Northern Waters

I know, I know. It's been a while. That kind of happens. But you should at least know that one week ago I got back from the Boundary Waters. That's right, the Boundary Waters. Have you been up there? You spend a week up there and, if you are me, you aren't exactly eager to jump on a computer when you get back. Instead you walk around thinking how much simpler life is when your primary concerns are canoeing from point A to point B and making sure you eat something along the way.

So the goal here is, after being back for a week, to give a little trip summary. We'll start with my group:


(Ignore the random girl pirouetting in the back there. Don't know who that is.) They were awesome. We were the 'hard-core' group that was expected to paddle much of the day and see a lot of the area, even though that decision was ultimately up to us and we didn't have to do any more than any other group. But we did. Everyone in the group was willing to work hard, and I was thankful that on our last day, when we spent half the day just hanging out after positioning ourselves for a good exit the last morning, everyone decided that not working hard was plain boring. Obviously we got along splendidly. We spent the first couple of days canoeing right along the US-Canadian border. They were good times. We were only allowed to step into Canada when a portage dictated it. We were pleased that it happend fairly frequently.


The weather for most of the week was a real challenge. The first couple of days saw some impressive rain. The first night we didn't get hardly any sleep for all of the rain cascading down our tent flies. Each day we would see chilly mornings, sun, clouds, some rain, then rinse, wash and repeat. It was not uncommon for us to be cruising along and pretty warmed by the sun, and then suddenly see a weather front roll in.


Now, as a result of that particular front, we got out of a relatively simple area of the park and out into open water when the wind really started pciking up. Our meager canoes were blown off course and we wound up spending a night (technically illegal) in Canada. Now, in our defense we didn't really know we were in Canada until late that night when trying to locate ourselves on the map. That afternoon, when the suspicions first arose, I watched as the weather really turned threatening. Keep in mind, despite the darkness, this picture was taken at about 4 in the afternoon:


After a rain storm that really wasn't as menacing as those clouds appeared to imply, we got some of the most amazing weather on the trip. Pleasant, cool, a joy to cook dinner under, and served to give us the best sunset we would see the entire trip. Thus, my two favorite pictures from the trip are the two following, which were taken while (kind of accidentally) illegally camping in Canada. I will say this: I really like Canada. And we were very careful not to impact that site at all. Thank you Canada. You are awesome. And you are beautiful as these pics attest:




Now, the next day we got ourselves oriented, and set course for an area of campsites that were ultimately all full. So we paddled on and got to another campsite, and found it to be closed due to fires. We saw no fires, although we were aware they were in the area. But, according to our outfitter, this area should be open. While figuring out what to do, I picked up a little friend....


I want to emphasize that this is rare. Don't be scared of the Boundary Waters thinking that leeches this size are all over the place waiting to suck you dry of your blood. I was a bit freaked by the size of it. But it was also immediately apparent that it was digging in so I got it off very quickly. And hey, how cool of a picture does it make? Not only that, but we went swimming everyday and had a jolly time. Leeches were never our concern.

Perhaps the biggest scare is that one of our ziplocks failed us and half our GORP got wet. Any outdoor enthusiast knows this to be a tragedy. Our solution?


That's right, we laid it out to dry after the sun wasn't directly on it to melt the M&M's. Clever you say? Damn right it was. And it worked. Marginally.

I woke up early the next morning and caught this shot from our campsite. Could the lake be any more still? Could we see more of a mirror in the water?


On our last day, after not catching a single fish the entire time, I borrowed a pole and went out into James Bay. After an hour I caught a northern pike. And it was big enough to eat. So Duncan, who learned to prep a fish from his grandfather when he was 5 (and not having done it since), made it all become a reality. Once it was prepped, I was fully capable of doing the cooking.


The last morning. Some of the ladies wanted to wake up early to catch the sunrise. I'm normally not a fan of doing this on the last morning. But we hadn't done it yet this trip, and I was excited about our location in this bay to see what would happen. This is what happened:


Some of the coolest fog rolled in that the sun would later zap. For all I know we missed this kind of thing the whole trip because we never got up at 5:30 am to see it. But we saw it that morning. It gave me a profound sense of peace at the end of the trip. Then I went back to bed for an hour.

We got back and really weren't the worse for wear. We all got our first shower in a week and look as happy as we did in the beginning. Perhaps one of my favorite outdoors trips in recent memory. Not the toughest trip, and not too many stories from something that just plain went wrong. But simply a solid trip with a solid group.


So now I'm here as summer crawls to a close in terms of employment. School starts back on September 20. THAT'S A LONG TIME FROM NOW. I need to get some reading done. I need to organize a few things. I need to come up with a couple projects. Then it is back to the northeast for one more year.

But for the time being, I still relax everytime I see that sunset picture with all those crazy Canadian colors. Glorious.