Boundary Waters
Day 1 – Lake One to Hudson Lake(11.2 miles)
Fast forwarding past all the morning details, Nathan and I pushed off from the bank of Lake One around 10AM. Nathan manned the stern, and I navigated from the bow. Nathan was essentially a newcomer to canoing and he had to quickly learn to paddle efficiently. To my surprise, he understood how to use a J-stroke to keep the canoe moving in a straight line – a skill many never learn. As for navigation, the GPS did everything. Prior to the trip, I routed the entire trip using Google Earth. So we just played connected the dots with the GPS screen, and we only became turned around when we didn’t listen to it.
Nathan loading the canoe after an early portage
Most of the day we saw plenty of tents pitched along the shoreline and families aimlessly paddling, enjoying the warm summer day. Having breezed through Lake One and Lake Two, the crowds already began to scatter at lunch. After a quick meal of ham & cheese on a bagel we continued on Lake Three, we pressed on past the numbered lakes. Eventually we reached Hudson to discover the island campsite that we had been coveting for months had been taken. Instead we had to “settle” for our seaside fortress and a steak dinner. Yes, it’s a rough life.
The Good Life
Little did we know that we were not alone at our campsite. You see, this overly-friendly squirrel thought he owned the entire place. As landlord, he exacted a property-tax only payable in trail mix. We could never ask the critter why he preferred peanuts and raisins over the rest of our food, but eventually we blockaded the squirrels attempts by tying the food into a tree. The rest of the evening we enjoy sites like this…
Sunset on Hudson Lake
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