Minnesota Boundary Waters

I flew up to Ely, Minnesota to visit Cynthia for a couple of weeks while she was on vacation from the Voyageur Outward Bound School. She worked there this summer as an instructor leading teenagers on canoeing expeditions. We took our own twelve day expedition, sans teenagers, through some of the same lakes traveled by Outward Bound groups.

We were fortunate to undertake our journey during the longest days of the year. The weather was beautiful, if unseasonably cold and windy. The Boundary Waters can be a dangerous place to travel for the untrained or careless. The wind was a real concern but we were blessed by no lightening the entire trip. (When there’s lightning, you gotta pull out and wait it out in a safe location.)

The wildlife was amazing, including, of course, the mosquitoes. They were voracious and unstoppable at times, and I experienced the remarkable annoyance of No See Um swarms for the first time. But the bites were more than offset by the things I’d never seen before, such as the moose with her two babies, the fuzzy Herring Gull chicks, and a family of beavers close enough to touch.

Like our Australia trip, I took most of the photos while Cynthia kept a journal that formed the basis for the text. Enjoy!

-Jason