Boundary Water Canoe Area

I had the opportunity to go to northern Minnesota with my dad, little brother, and nephew for a week of wilderness canoing. The trip was so much fun, but all the traveling to and from Minnesota was horrible.

I left on July 26th, on a Greyhound bus. It was a short little ride that only took about 30 hours. Yep, 30 hours on a bus. Not only was it uncomfortable, but it was stressful. They were consistently late to every city, which put me in real danger of missing my connecting bus. If I missed a connection I would have to hang out in the bus station for 24 hours until the next bus came along. Luckily I didn't miss any connections.

My dad picked me up at the bus station in Minneapolis and we stayed the night in a hotel there. We woke up early and headed to Ely, MN. It's a small town about 30 miles south of Canada. My dad had paid an outfitter to provide all of our supplies, so we just showed up empty handed for a canoe trip. They provided the canoes, food, tents, and everything else that we needed. We slept that night in a bunkhouse owned by the outfitter. Charles snores like a category 5 hurricane.

We woke up at 5:30am and took off in a van to one of the 10,000 lakes (not exaggerating) in the area. The outfitter dropped us off after a short motor boat ride. It was raining pretty hard when we arrived.

We started out the canoe trip with a portage. A portage is where you get to transfer from one lake to another. The first portage we did was a long 1.25 miles. That may not sound bad, but when you have to carry a canoe the whole distance, then turn around and grab your 50-75 pound packs, it ends up being about 4 miles. I was already beat by the end of the first portage, but the day was just beginning.


We canoed for a few hours with some short portages in between. We had to go around some beaver dams on the way. We arrived at our campsite at 2pm and set up camp. I was soooo thankful to have arrived at camp.

Over the next couple of days we just relaxed and enjoyed the outdoors. We had some excellent steaks for dinner the first night, but after that the dinners gradually got worse and worse. By the last night we had watered down creamy stroganoff.



We fished, swam, and went exploring a lot during those days. The lakes were beautiful. I'd say my favorite time was around evening. We saw beautiful sunsets every night. The sky seemed to be on fire sometimes and the glass surface of the lakes were brilliant.


I got this cool picture of my brother hanging upside down from a tree. Actually, he's not upside down, the picture is. The water was so clear that day that you can hardly tell the difference between the sky and the lake. The trees and the sky are actually just a reflection.



The last day we were camping we switched to a campsite that would be closer to our exit. We did that long portage again, and then paddled for about 4 miles to the pick up point. The outfitter had cold sodas waiting for us and I don't think I've had a soda that good in a long time.

Luckily I got to take a greyhound bus back to Rexburg. I managed to read Harry Potter 4, 5, and 6 on this trip. I was exhausted when I got home.