"Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the canoe capital of the world," promoted our friends south of the border. They also claim that BWCAW has more than one million acres of wilderness with more than 1500 miles of canoe trails, the best place to paddle in the USA. That was the reason, if you recall, that I asked Cecilia last year whether she would like to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary in such a supposedly heavenly place or go to Rome, Italy. Since to her, Rome in the Holy Year Y2K was perhaps closer to heaven than BWCAW, she chose the latter. Therefore, there was no choice this year, we would celebrate our 26th wedding anniversary in BWCAW. :-)
So my dear canoeing buddies, you would impatiently ask, "Is that place really gorgeous and indeed a canoeist's heaven?" It depends. If heaven to you is tenting on a remote island with no soul in sight for kilometers, no bugs, no black flies nor mosquitoes, we stayed at such a place. "But, we can easily find it in Ontario too," you would protest. Yes. How about seeing an American bald eagle watching you as you come closer to the island? "Ontario has rare birds too." Sure. What about paying one camping fee of US$ 10 per trip regardless of how many days or weeks you stay in the interior? OK, you can't get to heaven if you are such a cheapskate. So, whatever your criteria is, we did stay in a heavenly place during the last 3 days and 3 nights we were in BWCAW. After selecting our honeymoon suite, a campsite in a big island on Lake One, we found that we had quite some neighbours. A couple of loons were honeymooning too by the water. Woodpeckers and yellow warblers were all around us. We were visited once by a blue jay, likely not from Toronto :-). To top the sights and the scenery, we were blessed to see a northern light show on the second night. What else could we ask for? The weather? Perfect for honeymooners, a great gorgeous sunny day on the first day when we started, and on the last day when we broke camp. Cool and overcast with almost no sun in sight during the other days. That type of weather where you feel like you just want to stay in bed, oops ... in a tent, all day :-). Yes, even the weather was designed just for the two of us.
"Use-knee, tell us really about this Boundary Waters," you ask again. Well friends, our Killarney Park beats it left and right, up and down. The US guys are just clever in their marketing ploy. You pick any entry point in Algonquin, you will get a fair comparison with the scenery of BWCAW. Let me tell you what sucks. First of all, you really have to master your navigation skill, the art of finding where you are in the map with your compass. The campsites have no markings whatsoever. The portage trails do not have any signs. There are no canoe rests along the trails. "Why?," you ask. They want to make the wilderness look so natural, no man-made things. But they forgot that there are iron grates on top of the fireplaces. They also ignored that the toilet seats are made of fiberglass. Oh yes, that royal throne doesn't have a lid at all. So you can imagine the flies were hovering and landing on top of those unheavenly sights. It was quite disgusting. Our wooden box beats them again. Well, that toilet seats also bites your bum. It is designed for the bottom of a gorilla that is tough and wide, not for humans :-). The only thing that enabled me to last sitting for a few minutes was that I had some scenery to watch. A pair of chipmunks were mating in front of me, doing some nature show, as if to say "Yes, this is the island of honeymooners" :-).
One thing that we were pleased with was the service of our outfitter, Doug Jordan. We only rented the canoe from him because it was kind of a hassle to bring ours from 1600 km away. Not only that, we had to register our canoe if we paddled in Minnesota. Even though Doug only partially outfitted us, we had a free one night stay including breakfast at his place on the night of our arrival. We were able to park our car for free too and then he dropped us as well as picked us up from the entry point, a half-an-hour drive from Ely, the city near BWCAW. The canoe we picked for the trip, a 17 feet Hammond of mix Kevlar and fiberglass weighing about 50 lbs, cost us US$ 28 per day. It was not too bad compared with the other outfitters. It was quite stable in choppy waters, was not hard to steer, even though it was not as good as our Swift Kipawa :-). I was most impressed with Doug when exactly at 10 AM we pulled the canoe into the bay and there he was standing, waiting for us. Yes, we told him we would have a long drive to go back home and would like him to pick us up at 10 AM. This 72 year old crack has been in the outfitting business for 30 years and for the love of canoeing, he is still doing it. He started to be a canoeist about 40 years ago. I am not sure whether I can still paddle our lakes twenty years from today :-).
What I am more certain about, and I believe Cecilia agrees as well, is that we would still be paddling together, if we are blessed with continuous physical well-being. After 26 years of "paddling" together, we are still passionately in love :-). Even the chipmunks agreed :-). I was reflecting alone at one time and couldn't help wondering what causes some couple to be separated after just a few years of "paddling" together. I guess it is in a word called tolerance. We tolerate our friends, our paddling buddies a lot more before we know them well. We dare not criticize them even though their strokes suck :-). We are afraid to say something that might be hurtful as we watch them doing stupid maneuvers. The same with our partner. What we call love, in the beginning surpasses the tiny weeny bit of stupidity, at times major foolishness like "crashing the canoe to a rock". We don't do that anymore after a few years. The mesmerizing and the awesome period is gone. We are upset by even a slight off-course direction that can easily be corrected with a few J-strokes. What we really forget is that the canoe we paddle with someone else is a two-person canoe, that is not designed to be paddled solo. We will in no way reach our destination alone if we have to pass big waters with miles and miles to cover, at times in stormy weather. Oops, the squirrel jumped in front of me, waking me up from my day-dreaming, reflecting on people who chose to marry and yet "paddle their canoes solo." :-(
Cecilia told me that this canoe trip is perhaps the most expensive of all we have done before. Not because of the car rental since I only have to pay an extra 4 days. The rest is company paid :-). Yes, I was on assignment to Rochester, Minnesota, prior to this trip. So, with the blessing of my boss, I was allowed to go by car from Toronto to Rochester, another 1500 km drive. It is also not the total outfitting cost from Doug that was only around US$ 150, not too much different than what we used to pay before we had our own canoe. As I mentioned earlier, the camping and fishing license cost only around US$ 50. But ... my busted e-Trek GPS (Global Positioning System). I bought it last year for Cdn$ 200 plus tax after searching for the cheapest place on earth that sold it :-). What happened? This stupid friend of yours, in a haste to check whether that island we landed indeed had campsite, unknowingly caused the GPS to jump to the water. Yes, haste made waste. Only half-an-hour later did "Use-your-knee" realize that the GPS might be under the water. Indeed it was there, lying in about a foot deep of water and half of its display area was showing nothing but water :-(. There went my e-Trek, unless the canoe god I pray to these days, raised it from the death.
"In every camping trip, there is always a lesson to learn," you said. Agreed! I have a good one, not a bad one like the one above. Doug told us about this thing called cold pack. It is a sack made from your wife/girlfriend/Mom's ex jeans skirt. It performed as good as our cooler if not better. The trick was to put our frozen foods inside it the night prior to our trip and then put them in the freezer. Every time you stop for camp, you would immerse it in the water a bit and hang it by a shaded area. This way, the bag keeps cool because the rule of physics applies. Water takes the heat from its surroundings in order to evaporate.
"So, with just a so-so scenery, would you go back to BWCAW?," you finally ask. I told Doug who for several years lived in Atikokan near Thunder Bay that I would :-). I would do it if I win a 6-49 lottery. I would hire him as our guide and check the performance of a 53 year oldie compared to a 72er :-). Don't get me wrong. I want to know what makes him still so strong, who single-handedly putting the canoe on top of him with just one swing and portaging it from the landing site to his truck. I think I know a bit about his secret. Yes, he is a man with a passionate love. :-) "How much is the fee?," you can't resist asking. It is only US$ 180 per day. That includes HIS outfitting (not yours). Hmmm, perhaps that could be another plan for me to think of doing come the time to retire next year :-). To be a canoeing and camping guide. Well, there is still one full season to reflect on this new plan :-). In the meantime, I wish you all many good canoeing trips this year. Have a nice season, take care everybody.
Home