BDW suggested we contribute tales of first trips to the Boundary Waters, so here's mine.
I had learned to canoe at Boy Scout camp, but never did any tripping. After I was married, I bought a used Grumman which went on many family car camping trips.
As for the Boundary Waters, I had been intimidated by reports of big water, tricky rapids, and monster portages. I thought my skills needed a lot of upgrading before I could consider a BW trip.
However, the National Forest Service did a film show in the Twin Cities showing Boy Scouts lugging their gear across a short portage in garbage bags and other people whose paddling redefined direction. Instantly I knew I was a lot more capable than those folks.
The first trip was in May in the early '80s with my brother and his 11 or 12 year old son Dan. Brother Jerry had been to the BW several times, including a high school trip and his honeymoon (wind bound on a small island for two days).
We entered off the Arrowhead Trail and proceeded through John Lake to East Pike Lake and our first campsite. There was a cold wind, so we rigged a vertical tarp wind break. When it started to rain, we hit the hay.
I was the first one out of the tent in the morning, and my brother asked if it was still raining. I replied that it was still precipitating, meaning about an inch of snow had accumulated. After breakfast we broke camp and paddled west to West Pine Lake. A solo paddler coming east told us to check out a small island a half mile off. There we found a cow moose and her hours old calf. The calf could hardly stand and did not move. Mama, however kept circling him, keeping herself between us, in the canoe, and her Baby.
We took the steep portage from Clearwater Lake to Caribou Lake. I was carrying my 85 pound Grumman, which I probably could not get off the ground nowadays. We spent a couple of hours around Johnson Falls, and then got into Pine Lake. This being the opening weekend of fishing season, the sites were all occupied. One guy told us of a Border Trail campsite a little ways up the portage to East Pine Lake that did not show on our canoe map. We were glad to find that open. We paddled out the next day through McFarland Lake to the landing.
After that, I took several more trips with Jerry and Dan, then some Sierra Club trips led by Basil Loney. Then in 2000 I organized and led my first trip when a professionally guided trip billed as spiritual retreat fell through. After several of these guy trips, some of the women complained that they thought they should be able to enjoy the BW experience too, so that was the start of the many goddess trips I have led.
Altogether, I have taken about 40 trips since that first one, getting in up to three trips a year, including a few solo trips. I regret not having started earlier, but I hope my health and strength hold up another 20 years so I can be one of those 90 year old guys one of our CCBB members encountered on Basswood.
