The lake’s glassy surface beckoned us, so after setting up our camp last night on Ensign Lake we slid the canoe back in the water as the sun set for a quick paddle. Afterwards we pulled our canoe up on shore and were about to continue our camp chores when a pack of wolves broke the silence with a chorus of howls. After they stopped Amy ran up to the tent and grabbed our audio recorder, hoping to capture the wolves howling for our weekly podcast. Dinner and other chores would have to wait. We sat at the water’s edge, watching the sunset and listening for the wolves.
We tilted our heads back and howled, but they never howled back, Amy figured they knew we were impostors. We could hear splashing across the lake where water flows into Splash Lake. When we lined our canoe up the narrow channel of rushing water between Splash and Ensign a large school of cisco was circling in the flowing water. They are probably preparing to spawn and we wondered if the wolves were splashing around fishing for cisco in the shallows.
We are only visitors here, but it is up to us to protect this place so that countless generations of cisco can spawn in these pristine waters, wolves continue roaming the Wilderness, romping in the shallows, and howling with abandon, and our children and their children can witness the untrammeled beauty of the Boundary Waters as we have.
Foreign mining companies want to build a series of sulfide-ore copper mines on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Pollution from the mines would flow directly into the Wilderness. My wife, Amy Freeman, and I are spending A Year in the Wilderness to draw attention to this important issue and stop the proposed mines from being built. Today is our 42nd day in the Wilderness.
We tilted our heads back and howled, but they never howled back, Amy figured they knew we were impostors. We could hear splashing across the lake where water flows into Splash Lake. When we lined our canoe up the narrow channel of rushing water between Splash and Ensign a large school of cisco was circling in the flowing water. They are probably preparing to spawn and we wondered if the wolves were splashing around fishing for cisco in the shallows.
We are only visitors here, but it is up to us to protect this place so that countless generations of cisco can spawn in these pristine waters, wolves continue roaming the Wilderness, romping in the shallows, and howling with abandon, and our children and their children can witness the untrammeled beauty of the Boundary Waters as we have.
Foreign mining companies want to build a series of sulfide-ore copper mines on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Pollution from the mines would flow directly into the Wilderness. My wife, Amy Freeman, and I are spending A Year in the Wilderness to draw attention to this important issue and stop the proposed mines from being built. Today is our 42nd day in the Wilderness.
Please share and repost this, follow @savetheBWCA, sign the petition at http://ift.tt/1x2erSX and help protect our nation’s most popular Wilderness Area. #wildernessyear #savetheBWCA #BoundaryWaters #BWCA #onlyinMN #sunset #wolves #wilderness
