BWCA Trip Report - 1980 Return to the Namakan: Going Back in Time #5 Boundary Waters Trip Reports
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04/05/2021 12:38PM  
New Trip Report posted by Spartan2

Trip Name: 1980 Return to the Namakan: Going Back in Time #5.

Entry Point: Quetico

Click Here to View Trip Report
 
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smoke11
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04/05/2021 01:30PM  
Thanks for sharing!
PineKnot
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04/05/2021 05:00PM  
Spartan2......what a great read!! A few years ago, I went from LLC down the Namakan and then up the Quetico River to Beaverhouse and was hoping you'd have a "vintage" photo of the little island my son and I camped just before the turn north up to Q river.....but you guys like to camp "in the woods".....you're much tougher than we are!!

Anyway, really enjoyed the report and the before and after pics despite the light leak....really neat how a waterfall/rapids can be so different depending on high or low water levels....
TuscaroraBorealis
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04/05/2021 09:09PM  
Another enjoyable read. I appreciate that you've taken the time to put these 'vintage' reports together. Quite an impressive legacy. Thank you for sharing.
04/06/2021 07:45AM  
Thank you for kind comments.

This was my winter pandemic "project". I ended up doing five vintage trips, and made two books on Snapfish with the photos and the stories. The first volume had the two trips from Lake One (1973 and 1982) and the next one had three trips: two from Moose Lake and one from Crane Lake (1974, 1977, and 1980). Then it was fairly easy to just retype the stories and add the scanned photos from my folder. Computers do make all of this so much easier--although scanning the photos is very tedious.

We have many trips that do not have a Trip Report, but now there are no trips that don't have a book. Who cares? Probably no one but us, but sometimes it is fun to take out a book and relive the memories.

I am reasonably sure that none of this would have been done if I hadn't been limited in the scope of my normal activities all winter. And I can tell you that I would rather have been seeing our family, doing my in-person volunteer work, directing the church choir, going to lunch with friends, etc. Sometimes we can't choose what we want to do, so we do what we are able to do.

04/19/2021 03:39PM  
Loved the trip report, Spartan2. I think that it's fascinating to see the park then as compared to now. Namakan looks like it's a worthy destination as well.
JimStone
  
11/23/2021 07:14PM  
I really enjoyed your trip reports over the years. I wanted to let you know how impressed that I am that you did all these trips with Neil's Type 1 diabetes. My son, who is now 25 years old, was diagnosed with Type 1 when he was 20 months old (in 1998), We had much better technology to manage his diabetes than you and Spartan had, and it was still a huge challenge. I took my son to Quetico the first time (on a Boy Scout trip out of the Sommers Base) in 2011. We did an Argo, Darky, Brent, Sarah loop in 10 days. In 2013 we returned with another group of Scouts and did a longer loop that included McDougall, and did another trip in 2016. My son ended up working on the trail staff at the Sommers Base for two summers taking out groups of Scouts all summer and leading other staff. I am very proud of him for accomplishing all this with his diabetes, and I am thankful for people like Spartan who showed the way for him and other young people with diabetes.
12/09/2021 03:30PM  
It pleased me to read this, even though it took me quite a while to realize it was here. It has been a busy time for us since 11/23, with a family Thanksgiving, and then getting ready to leave on a river trip in the south. (Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland.). We are currently in Paducah, KY and will be on this trip for a while yet. Then we quickly celebrate Christmas, and then head off to Atlanta for the Peach Bowl. So, even though we are no longer doing wilderness canoe trips, we aren’t staying home or just sitting in our easy chairs.

My husband wasn’t like your son. He didn’t develop diabetic symptoms until 1974 and didn’t go on insulin until 1975. By then he was 30 years old. It was such a different world then: testing glucose in the urine only told you what your blood sugar was “yesterday” or “awhile ago”, and treating the BG was a crap shoot. Over the years things have changed so much. Long-lasting insulin products, improved syringes, insulin pens, finger sticks (yes, no one likes them, but they do give a much more accurate idea of what is going on). And now he has an insulin pump and CGM and the difference that has made in his health and our lives is like day and night! Amazing!! Still not easy. . .but when compared to the struggles in the 70’s. . . Wow!

My husband is not a person to let something get him down. He has had treatments for diabetic retinopathy, for kidney disease (finally resulting in a transplant 13 years ago), and for about six other conditions that probably are all diabetes related. He has been hospitalized with pneumonia and another time with sepsis. He is immunosuppressed (due to the transplant) and I worry about him constantly now that COVID is among us and people are refusing to wear masks, so the ones for whom the vaccines are not as effective are so much more vulnerable. He jokes that he has 10 specialists who keep him going strong at age 76, and I am thankful for each and every one of them.

So we keep on keeping on. Every summer we go to a cabin on the Gunflint and enjoy the canoe country, take day trips, and are just thankful for the many good memories we have of our canoe tripping days.

It was fun to read about your son, and if, in any way my husband was an inspiration, I know that pleases him.

12/19/2021 03:39PM  
What a great report! Sorry I missed it when originally posted, but we were on a road trip then like you are now. Safe travels! Thanks again for sharing memories of your early trips. Oh, and a belated "Happy Anniversary!"

TZ
JohnR
member (13)member
  
12/23/2021 10:36PM  
I’m glad this got bumped to the top of the trip report page because I missed it originally.
So cool that you have these detailed notes from so decades ago.
Fun to see throwback pictures including the tent - though the wilderness looks the same which is great!

Just curious- did they ever do fire bans back then?
12/24/2021 03:57PM  
JohnR: "I’m glad this got bumped to the top of the trip report page because I missed it originally.
So cool that you have these detailed notes from so decades ago.
Fun to see throwback pictures including the tent - though the wilderness looks the same which is great!


Just curious- did they ever do fire bans back then? "


Yes, as I said in Day Eight, the ranger stopped and told us that there was a fire ban in place. We hadn't known until that point, as it wasn't in place when we started. Probably should have been, though. It was very hot and dry.
JohnR
member (13)member
  
12/25/2021 12:12AM  
Ahh missed that. Interesting!
 
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