START DAY: Eau Claire, Wisconsin

END DAY: Canton, Ohio

The final leg of the journey from Eau Claire back to Canton, Ohio was uneventful. We did make a small detour in Gary, Indiana to see the home where Michael Jackson was raised.

Our vehicle dropped Cameron off at his house in Maumee and his mom, Victoria, once again fed the crew.

2 ½ Hours after leaving Cameron’s house we were back in Canton and that was the end of our adventure.

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THEN VS. NOW: FOLLOW-UP January 2025

The trip report is quite a bit late as we concluded the trip 8 ½ years ago. A fellow BWCA.COM member is working on a book about the Northern Tier Canoe Base and asked if I could share a bit about our troop’s visit to Northern Tier and provide a brief follow-up of where the scouts are today that participated in our epic adventure. The request prompted me to do dig out the old photographs and relive the adventure. This task was made much easier for me due to the presence of Cindy, my fellow adult leader on our trek. Cindy was the only female in our group of 16 and did an outstanding job on the trip; she also provided us with 1,203 pictures taken throughout the 14-day trip to Bissett and home.

My apologies to our sister trek as this report is written from the perspective of our trek of six scouts along with Cindy and me as adult leaders. There are a few pictures and stories of our sister trek from the first three days and the last three days, but nothing between these times as their stories are tied to their journey.

Where are the members from our group today?

INTERPRETER BRIAN

Our trip into Sasaginnigak Lake and back was Brian’s last trip into Atikaki as the Director of the Northern Tier Canoe Base in Bissett Manitoba. Brian left the scouts and moved back to Ely Minnesota where he married his girlfriend (who lived and worked in Ely) that he talked about daily during our adventure. The couple both work for the United States Forest Service. They had a beautiful baby girl in 2021 and bought a nice house in Ely earlier this year.

Joey and I have kept in touch with Brian and get together with him and his wife most every year during our annual BWCA vacations. Brian continues to amaze us with stories of extreme canoe trips and crazy races. For example, he competed in the Ely marathon and finished the entire 26.2 miles while running with a canoe on his shoulders!

KYLE: The kid that did not like to eat fish

Kyle was also known as the kid that was sporting a head net pretty much from the first day in Bissett until the last day in Bissett; he would not even take his head net off when sitting in the front seat of the float plane for the flight home. Kyle was not a fan of mosquitoes. I have not spoken to Kyle in years, but his father and I along with a few of the Troop 927 scout Dad’s still get together now and again for a camping weekend, fishing outing, or just hanging out in the back yard telling stories and enjoying food and drink. Kyle moved to Florida some years back and is now working as a pilot; I like to think that his flight home in the front seat of the float plane made an impression.

GEORGE:

George is affectionately remembered as the scout that described the depth of the mud on the heartbreak portage as “balls deep”. While a rather crude description, it certainly painted a clear picture as to what was to be expected on the portage and is remembered fondly to this day. George was most skilled in letting the jokes fly throughout the trip; many of these contained reference to “your mom”.

George earned his Eagle Scout Rank before heading off to college. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a second bachelor’s degree in finance. He is now working in the insurance industry in Denver, Colorado. George remains friends with my son, Joey, and I see him now and again when he returns to Canton, Ohio to visit his family.

JOE:

Joe also earned his Eagle Scout Rank before heading off to college. Joe was the scout that was canoeing in the bow when he turned to ask our interpreter Brian who was still in obvious agony with a hurt back, “can’t you row yet? You’ve been sitting there all day and I’m tired and want to take a break”.

I’m pleased to say that Joe has grown and matured into a fine young man. He graduated from Florida State University with a bachelors and masters in sports management. Joe is currently working on his Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) with a concentration in Sports Analytics at the University of Notre Dame.

CAMERON:

Cameron’s family moved from Canton, Ohio to Maumee Ohio (160 miles away) a few years before our Northern Tier trip. Even with this move, Cameron remained close to his old friends in Troop 927. My son and I have stopped at his house in Maumee numerous times on our various journeys north to Minnesota, Ontario, and Alaska and enjoyed Victoria’s (Cameron’s Mom) home cooked breakfasts.

Cameron earned his Eagle Scout Rank as well before being accepted into the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. While at the Academy, Cameron served as a Northern Tier Interpreter for the Ely, Minnesota Boy Scout Base (considered a service project at the Academy). Cameron has since graduated from the Naval Academy and is now serving his country; we are all in good hands with young men like Cameron on watch.

MATTHEW:

Matthew earned his Eagle Scout Rank prior to our Northern Tier Trip. He is also the scout that was so impressed with our interpreter, Brian, that he said on the way home “I want to be a Brian”. That was Matthew’s career choice for some time until our troop took a weekend campout to The United States Military Academy at West Point where Matthew’s older brother was enrolled.

Not to be outdone by his older brother, Matthew was accepted to The United States Military Academy at West Point. Matthew graduated from West Point and is now an Airborne Ranger and is serving as an officer at Joint Base Elmendorf in Richardson, Alaska.

CINDY:

Cindy was my fellow adult leader for this trip and is Matthew’s mother. Cindy and her husband, Ken, were highly involved with scouting through the years; Ken served as the Scoutmaster of Troop 927 while his kids were active. Cindy remains active with the Order of the Arrow “OA”. Ken is one of those scout Dad’s that I still get tighter with now and again (like playing in a local 18+ soccer league every fall that gets a little harder every year for us now that we are both closer to 60 than we are to 50).

JOEY:

Joey is my son. He has made a habit out of making me proud of him since he made a surprise appearance nine weeks premature while I was on a remote Canadian fly-in fishing trip with his older brother and his uncle (my brother), but that is another story.

Joey earned his Eagle Scout Award in 2017 and then headed off to Kent State University to study Accounting in the Fall of 2018. Jack is one of the scout leaders from our sister trek and was also one of Joey’s Troop 927 Scoutmasters. Jack was one of Joey’s role models and helped to provide motivation for Joey going into accounting. I fondly recall Joey relaying that accounting must be a pretty nice field as Jack is doing great and has plenty of time to spend with his wife and kids doing fun stuff!

Joey graduated with his bachelor’s degree in accounting and then followed this up with completing his master’s in accounting from Kent State in the summer of 2024. He is now working for Ernst and Young “EY” as a member of their internal audit team based in Cleveland, Ohio.

DAVE:

I was not involved with scouting as a child growing up in Ohio. Going through the BSA program with my son from Cub Scouts through becoming an Eagle Scout was an extremely rewarding experience. My son completed his Eagle Scout project the year following our Northern Tier trip. My involvement with scouting took up a large portion of my free time for 10 years while my son worked his way through the ranks. While I still help the troop now and again, I miss the days of being “all in” with meetings every week, campouts every month, and big adventure trips like Northern Tier every year or two.

I’m looking forward to another go at Northern Tier and Philmont when the grandkids are ready!

Closing on a somber note, three years after our trip we learned of the tragic loss of our Northern Tier pilot, Johnathon Friesen. Johnathon was a fine pilot and was very good with our scouts. Joey very much enjoyed sitting in the cockpit with Johnathon on the flight from Bissett to Scout Lake. Klye too was all smiles while enjoying the front seat ride on the way home while talking to Johnathon.