About 16 years ago, I was still using rope to tie down the canoe for traveling to BW. My neighbor helped and all went well for several years. At 65 MPH on I-55 in Illinois (never speed in Illinois) my last year for using rope, the canoe/rope lost traction on one side and blew precariously close to bailing off the car completely. Instead, it was held in place along the side of minivan by remaining rope structure and away from van itself by the wind forcing the entire canoe outward from the van. Air pressure kept it away from the van. We were, lucky/blessed in my opinion, to have a very timely placed closed rest area which we used to slow down as fast as we could with out skidding. The canoe came to rest on the side of van held by the ropes without leaving any evidence of the aluminum canoe on the van.

This is one adventure not discussed even to this date.

Well, If I am not telling - then I am not telling!

I have told my wife.

Bobber#1 and Bobber#2 still have not told (and never will tell) their wives.

should this be posted in the Vegas forum ? ;)

We finally told them but did not for about ten years...

On perhaps the stormiest night I've ever spent in the BWCA, one of our party was struck by lightning. VERY fortunate that all he suffered as a result was a mark/burn on his arm from where the lightning arched to him from a tent pole. Well, he got that along with a good scare. Otherwise not affected!

We figured if we reported that to spouses they would never let us go again, so we kept quiet about it for years.

Doughnut count is never shared, not even with close friends. It is a very high number.

My wife was along the two times I faced adversity in the wild and is the reason she won't go on another trip without a firearm.... Well she won't go unless I am carrying one is a better way to put it.

quote want2ride2: "My wife was along the two times I faced adversity in the wild and is the reason she won't go on another trip without a firearm.... Well she won't go unless I am carrying one is a better way to put it."

Do tell us all more details

Naw, I tell her everything. But more often than not her eyes will glaze over and she will start wondering whats for dinner. She gets exasperated "Its always the same story, it was this big (she spreads her arms wide for emphasis) and it jumped and broke your line".

My two most embarrassing moments was when I was telling a tripping partner how I rolled my boat at a portage. I did the story all with one foot in the canoe and the other in the water. The boat slowly drifted away beyond the point of recovery and I started yelling "help". My buddy, who was on land, was frozen and he said the whole thing was surreal as I, and canoe, went over again in the exact same lake all while relating a story about capsizing at a portage. You can't make it up!

The other total miscue was seeing a "Portage crosses road" sign at an entry point in WCPP (Lund lake access). I immediately assumed that was my route and moved all my gear the wrong way. After the 4th load was set lakeside I went back to my vehicle to insure all was in order. Walked over to the big board with all the notices posted and stepped to the side of it to take a leak. Directly in front of me was another portage trail and I was shocked and knew I had started my trip in the wrong direction.

My longtime canoe partner and I introduced one of his co-workers to canoe country. They were in a tandem canoe, I, being the third wheel, had taken the oppurtunity to try a solo canoe for the first time. Over confidence got the best of me, and I swamped the canoe in early May on a cold, windy day.

I told my wife something along the lines of "I got soaked" on the trip.

My friend unintentionally outed me a few months later over dinner with our wives as we were recounting the trip.

I learned more than one lesson on that trip... A healthier respect for wind and waves (especially solo), and make sure you get the story straight before you get home... :-)

There are probably a few things never shared.....and they aren't going to be shared here either.....haha.

quote QueticoMike: "There are probably a few things never shared.....and they aren't going to be shared here either.....haha."

Oh come on Mike........dont be such a Fraidy cat

quote mastertangler: "

quote QueticoMike: "There are probably a few things never shared.....and they aren't going to be shared here either.....haha."

Oh come on Mike........dont be such a Fraidy cat "

Pleading the 5th and not implicating myself in any way or form.......lol

In 2015 two people were mauled by Brown/Grizzley bears within 5 miles of where I lived in Alaska. A few of my co workers had been bluff charged and or mauled in the past incluing one firefighter that was roughed up three times by a bear while doing PT right behind our fire station. (He should have stayed down)

My wife lives in Duluth but would come up every September and visit me for 2 weeks . I never told her about those maulings until the last day of her trip because she is a little bearanoid. She also takes more percautions while in Grizzley Bear country than I do so our safety was never in any more jeopardy due to her lack of knowledge regarding those incidents. (I kept a very close eye on her and planned our camping and hikes on places to avoid those bears).

The time we did a Buffalo River trip in May during a week long chain of thunderstorms. It rained heavily two days before the trip and the water was high, and we started high on the river where the paddling is more challenging but only doable when the water is high.

Then it started raining the first night of a planned 3 night trip and the water rose higher and and grew swifter. In one particularly narrow swift section, the canoe got turned sideways and broadsided a tree that was hanging low over the river, which dumped the boat and both of us upstream. I was swept under the boat and the current pinned me against the tree. I wasn't wearing PFD (I know) but I am not sure it would have helped me. It seemed like forever before I was able to haul myself to the surface. I was wearing my rain jacket and it was acting like a sail and holding me against the tree under the canoe.

I also lost my Oakleys and my digital camera which was in a Ziploc bag got soaked. Worked fine after I let it dry out for a month or so.

Anyway, nobody but you guys and my paddle partner know about how close I came to drowning.

Roughly ten years ago, we took my grandfather (who was 80-something at the time) on his last trip to the BWCA. We did a relatively simple trip to Alpine because it was where he had stayed on his first boundary waters trip, and because it was wasn't too demanding for a guy who couldn't get around very well any more. It wasn't specifically planned to be his last, but there was an unspoken understanding within the family that grandpa probably didn't have too many trips left.

We camped on the island near the portage to Seagull, where he had stayed with my dad and uncle 20 years before. Things had gone well until one morning my dad woke us saying that grandpa was missing. We called out and got no response. My dad decided to start checking the paths going into the woods thinking maybe he had fallen down, but hen it hit me... we're on an island. What if he had fallen in the lake? So, my brother and I paddled around the island while my dad went on foot. We were scared, and expected to either find him floating face down in the lake or unconscious in the woods somewhere, when finally he answered our calls. We rounded the opposite end of the island, and found him sitting in the sunshine on a rock along the shore. Apparently he had wandered down the wrong path on the way to the latrine in the middle of the night and was muttering something odd about the moon looking like a street light. Needless to say, he had spent the rest of the night outside. He was embarrassed, so we didn't tell him the full extent of how worried we were, and we kept a close eye on him the last day or two.

After the trip we didn't tell my grandma exactly what had happened, but there was sort of an agreement by all that grandpa was probably ready to retire from the annual adventure to the BWCA.

bwcadan: "...never speed in Illinois..."

Judging the way I see Illinois drivers around here I was led to believe none of them ever drive the speed limit.