I had driven up from Minneapolis on Tuesday, picked up my permit (haven't seen the bear video in a while...it hasn't changed), and picked up my Prism from Rockwood. My parents happened to be staying at a cabin on Little Ollie Lake - on the SE side of Poplar Lake. I stayed with them, had a sauna, a good meal, and went to sleep early. I didn't sleep well. My head was swimming in 'what ifs'.

I had a delicious breakfast and pushed off from Little Ollie at about 8am. I took my time getting to the portage on Poplar. Along the portage to Lizz, I was hauling two packs - one in front, one in back - heard a loon that sounded like it was about 3 ft from my head...almost lost my footing. Lizz Lake - there's a sign as you're entering that says...ok you're in the BW now... for some reason I thought that was amusing. Took my time on Lizz, portage to Caribou. There was a lot of traffic. More than I remember seeing in the BW. I suppose it's a busy time of year and busy lakes.

Mike at Rockwood told me about a site on Horseshoe where a mama moose and her calf had been spotted frequently. So that's where I was headed. I pushed off from the Caribou-Horseshoe portage quickly and prayed it would be open. It was. Happy Nicole. There is a mound of firewood here waiting for me. The Gods are smiling on me :)

I get to camp and make offerings & ask for blessings from the guardians of the land there. Horseshoe has a really feminine energy, mothering. It feels like it envelops you. It's warm and lovely and a bit fierce. I liked it. I wanted to stay.

I canoe out to the middle of the lake to pump water. There is a mama loon and her chick. She's teaching it to dive...to no avail. She's underwater. My canoe is quickly drifting towards the chick. The chick is curious about me. Chick is in front of me. And mama pops up about 2ft from the back of my canoe. She screams at me in that way loons do that chills your bones. I almost peed my pants. She slowly paddles by giving me the death stare the whole way. I think she was debating knocking me out of my canoe. She probably would have one. I slowly and submissively paddled away. I get it mama, you own the lake. I'm just visiting.

I crawl in my mosquito-less haven of a tent to watch the sun set without getting blood drawn. It is lovely. I watch two otters swim by together. I'm asleep by 9pm. Night jitters what?

I must have slept 11 hours. Straight through. I'm groggy in the morning. I just sit and stare at the water, slowly waking up for a while. I meditate, eat. I'm feeling lazy and it's hot. I bask in the sun and swim with the loons and otters most of the day. Read, write, lounge.

I pump a lot of water. I'm realizing how much water I actually drink/use each day. Must be somewhere around 2 gallons. I'm a thirsty lady.

There are fish jumping all around me. A turtle keeps poking his head out and staring at me. He's curious. I've invaded his home.

I'm in bed early again - 9:30pm. This is unusual for me. I'm needing more sleep than usual out here. It must be some kind of let down. My body & psyche must need the rest to readjust to the rhythm of nature.

The night jitters come on for a bit. But I've been practicing meditation for a while. And while I have a very active imagination that is really good at convincing me something is really wrong and something is probably going to kill me...I'm actually able to calm myself down again. Being out here alone is like one, long meditation session.

I wake from another 11 hour night of sleep. Geez...am I sick? I don't feel sick. I feel fantastic.

I wake up and wash my face in the lake water. I look down at my hand and see a big red mark on my hand with a white ring around it. Shit. My mind goes into a spin: Brown Recluse bite? Seriously Nicole? We don't have those here. But your sister's friend knows two people in Minneapolis that have been bitten by them. Their flesh melted. Yeah but they came in on fruit trucks from the south. Plus we're almost in Canada. Well I don't know. It think it still could be. What about MRSA? What if it's staph? Oh my god I think my chest feels tight and my muscles are sore. Wait....do my muscles always feel like this? ...And on it went for a little while. I talked myself back down from the edge...and I think it ended up being a bad blister :) My mind is my worst enemy.

I did a day trip to Gaskin. I got to see more of Horseshoe and the portage to Gaskin was lovely. Gaskin was windy. I stopped at the island to have lunch and bask in the sun/go for a swim. Paddled around to check out other campsites. Wanted to see the fire. Took my time.

These yokes they rent at outfitters are not made for a woman's shoulders. Ouch.

In my interest of packing light...I neglected to pack sunscreen. I'm a little burnt today. Luckily I packed a small bottle of saint john's wort oil - a great sunburn remedy. I slather it on.

I had a fire this night. I did a fire ceremony and as I made offerings, a bald eagle flew overhead. The first one I had seen yet.

The mosquitos are unbearable by 9pm even by the fire. I'm in the tent reading by 9pm.

I have some wild dreams. Not going to post them here as they're probably not of interest to anyone. But CRAZY dreams with an albino boa that was changing shapes among other things. Weird. Looooong sleep again tonight. 10 hours.

It's insanely windy today. So I decide it's a good day to rest again. The wind is keeping the mosquitos at bay. I lounge in my hammock reading and writing for most of the day. It's been hot so I swim a lot. I float, look up at the sky and am thankful for this feeling of being supported in the water. I sink in to this feeling of floating. It's really quite something.

There's a chipmunk that is making a home for herself (I've named her Harriet) in a cedar tree at camp. She gnaws away at it and has created quite an impressive mound of wood shavings on the ground. I think I'll use some for kindling if it's ok with her. She likes the cedar blossoms or nuts or whatever they are. I was laying in the sun earlier and hear what sounds like a very angry bird behind me. It keeps chirping. I look back and there's Harriet standing on her hind legs right next to my foot yelling at me. I don't think she's happy I'm laying here. I'm in her way. I am in her path from her favorite cedar tree to a little chipmunk beach. I watch her wash herself. I move out of the way. She is pleased.

As I lay in my tent tonight a mouse literally runs up and over the top of my tent. Weird. I've never experienced that before.

A bear (or something) visits camp this night. At around 3am I hear something big walking around the rock/gravel around my tent. I'm groggy but can tell it's getting close. I clap my hands and yell and I hear it run into the woods. I unzip my tent to see a very large wet trail from my canoe near the lake, up to my tent. I notice my canoe also has some muddy marks on top of it where it looks like some creature has crawled over it. Bear? I don't know. Probably. It takes some time, but I fall back asleep.

I wake up with the sun today. I'm back on track with sleeping. I have my morning ritual of watching the sky change colors and clouds change shape as I drink my morning water (yes morning water, not coffee :) I meditate, wash up, make breakfast, etc... I'm antsy today and want to move. So I decide to take a day trip. The wind is still really strong today. But I decide to brave it anyway. Vista Lake today. I make it across Horseshoe to the portage and to Vista. As I neared the end of the portage, the wind almost knocked the Prism off my shoulders. There are white caps on the lake. Nope. I turn around to head back to camp defeated.

I take my time paddling back and happen upon a playful family of otters. I watch them for a while. Then they see me. And they begin making a horrendous screeching sound. I must be close to their den. Maybe they have wee ones in there. I'm curious. But I've heard some stories recently about how ferocious otters can be. I decide to leave them in peace and paddle along.

I lounge back at camp and take care of camp chores. I'm thinking about leaving camp tomorrow so I take a paddle around the lake at sunset when it's calm to really see the rest of Horseshoe. It's a beautiful lake. I'm hoping to see that elusive moose. No such luck. I think about my mother. She's almost 60 and grew up coming to the BW. She and my father are the reason I love the outdoors so much. And I took my first trip up here with her and my aunt when I was 13. She's not in great shape now. But I decide that she needs to make it up here more often. I know it would make her really happy.

I'm also thinking a lot about food today. I have been a vegetarian for 4 years. But I am craving meat. I can't stop thinking about fish and buffalo jerky.

It rains tonight as I sleep. Not too much. It kept me awake and my mind started to spin again. What if I can't make it out on Tuesday? What if it's super windy like it has been? What if I tip over in the middle of the lake? What if it's lightening? And on & on. Again, it takes me a while to talk myself down from the ledge. I eventually fall asleep again.

Today I'm up again at sunrise. I quickly do my camp chores, breakfast, meditation, etc. I head out to Caribou and maybe Meeds to scope things out. I make it to Caribou and am moved to paddle over to a campsite there. It's a site my mom told me to look for that she had stayed at years ago. I'm convinced it's the same site. I brought a tarp with me so I set it up to hold the site.

I paddle back to my camp to collect my things. My tent pole snaps in the meantime tearing my rainfly. Oops. I'm resourceful so I fix the pole with a kit that comes with the tent. After that, it's nothing duct tape can't fix in the meantime.

I get to the campsite at Caribou and it is heavenly. There are raspberries and rosehips all around me. I collect some of both. I take a skinny dip, make rosehip tea, and lounge in my hammock eating raspberries, drinking tea, and reading Rumi. I am in heaven. I have a fire and watch the full moon rise over the lake. This is the best day yet.

An actual sunrise! The wind had dropped and it was a pretty nice morning. Since we had repacked a lot of our gear we had a cold breakfast and hit the water by 6:15. The 230 rd portage into Kelly Lake was muddy and the skeeters were active already but being eager to get home the long portage was soon behind us and we were soon at the 3 rod portage into Peterson Lake. We let John and a heavy pack off on shore and Terry and I maneuvered through the rocky little rapids. After picking up John I felt a large pang of sadness to be leaving as the sun began to burn bright and the water was smooth with easy paddling to see us off. Just before the 10 rod portage into Baker Lake we got hung up on some rocks in shallow water again. Both John and I were out of the canoe to help us through. Then, just like that we’re back at the EP and loading up to go home. We arrive at the EP at 9:00 and were back where Terry and I live just before 6:00 PM. Man, on Burnt Lake at 6 in the morning and home having supper with my wife 12 hours later. I loved this trip and fell in love with Cherokee and Sawbill lakes!

A couple of lessons learned or at least reinforced: 1. Bring canoe repair material. For some reason we didn’t really plan for it. I think with Kevlar canoes we must have thought they’d be indestructible and we found out the sharp rocks in the BW don’t care what your canoe is made of. 2. Continue to get up early and get moving on to the next destination. If you don’t find a site on the lake you wanted to stop on at least you give yourself time to continue on and still have luck finding something. 3. We had a lot more rain on this trip than others I’ve been on. This year I used a ground tarp to protect the tent bottom and an “innie” for the first time. Everything stayed dry so I like that arrangement but need to find a better material than clear plastic for the inside. It was like my gear and I were in an ice rink the way things would shift around in the tent. 4. If someone seeks shelter in your site with a storm bearing down don’t let them talk you into “well, we’ll find something over there” because they might be clueless as to what’s available and you could do them a real favor by letting them in. 5. The more you move toward the interior of the park the easier it is to find campsites. Last year on the Kawishiwi River it was a real struggle. This year wasn’t so bad. 6. I didn’t pack fishing gear and found that with the right mindset I didn’t miss it…much. The others in my group don’t fish so I found ways to stay busy with them and the time went by just as fast. 7. Check for dead trees before setting up the tent. Don’t wait until you see the weather could be bad. </a>