Postcards from Minnesota

We covered quite a bit of ground over three weeks in Minnesota (Aug 22 – Sept 14)! Great times with family and friends, Minnesota State Fair, shenanigans in downtown Minneapolis and favorite spots in St Paul, and five fantastic days paddling in the Boundary Waters.

Deep and heartfelt thanks to Kayla’s sister and brother-in-law – Ione and Gary – for hosting us and letting us spread out in their basement. We tried to earn our keep by helping out with some projects around the house:

We got to the Minnesota State Fair, merely 8 days after we enjoyed the Iowa State Fair! We spent the day with one of our favorite Minnesota families: Laura, Gary, Lily, and Jack.

Highlights of other fun times around the cities, including seeing some old friends who just dropped in to the cities for 24 hours, to getting a seat for the Original Juicy Lucy at Matt’s Bar.

We also took at five night paddle trip through the Boundary Waters! We were guided by Kayla’s friends from way back in Holden Village Days Nils Dybvig and Michele Braley. Here’s the route for you BWCA Fanatics.

First we stayed overnight in sweet little Sandstone, MN with Nils family. Nils dad, Lee, has been guiding and paddling the Boundary Waters since he was 16. He had the canoe and Duluth Packs that we would need for the journey. The next day we headed to Ely, just on the edge of the Boundary Waters, so that we could get an early start the next day. And boy, the next day was HOT, in the 90’s, as we paddled and portaged to try to find our first camp. The forecast was for rain in the evening and next day, so we wanted to get ourselves set up as soon as we could. Unfortunately, even with limited entry permits, it was a very busy day on the lakes. The portages were backed up, and the close sites were taken. We ended up traveling twice the distance we intended to get to our first campsite in Lake Jordan. As forecast, the rain set in, and the next day was cold and wet. We elected to stay put and wait out the weather. It worked! The remaining days of our trip were sunny, clear, and much more tolerable temps.

Total miles paddled: 58
Portages: 13
Total portage distance: 2.6 miles (one way – we needed two trips to move canoes and gear at each portage).

OK, let’s address one quirky thing about portaging, maybe just in the Boundary Waters, maybe everywhere, I don’t know. That is measuring the distance of a portage in “rods“. A rod is an old English measurement, and works out to 16.5 feet – about the same length as a canoe. Maybe. Our canoe was 18.5 feet. But, for whatever reason, when we talk canoe portages, we talk rods. Our first portage out of the gate was 140 rods. Pretty serious, especially since our food barrel was completely full (and it was over ninety degrees).

What a trip! On our final day, we had a big paddle, then loaded up the canoes and car, then dropped off the canoe in Sandstone, then drove back to Burnsville all in one big day. Oh, and we had long hot showers.