and future generations,” said Martin Kubik, founder and president of the Boundary Waters Advisory Committee (BWA Committee).

Indeed, close to one hundred volunteers, including a crew sponsored by Frost River, Duluth,  have cleared more than two thirds of the 30 mile trail, removing several thousand treefalls with hand saws and loppers from the path.  The organization plans five more trips this fall and hopes to make a clean sweep through the entire trail. For more information contact Martin Kubik, 651-564-8279 or email to: wtrails2@yahoo.com

BWA Committee is a 501 c3 non profit organization with a mission “to preserve the existing, historic and intrinsically beautiful hiking trails in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of the Superior National Forest.” Its members volunteered on Kekekabic, Sioux Hustler, Brule Lake and Eagle Mtn. trails, and more recently on the Powwow Trail.

Martin Kubik, a long time BWCAW trails advocate, is a retired engineer from 3M, St. Paul.  He is a founder of the Kekekabic Trail Club, the 3M Outdoor Club, BWA Committee and recipient of several outdoor leadership and volunteering awards.