Would you ever trip again if you had help? Help with portaging all your gear on easy flat portages for you? I have read all your posts and can tell how much you both love the BWCA. My tripping partner and I would be more then willing to help get you to your desired destination. We could meet back up and carry all your gear out.
Spartan2 has been an awesome beam on this site.
Just thought I would ask:)

What a great offer!

Zwater,

Fantastic thought and offer.

Spartan1 and Spartan2 are awesome folks. Hope they can make another trip into the BWCA.

Zwater: "Would you ever trip again if you had help? Help with portaging all your gear on easy flat portages for you? I have read all your posts and can tell how much you both love the BWCA. My tripping partner and I would be more then willing to help get you to your desired destination. We could meet back up and carry all your gear out.
Spartan2 has been an awesome beam on this site.
Just thought I would ask:)"

The season of giving is still evident; I am touched and honored by your comments Zwater. This is a fabulous offer, and we both appreciate it more than it is possible to say. Canoeing folks are just the best, aren't they? Where else would an offer like this exist?

We accepted a similar offer in 2012, and that is how the "Return to Cherokee" trip was born. Our friends carried my packs, then made another trip with their own. It was a very good trip, and we appreciated the help. That wasn't our last canoe trip, but it was the last good one.

Unfortunately, things have changed since those days. Not to go into too much detail, but three joint replacements and a spine full of arthritis have made just getting in and out of the canoe a real challenge for me, even on a beach--not to mention a rocky portage or campsite landing. And getting in and out of a tent presents similar difficulties. I never used to worry about falling, but now I do. And a fall out in the wilderness area wouldn't be the way I would choose to experience my next one. :-)

Spartan1 is more mobile than I, but he has other issues that make wilderness travel dangerous for him now. He has to self-cath (maybe this is too much detail), and the logistics of that, not to mention the need for rigorous cleanliness, just make canoe-tripping a less than comfortable thing for us now. The last time he had a urinary tract infection he developed sepsis and he nearly died. An infection like that requires medical treatment STAT, and if we had been on a canoe trip the result very well could have been fatal.

We loved canoe tripping and we miss it. Much as I hate to say it, though, we are content to do what we have been doing since 2014: to stay in a cabin on an entry-point lake and take day trips. It works for this time in our lives, and we still get to enjoy the canoe country. Just at our own level of safety and comfort.

Yours isn't the first offer. And in the past, I have tried to explain that it isn't just the portaging that keeps us from canoe-tripping. It's the whole package. We were a good tandem pair: we always set our own pace, we weren't afraid to tackle a difficult portage, and for me personally, the feeling of getting to the end of a long, arduous portage and seeing that lake waiting for us. . .that was the best part of it. I found when I tripped with helpers, that is what I missed. The terrible effort needed to do it ALL, not just part of it. The feeling of accomplishment and independence.

The whole package.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart (and I speak for Spartan1, too) for your kind offer. There might have been a time when we would have taken you up on it, but I think now that ship has sailed. (canoe has paddled away?) :-) Much as we regret saying it, we will have to pass. But we will remember it fondly, as just one more example of how the friends from the canoe country are special friends, indeed.

I understand.
I wish I could have brought my Dad up to the BWCA. We had a trip planned in 2012, but he was diagnosed with stage 4 Colon Cancer that February.
I just hear from your posts about your love and passion for the BWCA. Just thought I would ask.
Happy Holidays to all!

I get it. It is like the wish we have that we could take our granddaughter out on a real canoe trip. But some things just get in the way. So we make memories in the way that works for us now.

I'm sorry about your dad, and I wish you had gotten that trip with him.

And thanks again for your kindness.

Paddlers are a great group of people, aren't they? Zwater, kudos to you for your kind offer.

To the Spartans, I hope you can enjoy cabin life and day trips for many years to come.

I realize this inquiry has been sufficiently answered/explained etc.

However, I do want the Spartans to know how much I (for one) appreciate their continued contributions to this site and hope they continue to do so as long as they are able; regardless if they ever do another 'real' canoe trip or not.

Thank you, Paul.

This post has made me feel proud to be a part of the BWCA.com community--what a caring and compassionate group!

TZ

I agree, the Spartans have inspired many. Lynda’s pictures alone are so fun to see. The trip reports and their excellent advice over time hs been invaluable. Some of us have new chapters in our lives. But you’ll never take away the passion...

Many times, as my wife and I sit and watch a BWCAW sunset, I'll think of the Spartans and pray that we can not only continue to enjoy a few more years of this simple pleasure but also live out our wilderness experience in a fashion reflecting the lives of those two.

Don't think I am at all comfortable with the title "inspiring". But I can tell you that today was a very bad day for me emotionally (a little bit of sibling difficulty--nothing new, but something exceptionally upsetting) and reading these comments has brought a smile to my face.

Thanks nctryBen and schweady. It felt good to smile.

Spartans 1 & 2 are a great example for us all in 100 different ways.

If you come up to Ely, stop on by our place. I have my regular RV and my guest RV in the pine forest on the ridge. Nothing fancy, just trees, rocks, water and sky, but still able to enjoy a campfire, watch a sunrise and sunset. On a main road just five minutes from town.