By Marcelle Dorenkamp, Jessica Juneau, Mike Phelps, Lacey Landt, Chris Robertson, and Eric Thomas
The Drive Up
We all met at school at six in the morning on May 14th (with the exception of Hondo, who decided at the last minute that he would not be joining us.) Of course each of our faces grew long immediately as a result of the depressing news, but we got over it and loaded our gear and then ourselves into the van and began the six hour drive to the B.W.C.A. We stopped in Rush City and ate breakfast at this ancient, rundown hotel called the Grant House. Even though the food was not much better than what you would get at Perkins, we knew that this would be the last meal we wouldn’t have to cook ourselves for eight days so we tried as hard as we could to savor every last bite. Jessica eventually got sick of her meal but wanted to continue eating it so bad that she went to douse it with salt then asked “Hey guys, are you sure this isn’t sugar in the salt. It tastes like sugar!” She still hasn’t heard the end of that one. We were all full and ready to go back to sleep for the duration of the ride up there. When we reached Tofte we were shown an educational video on the Boundary Waters. It informed us of what we should and should not do to keep us and the area safe. At last, we were at Sawbill. We were relieved to be out of the van. I don’t know just how much longer any of us could put up with Eric’s constant requests for Doug’s stories.
The First Day
Doug awoke us to have breakfast the next morning. We were beginning to get a good idea of how picky some of us were when it came to food. It seemed Jessica didn’t like anything and tried not eating breakfast (she later regretted it as lunch neared). Marcelle didn’t seem to eat anything ever!
We started out that morning for a tough day. There was a hundred rod portage almost immediately (one rod = about sixteen and a half feet). This seemed like a terrible grueling task but it wasn’t long before portages were just a part of the day. Eventually, we were becoming thankful for the rest every time we touched land. Everyone pitched in on portages to get our gear across as quickly as possible. Gomer (Chris), Eric, Tyson (Gabe), and Doug usually carried the canoes, but later Mike started hauling them too. Even Lacey and Jessica carried them occasionally.
Pancakes
One day Eric bet Tyson he couldn’t eat twenty pancakes. Tyson confidently put five dollars on the bet. Fifteen or sixteen pancakes later Tyson wasn’t feeling very well so Eric offered Gabe dishwashing for the rest of the day instead.
Day Trip
On our first lay over day, Gomer and Eric decided to take the canoe out for a day trip. They picked out a small lake called Muskeg Lake. They didn’t get half way before they were distracted by a pair of loons. They hung around there about a half an hour attempting to get as close to the loons as possible to take some pictures. After they got some pictures they got to their first portage off Long Island Lake (which we camped on). It was a little eighteen rod portage but there was a stream running through it and a rock about twenty feet high going straight down to the stream. After the portage there was a narrow passage for about 200 yards and then came another small four rod portage. When they got done with that they had to turn around and go back, but before they started back they tried to dam up a stream with some drift wood. They had fun trying, but failed. The journey back was rough but they managed. They stopped again where they saw the loons and what do you know, they were still there. The loons were getting irritated with them so they took off.
Snoring
One morning as we were all eating breakfast Lacey emerged from the tent, grouchy as hell, yelling at Eric by the campfire, “Eric, I swear to God, you snore tonight I will crawl in your tent and suffocate you in your sleeping bag!” Eric replied, “You know something Lacey, you can stop someone from snoring but you can’t stop someone from smelling.” He was referring to Lacey’s lovely odor. Doug cracked up for a while. Lacey, however, didn’t find it as funny.
Lemon Chicken
One evening Doug and Eric were making the Mini-School world renowned “chicken @*it”. Doug told Eric to go after the dehydrated milk for the meal. Well, Eric handed Doug the mix for the lemonade instead. After Doug added three carefully measured handfuls of the white powder he shouted, “Dangit Eric, this is lemonade!”. We couldn’t throw it out. It had to be eaten or we would go hungry. So let’s just say we had “lemon chicken” for dinner. As we were serving it Jessica said to Doug, “Don’t eat it until you try it.” That was the saying for the rest of the evening.
Fish Fry
On our last lay over day, Wednesday, Doug spent pretty much the whole day fishing. He was determined to have a fish fry and doggone it he did. He caught seven Walleye and two bass. Everyone ate fish except Marcelle. Jessica said she didn’t like fish but as soon as she tasted it she started eating it. And Marcelle ate oatmeal instead of fish.
Beaver
One rainy night, (WHAT A SHOCK RAIN!) sitting under the tarp, listening to Doug read the beaver story. The story is based on a guy who observed a beaver for an extended period of time and wrote a story on how they live. It makes you have more respect for a beaver. After the story was done, Doug was closing the meeting by saying, “On this lake I wouldn’t doubt it if we saw a beaver.” As Tyson was getting up he said, “Look there is a beaver right now.” Sure enough a beaver was swimming on by. Doug was clapping his hands trying to make the beaver slap its tail. Instead it just swam off.
Rainbow
One day the sky wouldn’t make up it’s mind (Typical Minnesota weather). Lacey and Eric heard it all day long from Marcelle, “Shouldn’t there be a rainbow, I wanna see one, it would be so cool to see a rainbow.” Sure enough Marcelle got what she hoped for. Later that day we were at a campsite on a small lake. We could see the entire shoreline, and among the sprinkling rain and the shining sun a perfect rainbow stemmed from one end of the lake to the other. Not one person in the group could say they’d ever seen a more beautiful rainbow, not even Berg. So we all huddled up for a group picture under it.
Canoe Through
After canoeing and portaging for hours on end people tend to lose a large portion of their sanity. Chris began hallucinating one day while canoeing and thought he saw a White Castle. “Hey guys!” he yelled, “Let’s go through the canoe through.” We all found it so funny, but at that time absolutely everything was funny.
Star
Following an intense meeting by the fire. Suddenly Lacey jumped up and yelled, “Look guys it’s a plane.” Her eyes focused on the sky. I suppose just the thought of any kinda of link to the outside world would grasp our attention. “I think it’s an alien, Eric.” Gomer was getting a little bit nervous. “You guys are both idiots!” Eric yelled. “It’s a shooting star.” “Did everyone see that?” we all asked each almost simultaneously. It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. “What’s going on? What?” Gabe was gazing up into the sky in his own little world and missed the entire thing.
Over all the trip was awesome. Our group was great and we all worked together. Despite the rain, snow, sleet and hail our spirits remained high, for the most part anyway. Not one of us was ready to return home. We all gained knowledge, self esteem, and friends.