When I woke up this morning, I finally was able to hop out of the tent and not sprint right to Amy and Dave’s warm tipi tent. The sun was shining on the lake and I thought that it was sure to be a nice day. My dad and I cooked up some blueberry pancakes on the griddle for breakfast. We relaxed for a while after breakfast and at about 11 o’clock all of us ventured out on a day trip. I got the pleasure of paddling with Tank and Amy today. We visited Jack and Weird Lake and explored the Vern River. I portaged my first canoe on a fairly easy 60 rod portage. I had always helped bring gear across the portage and let my dad do the heavy lifting of our sturdy Wenonah canoe. I thought that it was cool to portage the canoe that had been across the North American Odyssey and then some. At first it was pretty difficult to get the canoe up onto my shoulders, but with Amy’s help I got it up there in no time. After that we paddled to a nearby campsite to stop for some lunch. The site had been occupied not too long ago. At the site there was a lot of trash left behind and the fire was still smoking a little bit. We poured water on the smoldering fire and picked up the trash before eating lunch.
I’m sad that I will be leaving the precious wilderness tomorrow, but hoping to be back soon this summer. Thanks Amy and Dave for having Don, my dad, and me, it sure was a great experience for me. I hope that the younger generation that I am in will be able to realize how precious the Boundary Waters is and how dangerous the sulfide mining threats are and– have a mindset that we need to #SaveTheBWCA.
