Chapter 6

I was up and out of the tent before Ron. I started clanging some pans to wake him up. We had agreed on attempting to get an early start. To save some time, I put a pot of water on the fire. We were just going to have some oatmeal and bread for breakfast. That should minimize any food prep and cleanup that had to be done. I had packed away our lunch and other supplies earlier.

I couldn’t see the water from where I was standing. A heavy fog hung over the lake. The world around me seemed to be shaded in mystery. It was quiet ... so quiet. There was that absence of noise. I believe it can only be found in a wilderness area. I stopped what I was doing, just to listen to nothing.

“Let’s get this show on the road.” It was Ron, finally crawling out of his tent.

It didn’t take long for us to get our bags stuffed into sacks and the tents packed way. We took a little break from packing and sat down to eat breakfast and drink some coffee. I was going to miss the campsite we had spent the last few days on. It had been a good place to relax and enjoy nature at its finest. But everything comes to an end, and we needed to get some miles under our belt.

It didn’t take long before the canoe was loaded and I was pushing us out into the water. The fog had lifted a bit, but there were still wisps of it here and there. I couldn’t see across the lake, but I had a good idea of the direction I should go.

Arms forward, pull the paddle back, flip it out to the side, and repeat. It felt good to be moving again. I had learned long ago that it seemed like I could paddle forever. I might get tired at first, but once I got into a rhythm, I was a machine. Ron seemed to have adapted fairly well to the front, but I still got the feeling he wanted to be in the back.

Somehow we found our portage, despite sections of residual fog. I knew it wouldn’t be long before we were experiencing the warming rays of the sun once again. We portaged over to the next lake and continued on our way. By the time we were halfway across, the fog had lifted, and the sun had begun to penetrate our skin with its welcome warmth. The universe began to come alive, and the brilliant colors of the macrocosm around us began to appear once more. I noticed that some of the trees were beginning to turn color.

While traveling down a channel that would lead us to the next lake, Ron slowed the canoe and motioned for me to be quiet. While attempting to see what he was looking at, a great blue heron suddenly flew up from the tall grass near the shore.

“Did you see that? That blue heron walked across the log and stepped on a turtle. It actually stepped on the turtle! Its feet kind of pushed the turtle along the log until it slipped off. I’ve never seen anything like it before. I’m sorry you didn’t get to see it, but it all happened so quickly.”

While paddling, I reflected on what Ron had said. I wondered what thoughts had gone on in the mind of that heron. He could have easily stepped over the turtle with his big long legs. One can only imagine what interesting events happen in nature when there is no one there to observe them?

And so it continued. We paddled and portaged, paddled and portaged. Our goal was to get in twenty miles before making camp. We were headed to a lake that was known to contain lake trout. That fact was not true for all of the lakes. Our desire was to feast on that highly sought fish over the next couple of days.

“What did you do with those crawfish of yours?” Ron asked.

“I let them go. A couple more had entered the trap, but it wasn’t enough to bother with,” I replied. “Closer to home, I might have caught enough for a meal.”

“That’s the thing about these oligotrophic lakes; the water is so cold and clear that the amount of food for the smaller creatures is reduced. The fish get bigger because they aren’t fished as heavily as in the warmer lakes, but there are fewer of them. The warmer lakes have more food for the bigger and smaller creatures alike.”

“Well, I just hope we tie into a couple of nice trout. My mouth has been watering just thinking about it,” Ron replied.

We paddled across several more large lakes. Myself, I would have rather traveled next to the shore, or along the narrow channels. But traveling straight across the water would save us much time. You never know what you might see along the shoreline. It might be a bird, a beaver, or even a deer coming down to drink. Anyone of those creatures would give you something to think about for the next few miles.

We came upon one river that contained a series of rapids. The map showed that it could be passable at certain times, but there was also a portage around it.

“What do you think?” Ron asked.

“I don’t know. I guess we could give it a try.”

“It doesn’t look too bad from here, but I can’t see up and around that corner,” Ron added.

“Let’s give it a try. Usually, you can find another opportunity to land if the water gets too dangerous,” I said.

“Yah, that’s true.”

With that said, we committed ourselves to the rapids. The water seemed deep enough, so we weren’t too concerned about hitting the rocks below. There were some large boulders that we would need to stay away from, but it didn’t look like anything we couldn’t handle. Once we entered the current, I realized it was much stronger than I had anticipated.

“We’re going to need to be really careful from now on.”

Once we got arrived at the bend, we saw that the pace of the river had slowed. Ron pointed out another place up ahead, where we could land and portage.

“Let’s keep going,” Ron said. “This is fun.”

The river soon became choppier, and strewn with boulders. Ron was doing a good job of pulling from the front, and I was trying my best to steer from the back. I couldn’t hold my paddle out to turn us because the current was pushing us along so quickly.

“Look up ahead,” Ron yelled. I sensed some concern in his voice.

In front of us was a giant boulder. The current had become much stronger, and on either side of it were a number smaller exposed rocks. There was only one way through. We would have to go directly in the middle of the shoot. There were no other options. We were committed.

“It’s too late to turn back now,” Ron shouted.

“You’re going to need to paddle like a madman,” I yelled back.

It had become hard to control the canoe. The current was going faster than we were able to paddle. I concentrated completely on what I was doing. I just hoped that Ron was doing his part. We would both need to be perfectly in sync if we were going to make through that stretch of rapids.

The boulder grew closer and the water began to move even faster. I paddled as fast as I could. Ron was doing the same. Just when I thought we were going to hit ... Ron gave one last effort, and we slid right into the V of the shoot.

“Man that was fun!”

“Good job. That was some mighty fine paddling,” I yelled.

We rushed through the narrowing and continued downstream for quite a stretch, before the waters became calmer and we were able to talk.

“What happened at the very end? It looked like we were going to hit that huge rock.”

“At the very last minute, I found a sunken rock to push off of. If I hadn’t, it could have been a disaster,” Ron replied.

“Well you did fine ... mighty fine.”

Eventually the river opened out onto a large lake with many islands and bays. We found one that met our needs and beached the canoe. It was time to take a break and eat some lunch. Since we were both still pumped from our journey through the rapids, we spent a good amount of time recalling various aspects of the descent. We both expressed relief and amazement that we had made it through.

The next portage landing turned out to be very rocky. Submerged rocks could be seen wherever you might want step. Ron pointed out where he thought the best place to take out was, so we headed in that direction. Ron stood up suddenly. Before I could get situated, he had jumped out onto one of the larger rocks. That sudden motion caused the canoe to wobble dangerously, and for whatever reason, I found myself in the drink.

I grabbed the packs and quickly threw them on shore. Ron apologized profusely. Somewhere in the process, I had bumped my knee on a rock. I carefully crawled out of the water. I was soaked to the bone. Ironically, I had made it safely through a rapids, only to get dunked in the calm waters of a bay.

Fortunately for me, it was warm out. That made the soaking less irritating. I thought about my options were, and decided to change into something dry. There was no way I wanted to take the chance of getting a rash from chaffing, due to sitting in wet clothing.

Right then and there, I stripped down naked. I put my wet clothes in the outer potion of my pack and dug out some dry clothes. It felt really good to be standing there, without any clothes, in that wonderful sun. Once dressed, it felt good to be dry again. Ron apologized several more times, but I never said a word. I was just glad that I wasn’t hurt seriously. A bruise was forming, but none of the equipment seemed damaged.

I wondered why such an experienced man had made such a dumb mistake. I doubted that any of the packed items had gotten wet. I had taken special precautions against that very thing. Despite what Ron might have thought, that wasn’t my first rodeo.

We made several more portages before finally arriving at the lake where we were going to camp. In all, I figured we had traveled about twenty miles. That meant we were fairly deep into the BWCA. The chances of seeing other travelers had become very remote. I located the campsite on the map and headed for it.