Welcome to my worst day in the Boundary Waters.

It started off nice. The 11 year old and I set out to do some sunrise fishing on a near placid Clearwater Lake. On the north end of the island on the far eastern end of the lake, we found lots of bass action, and the boy wound up pulling about five fish out the lake. I got a couple too. All were caught and released. Nothing particularly large.

The weather was mostly sunny and warm, mid to upper 70's I'd guess. After some oatmeal and fruit we set out for the portage to Mountain Lake. On the portage we'd pick up the Border hiking trail to the west, with the intention of seeing some of the overlooks over Mountain, Clearwater, and Watap Lakes.

Everything was going splendidly, the first overlook over Mountain is very pretty. If you make the trip, be sure to walk all the way along the overlook, as some of the best views are a little bit west of the first good view. After a brief break there and some pictures, we headed for the overlook over Watap.

There are a couple of views of Clearwater along the trail, but no well-defined "here it is" unobstructed views. Still, nice. The border trail on this segment is pretty easy to follow, thinner and a bit more overgrown than any portage you're used to. There was one downed tree to walk around and another to shimmy under. But otherwise it's a nice, 2.5 to 3 mile walk in the woods.

We reached the Watap Lake overlook which is suitably impressive and I'd recommend the trip for any who might have interest and are in the area. We had a lunch of sausage and cheese accompanied by some very persistent flies and horseflies. As we packed up, three of our group of nine started back down the trail. As the other six of us got underway, a couple of minutes later, my 11 year old said he was going to catch up to the other three and headed off at a brisker pace. He would never reach them.

Two and a half to three miles later, as the five of us turned off the Border trail and headed down the portage to the landing at Clearwater, our other three group members met us with the question, "Where is John?".

You're going to have to use your imagination as to the feeling you get when your faced with the fact that no one knows where your 11 year old kid is and you're in a wilderness area. I can tell you that your mind starts moving in so many directions its hard, later, to recall what exactly you were feeling. But it is definitely all bad.

Once out of the initial shock, we sent one person to the other end of the portage, and one person down the trail segment to the east a little ways, to see if he'd gone that way. Neither one found him, and as we stood at the crossroads, it seemed mostly likely that he'd gone astray on the segment between the portage and the Watap overlook. It seemed hard to believe, at the time, that he never caught up to the first group over the 2.5 mile hike, nor did it seem likely that he'd neglect to turn right onto the portage trail, which is much wider and as clear as the day is long.

Still out of breath, I sent three people back down the trail segment to the west, with instructions for one to wait at the first overlook (Mountain Lake) and the other two to await me at another landmark (a pile of moose poop) further down the trail. Yelling all the way. The other four were to wait at the crossroads. We'd decided that if the first three didn't find him, I'd send two back to the crossroads and then one canoe would high-tail it to the west end of Clearwater (about a five mile paddle) and notify the Lodge. Meanwhile, I and the remaining one on the trail would walk all the way back to the Watap overlook and back. A this time it was about 2PM, judging by the sun position.

No one found him. And as I and my nephew were headed west to the Watap outlook, yelling all the way, the wife and some of the others were preparing to head for the Lodge. Fortunately for us, a motorboat was passing by (Clearwater is a 10hp limit lake) and my wife hitched a ride to the Lodge. This cut out at least a couple hours of paddling. The Lodge got a motorboat ready, and dropped one guy off at the Clearwater-Watap portage, and one guy off at the far east end of Clearwater, where the Border trail meets the water. At about the same time, my nephew and I were fruitlessly walking our way back from the Watap overlook, yelling away and searching for possible game trails or other offshoots where my son may have taken a wrong turn. I sent the nephew ahead so I could walk slower, with instructions to take the third canoe back to camp, pack some clothes, food, bug spray and flashlights and return, in case our search went into the night. Unbeknownst to me, there was now a Clearwater Lodge worker following me on the trail, about 20 minutes behind me. He'd picked up the trail off the Clearwater-Watap portage. The other Lodge worker, who had been dropped off at the east end of Clearwater where the Border trail meets the water, was walking that segment west toward the crossroads. But had the 11 year old not made a good decision, none of us would have found him.

As hard as it was to believe, the 11 year old had successfully walked the 2.5 mile segment, never catching up to the group of three who had left earlier than the rest of us. I suspect that after a while at a brisk pace, he decided to just slow down and walk alone. He can be a quiet kid and can be a bit of a loner at times, and this is totally in character. He's also a pretty smart kid, and level headed. He claims to never have been scared during the ordeal. Concerned perhaps, but not freaked out. His story goes like this. The big error was simply failing to turn right at the portage. Instead he kept right on going down the Border trail, onto the segment east of the crossroads. By that time, both the group ahead of him and behind were well out of sight and sound. And by the time we had sent a person up that trail, he had probably a 15-20 minute head start, and was out of earshot, despite the yelling.

He walked another two miles or so, until he reached the point where Clearwater Lake meets the Border trail. It was at that point that he realized something was amiss. He knew that this wasn't the lake landing he'd remembered, and he reasoned rightly that he had to turn around. This was the critical decision that lead to a happy ending. Had he continued on eastward, the Clearwater Lodge worker who was later dropped off here and hiked back west ward, would never have found him.

But fortunately, he decided to turn around. After walking about a mile back down the trail, however, he noticed he was really thirsty, so he turned around again and walked back to Clearwater. He waded out, took a drink, and then got back on the trail westward. After quite some time, probably a mile and a half, he stopped, again thirsty. As he stood considering whether to turn back to Clearwater Lake for another drink, up walked our hero from Clearwater Lodge from the east, who brought him some water and some food and brought him back to the crossroads and, eventually, the landing at the end of the portage.

As I turned off the Border trail and onto the portage, I felt pretty much spent - physically, mentally, and vocally. I don't think I want to rehash all the things that go through a parents mind on a five to six mile trail looking for your lost eleven year old. I yelled out the boys name one last time as I walked toward the lake and heard the wife yell back "He's HERE". It was then that I collapsed and lay on the trail, and lost it a bit. After a while, I made it down to the portage and had a nice hug.

After waiting for the second Lodge worker to make it to the portage, and thanking them repeatedly, they headed off. The three of us got in our canoe and headed back to the camp site, meeting the rest of our group on the way who were heading back with the aforementioned search supplies. We had a nice reunion and capped it off with a swim and some pasta and chicken.

You can call me an idiot and I'm not going to fight you. But I write this here as a cautionary tale. My sister said that some day we'll look back on the incident and smile. I am not so sure about that.....but I am pretty sure I can cut a few years off my estimates for necessary retirement funding.