Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Third times a charm.
by Topher

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 08/17/2008
Entry Point: Moose Lake (EP 25)
Exit Point: Snowbank Lake (EP 27)  
Number of Days: 7
Group Size: 4
Trip Introduction:
Part 1 of 2
Before I give the report for this(the third trip) I will summarize the first two trips. All three trips have been on the same loop. the first year we had seven people. we made it five days out of our seven. on the fifth night we stopped at boot lake. the portage to boot lake took a bit of a toll on the group. everybody on the lake before boot and three of us took an empty canoe to boot to see if there were any empty sights worth leaving the site we were at. I happen to be unbeatable at paper scissor rock and got to be the one left on boot to save the spot,and do a little skinny dipping. in hindsight I have felt lake a jerk for doing this and not returning to help because as I said this portage took a toll on the group. well we started to make camp and Cameron decided to start the fire. while blowing on the small flames to introduce a little oxygen, we think he hyperventilated because he stood up and spoke something in gibberish smiled real big and fell backwards down hill landing with his head on a rock. it split it open. and we were all scared. luckily two of us were pre med and im a volunteer fireman. so we had a pretty good group for this to happen to if there is such a thing. we cleaned him up layed him in a canoe and three of us rowed like hell to get him out of there. the other three had the harder part getting all the gear out with one person by himself rowing a three person canoe full of gear across snowbank. luckily there was a group camping there with a motorboat who towed the exsausted trio the rest of the way. all ended well with some staples. the second year went much smoother with the biggest problem being one of my friends "whittling" and I use this term loosely and slicing his finger pretty severely, luckily after the year before and a pre trip accident on my part we had a very nice first aid kit and with some superglue , a popscicle stick and some gauze we remedied the situation. so aside from all the rain we got it was much better a trip.