Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Manly Man Trip To Minnesota

Now if that title isn't alliteration I don't know what is.  Recently myself and 3 of my buddies went on a expedition to Minnesota, the land of manly men.  We were set to do a 6 day canoe trip through Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.  What started as an 18 hour marathon of driving to get to our outpost town to the outfitters ended up being an amazing journey.  We arrived in Ely, Minnesota around 6:30 am Central time just as the outfitters were opening up shop.  We rented canoes from Wilderness Outfitters and we were all set.


We put in at Entry Point 30 on Lake One, this makes it easy for navigation as we traveled into Lake Two, then Lake Three and making camp on the eastern end of Lake Four.  

The weather did not look good on Lake 4, a good storm blew through just before dark and rained all night, luckily we were so tired from the drive we hardly noticed.
 Chad, setting up tents and generally being chad.

 Dinner the first night was a bit extravagant, we had frozen steaks and brought potatoes to bake in the camp fire.  Nate is holding the tongs I made from splitting a stick.
 Monday morning the bad weather gave way to beautiful skies and some scattered clouds for our paddling to Lake Insula making camp on a large Island on the north shore of the lake.
 Last September a forest fire (caused by lightning) had burned most everything along our path.
 The fire had burnt south leaving the north side of Insula untouched, it is amazing the power of nature.


At our camp we found a strange rock structure built in the water in front of camp, I assume it was built for a fish corral, but Chad decided it was built for use as a hot tub.  
 Tuesday morning we were greeted with a beautiful sunrise drying the dew off of our canoes.
 In true manly man fashion, we heated up rocks on the campfire and placed them inside the "hot tub", it didn't really make the water hot but with the view and a cold beer it didn't really matter.

On Wednesday we decided to paddle up the Kawishiwi River to Alice Lake.  Paddling the quiet waters of the river made it seem like we were voyageurs paddling in an ancient foreign land.  
 The best part of the day was catching the biggest bass of the trip, a 20" smallmouth.


We paddled back towards civilization and spent our last two nights on Lake Two, in the evening the wind laid down and the water turned to glass.  It gave a reflection so clear you couldn't tell where the earth stopped and the heavens began.

This is a truly wonderful place, kept pristine and wild so that you can get a true sense of nature and of a time long gone.  I have been here many times but each time is a little different, and each time a little sweeter.  Making you appreciate what precious few years we get to spend on this earth.

Stay tuned for the next trip to the Wild and Wonderful West Virginia.

Monday, August 20, 2012

First Blog

This is the start of something bigger, a self realization, a journey to becoming a more manly man.