|
|||||||
|
|
LAKE OF THE WOODS, ONTARIO Launch: Zippel Bay State Park, Minnesota Nearby campsites: At Zippel Bay, in a jack pine and birch forest. Comments: LOW has 65,000 miles of shoreline and 14,000 islands. It is 80 miles in north-south extent, so can react violently to weather. |
-- Lake of the Woods
-- ----We launched from Zippel Bay State Park and traveled northerly through Lake of the Woods. The southern portion of the lake, in the US, is a wide bowl depressed within the Great Plains. To the north, in Canada, are many islands where the lake encroaches on the resistant ancient shield granite, gneiss and schist.
-- ----Before we could reach the protection of those northern islands, a westerly began to blow and increase in intensity until we opted to retreat back to Zippel Bay. The weather prediction was for very hot temperatures and high winds, so we reluctantly left Lake of the Woods for another day and headed to the east to Voyageur National Park. We would advise others that it would perhaps be most favorable to launch in Canada where access to protecting islands is more easily reached.
(07/10)