Before the Month is Up

Boundary Waters: A. Maze. Ing.

Pops, Shawn and I took each others lives in our hands and headed into the remotest wild of Minnesota. There were bets being made about which Fagan would get left behind (or "mysteriously" disappear), but we all came back no worse for wear!

I loaded into the solo canoe (YES!) with the food bag (Double yes! Snacks!!) and we headed to our first portage. Boy, was this going to be an introduction!

Our first portage was the toughest of our journey. One mile of varying grades. A trail covered in heavy, thick, wet foliage. Forty pound pack on the back, forty-ish pound canoe on the shoulders. Hello challenge! I did great for about the first ten feet. Seriously. Then the foliage became a difficult factor and I couldn't get the canoe settled properly on my shoulders. I was using my neck and head to balance it so much that I was quickly in pain. I made it a little over half a mile (I think!) and only fell twice. My dad was behind me and encouraged the best he could. I finally gave in and the two of us carried the canoe by the ends.

During all of this, Shawn (with his 20 foot stride!) blew by me. As I've mentioned in previous posts, he's a pretty great brother and came back to help us. And by that, I mean he picked up my canoe and took off. I was at a pretty good trot trying to keep up! I'm still not sure how he managed it.

So. First portage is conquered! We are finally in the Boundary Waters. Away from the world. Away from cars and trucks and electricity. Away from man-made sounds. I was in heaven. I think we all were. At one point during the trip, the only sound I heard was my breathing. No wind. No birds. No bugs. No creatures stirring. Nothing. Absolute, sheer, unequivocal... silence. It took me a moment to recognize it! I had never heard anything so unfamiliar and beautiful.

We had two more portages to go through before we reached the lake of choice. The next one up was a wet portage. I stood ankle deep water, pulled my canoe over a beaver's dam and continued on my merry way. I say "my merry way" because Shawn and Dad were having some navigational issues. They found every rock and log possible in that pond!

The third and last portage was probably my favorite. It was short. It was muddy. It was smelly. Did I mention short?! I carried everything my self this time and got a good victory boost. The added obstacle of mud meant that we had to be wary of our steps. I took one and sunk in to my knee. With a canoe on my head. Not so much fun! Thankfully, I have strong legs and was able to pull out of it. I was also starting to laugh and that would've meant the end of me!

Portaging complete. Shawn and Dad fished. I enjoyed the fresh air and watching Shawn squirm when he caught a Northern Pike. (For an outdoorsy guy, he sure is a wuss!) We found a spot to make camp. Settled and peaceful.

And then the weather came. Almost as soon as camp was set up, it began to pour. So we took shelter in our tents and took much needed naps. We did that alot. Napping... Weather stopped. Fishing and exploring ensued. Fish for dinner. GREAT start.

Then the weather started in again. Wind. Rain. WIND. I thought my tent was going to blow away with Shawn and me in it! I think we slept around 15 hours that day. We'd wake up during weather breaks, eat, stretch and then head back to the tents for more napping. We ate. We napped. We ate. We napped. It was great!

The weather finally broke for good late afternoon. I was in charge of water, so I purified water while the men fished. Pancakes, fish, potatoes and clean water. The food of adventurers!

The day to leave had me a bit nervous. The lake didn't have white caps anymore, but it was decently windy and my canoe was off-balanced. Shawn and Dad took off and made good time getting across the big lake. I was having mad issues. For the life of me, I couldn't keep my craft perpendicular to the waves. I kept getting parallel. Dangerous. I almost got pitched. Twice. No joke. I had my vest on, so I wasn't too concerned, but I had the food and my pack. They were not tied in. So getting pitched would've been bad!

I fought. I dug deep. I dug hard. I prayed. And then prayed some more. Every-time I would pause because my arms were spent, I would start to spin, so I stopped stopping and just kept digging. I was using my entire body. Pulling from the core. Every muscle being used. Yowzers. I finally reached Dad and Shawn. But we had a bit further to go to be "safe".

Finally. Calm waters. Muddy portage. Still fun. Still muddy. Still smelly. Found the hole again.
Water portage. Still funny watching Shawn and Dad trying to maneuver it together.

We found a campsite just outside of the final portage. We wanted to be rested and have a game plan together on how to best do the final portage. It was an amazing site. Our first one was on a fire-hit area, so there was hardly any foliage or cover. This one was deep woods. We were definitely more aware of the possibilities of a bear sneaking up on us! No dawdling when going to the bathroom at this site! It was a great spot though and a beautiful day. Sunshine and free. We ate. We napped. Read, journaled, prayed. Slept and ate some more!

The mile portage wasn't as bad this time. Probably because Shawn carried both canoes! I carried the packs and made the trek three times. Shawn still blew by me! The entire time, we all were smiling, laughing, joking, trying to scare me...

It was the best trip I never thought possible to have with the fellas in my life. Can't wait for next year... :)

Quick Recap

I finally went camping! I had a really nice long weekend for July 4th and was able to head to a state park for camping and hiking. It was great and exactly what I needed!

There was a trail there that was "strenuous" and about 4min long. I thought "Hey! No biggie! I can handle that easy-peasy." I was doing great for the first mile, but then my amazing skills at falling kicked in. I was crossing the river on concrete stepping-stones. I wasn't paying the best of attention I guess because I biffed it big time. My left shin hit the edge of one block, my right knee hit the edge of the next block and my hands saved my face (by an inch) from hitting. I wanted to curl up and die. No joke. I thought my knee was disconnected. Once I stood up, climbed the hill and got going, things seemed to stretch out and right themselves (mostly). Finished the hike and had a mostly (decent amount of pain) good time! Got back to camp and fell asleep in my chair! Moved to the tent and took an even longer nap:)

Whitewater State Park hasn't seen peregrine falcons for 30 odd years until this year. Two chicks! There was an outing put on by the park and we got to see the chicks with some high powered binoculars. Very cool. And that was camping!

I had a bbq at my house on the 4th. The city firework show is behind my place at the lake, so it was the perfect setting for friends and food!