When I was around 8 years old my dad took the family camping
in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. I
know that we camped on an island on Saginaw Lake, but for the most part my
memories of the trip end with a fishing pole and a metal minnow bucket full of
holiday soda being lost to the depths of the lake. Now 45 years later, I had made the decision to delay my surgery for a second journey. As a 50th birthday present to my wife, Edie, I would take part of my family, return to the BWCA and spend four days camped on an island. Where we would fish and relax before our lives change on August 4th.
This was a trip that Edie and I had talked about taking for years and for both of us had placed it on our bucket lists. So this past weekend eight of us took off to spend a long weekend on Lake Isabella some 35 miles Southwest of Ely, Minnesota. Accompanying Edie and I on this trip would be our daughter Jen, her husband Sam and some friends from my hometown of Princeton who I talked into keeping us alive. Thankfully these friends have experience in the BWCA and successfully got us greenhorns in and out in one piece. Seriously though, without them this trip would not have happened.
So to Chris, Sheila, Rodney and Barb. Thank you.
We chose Lake Isabella due to the fact that it was a short
portage (about 80 rod, or 1/4 miles) from our cars and only about a mile or so
canoe paddle out to the islands. We set
up camp on “Clown Island”. OK, it’s not
officially named Clown Island, I just
kind of made that up. You see at the
front of the island there was a rock formation that served as an entry point to
the lake. The rock was pocked marked
from centuries of wind and weather abuse. Once the rock got wet and started to dry, a laughing clown face could be
easily seen on the rock. If have a fear
of clowns then this image is not one you would want to see staring at you every
day. And yes, every day we checked to see if the face was still there or had it
moved. You know how clowns can be!
The four days up there flew by. We explored, fished, and relaxed. We dodge mayflies, mosquitoes and raindrops
the size of potatoes. We watched as some
of the ugliest bugs you have ever seen crawl out of the water and morph into
amazing brilliantly colored dragonflies. We tipped a canoe and lost a bait
caster, only to our resident fishing pole finder, Chris, find it again. We tried lure after lure to catch fish, and
since there were rocks all around, we lost lure after lure. Still in the end we caught enough Northern
and Walleye to have a nice fish fry. For
this brief time the eight of us were one
group out of 4 on the entire 1500 acre lake. Instead we shared it with Bald Eagles, Vultures, and some bird who’s call
sounded like the Mockingjay call out of the Hunger Games. Peaceful and relaxing, just like we thought
it would be.
We had great weather on Friday but caught some rain on Saturday. The Saturday break gave a chance for a few of us to sneak into Ely for a Burger and a Long Island. Sunday was amazing and we spent most of the day fishing and exploring the inlets and rivers on Isabelle. We had our fish fry on Sunday night and were treated to an spectacular sunset. We left on Monday during a massive downpour, but in the end we all made it out. A little wetter than we had hoped, but alive and planning what we will bring in next time we go.
For me going to the Boundary Waters was more important to me than any food tour I could do. Don’t get me wrong, I love to eat and I do it well. However, the BWCA trip was something I was planning before I knew about this CDH-1 mutation so I needed to see if through. I wish that I could go back there again before the surgery, but there just isn’t going to be enough time. I can tell you this though, sometime after August 4th, when my body allows it; I will go back.
Event #3. Valleyfair (date: TBD). I want to feel the bottom fall out of my stomach on a roller coaster one last time.
Bouncin on a bubble full of trouble in the summer sun
Keep your raft from the river boat
Fiction over fact always gets my vote
And wrinkles only go where the smiles have been
(Barefoot Children In the Rain Jimmy Buffett)
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