Northern Tier, Boundary Water
BSA High Adventure Base, Ely, Minnesota
July 28 - August 6, 2007
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Three patrols made up of 12 scouts and 5 adults left on Saturday July 28th and returned Monday the 6th for the most physically demanding of all three National High Adventure camps. This canoeing trek took our scouts through many lakes in the Boundary Waters area of Minnesota and Canada. The lakes were truly beautiful, in its unspoiled wilderness. We left for LAX at around 11 a.m. to catch the airplane for Minneapolis. At about 3 p.m. we got through security and boarded the plane. We arrived at Minneapolis/St Paul airport at about 8:30 p.m.. Around 10 p.m. we arrived at the Super 8 motel in their vans. We got our gear into the rooms and went to Denny's as a group to eat around 11 p.m. we went to sleep The next morning we woke up to a continental breakfast at 8 a.m. to 9:45 a.m.. Then we checked out of the motel and was picked up by a charter bus from Minnesota Coaches & Voyageur Bus Company. We left for Giant's Ridge Resort around 10 a.m.. We stopped for lunch. At 8 a.m. we had breakfast at Giant's Ridge Resort. We packed up and left for the International Wolf Center around 11 a.m.. We listen for a lecture about the wolves and went to the Sommers High Adventure Base around 1 p.m. We unload our gear into carts and wheeled the carts up a hill into our cabins and unpacked. Dinner was at 5 p.m. and lights out at 10 p.m.. The next day we got up at 6 a.m. and went to breakfast at about 7 a.m.. The faster we got our gear to the canoes the faster we got on the water and more time we had to get into Canada. The 17 participants split up into 3 Crews. Crew C consisted of the older scouts, Crew D the middle aged scouts, and Crew H the youngest. Unfortunately on the second day of canoeing Geoff had gotten sick with stomach cramps, so he and his father were emergency evacuated out of their patrol by boat. They went to the hospital and stayed at the Base Camp for the remainder of the trek. We all paddled our way into Canada and spent the same amount of time on this Trek, but the differences where that that all three patrols went on separate routes, so did not know where the others where going. Crew H, covered approximately 57-60 miles. We paddled Moose, Newfound, Sucker lakes, crossed into Canada at Prairie Portage, paddled Basswood, Burke, Sunday, Agnes, Silent, Sultry, Noon, Shade, West, South lakes, past American Point, Canadian Point and the "English Channel," back into the United States via Wind Bay and Wind Lake. Our longest portage was 970 meters (1060 yards or 6/10ths of a mile). It was back-to-back with another portage of 530 meters (580 yards, 1/3 of a mile). To portage we had to carry all of our gear as well as the canoes on our shoulders. We made numerous "wet exits" (exiting the canoes in the water before landing so as not to damage the canoes). We stopped by Louisa Falls, swimming in its "bathtub" halfway up, caught and ate small mouth bass, saw bald eagles, deer, and Indian petroglyphs, saw beaver dams and pushed the canoes around them (in the "Moose Muck"), heard loons & wolves, swatted mosquitoes & biting flies, and explored old ranger cabins. And, we measured lake clarity for scientific study. The scouts swam the English Channel, across & back! The hardest part of the trek was portaging our canoes and gear across land between lakes. The best part was the fun we had together, the unspoiled wilderness, fishing, and sense of accomplishment in completing the canoeing trek. On Sunday August 5th we arrived back at Base Camp from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.. Then we got on our class A's on and went for dinner at 6 p.m.. Then at 7 p.m. we met for a closing ceremony and went to sleep on matrices for the first time in a while. At 9:30 a.m. the same bus from Minnesota Coaches & Voyageur Bus Company came and picked us up and drove us from Sommers High Adventure Base, a 6 hour drive to Minneapolis/St Paul Airport by the Mall of America. We got of the bus at Mall of America at 12:30 for 1 hour to go into the mall and get back on the bus to go to the Airport.
At about 2:30 we where in the Airport for the plane so we can board and we sing Happy Birthday to Adam D. as he went on a different plane to Boston for his Birthday. Crew C: Crew D: Crew H: Reported by Sean, Troop Historian, 1/24/08 |