Leaving mid-Wednesday Jimmy's suburban was loaded up with all eight guys, two dogs & a canoe as well as a trailer full of all of our stuff. It would be hard to imagine squeezing anything else onto our ride, but we would soon have to load up with even more gear & three more canoes. That night we made it to Paul's cabin in Ely, MN as a way point for getting a good start early Thursday morning. We spent the evening stuffing our faces with pizza & going between the hot sauna and cold lake. Knowing it was going to be an early morning (4am!!!) we all sacked out pretty early after a few rounds of cards -- Euchre & 31.
Arriving to the outfitters just as the sun was rising, we loaded our extra gear and the canoes, watched the "leave no trace" video on camping in the BWCA (a part of getting a camping permit) & were back on our way.
The trip to Big Moose Lake was beautiful & the weather was great! The "river" cleared a huge swath through the forest, but it was so full of tall floating grasses that only a narrow path was clear & open to our canoes. This continued until our first portage which was fairly hellish. The second stretch of canoeing was very similar, but had one major obstacle to clear... a beaver dam! This was quite a sight, just a pile of sticks creating a three foot water level difference. After finding the edge & pushing our canoes up the ramp of sticks we were on our way again, not far from the second portage that would bring us to our lake. Luckily none of the beavers were home to chew us out for disturbing their home.
Our campsite was straight across the lake & had plenty of space for all 3 tents & space for a kitchen/shelter. It was fairly windy the first few days which was great for keeping away bugs, but not so great for food prep or card playing. Our time was spent between fishing, 'site configuration' (setting up our rain/wind shelter or re-constructing fire-side seats), whittling, canoeing around the lake, relaxing in hammocks or gathering firewood. A large part of our days were also spent doing food prep, eating some of the awesome meals planned (including too many tortillas) or cleaning up after, but with such a great group of guys, no one was left doing more than their fair share.
It was so peaceful getting out of range of traffic noise, airplanes, cell phones & just spending time in nature (except a few hours catching Twins games on the radio). Time in the BWCA is something any nature lover should enjoy at least once in their life. We plan on going at least once a year & can't wait to bring Harvey on a real canoe trip!
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| BWCA Manventure '09 |
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