Swinging By A Thread, A Blog by Amy Climer: Boundary Waters Canoe Trip

I went to the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area on a 5-day canoeing trip with 4 friends. It was a great trip and my first multi-day canoe trip. The Boundary Waters are beautiful and we saw many loons and eagles, including a pair feeding their young in their nest.

Here we are on the first morning before leaving. Left to right: Julie, Liza, Ricardo, Mo, me. It was pretty buggy so we wore bug head nets a lot while on land, especially Liza, they like her more than anyone else.

We paddled a loop of about 50 miles or so. The first day we did 17 miles and then had to slow down so we didn't get to the end too quickly. This made for a rather relaxing trip. We got into camp on most days by 2pm and had time for swimming, reading, napping, etc. One day Mo even baked us bread over the fire. It was delicious!

Liza duffing (when you sit and the middle and don't paddle) and feeding Ricardo a peanut.

A perfect reflection in the water. This was a common view.

Ricardo sleeping in our hammock. We have this great, lightweight, small hammock made by Eagle's Nest Outfitters. I highly recommend one. It's awesome for camp!

Storm clouds coming in.

Mo, Ricardo, and Liza chilling out at camp.

Sunset at our campsite.

Mo enjoying the sunset on night four.

Julie happy in the stern of the boat.

Drying our socks on night four. Most of us wore neoprene socks in our shoes since our feet were wet most of the day. They kept us warm and the bugs can't bite through them.

Mo and Julie portaging the large packs. The first day we only had one portage, but the other days we had 2-5. The longest was probably 1/4 mile and most were shorter.

Two bald eagles we saw on Day 4. One was keeping watch and the other was feeding the young in the nest. We saw quite a few bald eagles, in fact it was the most common raptor we saw.

Julie chilling in the hammock on Night 4.

Ricardo and Julie making dinner. Ricardo is stoking the fire with a hose he brought along. It's a long plastic tubing with a short piece of copper tubing at the end. You put the copper tubing in the end by the fire and then you can get very direct air at the fire without having to get that close. It was a brilliant set up and made fire making much easier. We cooked over a small fire almost every night.

The last morning we got up really early so I could get dropped off at my car to drive to Rhinelander, WI to teach for Rhinelander School of the Arts (see next post). The rest of the group continued on for 2 more days. The morning paddle out was gorgeous and one of my favorite days. The sun was rising and Mo, Ricardo, and I were paddling behind Liza and Julie.