Kenyon Wanamingo High School Trip, 10,6-9,2010

The pure excitement of teenagers on an adventure inspires me. Their enthusiasm is contagious.  It drives me to show them all the best parts of wilderness camping and canoing.  First is learning how to canoe.  Control of the boat is like control of your life, yourself. They have a few skills taught to them minutes before they hit the water.  They have to perfect these skills as they go so they can follow the leader to the goal. It's slow, frustrating, and confusing at first but as the skills improve and as their mind realizes the cause and effect of different strokes the canoe and their life start going in the right direction.  Portaging works the same way in that they need strategies to cross the land between lakes in an efficient manner.  Loading the canoe needs to be done so that it's balanced and trim. The students mastered these life lessons in control and strategy by the time we started across Lake Two, and arrived at our destination, Lady Boot campsite. It had been a beautiful blue sky day with a northwest breeze.  Camp was pitched, coffee made and supper started. Peter lit a fire to roast the hot dogs.  I cooked cheddar onion potato soup.  All of this quieted the hunger we felt. Everyone went for a sunset paddle. I enjoyed an hour of peace and quiet in camp while pitching the tarp and doing some chores.  The evening was rounded off with journalling by campfire, making s'mores, and telling bear stories.   The kids slept till 10 the next morning because they needed the rest.  We had Sturdiwheat pancakes and Zup's bacon for breakfast.  Camp chores were done and we headed north in the canoes to Dangerous Waters.  While on our trek there we noticed that the water was severely low.  Many passages were narrow and we touched bottom several times.  The channel to the Dangerous Waters was calm and beautiful.  An eagle flew in front of  us letting us know what a special place this was.  At the end of the channel we came to a beach where we pulled the boats on shore and left them while we hiked along the lush wilderness trail that paralleled the river.  We found moss, leaves, dead falls, rocks, rushing water, quiet pools, shafts of sunlight, cool shade and high cliffs.  We hopped, climbed, slid, jumped and walked through the wonders of this special corner of the world.  After an hour we settled on a rock overlooking the river and ate lunch.  On the return trip south back to camp Chloe jumped out of the boat and we spent 15 minutes trying to get her back in the canoe.  It was good to see her come back to life because she was obviously not feeling well in the previous hours.  Kincaid and Ted had coffee with us while the kids rendezvoused at their camp.  We had a nice time visiting and planning tomorrows activities.  Supper that night was spaghetti and garlic bread, everything was devoured.  The Britney's helped with clean up. Everyone did a fabulous job journalling.  The evening was rounded off with stories and s'mores.  The fire died down and it was cooling off a lot so the students went to bed and everyone was quiet by 10:30.   For breakfast the next morning I made scrambled eggs and bacon.   Everyone was headed for their stations at 9:45.  We had 3 stations, each manned by an adult with a presentation.  I introduced wilderness photography featuring Jim Brandenberg as the motivation.  Kincaid  reviewed the Boundary Waters history and survival techniques.  Peter and Laura covered Geo-caching on a nearby campsite.  The students traveled in groups of three by canoe from  station to station at regular intervals.   At the end of the presentations 2 groups went back to Dangerous Waters on their own.  Kincaid and I followed about a half hour later because we hadn't paddled at all  that day.  The students were doing fine and Kincaid was amazed at the low water level.   Supper that night was Griffy's Chicken Delight, my group ate all of it.  During the campfire time the students revealed that they were all a little homesick.  Peter and I stayed up late talking.   Breakfast the next morning was cocoa, and breakfast bars for sustenance. We were on the water at 8:45.  There was an easterly breeze which made paddling west easy. The sky was blue and the air was warm.  The students paddled like veteran canoeists who had years of experience.  It was a great day to be in the woods but we were a little melancholy because it was our last hours in this beautiful place. On the other hand we were looking forward to cheeseburgers, cokes, and contact with friends and family.  This group made the transformation from neophytes, to competent wilderness canoe trippers. I enjoyed their company greatly and hope to paddle with them again sometime.  Many of the photos were taken by the students. 

Seagull Lake and the wind, September 8, 2010

It was an enchanted journey through the islands of eastern Seagull Lake.  We arrived at our favorite campsite in mid-afternoon. Our group consisted of 4 couples who were all friends and relatives.  There was Tom and Melissa, Mark and Marsha, John and Diana and of course Me and Ruth.  We had 4 dogs along, our Chloe the cocker spaniel, Cooper's  Chucky and Eva and John's Winnie, another spaniel.  It was unseasonably cool and that night we all gathered around the fire to absorb it's warmth.  We were all pleased that we had successfully separated from the civilized world, which can be very difficult.  Everyone explored, photographed and thoroughly enjoyed a nice day in the North woods of Minnesota.  Our next days journey started in late morning. It was a beautiful day as we paddled southwest along the northern shore of Seagull lake.  Shortly after we settled into our next campsite the wind picked up and we were very glad to be off the water.  We were on a peninsula with a high rock on the end and several good tent sites.  It was such a big campsite that all our tents were separated by many trees and a lot of space.  We were locked in camp for the remainder of that day and the next because of the wind.  We played lots of cribbage, ate and talked the time away. Finally the wind let up and we were able to fish, paddle and explore.  Ruth and I trolled and blew east down the lake trying to catch a Lake Trout.  When we tried to return at the mid-point of the lake we had a lot of difficulty getting the boat to come around so we could head back.  We trolled and cast the bays on the way back to camp.  It wasn't bad behind the islands.  When we got back to camp Cooper had a 14 pound Northern that he caught in 3 feet of water at the mouth of the river.  Mark cleaned it such that it was boneless and I helped him fry it up. This Northern fed all of us all the fish we could eat. The girls made mac and cheese for the side dish.  The evening was spent around a great fire that Cooper built.  In the morning I made Sturdiwheat pancakes and John fried Zup's bacon for everyone.  It was a good morning.  The wind persisted and the cribbage games continued with the boys ahead most of the time but at the end the girls tied it up.   We tidied up camp for an efficient departure in the morning.  It was a beautiful evening as we all gathered around our last campfire.   Our paddle out was an awesome tour through one of the most beautiful places on earth and quite a bit easier due the the strong tail wind.  In summary we had a very relaxing  week but did have to wear long underwear most of the time. Melissa took lots of beautiful pictures many of which are featured here. Cooper's Northern was a much appreciated treat as were the campfires he tended.  We were all glad to have a week in the fresh wilderness air, where the only sounds were the wind in the trees and waves on the shoreline.