Hey everyone! Well, we're back and in one piece! Boys from our troop just got back from the high adventure outing in the Boundary Waters. You can view a map of our voyage on Google Maps.
The first day was beautiful! We set out from Voyager at 8:30am and were on our way. We went up Sea Gull River and into the Big Sag. After we reached the Big Sag we crossed and went around American Point by the border of Canada and the US. We then followed the border until we came to our first portage! After crossing the portage we crossed Swamp Lake to our next and final portage of the day Monument Portage. We followed the lake until we found a nice cozy little campsite nestled into a peninsula.
On day two we followed OtterTrack Lake to Little Knife portage which brought us to Knife Lake. After we passed a certain point of the lake and the lake widened, that's when things got though. Slowly at first the winds picked up to make our canoes rock back and forth gently, and then came the gusts.... The water turned from little ripples to swells in a matter of minutes. We rushed ourselves to get to a campsite as fast as we could! Luckily no one capsized... well Peach almost did, but that didn't count really... No offense or anything... We found a campsite and hurried in. The problem with the campsite was it was too small to fit us! We ate lunch there instead. As we ate we watched the white caps and we swear they were at least five feet high! After about ten minutes the wind died down a little but there were still waves that would give any person in a canoe a good scare. We thought it might be best if we parted ways with this campsite and found another one more protected from the elements. After fighting our way around the corner we found a little more calmness. It took us all of about five minutes to find a nice campsite that would be suitable enough if we got hung up for a day or two. That night we all had steak and fish that was well deserved.
On day three we found that even in our little safe haven the weather was ill suited to be in so the adults decided we were staying put for the day. Every one caught up on their sleep, finished books, and enjoyed long card games.
On the fourth day we found out again that the weather was sort of bad, but not as bad as the day before, so we set out in the rain. We took a small detour to save some of the time that we had lost the day before and made it to South Arm Knife Lake before we even ate lunch. We Passed Eddy Falls and from Eddy Lake into Jenny Lake and From Jenny Lake into Annie Lake and from Annie Lake into Ogish Lake. Once we got to Ogish we ate lunch around noon or so. We traveled lazily into the middle of the Lake until.... We found the other patrol from our troop! They were fishing in this campsite that everyone is dying to get their hands on because it has supposedly good fishing spots. To our great luck they already had another campsite and were willing to give up this one to us. Not being able to resist the offer we took the campsite.
Day Five brought with it good weather. We crossed the rest of Ogish and took the portage into Kingfisher Lake. After we came into Jasper Lake we crossed the portage into Alpine Lake where we ate lunch. At the lunch spot we decided that we wanted to cross the 105 rod portage. A rod is the length of one canoe, or about 16.5 ft. So if you times that by 105 then that is a mightily long way to be carrying a canoe on your shoulders. After we came out of the portage we found a beautiful campsite that gave a glorious view that not even the king could argue with. There we dried everything! Like I mean everything! I never knew that dry things feel fantastic!
On the last day we literally drifted the whole way back to Voyager Canoe Outfitters. Our two fishermen (Bryan and James) fished their little hearts out that day. And I do remember that at one point that the boys let one whole stringer full of fish just drift away! There were five fish that were being held to be eaten but no, they just floated away. They made up for their mistake and brought home seven more fish in total. That night we cooked up all the fish, took a shower, and played cards until we sank into our beds.
We all thought it a little odd that on the whole entire trip we never saw a single piece of wildlife except for fish and birds. On the morning that we drove home we finally saw a moose! Well so we marked that one off our To-Do list...
Over all we boys went fifty miles, and we traveled the whole way with big smiles on our faces! See you at Summer Camp Boys!
Jonah
Scribemaster
