Up at 5.30am Friday June 8th 2001.
Breakfast at Windmill Café. You never know when you’ll get a decent
meal next! Off we go. Not much traffic through Minneapolis, nice and peaceful.
Lovely weather, not a cloud in the sky. The weather forecast for the next
three days sounds promising, although thunder is on its way on Monday!
After three hours drive, we are in Ely. Piragis
is a well-organised place; it looks like we have chosen the right place.
www.Piragis.com.
The canoes are definitely the lightest we have seen. The rental price is
perhaps a bit higher than other places, though.
We stocked up on provisions. Some good steaks
for the first evening, and “camping food” that you just mix with boiling
water. It cost an arm and a leg, but we were having beef stroganoff one
day, mashed potato with gravy and something or other the next. For afters
we had strawberry cheesecake. And as you’re not allowed bottles or cans,
we had to make do with plastic bottles of coke and Mountain Drew. On top
of that, we had a water filter to enable us to drink from the lakes and
rivers.
We rigged the canoes on top of our car, and
off we went towards Farm Lake, our starting point.
Farm Lake is big - we did do a bit of paddling around here last year
- but the entrance to Boundary Waters, where only canoes are allowed, is
not that simple to find, even with a map and compass. But we found it at
last and paddled away.
Farm Lake.
Before we took off, Cole had to learn how to steer.
One boy in each boat, Cole was my
steerer, but it’s not as simple as getting in a canoe and just get
on with it! So we made some lovely circles until Mogens showed him how,
and he got the hang of it. After a couple of hours, that is…
It was breathtakingly beautiful sailing
on the Kawashivi River. And quiet. A single boat with a motor did annoy
us though, as it went quietly by. Sailing perfectly, we all enjoyed the
day. Luckily, the first campsite we had decided to go for was available,
so we set up camp and although the ground was a bit uneven, the fireplace
was good and the view over the water beautiful. (According to the regulations
only one team can be on a campsite, but as only three teams are allowed
in the area a day, it’s not a problem).
First campground.
We shared the view with a bunch of vultures.
The boys started the fire, we waited patiently for it to burn down, and
Cole threw the steaks on the grill and cooked them lovely and tender for
us. Unfortunately it started raining before they were done, so he had to
protect them with his raincoat. The oldest half of the party was missing
the red wine! Early to bed and we were tired. And then thunder and
lightening most of the night. Quite intense it was as well.
Cole makes the dinner
Saturday June 9th. Out of bed early.
The rain had stopped, but it was so foggy you couldn’t see a hand in front
of you. Luckily, it cleared quickly and a day of sunshine awaited us.
Break of day at BWCAW
Toast with lots of salami, ham and… Nescafe.
I’m regretting persuading Mogens to bring that instead of the thermo flask,
filters and all the rubbish that comes with it, as we have to take it with
us when leaving the area, he does look very disappointed – and lets me
know about it!
We took the wet through tents down, packed the canoes, and started
paddling to the rock island, home to the many vultures. They and their
offspring were devouring a load of fish leavings, but left as we approached.
A Vulture
The beaver home we had seen the beaver leave
last night, was also a point to pass. But it was just a large stone. We
saluted a couple of Loons.
The Loon. Minnesota State Bird.
It turned out to be difficult to match
map and surroundings. We had been sailing for miles before finding a mark:
A road! There are no roads in BWCA…….Yesterday we came in by the south
“entrance” to BWCA and so ended up in a completely different place,
South Farm Lake, which was not planned. No wonder the map didn’t match
the surroundings! Never mind, it was a great trip. And indescribably beautiful.
But it also meant that we had to sail back to Farm Lake and find the right
entrance. It was difficult, but we found it, and suddenly, the map fitted
a lot better.
Tor enjoys the nature
Lunch island.
Lunch on a little rock island. Right
across on the other side, we discovered the campsite we were supposed to
have stayed in last night.
Tor got his fishing gear out, and after only
a short while, he called us and excitedly told us about the giant fish
he caught, and unfortunately lost again. Fishing stories apparently start
at a young age. Five minutes later he was shouting again, this time with
a giant fish wriggling in the line. Mogens took a picture of the catch
just in time for Tors arm muscles to give up and the fish disappearing
again.
Tor’s first fish on this trip.
This particular catch was the reason
we had to put up with fishing rods and fishing hooks all possible and impossible
places. A hole in Mogens best shorts is proof of this.
A couple of hours paddling in this paradise
of nature, named one of the most beautiful places on Earth by National
Geographic, and we arrived at our camp site.
Nice site, with fire place and view over the
river, and now we are on the Tahinnisi river, and with a big good tent
site a little higher up between the trees. But no paradise without snakes:
there was an amazing amount of mosquitoes, but the caterpillars were the
worst, covering everything, earth, trees, canoes and us. (We remembered
the year all the birch trees in Solroed were under attack, and we paid
the kids one krone (one $ = 8.30 kr.) for each hundred they collected).
This was the reason millions of trees
here are naked in the summer. The birch trees don’t look dead; they’re
just lacking leaves.
Catterpillars on the tent. (Outside)
But our two NOLS- guides quickly started
the fire, because as they said; it will keep the bugs away. And it did.
A good reason for lighting a fire in the middle of the afternoon.
As he did yesterday, Cole filtered the
river water and turned it into drinking water. A slow but necessary process.
Tor put their tent up, and they organized the camp. We were about to have
our first dehydrated food. Cole was chef for the night, and so he began
hydrating some mashed potatoes with gravy and meat. It was quite pleasant,
but we were very hungry, lots of miles paddled that day. The dessert of
cheesecake came to by whipping something pink in water and pouring crumbs
on top, rest for ten minutes and eat.
We had been used to the very good cheesecake
at Henriette’s, so Mogens and I had problems with this one, and gave up.
The boy, however, didn’t.
”Cheese-Cake”
The washing up is my responsibility.
We have bought some soap capable of cleaning grease even in cold water.
You can also use it for your hair, body and clothes. But we had no plans
for doing either of the above for the next four days.
You have to hang your food high up in
the trees some way away from where you sleep, so that the bears can’t get
to it. For that we had borrowed a hoist thing, which had to be thrown over
a branch not too close to the trunk, to avoid bears being able to climb
these, it also had to be quite high up. Yesterday, it went up painlessly,
but tonight the pulling mechanism got stuck around a branch. It took a
long time to work out how to get everything in place. But it was fun.
We secure the food.
Lovely night and lovely morning. However,
we have almost used a whole bucket full of bug spray. The humming, crawling
and biting is enough to drive anybody crazy, so we got in the water where
we are (nearly) left alone.
We have to carry the canoes a couple
of places today, by portages. (Small or large waterfalls).
The first time, we emptied them and
carried everything, but that means going back and forth a few times, so
Mogens decided it was possible for us to get in the river and pull the
canoes trough. With a bit of trouble, Cole and himself succeeded. Tor and
I, however, had big difficulties and nearly fell down the little waterfall.
But, as Mogens said afterwards; “It’s
important the boys learn the power of the water.”
When we later on came to yet another carry place, which, according
to the map, was several kilometres long, we left the canoes and went off
to decide weather it was possible, or if we could be bothered. We couldn’t.
As Cole said;” This portage goes on forever and ever.” And it did. It would
have taken us half the day to carry everything trough that way. So we decided
to sail back on the river.
This gave us some wonderful experiences by
the rapids. Both canoes managed them fine and everybody was happy.
We arrived at a great campsite just ten minutes
before a couple of other canoes, good for us, a shame for them. Not too
many bugs, but the caterpillars were invading the place and the methods
of destruction the boys were using were exquisite. We left them to it.
The boys passed the first rapid
Last campground on this trip.
Cole hydrated our evening meal, and it
was the best we have had yet. Perhaps because we were very hungry. I had
in the morning presented the naked facts: This and no more food were left,
and this even though we had planned the grocery shopping very carefully.
I guess it’s not much fun knowing that the rest of the day there’s only
cleaned river water left as the rest of the coke was drunk the night before.
Either way, the last night by the fire was quite lovely. We ate and chatted
and had a visit from a tortoise family. To start with we could just see
their heads popping up from the water, but then they came ashore and were
sniffing around the tents as the sun set over the water. A lovely end to
a lovely day.
