Boundary Waters (Day 1 - August 7, 2007

We left Northfield about an hour late because I had to finish packing and take the dogs to the kennel. MY BAD! /= It was a nice drive but took about an hour longer than expected because the camp is in the middle of nowhere! We thought it was closer to Grand Marais. Another oops! Needless to say, we were later in our arrival than expected. We also stopped in Duluth for some lunch and to take a quick drive through Canal Park. We have driven past the place so many times without Lorrie having the opportunity to show it to me, we just had to stop. It was also the first time I could actually see what it's like coming into Duluth. It has always been night, foggy, or raining like crazy when we've gone up North! lol

When we finally got to the camp, we followed the directions and then the signs along the gravel road. All this time, Lorrie has decided that she isn't going to talk anymore for awhile. If you know her, you will know that this is a significant and very strange thing. I actually handled it very poorly because I'm used to her running commentary on how beautiful everything is. We stopped and took some goofy photos... and still she was quiet. Then I started getting a little irritated, which she found funny. Arrgh! lol She finally did say something once we were on the end on the dock looking at the scenery. And it was back to normal! That was a stressful 5 minutes! lol

We ended up at a boat launch! Weird! So we went back and stopped at the caretaker's house to ask him what to do. He explained that the little boathouse down by the launch had an intercom and that we were to use that to call across the lake to the camp so that someone would come over in a pontoon and pick us up!! Ha! Very interesting! So that's what we did. Then we went up and started getting our stuff out of my SUV so that it would all be down there when the boat arrived. Apparently it's a short trip because our guide, Amy Teadecki, was up by our car in no time! She helped us get our stuff to the pontoon and then across Bear Skin Lake we went! I was so excited at this point. I could not believe that my Boundary Waters trip was actually happening! It seemed unreal. And then it started to settle in and I began getting a little nervous. lol

We got to the camp and went to the room where we'd be staying. Then Amy took us upstairs to the dining hall. We were just in time for dinner. Typical!! lol It was a typical camp-type cafeteria... totally full of teenagers! Ha! The kids at Camp Menogyn go on 8-40 day trips... backpacking, canoeing, and rock climbing. It's an incredible operation!

After dinner we went to see the fleet of canoes. We talked to a guy who graduated from St. Olaf that builds and maintains a lot of the canoes. Very knowledgeable. And now I can't remember his name either! Arrgh! He was recanvassing a wood canoe, which is apparently a pretty detailed process. It was amazing to see how that all works! We picked out our canoe, Amy put her name on it, and we were set. The they had a fireside thing, it had a name but I can't remember what it was. "Last word" or something like that. Afterwards we spent time going through the clothing we had brought to make sure we didn't take too much and that everything would be useful. I took some things out of my pack but actually had done quite well... for a terminal overpacker!! Lorrie and I put all our clothes into 1 dry bag and Amy used a smaller one for her stuff. We left raingear, camp shoes, and some other things out of those bags to be stuffed into the Duluth Packs for easy access. We also carried 1 daypack for raingear, sunscreen, first aid, etc. That together, we got ready for bed, did some reading, and then were asleep by 10:30pm or so. Wow!! We slept on bunkbeds in "Spring Room!" Isn't that cute!?