Another thread gone sideways gave me the idea for this thread. Brag up your significant other as a paddle partner. I'll start:

Too strong. I often beg for mercy from the stern.
(Nearly) eternal optimist. Seldom is heard a discouraging word. (Unless the skies are all cloudy all day.)
Cute.
Smart. Even smarter than me. (That's a joke, by the way. WAY smarter)
Can fish effectively given appropriate support.
Cleans.
Knows that setting up the tent is a one-person job.
Can spot a pitcher plant from a thousand yards.
Has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that her fishing and campsite-finding intuition is beyond reproach.
Likes to have fun.
Is nice to people.

I keep my significant other and paddling partners in separate boxes.

Sounds like lundojam has a great life! Thanks for posting.

Lucky man! Sadly, my significant other, Ole, has bad knees and is only 5 ft. She goes on short trips with me that are easy, but couldn't handle the trips my son and I do.

We do a lot of other kinds of fun trips though!

Dogwood Girl,
I've always loved your name. It takes me back to college in the early 80's. The dogwood trees were usually in bloom on our spring canoe trips on the Niangua River in Missouri. The bluffs were covered in white blooms and the fragrance was incredible.

You and Ole should paddle it when the dogwoods are in bloom. It is an easy river.

My wife Sara:

She paddle portage with anyone. Just needs help getting a heavy pack on.

The only negative paddling is she must have canoeing seasonal affective disorder :) If it’s sunny she can paddle like crazy, if it gets cloudy/rainy she some how gets weaker. Even that is enduring in its own way.

Funny, always cracking jokes. Always a great attitude, picks up any trip.

Knows where and when to help out.

Helps me drink box wine so the pack is lighter :)

Best net person I’ve had in a canoe. Saved a few walleyes and lakers who shook off.

Always up for an adventure—hard going exploring, going to a secret fishing spot, pictos, bushwhacking in a PMA or the Q.

Great idea, lundojam! Good paddling partners should be publicly praised. My bow paddler and I have been hitting Canoe Country together since 1979, and in recent years have been celebrating anniversaries in Quetico (#52 in early September).

Tia always has a positive attitude.
Still single-walks portages, and is usually OK with a gear purchase that cuts weight.
Spots eagles and ospreys before I do.
Loves exploring and finding out why some portages have names!
Great with map & compass.
Stays optimistic even in less-than-perfect weather.
Keeps journals of each trip so we remember all the details.
Ain't afraid of 'gators.

TZ

Tia always has a positive attitude.
...
Ain't afraid of 'gators.

Whoa, I thought "'gators" was referring to northern pike :-)

johno: "

Tia always has a positive attitude.
...
Ain't afraid of 'gators.

Whoa, I thought "'gators" was referring to northern pike :-)"

Hey, johno. Tia's kinda afraid of northern pike! Great to hear from you-how many trips this year?

TZ

I'm blessed with a great paddle-partner. Trip prep and execution is now mostly tacit: I take care of logistics and gear; she takes care of meals/food. I do the planning. She's typically asks me on the way up where we are going.

On our first trip she carried a pack and the canoe, and that clinched it. She cooks, I set up camp. And then there is the optimism. Days of rain and clouds, and "there's blue sky up there somewhere!" I used to almost always carry the canoe. As my body betrays me, more of the heavy lifting has shifted to my partner, who graciously accommodates.

On our border route trip in '21 I had a major "back out" incident. We should have aborted our trip (we were on Mountain Lake, and one short portage would have gotten us to Clearwater and out). She left it to me, and I foolishly said we would sally forth. I couldn't bear to dash our plans. Twenty-four hours of misery and I didn't exactly "bounce back," but I was back in the saddle. Steady bow paddler, positive, rather unflappable, flexible, and happy to go anywhere in the BW.


We've logged a lot of miles dating back to about '97, and hopefully more to come.

Fun thread and photos. Look at all the smiles. Love it.

TrailZen: "

johno: "

Tia always has a positive attitude.
...
Ain't afraid of 'gators.

Whoa, I thought "'gators" was referring to northern pike :-)"

Hey, johno. Tia's kinda afraid of northern pike! Great to hear from you-how many trips this year?


TZ"

I did 2 trips in June. Three of us did an easy basecamp trip on the western side of Quetico in McAree Lake. My paddling buddy of the last 10 years, AdamXChicago, caught this 42 inch northern. When he first hooked it he didn't think it was very big. I was in the bow, the water was clear, and when I saw it I started laughing and told him we needed to get to shore as there was no way I wanted that behemoth in the canoe. Once I got Adam to shore it was a fantastic fight as every time she got her head pointed away from shore she would pull off several feet of line with a simple flip of the tail. The fight was great, quick pictures, and she swam away.


I hope to do 2 trips starting in a couple weeks. August 20th I'll be entering at Prairie Portage and heading to Sarah Lake (I've been monitoring your comments in the other thread referencing Sarah. So, you're thinking about doing the Wawiag again?), and then August 31st I'll be heading for Kawnipi from Cache Bay.

This is an article I wrote in 2006 for the Boundary Waters Journal. I will copy and paste it as it was written then, with an update at the end.

My Paddling Partner


I have a paddling partner. I have a life partner. They are one and the same.

I met my paddling partner in college. During summers he served as a counselor and riflery instructor at Camp Easton for Boys on Little Long Lake, near Ely. In 1967, I jealously waited back in Michigan while he and a group of fellow counselors took a six-day canoe trip after the close of camp. He returned, full of wonderful stories about his adventures on the Namakan River and, auspiciously, with a proposal of marriage!

I married Neil – and his love for the canoe country—four months later.

Neil convinced me to try a canoe trip in July of 1971. By then he had survived a tour in Viet Nam and our toddler daughter was old enough to stay with grandparents. I had no canoeing or camping experience and very little desire to acquire either. Perhaps certain romantic notions about conceiving our second child in the wilderness made me vulnerable to Neil’s persistence. He was determined that I was going to love the adventure… if only I would give it a try.

We scraped together a little gear, borrowing some and renting what we couldn’t scrounge. We took off from Crane Lake, intent upon repeating the trip he had made with his friends. I balked at the very thought of taking the Dawson Portage, so we paddled the Loon River instead, and made the Namakan Loop on a six-day trip.

Day Two was a killer! Lac La Croix was not smooth as glass on this day. I have long since discovered it rarely is. Mild “chop” looked like high surf to me when we reached LLC at three o’clock that afternoon. Our rented Grumman bumped along on the little waves while relentless wind and sunshine ravaged my uncovered head (“But I never wear hats!”). We paddled and paddled. Neil had in mind a specific location for this night. He thought I would love it. In retrospect, so much paddling was, perhaps, unwise for a novice on Day Two. I persevered. My skin blistered in sun and wind but I gamely paddled on, pretending to have a good time.

Neil’s “perfect destination” was a small stretch of sandy beach on the Canadian side. It featured the remnants of an old settlement. Exhausted, we pitched our canvas tent and explored the area. Neil made a fire to cook our supper while I plopped my weary self down upon the sandy beach. I despaired over my sunburned knees as well as my blistered ears and nose. I started sobbing. Absolutely nothing would satisfy me that evening—not the red raspberries Neil lovingly picked and put into my hands, not the delicious Mountain House beef stew (“But it has sand in it!”), and not even the tenderness, restraint, and remarkable forbearance of my paddling partner. He had warned me repeatedly to wear long pants and a hat to protect my fair blonde skin. Never once did he utter the words “I told you so!”

I was blind and miserable. I hated the place, the canoe, the tent, and maybe even my partner for subjecting me to it all!

Magically, mystically, it got better after that… a lot better, every day. I changed. First, I changed into long pants and I put on a hat. Then my muscles changed, adjusting to paddling. Portaging somehow became easier. Myrtle Falls enchanted me and High Falls was a total delight! By the time we paddled down Namakan Narrows I was hooked… and changed, forever. I didn’t want our trip to end. I hoped we would return.

We have, indeed, returned.

Over the past thirty-four years, we have traveled from wherever we lived as often as possible to enjoy the Boundary Waters and Quetico. Our twenty-fifth trip will be in 2006. We have our own gear now. We now own a Bell Northwind, a nylon tent, and an ample supply of sunscreen! We no longer sleep in borrowed sleeping bags or on air mattresses that deflate by Day Three.

Until 1988, canoe-tripping was always something only just the two of us shared. That year our two children made a trip with us. Our sixteen year-old son (you do the math) had assumed he would paddle with Dad while the “girls” paddled the second canoe. That was Neil’s finest hour, both as a father and a husband. Neil informed the presumptuous teenager that his mother and father would paddle their own canoe as they always had! Ed and his long-suffering sister learned to cooperate and, eventually, got their canoe going in a straight line. I remember it as one of the times I have loved my paddling partner/life partner the most.

Our paddling life has not always been easy. Neil has Type 1 diabetes and diabetic kidney disease. This has made planning meals a challenge. There have been occasional diabetic emergencies. Arthritis, resulting in thumb, shoulder, and knee surgeries, has slowed me down. I have become cautious on portages. Neil and I are both over sixty years old now. We wish we could do all of those things we once took for granted. We cannot. We will likely never repeat the thrill of a twenty-two-day trip, such as we made in 1992. Nonetheless, we carefully plan, we study our maps, and, God willing, we will be canoe-tripping in the Boundary Waters as seventy-year-olds.

My paddling partner and my life partner are one and the same. I wouldn’t have it any other way.













Update in 2024: We had made a pact with each other in 1992 when the kidney disease first became a problem that we would continue our canoe trips, but would go every year for as long as we could. (Up until that time, our trips had been every-other year.) We sealed this pact with our "trip of a lifetime", what we have always called the LONG TRIP--22 days in the BWCA. It was, probably, the highlight of our canoeing time together.

Neil was on dialysis in 2008, so that year we stayed in a cabin and took day trips. His kidney transplant occurred in January of 2009, and our "Celebration Trip" occurred in September of that year. We continued to do wilderness trips until 2013, when mobility and health issues made the decision for us that it was time to "hang it up" at age 68. No regrets. We spend a week each summer in a cabin on the Gunflint, take day trips, and enjoy the lakes and the rocks in a different way.

56 years of marriage, 53 years in a canoe together. To repeat the end line of my 2006 essay: "My paddling partner and my life partner are one and the same. I wouldn't have it any other way."

Spartan2: "56 years of marriage, 53 years in a canoe together. To repeat the end line of my 2006 essay: "My paddling partner and my life partner are one and the same. I wouldn't have it any other way."
"

Thank you for sharing your story! I remember reading it back in the journal when it was published and re-reading it now. The 2024 update caught me offguard, I'd already knew and read that you two had hung it up, but was suprised reading it to find my eyes welling up.

Spartan2: "This is an article I wrote in 2006 for the Boundary Waters Journal. I will copy and paste it as it was written then, with an update at the end.


My Paddling Partner

I have a paddling partner. I have a life partner. They are one and the same.

I met my paddling partner in college. During summers he served as a counselor and riflery instructor at Camp Easton for Boys on Little Long Lake, near Ely. In 1967, I jealously waited back in Michigan while he and a group of fellow counselors took a six-day canoe trip after the close of camp. He returned, full of wonderful stories about his adventures on the Namakan River and, auspiciously, with a proposal of marriage!

I married Neil – and his love for the canoe country—four months later.

Until 1988, canoe-tripping was always something only just the two of us shared. That year our two children made a trip with us. Our sixteen year-old son (you do the math) had assumed he would paddle with Dad while the “girls” paddled the second canoe. That was Neil’s finest hour, both as a father and a husband. Neil informed the presumptuous teenager that his mother and father would paddle their own canoe as they always had! Ed and his long-suffering sister learned to cooperate and, eventually, got their canoe going in a straight line. I remember it as one of the times I have loved my paddling partner/life partner the most.

Our paddling life has not always been easy. Neil has Type 1 diabetes and diabetic kidney disease. This has made planning meals a challenge. There have been occasional diabetic emergencies. Arthritis, resulting in thumb, shoulder, and knee surgeries, has slowed me down. I have become cautious on portages. Neil and I are both over sixty years old now. We wish we could do all of those things we once took for granted. We cannot. We will likely never repeat the thrill of a twenty-two-day trip, such as we made in 1992. Nonetheless, we carefully plan, we study our maps, and, God willing, we will be canoe-tripping in the Boundary Waters as seventy-year-olds.

My paddling partner and my life partner are one and the same. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Update in 2024: We had made a pact with each other in 1992 when the kidney disease first became a problem that we would continue our canoe trips, but would go every year for as long as we could. (Up until that time, our trips had been every-other year.) We sealed this pact with our "trip of a lifetime", what we have always called the LONG TRIP--22 days in the BWCA. It was, probably, the highlight of our canoeing time together.

Neil was on dialysis in 2008, so that year we stayed in a cabin and took day trips. His kidney transplant occurred in January of 2009, and our "Celebration Trip" occurred in September of that year. We continued to do wilderness trips until 2013, when mobility and health issues made the decision for us that it was time to "hang it up" at age 68. No regrets. We spend a week each summer in a cabin on the Gunflint, take day trips, and enjoy the lakes and the rocks in a different way.

56 years of marriage, 53 years in a canoe together. To repeat the end line of my 2006 essay: "My paddling partner and my life partner are one and the same. I wouldn't have it any other way."
"

What a wonderful story, Lynda! Thanks so much for sharing the BWJ story and the update--made me smile and my eyes misty at the same time. You and Spartan1 have shared so many trip reports and other encouraging comments on this forum!

TZ

johno: "I did 2 trips in June. Three of us did an easy basecamp trip on the western side of Quetico in McAree Lake. My paddling buddy of the last 10 years, AdamXChicago, caught this 42 inch northern. When he first hooked it he didn't think it was very big. I was in the bow, the water was clear, and when I saw it I started laughing and told him we needed to get to shore as there was no way I wanted that behemoth in the canoe. Once I got Adam to shore it was a fantastic fight as every time she got her head pointed away from shore she would pull off several feet of line with a simple flip of the tail. The fight was great, quick pictures, and she swam away.

I hope to do 2 trips starting in a couple weeks. August 20th I'll be entering at Prairie Portage and heading to Sarah Lake (I've been monitoring your comments in the other thread referencing Sarah. So, you're thinking about doing the Wawiag again?), and then August 31st I'll be heading for Kawnipi from Cache Bay. "

That was one heck of a pike, John! And four Quetico trips in a summer sounds wonderful. We enter Quetico August 30 at Prairie Portage/Agnes for a 10-day trip, but are waiting to hear from LarryNC about Wawiag water levels, etc, before nailing down our route. I hope your two upcoming trips are great!

TZ

bobbernumber3: "I keep my significant other and paddling partners in separate boxes."

Got to say I am with the above. We have been coming to the BWCA bringing men and their sons for 16 years. There is a dynamic present of all men and/or men and their sons in a wilderness setting.

I take my wife hiking in the moutains, and trips to the beach each year. But the BWCA for us is guys only.

ockycamper: "

bobbernumber3: "I keep my significant other and paddling partners in separate boxes."

Got to say I am with the above. We have been coming to the BWCA bringing men and their sons for 16 years. There is a dynamic present of all men and/or men and their sons in a wilderness setting.


I take my wife hiking in the moutains, and trips to the beach each year. But the BWCA for us is guys only."

I felt that way A LONG TIME AGO…I enjoy my trips with my sons, brothers, father, my buddies…but I would never limit the experience to just them. Each is unique, fun, special in their own way. I guess some of us are luckier than others and we get to do it all.

T

Tough to follow Lynda's story but my best paddling partner is also my spouse, soul mate, lover and best friend Kathy. To me there is a seemingly endless list of adjectives that describe her. Caring, compassionate, resilient, objective to name a few. She is a good listener and truly authentic. Perhaps the best way to describe her is by stealing a quote from a Jack Nicholson movie "She makes me a better man". We take nothing for granted and every day is a new adventure even when we are not paddling a canoe.

timatkn: "

ockycamper: "

bobbernumber3: "I keep my significant other and paddling partners in separate boxes."

Got to say I am with the above. We have been coming to the BWCA bringing men and their sons for 16 years. There is a dynamic present of all men and/or men and their sons in a wilderness setting.



I take my wife hiking in the moutains, and trips to the beach each year. But the BWCA for us is guys only."

I felt that way A LONG TIME AGO…I enjoy my trips with my sons, brothers, father, my buddies…but I would never limit the experience to just them. Each is unique, fun, special in their own way. I guess some of us are luckier than others and we get to do it all.


T"

I would agree. My wife is my best friend. She loves the outdoors and we have hiked all over the US. However she does NOT like to tent camp. And that works for me as I am men's director at our church and the point of taking 17 up there next month is to build up the men and their sons.

Freddy: "
Tough to follow Lynda's story but my best paddling partner is also my spouse, soul mate, lover and best friend Kathy. To me there is a seemingly endless list of adjectives that describe her. Caring, compassionate, resilient, objective to name a few. She is a good listener and truly authentic. Perhaps the best way to describe her is by stealing a quote from a Jack Nicholson movie "She makes me a better man". We take nothing for granted and every day is a new adventure even when we are not paddling a canoe. "

This is beautiful, Freddy. My husband almost never posts on the site, but if he were to post something like this about me, I would be above the moon! She is blessed, as are you. I find myself wishing that I knew her.

Freddy: "
Tough to follow Lynda's story but my best paddling partner is also my spouse, soul mate, lover and best friend Kathy. To me there is a seemingly endless list of adjectives that describe her. Caring, compassionate, resilient, objective to name a few. She is a good listener and truly authentic. Perhaps the best way to describe her is by stealing a quote from a Jack Nicholson movie "She makes me a better man". We take nothing for granted and every day is a new adventure even when we are not paddling a canoe. "

Great...thanks for making the rest of us look like schleps :) LOL

Seriously, nice post!

ockycamper: "

bobbernumber3: "I keep my significant other and paddling partners in separate boxes."

Got to say I am with the above. We have been coming to the BWCA bringing men and their sons for 16 years. There is a dynamic present of all men and/or men and their sons in a wilderness setting.


I take my wife hiking in the moutains, and trips to the beach each year. But the BWCA for us is guys only."

Wait....you're not saying that women don't belong in the BWCA, right? Just your own personal preference or something? Cause that just kinda hit me wrong, brother.

dogwoodgirl: "

ockycamper: "

bobbernumber3: "I keep my significant other and paddling partners in separate boxes."

Got to say I am with the above. We have been coming to the BWCA bringing men and their sons for 16 years. There is a dynamic present of all men and/or men and their sons in a wilderness setting.



I take my wife hiking in the moutains, and trips to the beach each year. But the BWCA for us is guys only."

Wait....you're not saying that women don't belong in the BWCA, right? Just your own personal preference or something? Cause that just kinda hit me wrong, brother."

If ya read his next post, his wife doesn't like tent camping so not a good fit for the BWCAW. The written word is so hard to convey what you really mean :)

timatkn: "

dogwoodgirl: "

ockycamper: "

bobbernumber3: "I keep my significant other and paddling partners in separate boxes."

Got to say I am with the above. We have been coming to the BWCA bringing men and their sons for 16 years. There is a dynamic present of all men and/or men and their sons in a wilderness setting.



I take my wife hiking in the moutains, and trips to the beach each year. But the BWCA for us is guys only."

Wait....you're not saying that women don't belong in the BWCA, right? Just your own personal preference or something? Cause that just kinda hit me wrong, brother."

If ya read his next post, his wife doesn't like tent camping so not a good fit for the BWCAW. The written word is so hard to convey what you really mean :) "

Probably should have made my comment clearer. My wife is my heart and we love the outdoors. We have hiked mountains and other places from Main to the Adirondacks, all over the midwest, Yellowstone, Tetons, etc. However my wife is not a tent camper so she encourages me to do that one without her. Also, I am men's director at our church. We decided 17 years ago to make the BWCA trips part of our men's ministry. Those trips have the goal of building up relationships between men, as well as fathers and sons.

ockycamper: "

timatkn: "

dogwoodgirl: "

ockycamper: "

bobbernumber3: "I keep my significant other and paddling partners in separate boxes."

Got to say I am with the above. We have been coming to the BWCA bringing men and their sons for 16 years. There is a dynamic present of all men and/or men and their sons in a wilderness setting.




I take my wife hiking in the moutains, and trips to the beach each year. But the BWCA for us is guys only."

Wait....you're not saying that women don't belong in the BWCA, right? Just your own personal preference or something? Cause that just kinda hit me wrong, brother."

If ya read his next post, his wife doesn't like tent camping so not a good fit for the BWCAW. The written word is so hard to convey what you really mean :) "

Probably should have made my comment clearer. My wife is my heart and we love the outdoors. We have hiked mountains and other places from Main to the Adirondacks, all over the midwest, Yellowstone, Tetons, etc. However my wife is not a tent camper so she encourages me to do that one without her. Also, I am men's director at our church. We decided 17 years ago to make the BWCA trips part of our men's ministry. Those trips have the goal of building up relationships between men, as well as fathers and sons. "

That makes more sense, thanks for clarifying

Spartan2:

Update in 2024: We had made a pact with each other in 1992 when the kidney disease first became a problem that we would continue our canoe trips, but would go every year for as long as we could. (Up until that time, our trips had been every-other year.) We sealed this pact with our "trip of a lifetime", what we have always called the LONG TRIP--22 days in the BWCA. It was, probably, the highlight of our canoeing time together.


Neil was on dialysis in 2008, so that year we stayed in a cabin and took day trips. His kidney transplant occurred in January of 2009, and our "Celebration Trip" occurred in September of that year. We continued to do wilderness trips until 2013, when mobility and health issues made the decision for us that it was time to "hang it up" at age 68. No regrets. We spend a week each summer in a cabin on the Gunflint, take day trips, and enjoy the lakes and the rocks in a different way.


56 years of marriage, 53 years in a canoe together. To repeat the end line of my 2006 essay: "My paddling partner and my life partner are one and the same. I wouldn't have it any other way."

"

Spartan2, thanks so much for the update and for again posting the article which I remember well. Sorry to hear about the latest developments, but staying on the Gunflint isn't a bad substitute for a canoe trip. Still, your trip reports are missed. Best to you both from another old Easton alum who knew Neil. Not many of us left. Was back staying on Little Long a year ago. Everything at camp looked fine, but it was hard to paddle by the Bobo cabin now that it has been sold.

Krista is also my best friend, many things she does are awesome, but a few belong in the hall of fame.


#1, She can pack light, but she never seems to forget anything.
#2, Positive attitude even on crappy days.
#3 Great campfire cook.
#4 Awesome stern paddler, I paddle bow.

PS, we were a little younger in this pic.

OldGuide2: "

Spartan2:


56 years of marriage, 53 years in a canoe together. To repeat the end line of my 2006 essay: "My paddling partner and my life partner are one and the same. I wouldn't have it any other way."


"

Spartan2, thanks so much for the update and for again posting the article which I remember well. Sorry to hear about the latest developments, but staying on the Gunflint isn't a bad substitute for a canoe trip. Still, your trip reports are missed. Best to you both from another old Easton alum who knew Neil. Not many of us left. Was back staying on Little Long a year ago. Everything at camp looked fine, but it was hard to paddle by the Bobo cabin now that it has been sold. "

Thanks, OldGuide2. Every year when I send out my Christmas cards I miss sending one to Jean Bobo. We heard from her at Christmas for many years, but when the cards quit coming I realized that another era had passed. Doug and Jean changed Neil's life (and mine, too) in so many ways. Good ways. Everything about how our lives turned out would have been so different if Neil had never gone to the summer job fair at MSU in 1965and met Doug Bobo.

It was good to hear from you again. I hope you are doing well.

Spartan2: "

Freddy: "
Tough to follow Lynda's story but my best paddling partner is also my spouse, soul mate, lover and best friend Kathy. To me there is a seemingly endless list of adjectives that describe her. Caring, compassionate, resilient, objective to name a few. She is a good listener and truly authentic. Perhaps the best way to describe her is by stealing a quote from a Jack Nicholson movie "She makes me a better man". We take nothing for granted and every day is a new adventure even when we are not paddling a canoe. "

This is beautiful, Freddy. My husband almost never posts on the site, but if he were to post something like this about me, I would be above the moon! She is blessed, as are you. I find myself wishing that I knew her."

Thank you Lynda! You and Kathy sound like kindred spirits. I think you two would hit it off right away. Perhaps our paths might cross some day. May you and your husband have many more great adventures!