BWCA Trip hangover Boundary Waters Listening Point - General Discussion
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irishluck
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06/12/2018 11:28AM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
We returned from a trip last night and now I'm sitting in front of a pc and holding a mouse with a hand that would rather be holding a paddle. I'm reliving all the details so fresh in my mind and feel like I'm having an out of body experience, haha.
I'm already looking at maps and planning our next trip. I'm making notes of what worked, what didn't, and things that I want to do differently next time. I try to practice leave no trace but I think I left my mind and heart behind in the wilderness.

Does anybody else experience this readjustment to reality?
 
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06/12/2018 12:14PM  
irishluck: "We returned from a trip last night and now I'm sitting in front of a pc and holding a mouse with a hand that would rather be holding a paddle. I'm reliving all the details so fresh in my mind and feel like I'm having an out of body experience, haha.
I'm already looking at maps and planning our next trip. I'm making notes of what worked, what didn't, and things that I want to do differently next time. I try to practice leave no trace but I think I left my mind and heart behind in the wilderness.

Does anybody else experience this readjustment to reality? "

Happens every time. Mental trip planning usually starts on the drive home and continues until I go back. The first couple weeks after the trip and the couple weeks leading up to the next are the hardest. :-)
 
06/12/2018 12:21PM  
Not so much anymore. I’ve done about 30 trips, so the novelty may have worn off. But I know what you mean. It never gets old, that’s for sure. Glad you had a good time and are planning to head back. Reality bites.
 
CityFisher74
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06/12/2018 12:55PM  
scat: "Not so much anymore. I’ve done about 30 trips, so the novelty may have worn off. But I know what you mean. It never gets old, that’s for sure. Glad you had a good time and are planning to head back. Reality bites."


I'm also in the 35ish trip range and I get this feeling every, single, time. The day this wears off will be a sad day, but I can't imagine it ever wearing off. Each trip is so different and so unique.
 
Savage Voyageur
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06/12/2018 04:54PM  
Happens with me too every time. I relive everything looking at the pictures and videos . I have the pictures in a electronic photo frame so I can enjoy them daily.
 
cyclones30
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06/12/2018 05:52PM  
We look at maps on the way home and start debating where our next one will be. What we'd pack differently, wish we would have brought, what we should leave home next time, etc.
 
06/12/2018 06:06PM  
Even after 45 years of tripping the BWCA and Quetico I still get bumbed out when it’s time to come “home”. Depression starts as soon as I hit The Superior side of the bridge.
 
irishluck
member (45)member
  
06/12/2018 07:37PM  
walllee: "Even after 45 years of tripping the BWCA and Quetico I still get bumbed out when it’s time to come “home”. Depression starts as soon as I hit The Superior side of the bridge."

And it always seems like it's time to go home just when I'm getting in "the zone."
 
analyzer
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06/12/2018 09:33PM  
I don't know if it's so much a hangover, as just a mild depression. The weeks, sometimes months leading up to a trip, I think about it multiple times a day. Whenever I need to at work, I just crawl into a recess of my brain, and imagine I'm there. Sometimes I think the anticipation is as exciting as the trip itself.

When I return from a trip, there isn't anything to fill that void, at least in the same capacity, until maybe hunting season.

Thinking about the boundary waters is definitely one of my favorite escapes.
 
06/13/2018 07:31AM  
irishluck: "Does anybody else experience this readjustment to reality? "


Yep.

Came out a week ago and it's been challenging.

Adding to the disconnect is the fact that I overdid it - paddled two 10-year-olds in an aluminum battleship covering 25 miles in 4 days. Arms, shoulders and especially hands/wrists are only now becoming pain-free...must be getting old.


But I'd go back today if I could!
 
06/13/2018 12:22PM  
Returned from Q Saturday night. Arriving Ely on an hour! No time for a hangover.
 
GraniteCliffs
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06/13/2018 07:04PM  
I get a similar feeling when I return from my last trip of the season. I am lucky in that I am able to go on average 4 times a year--this year 5. So after most trips I just switch to looking forward to the next one. Then after the last one I find myself wondering how many more years I will be able to go as I am now 67.
And then, like every year for the past 45 years, I turn the corner in January and begin to plan my trips for the coming year and its off to the races again.
 
06/13/2018 08:30PM  
Got back Saturday night. 3 days back to work and on call tonight. Yeah, I'm hungover......
 
Abbey
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06/13/2018 09:21PM  
An initial trip hangover on the way home, but reality hit too fast. Enjoyed the family for what was left of the weekend and now “paying” for the week off by playing catch up at work. Has been too hectic too be hungover, which is part of why I go. No phone for a week is a bonus to the wilderness.
 
06/14/2018 12:29AM  
for me it's always nice to get back home to a hot shower and a comfy bed , but it only takes a few days and wish i was back in the BW !
 
06/14/2018 12:40AM  
It is hard to describe the feeling of being back in the concrete jungle after being in the wilderness. I just returned from Quetico a couple days ago. We paddled 55 miles with 19 portages over 7 days. Although it was one heck of a great trip, I was definitely ready for a hot shower and some real food. But now that I am back, I find it difficult to focus while I'm at work. I can't help but get lost in the memories of the trip. Part of me always takes a little extra time to acclimate back. Physically I'm back, but I feel that part of my soul is still in the wilderness. I have been through this same thing on 40+ trips. Sometimes the "wilderness hangover" last for several days or even a week. I agree with others that planning the next trip usually eases some of the hangover. I also find that editing my trip photos and videos helps to ease the suffering. I'll take a wilderness hangover over an alcohol hangover anytime.
 
06/14/2018 06:05AM  
After our canoe trips, or even now after our annual trip up to the canoe country for our "cabin week" with our granddaughter, I find the next couple of weeks has a rhythm all its own. A mountain of laundry and things to put away, accompanied by an almost total immersion in the photos. At first it was a pile of prints to sort and put into an album, along with a typewritten narrative. Now it is digital images on the computer, and a book that I make on Snapfish to memorialize the event. Anna gets her copy and we have a copy for ourselves, with hundreds of photos and a "diary" that describes our daily activities. Reliving the days in this way seems to help me with coming back to reality, and make me count my blessings that I am still able, in my limited way, to enjoy the canoe country every year. Last year I even did a trip report on this site as well.

Anna's Trip 2017

Plans are now made for our annual trek in August, and we are looking forward to it as always. There will be a book, of course. :-) I tell Anna that the book is more for her to show HER grandchildren than for now. . ."What I did with my grandparents back in the long, long ago." But my secret hope is that maybe she will someday take her children or her grandchildren canoeing and carry on the tradition.
 
mastertangler
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06/14/2018 06:25AM  
Indeed, thinking of canoe country is definitely my "happy place".

Fortunately I get to go an extended period of time. I find that after 9 or 10 days I am just getting in the groove and was sort of irritated to have to leave. 24 days seems about right.........I am usually ready by then. After that life gets so busy I don't have time to get excessively wistful.

Always thinking about the next trip though.
 
irishluck
member (45)member
  
06/14/2018 08:35AM  
Spartan2: "After our canoe trips, or even now after our annual trip up to the canoe country for our "cabin week" with our granddaughter, I find the next couple of weeks has a rhythm all its own. A mountain of laundry and things to put away, accompanied by an almost total immersion in the photos. At first it was a pile of prints to sort and put into an album, along with a typewritten narrative. Now it is digital images on the computer, and a book that I make on Snapfish to memorialize the event. Anna gets her copy and we have a copy for ourselves, with hundreds of photos and a "diary" that describes our daily activities. Reliving the days in this way seems to help me with coming back to reality, and make me count my blessings that I am still able, in my limited way, to enjoy the canoe country every year. Last year I even did a trip report on this site as well.

Anna's Trip 2017

Plans are now made for our annual trek in August, and we are looking forward to it as always. There will be a book, of course. :-) I tell Anna that the book is more for her to show HER grandchildren than for now. . ."What I did with my grandparents back in the long, long ago." But my secret hope is that maybe she will someday take her children or her grandchildren canoeing and carry on the tradition.
"
That's great. How lucky Anna is that her grandparents expose her to experiences like that. I just returned from a trip with my partner, but in a few weeks we'll return with the kids. For the past three years, she and I have taken the kids on hybrid-type trips. The first half of the week we spend in the BW, and the latter half we kick back at a cabin and explore other things on the Gunflint. By the end of the week they don't want to come home.
 
irishluck
member (45)member
  
06/14/2018 08:42AM  
DuluthPak: "It is hard to describe the feeling of being back in the concrete jungle after being in the wilderness. I just returned from Quetico a couple days ago. We paddled 55 miles with 19 portages over 7 days. Although it was one heck of a great trip, I was definitely ready for a hot shower and some real food. But now that I am back, I find it difficult to focus while I'm at work. I can't help but get lost in the memories of the trip. Part of me always takes a little extra time to acclimate back. Physically I'm back, but I feel that part of my soul is still in the wilderness. I have been through this same thing on 40+ trips. Sometimes the "wilderness hangover" last for several days or even a week. I agree with others that planning the next trip usually eases some of the hangover. I also find that editing my trip photos and videos helps to ease the suffering. I'll take a wilderness hangover over an alcohol hangover anytime.
"

Yes, this is what I mean. And wow that sounds like one hell of a trip!
 
irishluck
member (45)member
  
06/14/2018 08:47AM  
mastertangler: "Indeed, thinking of canoe country is definitely my "happy place".


Fortunately I get to go an extended period of time. I find that after 9 or 10 days I am just getting in the groove and was sort of irritated to have to leave. 24 days seems about right.........I am usually ready by then. After that life gets so busy I don't have time to get excessively wistful.


Always thinking about the next trip though. "

Wow. I couldn't imagine being able to spend that long there.
I don't get a lot of time, so my trips usually involve taking off a Friday and a Monday. I live in the Twin Cities so we can make a few trips a year, though.

Our vacations with the kids have consisted of taking a week off, with half the week spent in the BW, and half at a rented cabin on the Gunflint. The few days at a cabin are nice and we can head up and down the trail and explore, but maybe I need to lobby for a full week next year. :)
 
06/14/2018 12:18PM  
irishluck: "
Spartan2: "After our canoe trips, or even now after our annual trip up to the canoe country for our "cabin week" with our granddaughter, I find the next couple of weeks has a rhythm all its own. A mountain of laundry and things to put away, accompanied by an almost total immersion in the photos. At first it was a pile of prints to sort and put into an album, along with a typewritten narrative. Now it is digital images on the computer, and a book that I make on Snapfish to memorialize the event. Anna gets her copy and we have a copy for ourselves, with hundreds of photos and a "diary" that describes our daily activities. Reliving the days in this way seems to help me with coming back to reality, and make me count my blessings that I am still able, in my limited way, to enjoy the canoe country every year. Last year I even did a trip report on this site as well.


Anna's Trip 2017


Plans are now made for our annual trek in August, and we are looking forward to it as always. There will be a book, of course. :-) I tell Anna that the book is more for her to show HER grandchildren than for now. . ."What I did with my grandparents back in the long, long ago." But my secret hope is that maybe she will someday take her children or her grandchildren canoeing and carry on the tradition.
"
That's great. How lucky Anna is that her grandparents expose her to experiences like that. I just returned from a trip with my partner, but in a few weeks we'll return with the kids. For the past three years, she and I have taken the kids on hybrid-type trips. The first half of the week we spend in the BW, and the latter half we kick back at a cabin and explore other things on the Gunflint. By the end of the week they don't want to come home. "


We have only been blessed with two grandchildren, one each from our two children. We started taking Anna to northern Minnesota when she was four years old, and it has become a yearly tradition that we all love. Because of health issues for both my husband and myself, we don't feel that we can take her out on a BWCA trip by ourselves, and her parents aren't inclined to come along, so the cabin experience with day trips is a good alternative. Every year we wonder if she will still want to go, but at fifteen, she is still loving it just as much as ever. It isn't like a canoe trip; we swim in the cold lake, walk in the woods, spend some time in Grand Marais, have lots of campfires, play games in the cabin at night, and just enjoy quiet time doing "whatever". But for us, all of it is very special.

The other grandchild, Robert, had one trip to northern Minnesota with a cabin week, and while he enjoyed it, he really didn't find it to be his "thing". He still gets his "Grandparent vacation" with us every summer, but with him we do different activities, usually focusing on the various attractions available to us in our home state of Michigan. He is especially fond of Mackinac Island. Nothing wrong with that, either.
 
06/14/2018 12:47PM  
Yes, I obsess about the trip immediately after coming out... takes a while to ease back down and into regular life. I am crabby and irritable.

Well worth it though!
 
BnD
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06/14/2018 04:51PM  
I was telling some friends today. “Give me a week and I’ll pack up for round 2”. I will retire soon enough and if my health holds out and I can find enough tripping partners I’ll be taking extended backcountry fishing trips 3-4 times per summer.
 
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