2009 BWCA Trip Intro

On my family's forum I promised to finish this, but seeing as I'm spending more time here I'd thought I should post it here as well.

For those that don't know, I come from Minnesota. Though in the southern part, especially around the Missisippi river, there is substantial population density, as you get further north it turns to many lakes and forests, and decreasing population; the last major population center in the north is Duluth, and after that it turns to what we call "The Sticks"... trees, trees, and more trees.

The Canadian borde is fairly popular with hikers, campers, and canoers because so little of it is claimed in terms of construction, by either Canada or the US.

As a last Father-Son bonding experiance, I and my Father traveled up north with the truck and canoe, and prepared for about a week out in the wilderness. Height of Land

"The portage between South and North lakes in the eastern BWCA may not appear out of the ordinary, but it marks a hydrologic feature as impressive as the Rocky Mountains. Running ENE-WSW through the Boundary Waters, the Laurentian Divide separates the watersheds of the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence River, and the Atlantic to the east from those of Hudson Bay to the north. Futher west, the Laurentian Divide separates the Mississippi River and Hudson Bay drainages. The French-Canadian Voyageurs of the 18th and 19th centuries marked the occasion of crossing Height of Land with a ceremony:

"The novice took off his hat, and knelt. The oldest guide present, probably thirty years of age, cut off a stout cedar bough, and dipped it in the water. He lashed the initiate until he was drenched to the skin, and then in French, the language of the fur-trade, administered the oath. It required two promises, one, on his honour never to permit a new-comer to pass over the height of land without a similar ceremony, and second, never to kiss another voyageur’s wife without her consent. A cheer, a burst of gunfire and a toast highlighted the occasion. From that moment he was entitled to make the boast that commanded respect "Je suis un homme du Nord." "I am a man of the North.""

My father, his brothers, and my grandfather, they made trips like this before in their youth, and I suppose they can already make that boast in the half mocking tone that it would be used today. I myself have been on some canoe and hiking trips before, but this one would be the last, and I think that it had been the hardest test of my attitudes and skills until this eurotrip.