Boundary Waters Hijinks

I've just returned from my BWCAW vacation, and there's simply no other way to describe it than as a rousing success. Aside from cold, rain and rampant bear attacks everyone enjoyed themselves to the fullest.

Weather

In this aspect, I think we could have asked for better. The temps averaged around 50 and got down into the 40s and nighttime. I was very glad that I had brought some thermals, otherwise I would have been miserable. It rained most of the second day and my rain gear has never been quite up to spec. The rain ended up helping us out, though. Our water pump died after only 5 gallons so we had to collect rain water off of a tarp to make up for that loss. When you have to work hard for it, rain water tastes pretty good.


Food

As always, the food was great. Cookie did a great job of selecting and preparing our grub. I was a bit miffed when I saw that we carried in whole potatoes rather than instant, as this becomes a weight issue. The food packs were HEAVY. Fare included steak, deer jerky, a variety of potato preparations, eggs, bacon, pancakes and of course lots of trail mix. Of course we dined on the many fish that Fisherman 1 and 2 caught. Fresh Pike and Walleye are hard to beat. Feedbag was able to stay on full feed the whole time. This is fortunate, because he gets rather cranky when he's hungry.


Wildlife

This is one of the coolest parts of the Boundary Waters experience. We saw moose, deer, bald eagles, cranes, snapping turtles, loons, chipmunks and of course all the fish. A moose and her calf were actually in Nina Moose River as we were trying to leave and delayed our progress. When you're in a shallow river where the moose can run and you cannot, you keep your distance. Moose are pretty aggressive creatures and have been known to trample people just because. There were also some loons in Nina Moose Lake. There's no better sound to fall asleep to than a Loon call. A snapping turtle stole some of our fish off the stringer we had on the shore of our camp. Fisherman 1 and 2 actually caught it later that night. Cookie forced them to let it go before they could exact their revenge, but I personally feel that justice was done. On the way in to the drop off at Nina Moose River one member of our group thought he saw a bear and we actually stopped the truck and went back to look. It turned out to be a stump. We are dumb. Oh, and I found a tick when I was undressing for my first shower after getting back to Feedbag's house. Nice.

Boundary Waters Pearls of Wisdom

Here's a few tips for success for all you BWCAW novices:

1. Pack it in, pack it out!
2. Take only pictures, leave only footprints.
3. Bring a fully stocked bar. When it rains, there's little else to do than get loaded.
4. Don't feed the wildlife. They may eat you instead.
5. Don't try to go the whole trip without defecating. This will result in you being sick and the rest of your group making fun of you.