Boundary Waters Trip Continued

View from our campsite.

I didn't realize what a work out Matt and I would be getting...canoeing is not easy! We were sore every day. Matt was in the back of the canoe and in charge of the steering. The first day, he didn't know how to steer and I kept trying to steer, even though I was pretty much forcing our boat to go in circles. Let's just say I was about 75% sure we were going to tip. Daniel went on a trip two summers ago to the Yukon. He's quite the canoeing expert. He quickly showed Matt how to steer and told me to stop trying to steer. After that, we had it down pretty well. Matt was the fish man. We only caught three fish on the whole trip (tried about half a dozen times), and Matt caught two of the three fish. It was neat to hear Daniel's experiences from the 4 week trip to the Yukon compared to the Boundary waters. With our trip, we canoed to one camp spot, set up, and stayed there all week. With him, they moved sites every day. I now have a new appreciation of moving campsites. It is not easy and there is a lot to move (plus we were all WAY over packed).

 Mattalie Canoe Team. If I was to switch sides paddling, I'd yell the keyword: WIZARD!

Matt and his "walleye"- turned out to be a northern pike. Not edible.

Daniel and my mom were canoe partners. Matt and I would sometimes enjoy eaves dropping on their conversation. With a strong breeze on the lake, it was tough to paddle. Daniel was a great encourager for her. They were usually the caboose of the pack; my mom wanted me to always be in the middle in case I fell in. With this baby, it would have been not so good for me to fall in. The water was very cold and hypothermia can be a threat out there.

Grammy Tammy and Daniel

Dad and his friend (who was on his 17th BWCA trip) were canoe partners. He was our official guide whose job was to get us there and bring us home. He was so much fun to learn from and provided a lot of wisdom on the trip.

Campfire and Food

The food was incredible. It's amazing what you can do and how good it tastes. We had pancakes, breakfast tacos, red beans and rice, shrimp pesto pasta, chicken and cheese potatoes, and much more. After the meals, we'd have to wash the food off in the river, boil water and clean dishes, then rewash with purified water and then  dry. It was quite the task; part of the beauty of the week though was the manual labor. It's amazing how much work it takes to purify water. It is NOT easy. Mom and I usually left that job to the boys. The boys were also in charge of gathering wood. You can’t really gather wood there though. You have to chop it down. Everyday they would be in charge of going out and finding dead trees that had fallen over. They would then use a saw and cut the wood. I helped one day, and I was exhausted. After that, I made sure that we used would with precaution and didn’t just burn it all in one sitting.

One day we went canoeing and hiking. This was probably my favorite day because I love to hike. I am in much better hiking shape than canoeing shape. We had to cross a river by straddling a log, we had to travel up these hilly, tree slopes, and we then had to canoe about an hour and a half back to campsite. It was quite the workout.

Boys on hike.

Every night, we all slept like babies. My mom slept one night for 10 hours straight. She said she hadn't done that in years. She would get up at 5 every morning and start the coffee and fire. It would start getting light around 5:30. Her and I were always the first up. One morning, my dad, her, and I saw a beaver across the lake on another island. It was so cool. Most mornings, the river was like glass with this mysterious fog. It was gorgeous.

View at night

It's amazing how much quality time you get with no technology, no cell phone service, and just family. We played a lot of cards (pitch of course) and had a lot of laughs. Matt is now wanting us to go onto one of the lakes in Austin and rent canoes this weekend. I think he's hooked.

Team at the beginning.

Family at the end. :)