THE FIVE WORN OUT INDIANS
by crazycanoe
Breakfast was a quick Peanut Butter/Jelly sandwich and coffee.
We loaded up and the aggressive “Crazy portage man dances in canoe” soloed across Nina Moose Lake toward northern Nina Moose River
with the rest of us following him. We paddled quietly upstream into the river and saw the evidence that beavers had definitely been at work over the last 4 days! We had a couple of beaver dams that we tried to paddle through but had to lift over. “Old virgin portage-shocked man farting with wolves” and myself “Girl wearing hoops, hate ‘em skeeters” were paddling quietly quite far behind the group when some little drowned rat creature jumped out of the weeds in front of us. We say “drowned rat” because it obviously had tried to cross the river before, being soaking wet. We believe it was a weasel. It made us laugh because as it literally came flying out of the tall grasses into the water in front of us, when it noticed we were there it’s eyes grew big and he immediately turned around and "doggie paddled" back to the weeds! Hahahahah! We laughed out loud and figured he had probably tried to cross the water two times before (with each of our passing canoes). Too funny! I saw a beaver slither under the water from the grasses in this same area.
Again we had the 25R portage, the 10-15R manmade portage due to a tree down, and then the 20R and we were on our way to that LAST 160R UPHILL portage to our takeout – still hoping that the word got to our outfitter for our pickup. It was about 10:00am, so we were ahead of schedule. The thought at this time was, take our time, we are in no hurry, if it takes 3 passes then that’s okay. OKAY, so everyone was making their portage passes in their own time, with “Crazy portage man dances in canoe” and “Young virgin boy with many knives chopping wood” barreling through their two passes. “Old virgin portage-shocked man farting with wolves” and myself, “Girl wearing hoops, hate ‘em skeeters”, on our 2nd pass, noticed there was quite a bit of gear left, so trying to help and saying “let’s get it all and carry it as far as we can up so whoever is coming down will not have to go all the way down to get it”. Good thought but not practical for me… the portage whoosy, complainer, you name it, I just plain hate portages (and skeeters). So I put the heavier barrel on my back, the lighter barrel in my hand, and paddles in my other hand. “Old virgin portage-shocked man farting with wolves” put on a fairly heavy pack, I believe two day packs, a tent, and I don’t know what in his hands. I took off. Well, I didn’t get far and decided that not so heavy barrel should be on my front instead of in my hand…. Yep, I was able to accomplish this myself but I didn’t get too far when I was juggling keeping that barrel from falling off my shoulders and those dang paddles in my hands when I slipped on a boulder (at this point my name should have something in it related to bobbling off rock- ya’ll know what I am talking about when the backpack shifts…..), rolling my right ankle off the rock. YEP, I broke my ankle. I’m sure I put sailors to shame with my language as I tried to walk with paddles as crutches, thinking I was going to throw up, crying like a little girl for the next 30 minutes in my pitty party until I got it out of my system (I have broken my foot in various places many times, so I was angry that I did this.) “Crazy portage man dances in canoe”, “Young virgin boy with many knives chopping wood”, and “Old virgin portage-shocked man farting with wolves” managed to get all the gear up the hill and “Young virgin boy with many knives chopping wood” (age 30) came back, took my “crutches” and said, “stay here”. He literally ran up the hill and came back with this huge smile on his face, opened his arms wide and bent over and threw me over his shoulder. I now had visions of him falling and me getting a concussion (LOL). I have no idea how people are carried this way, although I appreciated it! The blood runs to your head and the shoulder in my gut made me want to puke. As soon as I made him aware that I was going to puke down his back, he put me down. HAHAHAHA! I was seated on a backpack with a nice foot rest and used my hat to ward off…. YES, the skeeters.
Now we are sitting at the takeout point still wondering if we had a ride to our outfitter or not. We approached each group that came in for their put-in (they were not outfitted groups, just individuals who had their own gear), to see if they had satellite phones or a phone signal. No. So we waited and then a RANGER just happened along!! He radioed the Ranger station who also called our outfitter. At least we knew now that there had been contact made.
We were entertained while waiting for our ride, sitting on whatever we had available gear-wise to sit on, exhausted, injured, and watching this young group of girls (none were older than 21 or weighed more than 100 lbs), hop up that portage with ALUMINUM canoes, in open-toed sandals, skimpy shorts and tank tops (did I mention that the skeeters carried people away on this portage?) with more energy than hummingbirds on crack. We sat there with our mouths open shaking our heads feeling REALLY OLD! It was fun to watch the different groups come and go while waiting for our ride.
When our ride arrived, I was carried to the van and the group loaded the gear and we headed on the 1- 1/2 hour drive to the outfitter. Outfitter already had it covered and had switched our room reservations for Thursday (they had gotten all three messages!). I wanted a shower before going to the ER, AND I WANTED PIZZA. We stopped at the Shopko in town, bought crutches so everyone would not have to carry me around, and went to Sir G’s for pizza before the ER. PRIORITIES!!! After lunch, the group went to outfitter and we went to the ER. Nondisplaced lateral malleolus fracture of the right ankle.
The group from Indiana headed home early Friday morning, and my boyfriend and I stayed another night at the outfitter, just hanging out and waiting for my sister’s group to come off the water on Friday early afternoon. A BLESSING! I do not see my sister often since I live in Florida and this was great to be able to share a bit of our trips together. Our trips were planned separately and it just happened that the dates landed the same! Crazy!! _________________________________________________
"Young virgin boy with many knives chopping wood" and "One-eyed girl carries picture box stalking critters" in the sunrise
Donate - BWCA.com