BWCA Trip Report - Fall, Fraser, Garden Loop Boundary Waters Trip Reports
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shsylvester
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06/21/2011 08:42AM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
New Trip Report posted by shsylvester

Trip Name: Fall, Fraser, Garden Loop.

Entry Point: 24

Click Here to View Trip Report
 
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missmolly
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06/21/2011 08:57AM  
It would have been cool to bump into the two of you. You travel in style and you're tough hombres too!
wawasee
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06/21/2011 11:32AM  
Boy you gentlemen covered alot of water! Sound like a nice trip. How heavy was your canoe?
paddlefamily
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06/21/2011 11:39AM  
Your really did quite a bit of mileage, however it appears that you saw quite a variety in landscape. Thanks for sharing. Would be fun to see a picture of your old canoe. What's the story behind it?
shsylvester
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06/22/2011 06:40AM  
"It would have been cool to bump into the two of you. You travel in style and you're tough hombres too!"

So you were up there at the same time? When and where?
shsylvester
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06/22/2011 06:41AM  
quote wawasee: "Boy you gentlemen covered alot of water! Sound like a nice trip. How heavy was your canoe?"


It's about 90 pounds. Truth be told, the canoe is easier than the double packing, both because at the beginning the weight was similar, but the packs are more unwieldy, and because with the pack on the front you can't climb well or see your feet.
shsylvester
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06/22/2011 06:42AM  
quote paddlefamily: "Your really did quite a bit of mileage, however it appears that you saw quite a variety in landscape. Thanks for sharing. Would be fun to see a picture of your old canoe. What's the story behind it?"


Duh. Didn't think about posting a pic of the canoe. I'll do that. It's actually a good story. We moved back up from Texas in 2007 (were were in north Dallas for four years). When we left we were given a gift to allow us to purchase a canoe upon our return. We bought a Bell Northwind that spring at the Midwest Canoe Event. The next summer I saw this canoe on Craigs, mentioned it to my wife. She's not a canoeist, but is seriously into aesthetics, so when she saw the picks she said, "Buy it!" I called the owner. He had just sold it, but as we talked it came out that he is not in the DC area, but grew up paddling a wood/canvas in Wabasha, bought this one many years ago with the intention of using it, but it had just been sitting in his father's garage. The gentleman to whom he sold it purchased it to hoist into his Colorado cabin as a display piece. When he realized I was looking for a canoe to actually use he asked several other questions and said he would call the other buyer and tell him he prefered to sell it to me. Pretty cool. It's a 1925 Otca, "A" grade, meaning all the trim (gunwales, deckplates, thwarts, seat frames) are mahogany. We sold the Bell to buy this. It's so perfectly balanced that it you have any decent footing at a landing it's simple to flip and carrying it is not too bad. Maybe in ten years when I'm past 60 It will be too heavy, but maybe not! It's still in great condition, because I follow a "wet boot policy". Only damage it's really taken, and that wasn't heavy, was last summer when we had to do a rescue in the middle of Brule on a very windy eay. It got a bit of a gouge on the bowplate when I dragged the other canoe over it to empty it and then got some nicks on the gunwales and hull when we had to put to shore in heavy water and get the unfortunate two paddlers safely to shore.
06/22/2011 08:30AM  
Thanks for the trip report! You guys were moving so fast I got exhausted just reading the report. At first I thought it was written by someone very young who could travel at such a pace but it sounds like you are around 50. That is really great you can still do that.
The canoe is beautiful! It would have been a shame for it to be stuck in a Colorado cabin and never feel water against it's skin again.
Thanks for putting yourself at risk helping the people on Brule. Was it a really windy day? Did your canoe handle the waves well?

Enjoyed your report.
wawasee
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06/22/2011 08:46AM  
shsylvester.. beautiful canoe!
shsylvester
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06/23/2011 09:39AM  
quote Zulu: "Thanks for the trip report! You guys were moving so fast I got exhausted just reading the report. At first I thought it was written by someone very young who could travel at such a pace but it sounds like you are around 50. That is really great you can still do that.
The canoe is beautiful! It would have been a shame for it to be stuck in a Colorado cabin and never feel water against it's skin again.
Thanks for putting yourself at risk helping the people on Brule. Was it a really windy day? Did your canoe handle the waves well?


Enjoyed your report. "


Zulu, I've done my best the past few days to upload a response, but the site seems quirky. I'll get back to it later to see whether it's behaving any better.
shsylvester
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06/23/2011 09:40AM  
quote Zulu: "Thanks for the trip report! You guys were moving so fast I got exhausted just reading the report. At first I thought it was written by someone very young who could travel at such a pace but it sounds like you are around 50. That is really great you can still do that.
The canoe is beautiful! It would have been a shame for it to be stuck in a Colorado cabin and never feel water against it's skin again.
Thanks for putting yourself at risk helping the people on Brule. Was it a really windy day? Did your canoe handle the waves well?


Enjoyed your report. "


OK, that last one loaded. I'll try again in pieces, as it's possible there's a word or character limit I'm unaware of.


It was a terribly windy day on Brule last year. 3.5 to 4 foot swells. Canoes were littered all over the north shore. We went ahead because we're both competent paddlers and we knew we would be fine island hopping and taking our time. The canoe was fabulous, like a cork. I had some concern that the high bow and stern profiles would be problematic, but not at all. The people we rescued-two kids in their mid to late teens-had no business being out on that water. There was a canoe with outrigger pontoons (!!!) trying to give them a hand, but they didn't know how to actually empty and right the canoe, they were just trying to tow them, so we took over.
shsylvester
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06/23/2011 09:42AM  
quote Zulu: "Thanks for the trip report! You guys were moving so fast I got exhausted just reading the report. At first I thought it was written by someone very young who could travel at such a pace but it sounds like you are around 50. That is really great you can still do that.
The canoe is beautiful! It would have been a shame for it to be stuck in a Colorado cabin and never feel water against it's skin again.
Thanks for putting yourself at risk helping the people on Brule. Was it a really windy day? Did your canoe handle the waves well?


Enjoyed your report. "



We actually had to rescue them twice. After righting them the first time and getting them back in we told them to paddle downwind to the shore and they took off in the opposite direction. We followed and, sure enough, the capsized again inside five minutes. So we did it over again. The kid in the bow dropped his paddle overboard and was irritated with me that I wouldn't let him go in after it. No comprehension that while he would have been swimming to his paddle (with no way of seeing it or getting to it given the height of the waves) our canoe and the other would be blowing away from him in the wind faster than he could swim to catch up. Anyway, we gave him our extra paddle and followed them back to shore. The adults from his church group were there waiting. Never got a "thank you" from them. We didn't need their gratitude, but a "thanks" would have told us they understood the gravity of the situation (one of the kids was very overweight. He was exhausted and it was very difficult getting him into the canoe the second time. No doubt in my mind he would have drowned.), but they clearly did not.
shsylvester
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06/23/2011 09:43AM  
quote Zulu: "Thanks for the trip report! You guys were moving so fast I got exhausted just reading the report. At first I thought it was written by someone very young who could travel at such a pace but it sounds like you are around 50. That is really great you can still do that.
The canoe is beautiful! It would have been a shame for it to be stuck in a Colorado cabin and never feel water against it's skin again.
Thanks for putting yourself at risk helping the people on Brule. Was it a really windy day? Did your canoe handle the waves well?


Enjoyed your report. "



Once we got back to our entry point (it was our final day on trail) we had to wait 8 hours for the other canoe we were with to come in. During that time we advised many people to hang tight, but they went out anyway and we heard from folks straggling in that many of them capsized as the rounded the first point into open water. Never ceases to amaze me how many people don't get that the BWCA is not their backyard and can be dangerous.
 
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