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Date/Time: 03/28/2024 07:17AM
Trip Report - The Celebration Trip

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Previous Messages:
Author Message Text
SunCatcher 09/28/2012 10:21AM
Yes, but I had never read it before or commented and I saw it popped up so what the heck :)


SunCatcher
Spartan2 09/27/2012 07:33PM
Paul, you do realize that this was the trip we took in 2009? LOL!
SunCatcher 09/27/2012 06:52PM
WOW, Sounds like you two love birds had a wonderful trip, and I like the comment about Neil being patient enough to stop for you to take the photo you wanted. "True Love" :)


Thanks for the report and thanks for the wonderful photo's, you truly have an eye Lynda for the pics and great pics.


Proud of you BOTH!


SunCatcher
ozarkpaddler 09/27/2012 06:45PM
LOL, one of these days I'm going to have to break down and get a Digital SLR. But, it's not always just the camera, you have a great "Eye" for beautiful shots!
Spartan2 09/27/2012 05:47PM
NO you won't!! I would NEVER do that--I just said I wanted to! LOL!


Thank you for the compliments. I enjoy photographing the canoe country, and we don't fish, so it keeps me occupied, especially now that we don't take trips where we go as far and do as much.


I have a Canon Digital SLR camera and a small waterproof Pentax Optio 30 pocket camera, which I wear on a lanyard around my neck (for quick shots or shooting in the rain.) This trip was shot with my old camera and lenses, a Canon D60, which was one of the earlier digital SLR's, and a 35-80 zoom lens, also a 75-300 zoom lens.


My later trips, like last year's and this year, I had a newer camera, a Canon 7D, with two L-series lenses, a 17-40 zoom and a 70-200 IS zoom lens. They are better lenses, and the image stabilization is really nice, especially when shooting from the canoe.
ozarkpaddler 09/27/2012 05:03PM
REALLY enjoyed the report. Hate that I had missed it before. Your pictures were awesome, especially the loons and mergansers. What kind of camera(s) do you use? Your words/photos made me feel like I was right there with you'all! And if I see any MSU Spartan stickers on the biffies, I know where they came from (LOL)!
onajourney 10/10/2009 04:22PM
Awesome and inspirational. It is said that attitude is everything - and without a doubt the Spartans have such a wonderful positive spirit. How wonderful that you named this the celebration trip....may there be many more!
Beemer01 10/08/2009 03:02PM
Great report - probably topped only by the pictures.

Thanks for taking us along.
cowdoc 10/06/2009 04:00PM
Back in the saddle!! That's great! We ate at the Trestle Inn also after our trip. My kind of place.
Spartan2 10/06/2009 05:45AM
I scanned the map first, then cut it up and did each day's markings, then re-scanned, saving each day individually as a JPEG. I have a feeling there is a better way to do it (like with photoshop or paintbox or something like that) but I am not very computer-savvy and this seemed to be working, so I went with it. Just marked the maps with a sharpy--not very high-tech at all. :-) I did increase the saturation of the colors once I had scanned the map so that it was a bit more colorful. That's all. And when I printed the first one off I used the highest resolution I could, and printed it on very high-quality paper for the rescan.

Thanks for all of the good comments. I do enjoy the "small wonders". It took me a long time to realize that sometimes the highlight for me is a very tiny thing--not the enormity of it all.
drnatus 10/05/2009 10:00PM
Fantastic report and even better pictures! I am truly impressed!

Also loved the maps. Did you scan those in? I tried scanning a map and it didn't come out nearly that nice!

overthehill 10/05/2009 06:21PM
Thank You. And the photos were super!
sterngirl 10/05/2009 03:41PM
What a beautiful report. Great pictures and fun to read about your adventures. What a blessing for you two to be back in the b-dub after being away. Cool.
Woodbender 10/05/2009 01:19PM
That by far and away is one of the finest and most warming reports I have read in a long time. Appropriately named and there is absolutely nothing wrong with taking things as they happen versus a stopwatch schedule.

Can certainly sympathize with the feeling of packing too much. On my last trip with my dad (now 77) I was packing as though he was still in the shape he was in five years earlier. Reality check for me.

Photography was great. I just love misty morning shots and calm glass. Everyone tries for the grandiose scene shots and that's all good but most reports thoroughly ignore small details like butterflies and berries and fungus among us, and lilies.

Considering what you two have gone through in the last couple years that report was a finalist for best report of the year in my book.

Celebration indeed. Two thumbs up.
bradcrc 10/04/2009 06:38PM
wow, great pictures!

Looks like a great trip to me.
Mongo65 10/04/2009 05:47PM
Great report and beautiful pictures.
oldgentleman 10/03/2009 02:36PM
Your photographs are spectacular. What a great trip and trip report.
Spartan2 10/01/2009 08:10AM
Gee, and we were in our Spartan shirts, too. :-)
TomT 10/01/2009 06:48AM
Wow! The pics are amazing. You really have a nice eye for detail. I've been hankering to get a macro lens and after seeing these I think I must.

I'm a morning person too and agree that it's the best time of day. Glad you and Spartan1 were able to take this trip. Many more to you guys in the future.

PS. That WAS you that I sat next to at Canoecopia. We watched Cliff Jacobson together but I didn't realize it was the Spartans that I was sitting with. :)
Spartan2 10/01/2009 05:32AM
I am currently using an old, obsolete digital SLR, 6.3 megapixels, a Canon D60 that I bought more than seven years ago. It has some "issues" now and I am in the process of thinking about an upgrade, but I have gotten quite a few nice images with it in the past seven years. With it I have a 28-80 zoom lens and a 75-300 Sigma lens with a macro feature. Spartan carries a tripod on the portages for me; a couple of years ago I invested in carbon-fiber legs for that to make it lighter for him. :-) I keep saying I am going to buy a Pelican bag, but every year I just put my cloth camera bag into a SeaLine dry bag and off I go! It's a pain to hand-carry on the portages, but it fits nicely in the bow of the canoe where there is that empty space.

I also carry a little waterproof Pentax OptioW30 that is either in my waist pack or on a lanyard around my neck. Its main purpose is for quick shots on a portage or in the canoe, or on rainy days when I don't get the big camera out for fear of water damage (not a factor on this trip.) Probably 25-30% of these shots were taken with the Pentax. It is a good point-and-shoot, pocket-size and very convenient.
Itchy Menace 09/30/2009 11:39PM
Fantastic report and amazing photos. What kind of camera are you using? It's great how you took a smaller area and made it a new adventure every day.

Thanks.
willys53 09/30/2009 10:58PM
WOW!!
bojibob 09/30/2009 09:25PM
The Spartans totally amaze me... Two more Canoe Country Heros!
snakecharmer 09/30/2009 08:08PM
Congratulations on your return to the BWCA! I enjoyed your trip report very much. I especially liked that you worked in all the little details and included the macro photography. The larger format pictures are wonderful.
alpine525 09/30/2009 12:11PM
I really enjoyed your trip report and the beautiful pictures. It sounds like a wonderful trip - thanks for sharing!
Cedarboy 09/30/2009 07:05AM
Great report Spartan2, happy you were able to get out again,beatiful pictures. I was introduced to the Trestle for the first time this spring. I have a new favorite burger,"The train wreck",LOL.
CB
rlhedlund 09/30/2009 06:12AM
Thanks for bringing me back to the BW. Love the pictures.
Spartan2 09/30/2009 05:34AM
Morning is the very best time of all for me in canoe country. Of course I still have NEVER in my life seen the Northern Lights, so if I ever do, perhaps then I'll change my mind. But I suppose I'll always miss them because we'll be tucked in bed sound asleep! :-)
Spartan2 09/30/2009 05:34AM
Yes, dogwoodgirl, I think it was sweet just going back after wondering if it would ever be possible. And as I told you before, I had fun with the jello mold oven idea. I thank you for that.

HoHo, the addition of the high-speed Internet has made it all possible, of course! Made it possible for me to make a nice hardcover book for Anna this year, too instead of a photo album. Amazing what an old lady can do with technology--but I still have a cell phone that only does phone calls! :-)

dogwoodgirl 09/30/2009 02:15AM
Great, great report! Takes me back to my first trip after my cervical spine fusion, we camped on Kelso as well. It's wonderful to be headed back into the woods after such a life-altering experience- really makes one appreciate it even more.
Ho Ho 09/29/2009 09:51PM
Most excellent! I enjoyed it even more the second time. This time I mostly focused on the pictures. There are so many good ones!

Now aren't you glad you took the plunge to get broadband?

As you probably know from my reports, we like leisurely mornings in camp too. It's such a great time of day to relax.
Spartan2 09/29/2009 08:03PM
Oh, no! Separate! We mix up Tang with cool water and drink that first. Then coffee (we both have to have decaf now, and it is just instant.) I HATE instant coffee at home, but in the canoe country I don't even care if it is instant! My last cup is always hot chocolate, though. We used to take the instant cappuccino, but I am having trouble now finding that in decaf, so we just "settle" for hot chocolate, and it isn't really a sacrifice. :-)

We really enjoy a leisurely breakfast most days. Years ago we used to try to break camp and get on the water by 7 (on a June trip when it was light really early) but as we have aged we have inclined to dally around the fire in the morning more. I do love to sip a hot drink on a misty morning.
Tebpac 09/29/2009 07:31PM
Great report and your pictures are awesome. I'll have my wife read this report as well. The more reports I read, the more I get anxious for our first trip to the BWCA! I gotta ask: the tang,hot chocolate, coffee--mixed together?!! or separate? My wife and kids will add tang to hot tea sometimes..........Thanks again for a great report...
Boppa 09/29/2009 06:59PM
Spartan2,
What a great trip report. You are being a tad harsh on yourself calling it "to easy", it was a great way for you both get back in the swing of tripping, especially, after what you both have overcome and accomplished this past year. May you write many, many more trip reports with such beautiful pictures. Thanks to you both.
Boppa
Mort 09/29/2009 05:51PM
Wow,...that was the best trip report ever! It was great, and I enjoyed seeing and reading it very very much!! Thank you for sharing the treasure!
kanoes 09/29/2009 04:36PM
AWESOME! simply awesome...everything! (minus the garbage that is)

thanks for the report, i enjoyed it immensely!
Spartan2 09/29/2009 03:53PM
Thank you. I should put that book on my Christmas list, if I could wait that long for it.

As for doing the report with the photos, it wasn't as hard as I expected. HoHo taught me how. You set them up on Photobucket in an album, and then you just click on the image icon, copy that and paste it into your report. They are still on the web, so they aren't actually in the report, but when people read the report they are pulled up from the web. Once you get the hang of it, it's not that complicated. (I did my first report on Quiet Journey and that one took me a lot longer until I learned the routine.)

The one downside is that for a person with dialup it is very hard for them to read the report and see the pictures. With dialup (I used to have it) it takes a very long time for the photos to download. And, of course, with dialup, it would have been totally impossible for me to do the report this way at all. No one has THAT kind of time for this project! :-)
nojobro 09/29/2009 03:23PM
I haven't had time to read your whole report yet, but a few quick comments...

YAY!!!! An aptly named trip, that's for sure.

I really like how you put the pics in...wish I knew how to do that. ;-)

And I think you might enjoy this book: Wildflowers of the Boundary Waters

My mom knows the author and I've seen the book. It's got pictures of BWCA flowers throughout the seasons, so you might be able to identify things even though you were there later in the season. It also has "field shots" of flowers, so you can see the area that it grows in. A lovely book! I hope to get an autographed copy for Christmas. ;-)

I hope I can find the time to read the rest of your report later...only got through the first day on the water and a quick glimpse at your great pics.
mwd1976 09/29/2009 03:17PM
Wonderful report and beautiful pictures!

Congratulations on being able to pull the trip off. May good health allow many more!
Spartan2 09/29/2009 02:17PM
New Trip Report posted by Spartan2

Trip Name: The Celebration Trip.

Entry Point: 38

Click Here to View Trip Report wc-20090901-1692