thoughts from the wilderness

Well, I did it. At times it was tough, but I survived our four day trip through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. It was an absolutely amazing experience. As I type this I am also uploading many of the pictures I took onto facebook, and it makes me smile to see again the places and moments still so fresh in my mind.

I guess I'll start from the beginning. On Sunday night we all drove down to Swan Lake to get our stuff all packed and loaded. I borrowed most of my equipment form the camp. Once we got our packs together, we loaded the canoes onto the trailer. This is actually when I got most of my insect bites from the trip--loading the trailer at dusk without bug spray. Once the trailer was loaded, the guys went back to SuFu for the night, but Heather and I slept at the camp, figuring that it wasn't worth the trouble of driving that much just to sleep in a different borrowed bed.

Monday morning we set out dark and early and picked up the rest of the crew at USF. We drove through Minnesota all day, and I slept for most of it. We had dinner at the Pizza Hut in Ely, MN after spending some time wandering through outfitters and tourist shops. When we pulled out it started raining, and it rained all night while we set up our tents and slept. Some of the guys (Jesse and Sam) got soaked through their tent and never really dried out all week.

Tuesday morning we got on the water. The first stretch of river was full of rocks, so I had quite the time trying to keep track of them so that Jerry and I could steer around them. Yes, my canoe partner was Jerry, the trip leader. It worked out pretty well for me, since he always knew what he was doing. After pretty much coasting down the rivers, we came to Lake Agnes. We didn't like Agnes that day, because the wind was making swells bigger than our canoes. It was a fight to get across, but we made it. Our group was so big we had to claim two different campsites. That night, though, we all made dinner together. It was at this point we discovered that Dan had not packed his mess kit. Luckily, Sam had brought along The Plate and kindly offered to let Dan use it. (So, Dianna, it seems you made a good choice in claiming a plate instead of a Cholula bottle.) We weren't allowed to have a fire, so we sat around the cold fire grate that night to talk. It was at this point that I got one, maybe both, of my spider bites. I know I got the right one that night, because it bled. The weird part is that both bites are in the same spot on each leg: right on the back of the ankle, just above the sock. At least I have a matching set, right? The bad thing was that we couldn't do anything for them until we got back into civilization, so for the remainder of the trip, they kept getting more red and swollen, to the point that they looked rather serious on Friday.

On Wednesday we altered our plans so we wouldn't have to fight the wind and waves so much. We claimed a couple of campsites early on and entered into our day of solitude. My solitude, however, didn't last very long. After a brief rainshower, I slipped on some wet rocks and scraped up my elbow and knee. Yes, the same elbow and knee that had just healed from my bike accident. I guess I'm just accident prone or something. Anyway, I came back to camp to get myself patched up, but I couldn't find the first aid kit. I woke up both Jerry and Paul and eventually found it and put myself back together. After the guys went back to their napping, Heather turned up and we spent the rest of our solitude together. I realize that kind of defeats the purpose of solitude, but I think it was good for us girls to spend some quality time together while the guys were all either away or asleep. That evening Jerry led us girls up Warrior Hill, which is on Canadian soil. Since it had rained earlier in the evening, it was a wet slippery mess getting to the top, but worth it for the view. I rode garbage on the way back, getting my pants and shoes thoroughly wet. Oh well.

Thursday was interesting. The guys all left at 6:00 in the morning to see some waterfalls, but Heather and I went back to bed and slept until they got back around 10:00. Then, as we were getting our things packed up, it started to rain. It rained the whole time we were traveling, and then some. I was glad to have the canoe over my head during the portages, because it stopped the rain from falling on me. I was wearing a full rain suit anyway, but it still felt nice to not be rained on for a bit. What with being tired and cold and wet, I wasn't in the best of moods that morning. But for some reason, after we beached our canoe and started making camp (back on the other side of Agnes), I was having fun. The rain was still falling, I was still cold and my shoes were still wet, but I was suddenly in a much better mood. I wandered around the campsite, exploring, and even found my way to the other camp, where our groupmates had all hidden themselves away inside their tents. All things considered, I think I had more solitude on Thursday than when I was supposed to. It worked out alright though. It did eventually stop raining, so Jerry decided we should build a fire so that we didn't all freeze. Technically we weren't supposed to have a fire at all--there is a burn ban in effect for the whole BWCA--but we decided it was an emergency. We even dried some of our clothes over our illegal fire, besides just warming ourselves, so I think it was worth the risk.

On Friday my group was a little slow to get moving. After a short devotional time we set out to paddle our way back upstream the way we had come. I'll just tell you: those rivers feel a lot longer when you're going upstream. At any rate, we eventually made it out and drove back in to Ely for showers and a late lunch. Driving all day, we were back in SuFu by 2:00 am Saturday morning, completely exhausted, both physically and mentally. But it was definitely worth it.

Ask me in person sometime, and you'll get a lot more stories than I've included here. But I will share one more thing before I sign off for the day. I think the most important thing I realized on this trip was the importance of experiencing God with childlike joy and wonder. I felt his love and playfulness as I paddled my feet in the water and tromped through the woods in my oversized rainsuit. I saw his creativity in the mushrooms growing on a log and the arrangement of the islands in the bay. Standing on top of Warrior Hill and looking out over miles of nothing but water, trees and rocks, I think I start to understand the emotion in Genesis when "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." I think that sense of wonder is something that we too easily lose. In a place like the Boundary Waters, it is relatively easy to marvel at the wonder of God, but we should not only marvel in such a particular time and place. Every day is full of the glory of God, and we should not overlook his presence. To live every day in wonder at God's magnificent works would be an amazing gift.

-Kim