Boundary Water Canoe Area Part 2

Beside getting "married" we also had a very serious experience: One day we were doing a portage when 3 boats approached the same portage that was there to avoid some serious rapids. The first boat landed ok, but then it happened: The second boat got into the current and went down the rapids. It was really scary and looked more like a stunt out of an action movie than a real event. But it was very real! The boat, 3 guys and all their equipment went down the rapids. Luckily the guys let go off the boat which then got stuck between two rocks right in the middle of the rapids. All their stuff was swept down the rapids, but luckily we could retrieve most of it later. 2 guys were washed ashore, but 1 guy was stuck on a rock right in the middle of it. This is when Raru went into action. The guy was too far away to grab his hand so Raru stuck out a big tree branch. The guy threw himself into the current again and was swept towards the branch. He grabbed it and Raru could pull him ashore. I bet the guy was pretty happy to be in "Raru's arms" then... Luckily there were 3 boats and 7 guys in this party so they had dry clothes and enough people to retrieve the boat. We paddled on and had a lot to talk about...


Most of our time paddling was spent reading and discussing literature. Raru is an English teacher and it tried to help him prepare next year's lessons. So we read and discussed Steinbeck's "Of mice and men" and Jack London's "To build a fire". Of course I gave him the feminist view on the books.... He also gave me the text of my favourite English songs and so we were happily singing "Rawhide" all the time. And I learnt that most rock songs don't make much sense...

After 2 weeks of seeing no car, no house and no power lines at all we headed back into civilisation. We were both pretty happy - it had been a very nice trip despite rainy weather and lots of mosquitoes. And I learnt a lot. If I have the chance again, I would definitely go paddling again, but I realised that I need a paddling partner for that (and a backpack to carry the stuff on the portages)...

The BWCA had been a great spot for a first long canoe trip: Despite some minor hassles with permits and boat registration things are very well organised. You are only allowed to camp at designated campsite - but you would not be able to camp anywhere else anyways because everything is so overgrown. And these primitive camp sites are everywhere - even if one is occupied you usually do not have to paddle much further to find an available one. Each camp site offers flat clear ground for camping, a fire grate and some rough seating plus an outdoor toilet (which usually is not much more than a hole in the ground). Because all those lakes and little streams are interconnected you can make up any route from a day trip to week long expeditions. We spent 2 weeks there and saw only about one third of the park!

Boundary Waters Canoe Area Part 1

Raru

I am back from my paddling trip! Everything worked out great - except for the rain of course....But I will start at the beginning: Raru picked me up at O'Hare airport in Chicago and we went shopping for our 2 weeks paddling trip. After a long day of repackaging food for 2 people for 2 weeks and going through all my stuff we finally left DeKalb in the evening of the next day. We broke up the drive up to Minnesota by staying at a US Forest Campground and finally arrived at Boundary Waters. I could not wait to sit in a canoe, but we first stayed the night at the campground there. And then we started paddling - and of course, it rained. Actually it was raining 12 out of 14 days, but I am sort of used to it by now.

Paddling was easy but I had not realised that there are so many portages - and they are long! Right on our first day we had to do a 280 rod (1 rod = 1 canoe length) portage, which meant that we had to go 5 times. We had so much stuff that we had to do 2 rounds for carrying the food (plus coming back) and the last round for carrying the canoe. The first day was also the worst: Too much stuff to carry and a lot of rain.... But then things became better. We got used to the portages and perfected our system. Also our food got less so that we could the portages with 3 goes instead of 5. And right now I am missing carrying a canoe over my head...

I also perfected my way of getting in and out of a canoe. You can still call me Ms. Grace and Elegance, but I look actually sort of professional right now doing it. And I also perfected the art of building a fire, which is a real pain in the ass when it is raining all the time. In the BWCA (=Boundary Waters Canoe Area) you have to stay in designated camp sites, which is not a problem because there are hundreds of them. Each camp site has latrine and a fire grate. Raru had bought a lot of fresh vegetables like onions and carrots that we would roast on our camp fire. The food was heavy but it tasted delicious. Raru also caught a couple of fish and nothing is better than a fresh fish prepared over a camp fire..

And there comes the first really funny story: I wanted to try fishing, too (which I then only tried once without any success) and therefore we bought a husband and wife fishing license. And believe it or not, right in the middle of nowhere in BWCA a game warden stopped us to see our paperwork. And when I produced our fishing license he asked very sceptically whether we are really married. Before Raru could open his mouth to admit the truth I had already produced a story about us just recently having married and being on our honeymoon! I even fantazised about applying for American citizenship. Raru would make jokes about me as his duelly wedded wife for the rest of the trip. We got fined nevertheless for not having a registration on our boat.... Shit happens!