Boundary Waters - Cross Bay Lake

This year's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, BWCAW, trip had special meanings. Last year we were not able to make our annual trek into the Wilderness and this year is the 20th anniversary of our foursome.

Click here for the video recap (the video is best viewed in landscape).

Recapping the trip...on Tuesday, August 22 Brian, Jenny, Julie and I drove up to Jenny and Andrew's cabin at Gust Lake to spend the night and prep for our trip into the BWCAW. The temperature in the Twin Cities was headed into the 90's but before we even hit Duluth it was 30 degrees cooler. Good timing for our trip.

Wednesday, we got up early to drive up the Gunflint trail to Tuscarora Lodge and Canoe Outfitters. Our two canoes were dropped off at Cross River which is where are journey started. You don't actually enter the BWCA until reaching Cross Bay Lake.

I believe we had 7 portages (land between bodies of water) to get through. The weather was overcast and cool, perfect for paddling.

Things went fairly smoothly though we did have trouble finding the portage into Cross Bay Lake and ended up on an old, non-maintained portage (oops). Our destination was Long Island Lake.

We had stayed on Long Island Lake before (2005) but had entered via a different route and with 5 campers instead of the usual 4.

It took us 7 hours to get to Long Island Lake. Whether it was lack of paddle practice or age or directions, that was a LONG paddle. Add that I had a big arthritis flare up as we got to Long Island Lake. We had been given heads up to some available campsites. The first site on the lake was already occupied and didn't really meet our requirements (western facing with a swimmable area). The next one was available, and I had to confess that I could not continue paddling as my arthritis made it nearly impossible to continue.

Turned out the campsite was great, and we proceeded to setup our gear. I wasn't much help due to the previously mentioned arthritis. My flare up also meant that we were destined to have stormy weather...and it proved to be true.

The camp site got set up in no time as usual. To our amazement, there were nearly no bugs! So, we were able to have a campfire and stay up after sundown. This is usually not the case. From this point, the video really shows how the camping went.

We did have rain that first night (Wednesday) but it was not bad and sounded soothing on the tent. Thursday night was another story. We had a severe thunder and lightning storm and very, very heavy rain. So much rain that the base of the tent got soaked and so did pretty much everything on our camp site.

Friday had been forecast to be rainy but another piece of luck, it was sunny and warm. We were able to dry out pretty much everything and most importantly the tent and tarps. We re-assembled the site in time for another rain shower. We retreated to the tent to play cards and let the rest of our gear get all wet again.

We paddled out on Saturday expecting another 7-hour trip. Somehow the paddle out only took 4 hours...we shaved 3 hours off! We really don't know how. The weather conditions were the same and we were never really off course going in or out. We certainly didn't complain that we were more efficient.

Once back at the cabin, we put out everything to dry and ate a very filling meal. We drove back the Twin Cities on Sunday with a stop in Duluth for Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory caramel-dipped apples.

And now for the 20th anniversary. I found photos of that trip! Boy were we young!

2003 - Brian, Jeff, Jenny

2003 - Brian, Julie, Jenny

Marlin's Birthday Adventure

Marlin invited me to celebrate his birthday this year by doing a big adventure. Cut to the chase...we skydived!

Click here for the video of my dive. (Marlin's video to come if approved)

It was hazy from the Canada forest fires but it was cool and dry. The skydive is located in Baldwin, Wisconsin which is just 45 minutes from the Twin Cities.

We had kind of a long wait for our turn but we got to watch the take off and return of many types of skydives. It was interesting and kind of comforting at the same time.

I have actually skydived before. Back in 2014 while in Hawaii. That blog post is here.