Back to the Wild
Last month we went back to the Boundary Waters. There were seven of us, six from last year plus a newbie. Our son and his bride weren't able to accompany us. It was the general consensus that we would not portage this year, no canoe carrying or schlepping of large, heavy packs. On that note, we set out from a different outfitter onto a very large lake.
We paddled out in search of a campsite. We came around a bend to see our first choice, which had a large, flat rock sloping down to a nice sandy beach. Unfortunately, there were several tents up and a naked guy standing on the rock, so we kept paddling. We didn't see any more naked guys, but every campsite we came to was already occupied, so we kept paddling. We'd been on the lake quite awhile by then and were getting a bit concerned about the availability of campsites. We were in an area where there had been some fires a few years back, and also a massive blowdown of trees during one storm that produced very strong straight line winds, so some of the campsites were uninhabitable. The thing was, the sky was starting to look ominous and the lake was getting choppy, and we had several confabs as to who was reading the map correctly.
We finally found a nice site just as the sky opened up and dumped its entire contents on our heads. Thank God for rain suits. We managed to get camp set up and the rain stopped long enough for us to get supper. Here are our resident engineers contemplating the design for putting up the food packs.
It rained a good portion of the night and then off and on all the next day, making it a day suitable for sitting in the tents and visiting and reading, or under the tarp, not so much for exploring or fishing. The following day, however, was beautiful.
Trevin cleaned his first fish, and he even had some fun with the fish head. Just kind of stuck his fingers into it and turned it into a little Billy Bass. This was Jessica's reaction.
The mosquitoes were out in full force this year, so I resorted to walking about with this on my head. I think I should send it to the What Not To Wear people and see if I can make them stroke out.
The next morning we paddled back out, took showers, stopped in Grand Marais for lunch, and headed back to The Cities. I collected scrapbooks from last year so I can add our new adventure and our new memories. All in all a fun trip. I think these two pictures sum it up nicely.
We paddled out in search of a campsite. We came around a bend to see our first choice, which had a large, flat rock sloping down to a nice sandy beach. Unfortunately, there were several tents up and a naked guy standing on the rock, so we kept paddling. We didn't see any more naked guys, but every campsite we came to was already occupied, so we kept paddling. We'd been on the lake quite awhile by then and were getting a bit concerned about the availability of campsites. We were in an area where there had been some fires a few years back, and also a massive blowdown of trees during one storm that produced very strong straight line winds, so some of the campsites were uninhabitable. The thing was, the sky was starting to look ominous and the lake was getting choppy, and we had several confabs as to who was reading the map correctly.
We finally found a nice site just as the sky opened up and dumped its entire contents on our heads. Thank God for rain suits. We managed to get camp set up and the rain stopped long enough for us to get supper. Here are our resident engineers contemplating the design for putting up the food packs.
It rained a good portion of the night and then off and on all the next day, making it a day suitable for sitting in the tents and visiting and reading, or under the tarp, not so much for exploring or fishing. The following day, however, was beautiful.
Trevin cleaned his first fish, and he even had some fun with the fish head. Just kind of stuck his fingers into it and turned it into a little Billy Bass. This was Jessica's reaction.
The mosquitoes were out in full force this year, so I resorted to walking about with this on my head. I think I should send it to the What Not To Wear people and see if I can make them stroke out.
The next morning we paddled back out, took showers, stopped in Grand Marais for lunch, and headed back to The Cities. I collected scrapbooks from last year so I can add our new adventure and our new memories. All in all a fun trip. I think these two pictures sum it up nicely.
posted by Mom Thumb at 1:52 PM
10 Comments:
What??? NO pictures of the naked guy? LOL! Oh, and if it kept mosquitoes off of me, I'd wear that thing too! LOL.
No, I had packed my camera into several water tight bags in case we tipped the canoe and went into the drink, so it wasn't handy when we encountered the naked guy. The kids were a ways behind us and by the time they got close enough, the guy had clothes on, otherwise I'm sure there would have been photos!
You are waaaayyyy more adventerous than I am! Looks like you had fun, though.......
Yeah, fun going in and fun coming out. The showers are always like a little piece of Heaven!
You went by a naked man on the rocks. Could it be you discovered a "survivor" site?
LOL, no, just a bunch of quite uninhibited young people.
I'm glad you were able to make lite of all the rain and bugs and still have a great time. Perhaps I shouldn't tell you about how CO was beautiful and sunny and bug-free, cause that would be mean. I'm sensitive that way.
jeff - Thanks, I appreciate your sensitivity. Although I think I'd rather brave the rain and bugs than watch my kids fling themselves out over a gorge, I almost had a stroke looking at pics of YOUR kids!
After reading about the rain and all the bugs, and almost not finding a campsite, I know now why I don't like camping!!! Oh--and add to that, having to fight building a fire so you can have food to eat (that you had to pack and haul all the way there) I'll stick with what we had---a cute little cabin on the lake!! Glad you had fun, tho.
lois - Definitely not everyone's cup of tea!
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