Tuesday, July 08, 2008

A parting gift…

We awoke after a windy cool night and got our breakfast (Mark finally figured out how to make our scrambled eggs turn out right. Of course, on our last morning!) and packed up for our journey to the exit point. We were very close and not in too much of a hurry, but , of course, the wind was at our face and we had to get across Fourtown Lake. We fought wind across Fourtown as predicted. We saw a lot of people on their way in and out on this lake. We followed the narrow inlet to a little 10 rod that went around a beautiful stream. The BWCA had just given me the best parting gift ever. As Mark and I prepared for this trip, I had many images in my mind of what I would see and do up in Minnesota. As a photographer, I really was looking forward to the photo opportunities that I would have. One image that continually occupied my mind was a stream. I had planned how I would photograph this stream and could see it in my mind prior to the trip. As I portaged around this stream, I almost cried. It was my “dream stream” that I knew existed, but didn’t know if I would ever see it. Here it was right in front of me. We quickly portaged because there was another group of four men coming up behind us as we entered the portage. They seemed to be two dads (around 70 years old) and their two sons (about our age). They were struggling with their packs and we helped them carry over (Pay It Forward!). We sat down at the end of this portage and enjoyed a PB and J and some leftover snacks.

I was itching to walk back and photograph the stream and we had plenty of time. Here are some of the results of my “dream stream” photo shoot.


After we were satisfied, we continued on across a little “puddle” and through a 140 rod portage. It followed a steep drop off with the stream at the bottom. Mark wasn’t thrilled about the drop off and even less thrilled when I would approach the edge to look over. It was really beautiful. We made our way through the numerous small portages that lead into Mudro Lake. Of course, the wind was howling straight into us. We had to paddle hard to make it to the far end where it narrowed into a stream. It only seemed an appropriate send off to fight the wind on our way out just like we did on our way in and throughout the week. As we followed the narrow, marshy path of the stream, we were becoming a little leery that we were heading in the wrong direction. The only encouraging sight was the aluminum scraped rocks under the water! It was obvious that many others had navigated this small stream. The stream ended at a small sandy “beach” with a portage ahead. We thought we had done our last portage! We finished with the 30 rod up to the parking lot. It was so strange to walk off the path up into a parking lot full of cars. It was actually shocking for me and made me catch my breath. We hadn’t seen any signs of society for 7 days and it smacked me in the face. We were back in the real world….UGH!

We had to wait awhile for our pick up. It was a mixture of sadness and relief to leave this place. Mark took some time to reflect.

So, there it is…our first trip report. This was our first trip into the BWCA. We have been back five times since and now venture up to Quetico for more secluded trips. Mark has been badgering me to put our trip reports on this site for years. I finally got it done. We are in the process of planning this year’s trip and I am planning a “mother/daughter trip” for the end of summer this year. I hope you enjoyed reading this.

Thanks for reading!

Pixie Paddler