Note: all pics are less than 60K

Since 1971, I've been traveling in the BWCA. This past summer, I again took some students along to experience the wilderness. We took off from home around 5 am and drove to Virgina Mn. were we stopped to view the great open iron pits. The large trucks used for hauling dirt and taconite seem to impress the kids. From Virginia, we travel to Soudan Mn to tour the underground iron mine. If you are ever in this area, you must do this tour. It is a tremendous experience.

After spending a night at Cliff's campground and having a quick breakfast, we are off to Snowbank Lake to launch our canoes. Heading out into the wilderness, we encounter mostly smooth going. Some of the paddling takes us across lakes and some up or down small rivers. For most of the week, we enjoyed almost no wind making paddling very easy.

Getting from lake to lake or lake to river often requires making a portage. A portage is when you pick up all of your gear and carry it over an obstacle to the next launch site. It's a trick to get that canoe up by yourself but once you have master that, portaging is fairly easy - yea right. At time, it is possible to navigate your canoe through small streams. This is not as easy as it looks and teamwork is a must. Otherwise you may find yourself being left behind.

Mealtime is almost as much work as paddling. First you must find good wood, cut it into useful sizes, then split it so it will burn better. Then you have to get a fire going. Soap the cooking pots, mix water with the dehydrated food and cook it.

After a week of this routine, I found that some of the guys got a little tired. Guess its the age : )