i'm getting some photos ready for a trip report but thought i
would post this first..i was back in the BWCA again this spring.
most all my other paddeling for the last twenty or so years has
been up in the Q..this year i went back to a camp south of Coleman
Island that i was last in back in the 80's.it was the camp where
i almost threw in the towel and called it quits..





i was using a heavy fiberglass canoe and old Scout and Army gear.
the chow was not well thought out and i had no idea what i would
be up against..i had canoe camped "out East" but it was much tamer
than the BWCA around Lac La Croix.i had just one nice day that
September before it turned to cold and drizzle.i was sleeping
under the canoe with a small --8x10--tarp..damp,dirty and just a
little concerned about my ability to cross LLC again to get back
to the car park at the Echo Trail..
i had the canoe turned over with the open side facing those low
Evergreens and the bow up to the rock ledge in the background.
after a very bad dinner i sat and went over the map and thought
that if i got out early and paddled all day i could get to the
Sioux River in two days..my mind was made up--this was a mistake..
find another hobby--However!!--next AM the sky had cleared and
was filled with small white clouds..the view down into Lady Boot
Bay was a total knockout--picture book stuff..well needless to say
i went down the bay and camped--caught fish--the weather held and
that funky downer feeling you get in bad weather lifted and i never
missed a Spring/Fall canoe trip since--