Day 1
My flight touches down at MSP. I only got 3 miserly hours of shut-eye on the plane. I realise to my horror that I had left my phone on during the flight and the battery was dead. I rely on the kindness of a stranger to send an email to LL who’s arriving from NYC at 10am and hope that she checks her email on her fancy iPhone.
6.30 am:
My gi-normous backpack (which extends an extra foot or two above my head when I’m carrying it) and fishing rod arrive intact. The only way I know the passage of time is from the public announcements that come on half-hourly. I have a lot of time to kill so I get comfortable and start reading fiction, a category of literature I haven’t had time for in a long time. I have my favorite brownie from Le Pain Quotidien and brioche from Trader Joe’s for sustenance.
I get a little antsy when I don’t see my friends. I spot a stranger with the same phone and beg him to lend me his phone battery so I could make a call. LL and MP come running and hug me! All is well! We’re off to go fishing!
We stop for (bad) Vietnamese food and shop for food for our foray into in the wilderness. LL and MP have good Italian sausages and French cheeses with them and I had brought some good olive oil and single serving sized Choya Umeshu that comes complete with a delicious plum in each little bottle. We also made a stop to get smoked shrimp, salmon spread and jerky. It was beginning to look like we were preparing for a gourmet picnic rather than a camping trip…
We lose cell phone reception. We arrive at Sawbill Canoe Outfitters (SCO) where we pick out an 18 foot canoe, paddles and stay the night. We cook and eat our last meal with fresh ingredients. Almost-hardboiled eggs and Johnsonville bratwursts!The mosquitoes start their onslaught. We try to stave them off with some funky herbal repellent that LL brought.
I can’t get enough of the clean, cool air and wake up bright and early to do some taichi. After the other 2 wake up, we repack our gear and set off for Sawbill Lake!
Near lunch time:
We find a really nice campsite and set up shop.
We eat our dry rations since it’s too hot to want to start a fire. It’s a beautiful day and we lie out on the warm rocks, read and go swimming. LL brought some ridiculous sunscreen with an SPF of 10! I mean, what’s the point? Of course, they get burnt on the first day.
We use the MSR MIOX Purifier Pen to treat lake water for consumption. It’s a really cool gadget that is effective in killing all sorts of nasties. The device was low on battery though and there were creatures swimming in the ‘treated’ water. I make a face and ask that we filter the water and LL says that I’m “such a girl”.
We canoe out to fish but return empty-handed. After a hot dinner, we weigh our options and decide that we need to paddle back to SCO the next day to get an alternative water treatment.
Days 3-4
We pick up iodine tablets for water treatment (along with some ice-creams bars) at SCO and we’re off again! BWCA Take Two!
The water level is incredibly high and we skip a portage and navigate along a winding marsh to get to Cherokee Lake. We get competitive and try to beat the couple of groups behind us to get our preferred campsite. We win! More reading and lazing around, this is a wonderful vacation...
Here are some photos because I'm too lazy to post them twice. More highlights and stories to follw!
