Racing the storm (and loosing)
We rent a canoe today to experience the area the right way. Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness includes over 1100 lakes, and it’s complete wilderness. We head to Sawbill lake because there’s a campground there with a rental store. After getting instructions on how to carry the canoe on portage between lakes we start paddling. We see a couple of loons with their babies in Sawbill lake. On Alton Lake we battle against the wind and the waves. On Kelso Lake we watch the sky going dark on our left, we can hear the thunder, and it makes for nice pictures. Kelso river is dead quiet, we’re sheltered from the wind and can hear the bottom of the canoe flirting with all the lily pads, it looks amazing. It truly is no man’s land around here. But the storm grows up and follows us, a few drops of rain tell us it’s time to speed up. Back on Sawbill lake we have a long way to go to get back to the rental office, and we have to do it all in the rain. Torrential rain that is, the kind that drowns your eyes making you blind, the kind that fills up your canoe and slows you down. The thunder is also getting closer. We’re not sure where we’re going but we are going as fast as we can. We made it, soaked, and the rain stopped. I got pictures before the rain, I wish I had some while in it, the little islands we went past were just shadows in the storm but that looked amazing. We are lucky they have hot showers there. Once dry we buy some beers and pancake mix at the campground store and head to another rustic campsite. We deserve the beers, plus I’m 31 today.
On the drive to the campsite we see a beautiful lake, we stop and here they were, the beavers! They are really cute, going out and bringing back sticks and reed for their dam.
You remember when I was telling you how bad mosquitoes are this year? I get bit a lot, always, but I’ve never seen that before. They suck so much of my blood that the bite pisses blood after, it’s insane. That’s becoming a conversation starter in the whole of America.
