8/20/25 – Kit (9) and Anna (24) here! Kit, one of the two Shirley kids, wanted to do a blog post this week so we are making that happen. Out of all of the possible topics, she really wanted to write about her annual daddy-daughter canoe trip this year with Dan, where they did the Frost River. From here on out it’ll be Kit’s story, but typed up by me:
“On day one we went up to Frost from Sawbill and we had lunch on Cherokee. Unfortunately, we packed the hikers hummus and it was the cilantro lime flavor, we just thought that we didn’t think the flavor was good, but the joke was on us because the pack was expired. Sadly that was our lunch for every day, and we needed a lot of energy to finish out the Frost River Route, so Dan choked it down, and I just ate cheese. We also had a wonderful skinny dip on Cherokee because it was very hot that day and we still had a long way to go to get to Frost. There was a storm brewing so we were in a hurry to get a site on Frost. Thankfully, there were several options available. We took the site with a sloping rock across the campsite and a big sandy beach nearby. We tried to swim from the sandy beach, but we walked out so far that our campsite was a little dot and the water was still only up to my waist. For dinner, we had pad thai and shared a special lindt caramel bar which had melted in the pack throughout the day, so it was more of a chocolate and caramel straw. The first day took us about 8 hours including the lunch stop.
On the second day we were greeted by an early morning thunder storm. Once that passed, we traveled the whole Frost River down to Mesaba. It was another eight hour day with most of that on the river. From my memory, it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be, but from Dan’s memory, it was a lot of work. On the Frost River, the map isn’t always right, there were a lot of portages that weren’t on the map and a lot of portages on the map that we didn’t have to do. The map is helpful for the general direction of the river, but the portages change so much that you never really know what to expect. There are a LOT of beaver dams, but nothing you can’t get over or around. As we neared the end of the Frost River and were supposed to come out onto Afton Lake, the river kept going and we were worried that we weren’t where we thought we were and that maybe there was a lot more river left. We finally burst out onto Afton and we were so happy. There were three swans there to welcome us. We stopped on the one campsite on the lake (which was pretty decent) and had a triumphant skinny dip, again. Even though we were beyond the river portion, we still had about 400 more rods of portaging to do to make it down to Mesaba. We were joking that we had to get to Mesaba because before the trip, Dan was talking to our friend Paul, who was going out for two weeks, that we’d be on Mesaba that night and that maybe he should meet us there with dinner ready! Sadly we didn’t see him, but we had a great evening with more swims.
Day three took us back to Sawbill. Of course there was a stiff south wind in our faces the whole way because that is always what seems to happen to us. The way back seemed easier because we didn’t have to do the river again, so we leisurely paddled back – or as leisurely as you can against the wind. The long Lujenida portage I have done many times and a lot of people are nervous to do it. It is actually a really nice portage especially if you take enough breaks and do it in 10-15 minute shifts. I really enjoy doing this portage because the breaks give you plenty of time to talk about your day. When we got back to Sawbill I took a shower immediately and then came to the store to say hi to the whole crew!”
The Frost River Route is definitely one of our more challenging routes, but it is totally doable if you have the time to do it! Dan and Kit were able to do it in 3 days, but we have it on our website here as a 5 day loop. Regardless, the river itself definitely takes a whole day to complete as it is ever-changing. Don’t hesitate to give us a call about the Frost River or any other routing advice or information!
– Anna