BWCAW - Day 4

Thursday was the BIG day of portaging - 6 portages (30, 180, 20, 80, 180, and 100 rods) - a total of 590 rods! That's less than two miles, but when you're carrying a 40 lb. pack across rocks, fallen trees, mud, and inclines - it feels a lot longer. After a hearty breakfast of french toast and bacon (which took way too long to cook), here we are, ready to head out on the first portage.


Along the way you see some intersting stuff, like this thing. I think it's some kind of fungi; sort of looks like a red brain.

This is on the 180 rod portage, beautiful view at the top, but tough to get there.

Time for a swim - the portage made this little girl hot and thirsty.

We camped on Trident Lake, a smaller lake with only two campsites - no one was at the other one so we had the whole lake to ourselves - yeah! I didn't think there'd be anyone there because of the long portages. Lucky fish day - Todd caught two large mouth bass from the shore of our campsite. We also caught two Northern Pike, one small, the other very large but it managed to get "unhooked" and swam to freedom. This lake is not heavily used so the fishin' was good and it's only one of the few lakes with large mouth bass.


What do you do when you catch two fish? You throw the smaller one back, make a toasty camp fire, and...........

contemplate how good your dinner will be!


This is our new tent from REI - it's THE BEST! Super easy to put up and take down, sturdy and lots of ventilation; well worth the money.

By Thurday, someone had run herself so ragged, she couldn't wait to crawl in there for the night.

BWCAW - Day 3

Our campsite on Knife Lake. A wonderfully sunny and warm day. Here I am, organizing our stuff and getting ready to pack it in the sack.


Don't forget the all important tackle box, net, and oars.


Loaded the canoe and ready to set off. Notice anything about the water? Not calm - it was a very windy day - we had to battle a head wind.


Since it was windy, I suggested we turn south instead of continuing east. We headed into Bonnie lake where we decided to troll the line for a bit - and we caught another Northern.

It was just before noon so we stopped at the campsite near the portage to have lunch. Can't get fresher fish than that; caught, filleted, and fried in 20 mins.

Time for an after lunch cup of coffee.

Where's Misty? Doing one of her favorite things........romping around and sniffing. Can you find her (or part of her)?

Todd portaged the canoe AND pack - that had to be a total of 100 lbs. WOW!

Made it to camp - everyone needed a rest.

Caught another Northern Pike that evening at 9 p.m. - we saved this one for Thursday lunch! Misty giving it a good sniff! Then it started to rain - time to head in the tent - what a great way to end a good day.

BWCAW - Day 2

Tuesday was cloudy, very cool (in the 40s), and rainy. We did two long portages, the first 180 rods, the second 200 rods. We were lucky because just as we finished the second portage it began raining really hard. We put on our rain gear, flipped over the canoe on a fallen tree and sat under it for an hour. The rain finally let up and we continued on. Here I am with some vanilla pudding for dessert. No fish today - boo!

BWCAW - Day 1 cont'd

We made it to camp early on Monday, 2 p.m. in the afternoon.

I decided to fish for a bit, not expecting to catch anything at that time of day because early morning and evening are best. I was casting less than 5 mins. and landed this beautiful northern pike - guess what we're having for dinner?

Todd napping in the sun.


Misty found the hole in the tree that the chipmunk calls home. "I can smell you little chipmunk!"

"..............and now I will eat through this tree to get you!"

Fillet of Northern for supper - breaded and fried - of course!

BWCAW - Day 1

We didn't do our annual Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) trip in 2008, so I was really looking forward to it this year. Here's Todd getting our packs ready at Williams & Hall Outfitters. We arrived there at about midnight on Sunday; we rent the canoe, paddles, and life jackets from them. We also have them shuttle us to the first portage - about a half hour boat ride. Here we go......... Monday - Day 1.


For those who haven't done this sort of thing (it was new to me when I first met Todd), a portage is an overland path where canoe and gear must be carried. Todd portages the canoe - I think it weighs about 50 - 60 pounds.

Portages are measured in Rods. One rod equals 16.5 feet or 1/320 of a mile. 80 rods equals one quarter of a mile. Rods aren't long, BUT.....when you're portaging a canoe and 40 pound packs over rocks, mud, fallen trees, inclines and slopes, it feels long.

Happiness is............

Each morning on my way to the office, I get to pass several beds of tulips - you can't help but smile! I think I'll plant some in my own yard.

Happy Birthday, Jen!

For the past two years, we've been the host family to Jen - she's an international student from Malaysia. She'll be graduating next week and we celebrated her birthday yesterday!

Jen also participated in student research day and displayed her poster illustrating marketing research she did with a faculty member.