Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Annual Father/Daughters trip
by George

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 08/13/2012
Entry & Exit Point: Moose Lake (EP 25)
Number of Days: 4
Group Size: 3
Day 4 of 4
Thursday, August 16, 2012

I woke up at about 5am. The wind was blowing all night and we had a fair amount of rain. The tent stayed dry on the inside but things were swamped on the outside. I woke the girls up at about 545 and they helped pack up their things. We had a quick cold breakfast consisting of pop tarts and lemonade. We were ready to depart at about 7am.

Check out a quick video of our departure from camp:


Unfortunately my plan to avoid the wind, by leaving early, did not work. It was blowing pretty hard. Luckily the waves were not insane yet, though some small white caps were starting to appear on the lake. It was a close call. I was not sure if we should just wait the wind out, or give it a shot. After some discussion, we decided to give it a shot. I figured we would learn real quick if it was more than the three of us could handle. I told the girls our plan was to get on the lake and decide within a minute or two if we should go back to camp or try to make it to our pick up spot.


At this point I was not expecting much from my girls. I was expecting them to paddle for a minute and stop for 3...maybe stop all together. I was wrong. They paddled for an hour straight, and I do mean non stop. I have some great video of their efforts. My girls paddled a lot harder than I knew they were capable of paddling. They actually put some of my friends paddling efforts to shame. After an hour I said we are taking a break behind an upcoming island. They didn't want to stop. On a day lie this one, most of my buddies attempt to stop behind every rock possible ! They were having a blast.


After an hour and half of paddling in 15-25mph gusts, we arrived at the portage. We set up a spot on the the other side of the portage (to wait for our tow) along the side and out of the way. We arrived very early, as our ride was not supposed to get there till 1030. Oh, I forgot to mention it was raining very hard at this point. We changed out some of our layers and set the canoe up on a branch (to sit under and block the rain) and we proceeded to make hot oatmeal and coffee under the canoe with my little jet boil.


We ended up staying under the canoe for a couple hours and met many people entering and exiting. We met a very nice family that was originally from Minneapolis but had been living in Israel the last 28 years. They were very kind. We also met a lot of "newbies" coming into the BWCA for the first time. [paragraph break]

The funnest part of sitting in this area is it makes for great people watching. We witnessed many veterans flying down the portage with ease. We also witnessed several families who were obviously on their first camping trip into the BWCA.


Well, after several hours, our tow arrived. We were grateful for the tow. Moose Lake was EXTREMELY wavy and there is no way I would have been able to paddle back with the girls on this day. [paragraph break]

My girls were smiling during the tow and did not want to go home yet. This is good. Every year I add a day to our trip or a little longer paddle. I am very careful though. My goal is to always make the trip just a tad to short, thus creating a strong desire to return.


We were in the car before noon and on our way home. Great memories were made and we are already talking about next years trip:P