Boundary Waters

Well, this is a totally belated blog post, but I didn't want this experience to slip by without being recorded!  In August we went to the Boundary Waters in MN for a backpacking/canoeing trip with some good friends of ours.

When we got to Minnesota, they were experiencing record low temps - we had thought we'd be enjoying a nice, warm, summertime excursion, and it started out more like a late-fall backpacking trip.  Luckily, we all had warm clothes and pretty good wet weather gear.  The only way we suffered was with wet cold feet due to flooded portages!  The first day it was rainy and windy with a high of 48, and a low of 38 degrees!  There were not many pictures taken the first day. Hah.

Luckily, the second day it warmed up a bit, the sun came out, and we had a chance to dry off.

We got a chance to fish while paddling and while hanging out at the campsites.  This girl loves fishing,  Nate, on the other hand, was not really a 'fishing' kid - but I think this trip has converted him.  

We did a lot of paddling over the four days - averaging about 8 miles a day.  It was great fun and greatly exhausting - especially for this pair of motley paddlers!  

We'd carry our boat and gear alongside of any rapids in the portages - some brave souls would go though the rapids, but we decided to be wimps and not dump all of our gear in the 'drink.' :)

John - helping us navigate the twisted rivers.

My favorite campsite was the first campsite we stayed at - we were situated on a rock face that overlooked the water.  Sprawling on the arched rocks the second night by the fire with the stars above us was pretty wonderful.  

If I could fish every day I probably would. :)

The only night the mosquitoes got bad was the last night (thankfully!).  You can see us here in our full mosquito garb.

Our last night there was especially beautiful - the water was almost completely still.

And here we are after arriving back at the outfitters!  The last day of paddling was definetly the hardest - we had a ton of distance to cover, and after a while, we thought we'd never get there!  We paddled full force for about four hours.  Talk about a good workout!  Luckily we had some delicious burgers and a pint awaiting us once we got back.  

I'm game for going back anytime!  We had a great time with John, Deana, Giles, and Angie - our good pals and lucky for us our co-workers as well. :)