The Boundary Waters

I'm finally prepared to tell you all about my BWCA (Boundary Waters Canoe Area) trip. I went on an eight day trip with some (new) teacher friends of mine. I didn't find out until the end, but the trip we were on was a "very challenging" level. There are five different level routes you can take:

1. Beginner
2. Intermediate
3. Challenging
4. Very Challenging
5. Expert

I loved this trip but it WAS very challenging! Let me tell you about it.

The orange line is (roughly) the path we took. We paddled 42 miles and did 32 portages (some twice!) I can't remember all our campsites and now that I think about it, I think we took the one long portage between Beth and Grace Lakes.

The morning we went in. The girls were ready to go!

The first day we found cliffs to dive off of. I wish there would have been more of these. It was scary but SO much fun! This is the group (top left going clockwise: Me, Teresa, Scott, Cara, and Jesus)

I had no idea but only one person carries the canoe when portaging. This is Teresa portaging the canoe--Jesus is walking behind her (not touching the canoe) in case she needed help. The boys were AMAZING and did all the canoe portages. They were MACHINES!

Isn't it beautiful what years of water can do to rock? When we stood next to this, we barely came up to half-way up the rock.

Our group on the second night. So peaceful.

This was my favorite campsite off Wine Lake. We were up on a tall cliff and the stars were amazing that night. I've never seen such a clear and bright night. This campsite was full of butterflies.

We would leave our Keens in the sun after a day of canoeing so they could dry out.

The start to the "Ridiculous" day (the day includes the next three photos). Sometimes we had to paddle through a lot of lily pads, grass, or beaver dams. We exited off the river too early and got lost on an island. It was very scary for a short while because we didn't know where we were going. We eventually got back on the river and found the right portage.

We ran into 3-4 beaver dams that were large enough that we had to portage over them. This one was the most interesting because there wasn't enough room to have all of us stand on it. So the guys got Cara and Teresa into the silver bullet while I helped them get the 3 person canoe over the dam. We climbed into it ready to go. Shortly after, we realized that all the people that knew how to steer a canoe were together in the 3 person canoe. Teresa, laughing with tears in her eyes, did a remarkably good job steering... even if she did shove Cara into the tall grass on the river a few times.

Even though this was a rough day--it was the most beautiful. I don't have a photo... but we saw a double rainbow. I'm not lying! What does it mean?! 

What else made the day ridiculous? We didn't get to our campsite until late, we ate lunch in the canoe and dinner on a portage, I fell butt-first into the lake with my pack on, Jesus got a bee sting, it was the one day Teresa didn't put her sleeping bag in the garbage bag and it rained, and we lost our water filter this day. Luckily we just had one more day to go. But here are the St. Cloud teachers. These people really do rock. I couldn't have asked for a better group.

The start of the last day. We realized our legs had really taken a beating. Especially mine (far left) because I fell three times in addition to falling into a hole. We also all had blisters from having constant wet feet.

We decided to duct-tape our feet with gauze pads over our blisters. Next time I will bring water-proof bandaids so I can protect my feet earlier in the trip from blisters. This was a great alternative if not for...

Oh it looks beautiful but this was...

Mud. We couldn't canoe for quite a ways and the only option was to walk alongside our canoes in this. We were waist-deep in foul-smelling mud. God we looked great.

We entered and exited at Entry Point #38 Sawbill Lake. I would suggest Sawbill Outfitters to anyone thinking of taking a trip. They were extremely helpful and friendly. We rented our 3 person canoe from them and stayed the first and last night at their campground. When we exited the BWCA we were able to run down to the outfitters and pay $4.50 for a shower and fluffy towel. I've never had a better shower. After our shower we shopped at the outfitters buying fresh clothes, dry shoes (in my case), beer, pop, candy, and anything that looked good. We went back to our campsite and had ourselves a celebration!

I never wanted to buy Crocs, ever. When I got back to the outfitters every footwear item I had was wet. With painful blisters, I hobbled to the store hoping for some flip-slops. I found Crocs and you know what? They were glorious.

I'm going to write another post about what to pack and food. So stay tuned and happy canoeing!