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.
