Hokey Pokey Camping

Our feeble attempt at camping this weekend began Thursday night after work.  We pulled together most of the gear we would need for a BWCA camping trip in the fall.  We were pretty tired, so we didn’t get finished with the packing, just got a decent start to the venture.  Friday morning I helped Erin get the canoe on her car and threw what we had ready into her car as she left for work.  I still had to pull together the rest of the gear hoping against hope that I wouldn’t forget anything.  I finally got on the road about a half an hour later than usual, but I made it to school with a few minutes to spare.  So to follow the hokey pokey theme Thursday night we put our right foot in and took our right foot out.  Friday morning we put our right foot in and shook it all about.

After work that day Erin and I met up at the Y-store and drove to Soudan where we dropped my car off at Erin’s grandparents house.  We transferred the rest of the gear from my car to hers and headed to Ely.  Mind you at this time of the year dusk is showing up earlier and earlier each day.  We pulled into Ely and had to pick up some last minute things that we had forgot to pack for the trip and grab something for dinner.  At this time we assessed how much time it’d take us to actually get to the Moose Lake entry point and decided we would be just putting into the water when the darkness would be settling in over the lake.  We made the decision to hold off actually starting the trip till the next morning.  We ended up staying the night in Ely where we watched the twins throw their game two against the Yankees away in the bottom of the 9th inning.  The next morning we awoke to a blanket of snow on the ground and a pretty brisk wind whipping across the tree tops.  We decided to push on and headed down the Fernberg Road to the Moose Lake entry point.  As we approached the lake I was beginning to second guess our trip.  There were some fairly decent waves rolling across the lake.  Now if this had been a summer day it wouldn’t have been as big a deal, but since the temps were below freezing it added a whole new level of concern.

We pushed on and loaded up our canoe and headed out in the waves.  The wind was blowing in the same direction we were paddling, so we were making some pretty good time without much effort.  Our concern was that if we had to paddle back against this same wind the next day it would make the 8 or so miles pretty tough.  We paddled about a mile and decided it be smarter and safer to call the trip off.  There’s no reason to force on when things could turn quickly for the worse.  Truly we probably would have been fine, but it would have been a chilly wet trip.  So back to the hokey theme, we started our trip Friday night, then stopped it not too much longer, only to start it the next morning and stop it again an hour or so after beginning.  Lots of back and forth.

Instead of camping we went to a tea shop in Ely, and then to a movie in Virginia.

Ja, das ist sehr gut

We have had a guest at our house for the last few days.  A group of German students accompanied by two of their teachers arrived in Virginia Minnesota last Saturday evening.  We have had Inkari (who is one of the teachers) staying with us.  It is fun to learn about life in Germany.  I am impressed with how well she can speak English.  I took two years of German in high school and don’t remember much.  She has been visiting classrooms both in Virginia schools and in Nett Lake school this week. Tomorrow they are visiting the underground mine.  I am jealous.  I have always wanted to take one of the tours there.  We hope she’s having a good time with us.  Its always scary being the representation for your country.  😉

September Swimming

With school starting next week the thought of swimming can bring a chill down your back.  When the temps hit the upper 70’s today we had no choice but to go jump in.  The water was really nice.  Not many days left where we’ll be able to float around.  Not to say we won’t be swimming before the ice arrives, but I can guarantee it won’t be a lounging experience.  As I was jumping in this afternoon Erin said she was taking my picture.  I tried to turn for the camera, but only made it part way around.

This evening Jesse, April, and Sawyer came out for dinner.  It was still nice out and Sawyer hadn’t been out for a boat ride yet.  So he donned his baby life jacket and we all hopped in the boat.  Erin, Jim, and I went for another swim.  The water was still very nice.  We hear around 66 degrees.   After a quick dip we went for a boat ride around the lake with the preparing to drop below the horizon.  It was a nice night to be on the water.

Winding Down

Summer seems to be racing to an end.  I can’t believe how fast the summer months fly by, only to see the same amount of time in the winter drag on by.  I guess working does that to you.

I’ve had a jam packed summer.  Erin and my tirp to Australia was such a great time.  In fact the best part of this summer was being able to spend almost every day all day with Erin.  Not like we do a ton of crazy exciting stuff, but just being together is nice.  Aside from our trip over seas I’ve spent about 20 days in the Boundary Water Canoe Area filming for BWCACAST.  The weather wasn’t phenomenal but it wasn’t the worst either.  We had rain on every trip, and sure fought the wind on our longest trip where we covered 100 miles in 7 days.  We got some great video and had a blast spending time in the woods.  My parents came down for one trip where we paddled across pretty much the entire Crooked Lake.  We did it the right way paddling from west to east, so the wind was at our back the entire time.  Can’t complain about that. 🙂

Erin and I finally got some time in the lake at the end of the summer.  The weather was so cold, windy, and rainy that it wasn’t to appealing to jump in the lake.  This is pretty much crazy.  On a normal summer day we are in and out of the lake at least three times.  So with a few nice days in August we finally started jumping in and even did a little water skiing.  Josh (a friend of mine from Fairbanks) came down for a BWCA trip and he was the instigator for the skiing when we got back home.  I amazingly got up on one ski on my first try which was pretty cool.  The next time I tried a couple days later I wasn’t so successful and wasn’t able to get up on one at all.  After six or seven tries I opted for two skies and dinked around on them for a while.

Our first official days of inservice for school begin next week.  I’ll be heading in tomorrow for a bit, but hope to spend as much time playing as possible before work is thrust back into my life.  Dont’ get me wrong.  I like my job, but having the days to do whatever I want sure rank a bit higher then the old “9 – 5”.

I hope to be posting more in the future.  I know I fluctuate quite a bit with my posting.  With all the websites I manage it kinda play out with coming up with fun witty posts to entertain the masses. 😉  I’ll do my best though.  Don’t give up on me yet.

A week on the water

I sit here on my couch looking out the window over a calm lake vermilion.  You can see the reflections of the trees on the opposite shore in the near still slightly ripply water.  The only waves are created by the occasional boat passing by.  We truly live in an amazing area.

I just got back from our second trip into the Boundary Water Canoe Area.  This was our long trip of the summer.  I think I’ve talked about it in previous posts, but we started on the eastern edge of the BWCAW in a lake called Little John Lake.  From there we headed west traveling through 31 lakes and 6 rivers covering approximately 94 miles.  This brought us to about the half way point on the Voyagers Highway.  This “Highway” is the same route the fur traders used to transport their winter catches from as far north as Athabaska country all the way to Grand Marais where there was a substantial trading post. When deciding the location of the international border between the United States and Canada they agreed that this commonly used route would be the dividing line, and that all of the lakes and portages (the hiking trails connecting the lakes) could be used by people of both nations without the need to pass through customs.  So on our entire trip the shoreline on our right was Canada and the the shoreline on the left USA.

As we paddled and hauled our gear over this historic route, it was amazing to think about the individuals who passed over the same ground we did years ago.  Also to think about the equipment they used and the weights they had to haul really made us appreciate the struggles they would have endured.  There is one portage we encountered along the way that was 660 rods long and aptly named “Long Portage”.  Portages usually range in the 30 – 170 rod range, and there are 320 rods in a mile.  So needless to say a 660 rod portage is quite the undertaking.  This is where you take all your gear out of your canoe and carry it across including your canoe to the next lake.  A two mile hike doesn’t seem that difficult if you are on a backpacking trip, but the packs we use are designed for canoeing.  They are wide to fit in the canoe nicely and one feature that hiking packs have that these packs do not is the very important waist belt to help carry the load on your hips.  These are strictly shoulder packs and at 60 – 70 lbs they are a bit to lug around.

We got to see some cool wildlife.   I was filming a loon swim across the lake when Matt nudged me and pointed out a beaver dragging a green leafy branch down the bank towards the water.  I quickly began to film him doing his work.  As he began swimming with his branch I was zoomed in relatively close on him when the loon popped up right in the frame.  It was pretty cool.

The first few days were kinda chilly and a little rainy, but then turned to sunny blue skies.  It was nice to dry out and feel the hot sun on our faces as we paddled across these lakes.  One of the difficult things we dealt with on the trip was a constant head wind the entire 7 days.  The wind apparently tends to blows out of the North West and since we were heading West for our trip it made for some difficult paddling at times.  Luckily when we were crossing the bigger lakes it wasn’t too strong and we were able to avoid the large waves that often accompany gusty days.

I’d like to at some point do the entire Voyagers Highway through the BWCAW, but that will have to wait for another year.

Oh Matt (Erin’s cousin) was with on this trip.  He is a math teacher down in the cities.  He helped figure out that we each paddled approximately 20,911 paddle strokes.

For now it’s nice to be back hanging out with Erin.  It feels like I’ve been on a dead run since school got out on May 29th.  I had the 4 day BWCA trip on May 30th, two days after returning from that trip Erin and I flew to Australia for three weeks, four days after returning from that trip I took this 7 day BWCA trip.  So now I’m looking forward to some down time.  Maybe sleeping in and not doing much.

Here are a few pictures from our Voyager Highway Trip.

Crashing Waves

Just to the side of squeaky beach there are some rocks that really take the brunt of the incoming waves.  It was fun to sit and watch them roll in and crash against the rocks.

Click to watch some sweet wave action!!

Tractor Pull

A truck drove down onto Norman Beach in Wilsons Promontory to get a boat out of the ocean.  When it was pulling away it sunk into the sand.  The local forest service had to get a tractor out there to pull it free.  I grabbed a video of the process.

[QUICKTIME http://bbryson.com/bill/files/2009/06/wilsons_tractor_pull.mov 640 500]

Squeaky Beach

There is a beach in Wilsons Promontory that is called “Squeaky Beach”.  When you walk on the dry sand it makes a squeaking sound.  Its pretty strange.  It helps if you kind of shuffle your feet a bit in your walk.  Here is a video of what it sounds like…

[QUICKTIME http://bbryson.com/bill/files/2009/06/squeaky.mov 640 500]

Wilsons Promontory

After leaving halls gap we spent a couple nights in Melbourne so we could check out the Queen Victoria Market.  Its a huge open market where you can get everything from fresh food and produce to kangaroo hides and small electronics.  We had some tasty hot out of the oil bath jelly filled sugar covered doughnuts and enjoyed walking around.

From Melbourne we headed south east to Phillip island where we saw the koalas and penguins and on to Wilsons Promontory.  This is a national park full of animals and amazing beaches.  Here are some photos of our time there….

Blue Ribbons for Sleeping = Koalas

Koala Bears sleep on average 20 hours a day.  They spend the other 4 eating euqualyptus leaves and doing fancy tricks for the plethra of spectators gazing up at them from below.

Here is a video of a koala showing off his sweet skills and taking care of a little itch while hes at it….

Click to Watch Koala Magic