Spam Subject Lines of the Day

Two subject lines that have amused me recently:

From: Phillip Bush
Subject: Plop

Heh.

From: Francis Whitaker
Subject: Vague

Nice. Could you be a little more vague, Winky? Oh. Guess not.

Two more I've gotten today since that post:

From: Smoke Shop
Subject: Free smokes!

From Smoke Shop
Subject: Free smokes!!!

These were received within about 10 minutes of each other... I assume that they thought that since I didn't open the one with one exclamation point, then if they sent another with three exclamation points, it would get my attention and therefore entice me into opening their spam that was so important that they had to increase the exclamatory value by 200%.

Wrong. BALLEETED!

Concert Review: Blue Man Group

Two of my favorite things. Good music and comedy. That's what the Blue Man Group is all about. I first found the Blue Man Group when they were doing the Pentium commercials for Intel. I will say that I am not a fan of Intel - neither their products nor their way of doing business. But I thought the BMG commercials were entertaining, and have been a fan ever since, but only through recorded media (TV, internet, etc) until I saw them live a couple years ago. They have several permanent theatres where they perform their standard show. For the tour, they wrote and recorded all new material. The album (and the tour) were called The Complex. There were two themes within the music: one, 'lessons' on how to be a rockstar and two, commentaries on the increasingly impersonal and mechanized society leading to feelings of isolation. Between the feelings conveyed by the music and the visuals provided by video and on-stage props - the heaviness of the second message was quite evident, and very well done in my opinion. The rock star lessons were conversely funny and entertaining - so it was a good balance.

The last tour had two opening acts, neither of which I had ever heard of. Venus Hum, which I saw as an upbeat mix of Sugar Cubes and Depeche Mode, without the psychoses and whining. Very techno, and the lead singer's voice was amazing. The other was Tracy Bonham, who I likened to a younger, edgier, more up to date Sheryl Crow. Both of them blew me away, and I thought that each of them was worth the price of admission alone. The both appeared throughout the show with BMG lending vocals and instrumental assistance. Since, Venus Hum has become one of my favorite bands, and while I'm not a fanatic about Tracy Bonham, I have purchased a couple of her CDs and a few songs from iTunes. Tracy was back for this tour as the sole opening act, backed up by members of the BMG's band. She was engaging, in good voice, and had a good set - playing guitar and violin.

This time around, the name of the tour is 'How to be a Mega Rockstar 2.0' (or something similar... you get the point.) ... it's essentially the same material as the last tour. No new songs written for this tour, but a few different bits interjected for filler. One of their more popular bits from their regular venue shows is paintball/spin art... which wasn't included in the last tour - but made an appearance here. Blue Man Group's strength is their innovative used of everyday items as instruments... PVC pipe with a sliding extension to change pitch - called a drumbone. A large complex of PVC tubes played by hitting the ends with what appear to be wooden spoons, but I believe they're actually foam or rubber paddles... a giant piano turned on its side, opened up and the wires struck with a large padded mallet, a fiberglass pole whipped through the air making a swishing sound. All these made for interesting music, and good comedy bits to introduce their use.

The one real different bit on this tour was the infomercial shill who was selling the 'How to be a mega rock star' package, which was pretty funny, and the excellent cover of One of These Days, which is my favorite Pink Floyd song.

Tracy Bonham did a good job filling in for Annette from Venus Hum for the regular set finale of the cover of I Feel Love, wearing the famous neon dress. However, it just wasn't the same without Venus Hum there.

All in all, it was a great show, and I don't feel cheated even though I've basically seen the same show before. I'd pay money to see them again tonight, given the opportunity.

Global Warming? Read this, and tell me you don't believe:

I think global warming is real. And I'm not talking about the hot summers in North Texas. Our summers are always hot. I'm talking about the lack of winter we had last year. Remember those big ass grass fires? It wasn't cold weather that allowed that to happen. The average daily high/low temperature in November were 72/48, where the normals are 65/45.

December in '05 was 60/36 (with only 9 days with lows below freezing) degrees. The average average dailly high/low temp in December is 56/30 (with almost every day's low averaging below freezing or right at freezing.) That's pretty dramatic.

January '06 was even worse, with the average high/low at 68/41 (with only ONE night's low below freezing, at 30 degrees.) The average high/low for January is 54/34 (again, most nights right at or below freezing.) That's incredibly dramatic. That's a 14 degree difference.

For those of you who have ever taken a statistics class, you know what the implications of a divergence this large are. One or two day-long anomalies like that are going to happen. But consistency over three months time? That not anomalous. That's a trend, and it scares me. This is why I'm not having kids. Well, this, and North Korea.

I also believe that the prevailing weather patters are cyclical. But global warming definitely has been giving the cycle a push.

Instructions For Reading Trip Report

I divided my trip report into 4 posts... starting with the first two days. This, of course, causes the older post to move down on the page as newer posts are placed.

So... scroll down almost to the bottom to Day 1 & 2, read that post, then move up to Day 3 & 4.. and so on.

There are photo links to my Flickr.com photoset interspersed throughout the text. Unfortunately, they won't open in a new window, but you can click on it, then click your back button to return to the journal.

Enjoy!

Trip Report, Day 7 & 8

Day 7
We awoke early, determined to pack up and get out as soon as possible. Breakfast was quick, my usual cliff bar, but with pre-cooked bacon instead of beef jerky. MMMmmmmm.. bacon. Packing went quickly and we shoved off, starting to leave the wilderness behind. On the last day, we are pretty much out of 'enjoy the wilderness' mode and into the 'let's get the hell out of here and back to civilization' mode. So we didn't take a lot of time to ogle scenery or enjoy the outdoors. It was truly like when a horse smells the barn and heads for home. I still managed to snap a few pics.

Photo: Vacated Campsite

Photo: Chris at the last campsite

Photo: Me, same place

Getting from camp on Kawasachong to Square lake was pretty easy... no major issues and a small portage. As predicted, the paddle out from Square to Kawishiwi was terribly difficult. We hoped that the rain over the first two days and the bit of rain today would have raised the level in the creek to make it an easier trip coming out today. No such luck. It was just as bad going out as it was going in. In the middle of the muck, we passed a three man canoe that was going in. We stopped and chatted with them for a minute then continued slogging on. At some point, we saw a crane who was standing in the mud trying to catch fish.

Photo: Damn Crane

Photo: The Crane, The Muck, and our Eternal Suffering


We'd creep closer to it inch by inch, then we'd get inside its bubble, then it would fly about 30 feet up the creek, land and start fishing again. Then we'd creep closer and it would do the same thing. This happened about 6 times. Then we got to about 50 yards from where the creek spreads out to floatable levels, we saw a guy walking up the creek from the opposite direction. We were flabbergasted to learn there was a portage trail there. There was no indication of it when we came through the first time, and we would have MUCH rather portaged past this muck than paddle through it twice. Unbelievable.

We finally got back to floatable water then back in to Lake Kawishiwi. This is when the rain picked up and the wind was hitting about 25-30 miles per hour sustained (not gusts.) And no matter what direction we were facing, we were working against the wind. It was bloody difficult. We also got lost and the wind was blowing so hard, we couldn't read the map. Chris was getting very frustrated with the map blowing everywhere, and when he stopped paddling to look at the map, the boat would turn off course. I was getting exhausted from paddling like a madman just to keep from losing ground or getting blown totally off course. So we just found a place on the shore we could reach, made a beeline for it and got out of the canoe to walk around and get our bearings and read the map. I thought we had passed where we should have gotten out, and Chris thought that we still hadn't gotten to our turn yet. We discussed it for a few minutes then decided that we would go his way and turn the corner and see what we could see. Turns out he was right, so we put the spurs to it, and steamed on out - the entry point landing in sight. We finally made it - beached the canoe despite 3 canoes full of redneck hunters filling up the entire launch area - and we unloaded the boat, Chris went up to the parking lot to get the Explorer, and we threw the bags in, strapped the canoe to the top, changed clothes and did a semi-cleanup (read "funk-ectomy",) and we were out of the Boundary Waters and headed toward Duluth. First we had to drop off the Canoe at the outfitters. Between the time we started driving out of the forest and the time we got to the outfitters, the rain had turned from a sprinkle into a gully-washer. The outfitter told us that they had gotten more rain in the last 5 days than they got all summer. We turned in the canoe and the outfitter guy was impressed with the minimal amount of damage we did to the boat despite the low water. We put a few good scratches in it, but kevlar is pretty resilient stuff and there wasn't any major damage.

Then we hit the road toward Duluth where a hot shower, shave, meal, and real beds were waiting for us. But the first order of business was to get a Coke. This is always the first order of business after completing a camping trip. We found a gas station where this could be accomplished - Chris found a big ass roast beef sandwich, and I opted for a bratwurst and a couple cookies. The immediate stomach rumblings and carbonated beverage cravings stated, we started the drive to the southwest where our hotel was.
After a couple hours, we made it to the Best Western, checked in and went to the room (which was very small.) By the time we got all our bags in the room, there wasn't much room to move around. But we didn't care… we were glad to have beds and a shower. Somehow I was awarded the first shower, though I'm not sure how that happened. I don't remember the deal that was brokered. I think Chris needed to call Charis, or something.

After we had showers, we went through the gear, unpacked the packs so that we could repack everything into the duffels for the plane ride home. When this was complete, we went about preparing for our post trip dinner, which is a tradition - we usually go somewhere nice, or at least somewhere with great food, to treat ourselves after eating freeze dried meals for days. There's not a lot of variety or selection in Duluth, but last time we were here, we found a microbrewery that we liked that had good food, and was fun, so we decided we'd go there again.
We got there and the wait was lengthy, so we were invited to go across the way to a bar that was operated by the same folks as the restaurant. It was a martini bar - but I'm not a big fan of martinis in general. But the bar itself was pretty cool - interesting décor and a cool lighting scheme, with good trance (which is one of my favorite genres) music playing. I got a beer which was a microbrew from the restaurant across the way, and was starting to feel civilized again. Chris mentioned that it's weird to think of the odd juxtaposition that takes place at the end of our trips... on night 5, Chris said it's weird to think that in 48 hours we will be home and at the FC Dallas game. Last year, on our third night, it was totally weird to think "tonight, we're sleeping on a shelf halfway down to the floor of the Grand Canyon and tomorrow night, we'll be eating at a Brazillian Steak house at the Mirage in Las Vegas."

Our names were called, and we went to our table. We were asked what we wanted to drink, and I asked for a Newcastle, and she said they only served beers that they brewed there at the brewery. So I asked for a Crown and Coke. She said the only liquors we serve are a few Scotches. Well, I don't like Scotch. I think it tastes like fertilizer. So, we were resigned to the fact that we would be drinking a microbrew if we wanted alcohol. To me, all microbrews taste basically the same, with varying degrees of heaviness and bitterness. None of the brews on the menu had a description beyond the name, and those weren't any help. So we decided to get the sampler. The sampler was 7 beers in what looked like a large shot glass. There were 2 pilsners which didn't taste like anything, an amber, which was very bitter, and ESB (English style bitter) which was VERY bitter, a seasonal cherry beer, which was the least offensive of all of them, but still not any good, one India Pale Ale, which was also quite bitter, and an oatmeal stout, which was horrible. It tasted like rubbing alcohol.

So I gave up on finding a beer that I liked and got a root beer, which they also brewed there. It was quite good. For dinner, we both got the 'pub burger' which was a mushroom/swiss burger with chipotle sauce, and a cup of clam chowder. The chowder was excellent. The burger was pretty lame. It didn't have much flavor, and the chipotle sauce was all heat, no flavor. So, overall we were pretty disappointed with the microbrewery. But we were also starving, so we ate everything. We thought about going to a pub we passed on the way there to get a real beer, but we were both so full, that we wouldn't have enjoyed it. Besides, I was getting tired and ready to sleep. So we went back to the hotel and got ready for bed. I think I might have stayed awake for maybe 30 minutes before I started crashing. Chris stayed up a good 2 hours later than I did, watching TV.

Day 8
Not much to report here. It was a lot of driving, waiting, and flying. We drove from Duluth back to the airport, hoping to find a White Castle close to the airport for lunch, as I've never been to a White Castle and wanted to know what all the fuss was about. We didn't find any that were convenient, so we just opted to get to the airport and eat there. We found a Chili's in the terminal and that was just fine - better than airport fast food. We puttered around the terminal, I was looking for suitable souvineers for gifts and couldn't find anything worthwhile (a recurring theme throught the trip) so I just gave up. We went to our gate after lunch and learned that our flight had been delayed significantly due to bad weather that morning in the DFW area - which had set airport operations behind as much as an hour.

We finally got on the plane and took off - and the pilot said that we would make up some lost time on the flight back. Good. I plugged in my MP3 player and zoned out for the rest of the flight.
When we got to DFW, we taxied out to a holding area where we had to wait for our gate to open up. I was annoyed… I just wanted to get home. I don't like sitting on a plane that's not moving. Right about then, I wondered why we 'made up time' on the flight - when we would just spend that time sitting on the tarmac.
Eventually, we got our gate and got off the plane, over an hour after we were originally supposed to land. Which shot our plans for going to the FC Dallas game… if we went straight to the game from the airport, we MIGHT have made it by halftime. An executive decision was made to skip the game and just go home. I was ok with that.. I was very tired and drained and ready to relax.

Winners and losers for the trip:
Winners-
Pita Bread: Worked great with the salami sandwiches AND the pre-cooked chicken pouches.
New digital camera: small, compact, lightweight, easy to use, lots of features and takes great pictures.
LL Bean boots: Kept my feet dry the whole trip except for the time that Chris dumped me out of the canoe and I put my foot into knee deep water. They're comfortable and give enough support to be useful on the portage trails.
Pre-cooked bacon - ROAR! BACON!!
Pre-cooked chicken in a foil pouch - made a great, tasty, easy meal that's a nice break from freeze dried food.
Sport Beans: Jelly Belly's take on Gatorade, except you don't drink them. You eat them and drink water… a good replacement for whatever candy we usually bring on these trips as they are not only sweet and have a sugar energy boost, but they also have electrolytes and vitamins.
Packing ultra-light (comparatively speaking): Last time we brought way too many clothes and WAY too much fresh food. We still brought too much food, but you always have to carry extra, just in case.
LOSERS:
Water level: See Day 3 and Day 7. In addition, it made a good number of the portages much longer than indicated on the map, and it made putting in and getting out quite difficult at several points.
Video camera: I think I'm going to start leaving it behind. It's bulky, heavy, and it rarely gets used. The new digital camera has a video feature, which will do when motion capture is required.
My sleeping bag: a constant source of annoyance.

Overall, this was a great trip. One of my favorite trips since we've started going on these trips, which was 1993 for me. Grand Canyon/Zion Canyon/Las Vegas in 2000 and Whistler BC in 2002 are also right up there. Usually, when I get home from a trip, I don't even want to think about taking an outdoor trip for several weeks after I get home... but if I were given the chance today to go again, I'd leave work right now and take it. I'm ready to start planning next year's trips.

There are more pictures than the ones I've posted here on the blog... you can go to my flickr.com photoset here and see all of them. Thanks for reading!

Trip Report and pictures, Day 5&6

Day 5
Today was to be a day trip - no camping gear - just a tour type paddle from our spot on the Kawishiwi River north to Trapline lake, then a portage west to Beaver Lake (uhhh huh huh) then East to Adams Lake, then North and West to Smite lake, then Southwest back into Beaver Lake, then out to Kawishiwi River and back to camp. We actually took a wrong turn at the very beginning, and carried our canoe over a portage that we didn't need to. The lake didn't look right once we got there and we fired up the GPS just to make sure. Generally, when turned around on one lake, the maps aren't precise enough for us to make a determination based on the GPS reading. But since we suspected we were at the wrong lake entirely, the GPS would probably be able to confirm that suspicion for us before we went any further. And our suspicions were confirmed - we had made a wrong turn. Carried the canoe back over the portage and went about our day's journey.
This loop is supposed to be among the most remote parts of the entire Boundary Waters - and I can see why. The portages here suck infected liquid monkey ass. They are rugged, steep, rocky, and rarely used - so the vegetation is not trimmed back like in higher use areas. It was quite physically demanding. We did manage to see a beaver in Trapline lake. Both times we saw it, the damn thing dove underwater before I could get my camera out to take a picture.
Lunch was genoa salami, smoked provolone cheese, and mayo on pita bread. Excellent lunch, doesn't take up a lot of space, and the bread doesn't get squashed or mashed. Definitely good for future use.
Right after we put into Beaver Lake, we saw a moose, which I did manage to photograph.

Photo: MOOSE!!

We saw some great scenery today, and the weather was mostly warm and breezy. It was alternately sunny and warm, then cloudy and breezy. And it was uncanny how a)when it was windy, the wind was always a head wind, and 2) the sun seemed to come out and beat us down when we were on the portage trails. Weird.

Photo: Nice weather we're having, eh?

Photo: Orr... not so much.

I'm a little concerned. I was really starting to get fatigued today - and weve got some serious paddling to do tomorrow (including the three huge portages mentioned previously,) then the mother of bogs to slog through for the finale on Friday. We're going to be worn OUT by the time we're done.
Dinner was freeze dried spaghetti with meat sauce. One of the best freeze dried meals I've had, I discovered it a couple trips ago, and make sure I take at least one pouch every trip.
How do freeze dried meals work, I hear you cry? Well, to begin with, let's start with why, then move in to how. Why? Because they are light. The food is prepared, then it's treated so that all of the water is zapped out of it. Then it's packaged in a foil pouch with a zip top and a wide base. No water means that the food is extremely light and easy to carry. This is far more important on backpacking trips than on canoe trips, but we learned last time that taking 4 days worth of fresh food makes it extremely difficult to carry everything, plus, you face the chance that your food can spoil. Freeze dried meals are light, and they won't spoil… they have a shelf life of years. How? Well, all you have to do is boil water, open up the pouch, pour the boiling water in, stir it up, zip up the pouch and let it sit for 9 minutes. Then it's dinner time. During those 9 minutes you can do other things, like lay out your sleeping bag and pad, wash your hands and face, get warm clothes out and ready. Then, when you are ready to eat, you can either eat right out of the pouch (easy) or pour it out onto a plate if you happen to have brought one. If you eat right out of the pouch, cleanup is very easy… lick the spoon, close the zip top on the pouch, and put the pouch in the garbage bag.

Photo: cool sunset at camp, but it looked better on the water than in the sky



After dinner, we did more stargazing, saw a couple more shooting stars and climbed in the tent.


Day 6
I actually got up before Chris. That's very rare. Today's agenda - break down our campsite of the last two nights, then backtrack to Mallberg, Koma, Polly, so forth to Kawasachong, where we'd camp.

Photo: Vacated campsite. We leave our camps in better shape than we find them.

By getting the big ass and numerous portages out of the way and moving as far as we could before dark, we'd minimize the effort required on the last day. Chris predicted that we'd be finishing up the day at about 5:00 pm on Lake Kawasachong - which would give us a couple hours to relax in addition to setting up camp and preparing dinner.
The day was largely uneventful - no new ground covered, no extradordinary wildlife seen, no major mishaps. Lunch was salami pitas again, and the day just sort of went by in a blur… all the long portages were difficult and exhausting. By the time we were done with those, we put the canoe into Kawasachong Lake, it was exactly 5:00. Chris really nailed it on the head. A couple minutes later, we floated up to our campsite, pulled the boat out of the water and started to set up camp.
The weather has been perfect today… we couldn't have asked for better weather. It was clear and sunny, but not too warm, and the wind wasn't a factor.

Photo: great weather, still waters

Photo: But just in case....


Today was somewhat of a role reversal between Chris and myself. I felt great all day, which is a rarity for me. Generally something ails or pains me the entire duration of these trips. Chris felt bad and said he felt like a zombie when we stopped for lunch. I said, “Now you know how I feel- I feel like that all the time on these trips.” He asked me why I enjoy the trips. I don't know… I just do. He felt better after some Excedrin Migrane and lunch, and the rest of the day went smoothly.
Dinner was freeze dried beef stroganoff, which has always been one of my favorite freeze dried meals (and excellent code.)
I think I have figured out what I like least about all these trips. It all revolves around the sleeping bag. It's so restrictive, it doesn't allow me to move around without tangling and twisting up. My arms constantly fall asleep, and if I want to move them I have to unzip the bag, which lets all the warm air out. Then in the mornings, I don't want to get out of the sleeping bag because it's warm and I don't want to face the arctic cold air. Also, I have yet to find a comfortable sleeping position in a sleeping bag, on a sleeping pad, on the cold ground. But I love coming on these trips - I wouldn't give it up. And this has been one of the best ones.
In camp tonight, we have encountered or noted a mouse watching us prepare dinner, a beaver swimming right in front of our dining room, a huge rabbit hopping around our tent (I thought it was a bobcat at first it was so big,) a campfire across the lake (we scoped out the campsite where that fire appeared to be, and we couldn't find a way to get to it, but didn't see anyone there - so it concerned us to see a fire over there.) It turned out to be a flashlight, much to our relief (didn't want to share the lake with a wildfire.) Lastly, what I hope was a bullfrog grunting and splashing in the water. If it wasn't a bullfrog, I don't want to know what it was. There was a cacophony of wildlife most of the evening, and on into the night.

Photo: Nightfall at Camp 3

Trip Report, Day 3 and Day 4

Day 3: the beginning
We got up before sunrise at the cabin, made breakfast (scrambled eggs and grands cinnamon rolls.) packed up the food bag, threw everything in the Explorer and we were on the way to the Boundary Waters.
Having been to the same entry point 2 years earlier, we knew our way there and found it with no difficulty. As we were getting the canoe ready and all the gear situated in the boat, I noticed 2 canoes heading our way, and our canoe was taking up most of the launch area. I picked up one end of our boat and started dragging it back. I tripped over a rock, fell backwards and smacked my head on the ground. As I was falling, I thought “great… I'm going to get a concussion and the trip is over.” Fortunately, where my head hit was relatively soft, with loose gravel. No damage done. We talked to the group that was coming out as we were putting in - a family with three young boys. They were very nice folks.
Day 3 was set to be our difficult day. Little did we know how difficult it would be. We decided that we would cover as much ground (water) as we could in order to make day 4 and 5 as leisurely and enjoyable as possible. It started off easily enough, Lake Kawishiwi was as smooth as glass, and there was no wind. But that turned sour soon enough. Lake Kawishiwi is very difficult to navigate using the maps we had. It is full of islands and inlets and points, a good number of which do not appear on the map. We got turned around and wound up on the other side of the lake from where we were supposed to go to catch our creek up to Square Lake. It took us several minutes to figure out where we were and where we needed to go. Once we got two points of reference on the map, we got it straightened out and were off and running. We finally found our creek and headed up north and east from Kawishiwi to Square Lake. This was the section that we were warned of by the outfitter. She told us that it would be craptacular (my word, not hers.) And lord, was it ever craptacular.

Photo: This was before it got really bad

Basically we spent the better part of a mile shoving our paddles into mud, heaving with all our strength, and moving the canoe one foot. Repeat. Over and over. This stuff we were in was about one inch of water on top of deep, smelly, sticky muddy muck. I suddenly was able to somewhat identify with the animals that got trapped in the LaBrea tar pits. Once we cleared that, we hit Square lake, which is quite small. A quick paddle across that, we had a small portage (20 rods or so) into Kawasachong lake.
Portage: A portage is how one moves one's canoe or kayak over or around water that is not navigable. When canoeing rivers, it usually means getting out of the river and dragging your canoe around rapids that are unpassable, around dams, or other obstructions. In the Boundary Waters, the lakes are not all connected, though they are generally pretty close together. But it involves getting out of the water, taking all your camping gear out of the canoe, picking up the canoe and putting it on your shoulders, and walking from one lake to the next. Then go back, pick up the camping gear and the food back and the paddles, and make the hike again. Portages are measured in rods, rather than feet or yards or meters. A rod is roughly the length of a canoe, which is about 17 feet. So a portage of 20 rods is 340 feet.
After Kawasachong, the portages were not nearly so friendly. From Kawasachong to Townline lake, a portage of 95 rods (1615 feet, or about 1/3 mile. Townline Lake was very small, hardly worth paddling over, then the mother of portages, 190 rods (or about 6/10 mile.) At some point during or before the big portages, it started raining - and I had neglected to put on my rain jacket until after it had been raining for a while. After this backbreaking section, we were on Lake Polly (where we camped 2 nights of the last trip) … Polly was a nice paddle. Even though it was raining, the wind wasn't blowing, and it wasn't cold. Polly is almost as difficult to navigate as Kawishiwi. We did lose our way for a couple minutes, but it was quickly resolved and we were moving north toward Mallberg. But not before we had to so a series of small and moderate and one large portage… most of them were 20-40 rods. One was 127 rods. The bad part about this chain of portages was that the paddles in between were tiny. Then we were on Lake Mallberg, which was our goal for the day. We wanted to get to the far end of the lake to set up camp, and had three potential campsites targeted for our use. We found one at about 7:00, quickly set up camp in the rain and cooked dinner (hot dogs.)
It's now 8:45 and it's been raining since before 1:00. I'm tired of rain. I suspect that we will be dealing with it for most of the trip. My clothes are wet - especially my shirts and my underwear. Fortunately, I brought several pair of underwear, but I neglected to pack my extra shirt. My short sleeve shirt is quick dry and my base layer long sleeve shirt is capilene and they should be mostly dry by morning.
We learned a lot of lesons from the last trip here. Packing lighter being the primary lesson. Despite the rain and the low water, today went very well.
Day 4
Didn't sleep well last night. Big surprise. I never do - sometimes I don't sleep at all on camping trips, particularly the first night. I actually fell asleep somewhat early, but things went south from there - I woke up around midnight, then dozed off and on (mostly off) until we got up in the morning. Fortunately, I had my Sony MP3 player to help pass the time and keep my mind from racing like it usually does when this happens.
I got up and immediately realized that this was the first time in several years that I had a 'warm' sleep on a cold weather night. I attribute that to my new sleeping pad, which is closed cell rather than open cell. Meaning if it gets poked or punctured, it still insulates against the cold and pads against the hard ground. The drawback is that it takes up a LOT of room compared to an inflatable pad like I used to carry. The next thing I noticed was that neither of my shirts dried at all overnight. I had hung them up inside the tent to get them as much air as possible. Unfortunately, the air inside the tent was already extremely humid, so there just wasn't much of a drying opportunity. But I put them on and went about the morning camp chores… cooking breakfast (not much to cook - I had a Cliff bar (cool mint chocolate) and some beef jerky - Chris had a pouch of granola with powdered milk) and taking down the tent and packing everything up. By the time we were ready to go, my shirts were mostly dry and I was feeling better about the day.

Photo: Chris

Photo: Me

We launched the canoe and headed for the next campsite, which was on the next lake over - which was actually the Kawishiwi River. But it didn't flow and where we were camping was much wider than a river. This site was to be our basecamp for the next two days. When I'm out camping, I'm much happier working from a basecamp than I am moving camp every day. It makes the morning and evening much easier, mostly the mornings. As most of you know, I'm not a morning person and don't like to get up early. So any morning where we don't have to break camp and pack everything up is a better morning. It took us about an hour to get from camp 1 to camp 2.

Photo: Getting from camp 1 to camp 2

We had 3 spots targeted as good sites on the map. We got to the first one and determined that even though it was nice looking and had a good view, none of the tent pads were flat or level or even enough to pitch a tent on. They were either sloped, or the ground was lumpy, or there were roots and rocks… so we moved to the next one and found what turned out to be an excellent site, with a view of the lake to the west, which we thought would give us a good chance to see a nice sunset or two. So we re-set camp, cooked lunch (the rest of the hot dogs) and headed off for Fishdance lake, which was a couple hours away. It was a pleasant paddle, only one small portage (with no camping gear, so it was one trip) and miles of good water. It rained about 15-20 minutes of every hour, but it only got annoying a couple times, and likewise, wind was a problem only a couple times. The problem that wind causes is that a Kevlar canoe is very light, and doesn't displace a lot of water - so it's easy to paddle on flat water - it moves fast. And it's easy to carry on portages because it's lighter than fiberglass, aluminum, or royalex. But it doesn't have a keel, so that plus the high profile of the boat means that it can get easily blown off course by a moderate crosswind or a quarter wind… and it takes a lot of work to keep it on course. When you're fighting a sustanined wind of 20-30 miles per hour, you have to paddle full strength on one side of the canoe for several minutes at a time… and the arms and shoulders quickly tire out just paddling leisurely on one side… switching sides frequently is the secret.
But mostly this day was a really nice pleasant paddle. Easily, my favorite day on the Boundary Waters so far. We saw some old Ojibwa pictographs on the Kawishiwi River heading into Fishdance lake, which was really cool - worth the whole trip, in my opinion.

Photo: Pictographs

Photo: Same Pictographs, better picture

Someone found what I believe to be a moose skull in this campsite, and left it on one of the logs that has been set up as a bench. It's somewhat unsettling, but has also been adopted as our unofficial mascot. Also, someone left one sandal.

Photo: Camp mascot

At some point today, I dropped my fleece hat. It was quite cold when we started off this morning, but it got warmer and I took it off and put it in my rainjacket pocket. I have no idea where I dropped it, but it is gone. I hope this doesn't become a problem throughout the trip - I'll need it mostly to keep my head warm at night.
Dinner tonight was pre-cooked chicken, which can be bought in foil pouches. We heated those up on my camp stove, put it in pita pockets with mayo, pre cooked bacon and Tabasco sauce. Very tasty - that'll be a big player in future trips. After dinner, we tidied up the camp and stargazed for a long time, just chatting and relaxing. We saw 3 shooting stars. After a while, we got cold, dove in the tent. I took some nyquill, put the earbuds in and and now I'm ready to fall asleep to the sounds of Rush.

Photo: At a portage on Day 4

Photo: A little fall color

Photo: Camp 2

Photo: Me, waiting for the sunset

Photo: Chris, contemplating the sunset

Photo: Said Sunset

Here it is... trip report, Day 1 & 2

Trip Report, Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Sep 16-23, 2006

Sep 16: Travel Day

The day actually started the night before, as it always does. We traditionally go out to eat the last night before we leave for a trip, starting way back in 94 with dinner at Szechuan before we started driving for Wilson Peak in Colorado. Tonight's fare was Gloria's in Colleyville. A tasty meal indeed - flank steak with chimichirri sauce, argentine sausage, black beans and plantains. And a darn fine swirl.

After dinner, I went home and finished my packing and checklist process and went to bed. The alarm clock went off and I was up and getting ready, awaiting Chris and Charis to pick me up at 9:00. They arrived and I said goodbye to Helen and we were off to the airport. Traffic was painless, as it was Saturday. Checkin was relatively easy - even though we opted to check in at the ticket counter instead of our usual skycap checkin. Skycap has started charging per bag to check in (and they still expect a tip on top of it.) So - we hauled our giant suitcases and duffel bags up to the ticket counter and checked in there, then went in search of breakfast. It was McDonalds. With little other incident, we boarded the plane and were off to Minneapolis. Baggage claim, car rental were quite easy and we piled our bags in the Ford Explorer, hit the highway and took off for our hotel for night 1.

Which brings me to one of the odder parts of the story. The hotel is called the Sofitel. It's supposed to be French. It's a nice hotel, and not too expensive. We could have paid the same and stayed at a Best Western. But the decor is bizarre. It looks like something that one would expect to see in a 60's spy movie... maybe an Austin Powers... or for you video gamers, it's straight out of a N.O.L.F. level. It's difficult to describe - but I shot some video, which I will post as soon as I edit it.

After we dropped off our luggage, it was off to grocery store, REI, and lunch. We both thought we'd like to have Chik Fil A for lunch, so we went in search of the yellow pages in our room. There were none, so Chris called down to the desk to ask about it, and they said "we prefer to personally help our guests with finding what they need... our concierge will be happy to assist you." We both rolled our eyes at that, but decided to give them a chance. Especially since we didn't have a choice. At the concierge desk, we inquired as to the location of the nearest Chik Fil A, and were surprised to learn that there were none in Minnesota. But the annoying part was that it took the dude at the desk about 12 minutes of futzing with the computer and asking for help from their 'concierge veteran who knows everything there is to know about Minneapolis' to come up with that (this will be significant later.) Something we could have determined via the phone book in about 2 minutes.

We got in the Ford and took off for the grocery store to buy some dry goods and 'scout' to make our trip there the next day shorter and more efficient. On the way, we passed a mall and decided that we'd go in and head for the food court for lunch. En route to the food court, we passed an Annie's pretzel stand. In the morning, we saw an Annie's stand in the airport that was advertising a pretzel-wrapped hotdog, which we both thought sounded good.... so we stopped there to get lunch and a drink. While we were eating, my diet coke slid off the bench and spilled on the floor - making it the most expensive sip of diet coke ever.

After that, we went on to REI - where we had to buy a few items that we couldn't take on the plane, and to look around. REI is one of my favorite stores - and the Minneapolis store is one of three flaghip stores. It's huge and has LOTS of stuff. Plus, we figured that since it was so close to a paddling mecca like the Boundary Waters, it would have a more extensive paddling gear section where we might find a solution for our seat back/gear bag problems... The seat back/chair cushions we had chosen were not readily compatible with the under-seat bags we had chosen to hold our raingear, snacks, GPS, and water bottles... The way each attatched to the seat seemed to make the other one unable to attatch. But their paddling section was pitifully small, smaller even than the one in the Dallas store.

However, we did manage to get the stuff we NEEDED... which was stove fuel, stormproof matches, sport beans (jelly beans with electolytes and vitamins), and a couple other small items.

After REI, we went back to the hotel to relax a bit and watch some college football, and try to find a place to go to dinner. Again, cockblocked by no phonebook in the room, we were left at the mercy of the concierge to find out where we wanted to go. We knew that we wanted to go to 'Eat Street' which was the unofficial name of the street where there were a lot of restaurants. I figured that if *I* knew what the nickname of the street was, living in the DFW area, that the concierge who knew everything there was to know about Minneapolis would know where to point us. All we wanted was directions how to get to Eat Street, and we'd find a place there that looked good. Well, she had no idea what we were talking about. Well, she hemmed and hawed for several minutes about how she'd never heard of it... piddled about on the computer, and 10 minutes later still hadn't gotten us anywhere. People... pull up google.com, enter 'eat street, minneapolis' and you will get over 2 million results... the top 10 of which are extremely specific about the location and the EXISTENCE OF Eat Street. Eventually, she got that Eat Street was actualy Nicolette Ave and printed us up some directions... so we cruised up and went up and down Nicolette a couple times looking for something that was casual, but out of the ordinary. We settled on an english pub, where be both got Fish and Chips and a Newcastle. While we were eating, we discovered that we were across from the Minneapolis symphony's home, and they were doing some outdoor concert, so we got some live classical music while we ate (we were sitting outside.)

After dinner, we went back to the hotel, watched some college football on TV and relaxed. About this time, tornadoes were forming in the Minneapolis area, there were tornado warnings all over the Twin Cities area, and at least two touched down in the suburbs. I don't think we actually got any rain where we were, though. Eventually, I got sleepy and turned in. One thing I can say about the Sofitel... there was a lot of weird stuff ( time warp decor, incompetent concierge) but the beds were amazingly comfortable. One odd thing about the beds, though... no top sheet... just the bottom sheet and a comforter. But still... extremely comfortable.

Day 2: The drive

We got up somewhat early, packed the Explorer and took off to the north, after hitting the grocery store to buy our meats and other stuff that we didn't want to keep out of refrigeration for too long. This included meats, cheese, and stuff for dinner this night and breakfast the next morning. When we were done, we went north on 35 up through Duluth and on to Tofte, which is where our cabin, canoe, and wilderness permits all were. First, we checked in and got the key to our cabin, then unloaded the bags and took off to get the permit from the US Forest Service ranger station. That required us watching a goofy video and taking a quiz. Then on to pick up our canoe at Sawtooth Outfitters in Tofte. If you ever take a canoe trip to the Boundary Waters, I highly recommend them to you if you need to rent a canoe. They're very knowledgeable, reasonably priced, and friendly. And have a good selection of watercraft. As we were picking up our canoe, the woman who owns the place was telling us that water levels were very low, they've been having a drought up there worse than the one we've had in DFW. She specifically mentioned an area that we were going to have to go through the next day (and the last day) as being particularly low and difficult to get through as there is no portage around it. But we recalled that it was low and difficult the last time we went through 2 years ago, so we weren't too concerned.

We strapped the canoe onto the top of the Explorer and went back to the cabin.

Mud Dog the 3rd

The first thing I did once we got the canoe back to the cabin was take it off the Explorer and put it on the ground to see if I could make the seat back/gear bag situation work. After a little bit of futzing and fiddling, I got them to cooperate and determined that it was going to work out ok.

The cabin is one of several that make up the Sugar Beach resort on the shores of Lake Superior. It's called The East cabin… it was very nice, had a small kitchen, living room, 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. And a very nice view of the lake. It was nice to have the room to spread our gear out to pack in a large(ish) living room, instead of a small hotel room.

The Cabin

More Cabin

Angry Sky over Lake Superior

Calmer Skies

We had a long afternoon and evening to pack - it was quite nice. Usually we are up really late packing the night before, and it sucks to have to stay up late packing then get up early. We leisurely packed, watched football, I charged up the batteries on my digital camera and video camera, and cooked dinner (brats and sauerkraut.) Then we got all our trip food prepped, froze some lunchmeat and cheese that would be consumed the 2^nd 3^rd and 4^th days, and got everything ready for breakfast the next morning. The Cowboys were the Sunday night game, and it was nice to just relax and watch the game when we had everything done. The cabin was very nice, and we were very happy with it, and would definitely stay there again. Unfortunately, they usually only rent by the week, and not by single days. But we got lucky this time, and they had someone checking out the night before we stayed, and someone checking in the next day. It worked out perfectly.