An Experience at the National Jamboree

One of my more memorable activities this summer was going to the Summit Bechtel Reserve in West Virginia to attend the 2013 National Scout Jamboree. Before that, however, we decided to tour the east coast for about a week. On July 6th, 2013, we arrived at the SFO Airport at 6:00 P.M. After waiting for our flight to be reassigned due to the Asiana plane crash, we took off. Most of us, if not all, instantly fell asleep, while others stayed up a bit later.

After arriving in Boston, we got on a tour bus and started touring the east coast, starting with lunch. After eating lunch at Quincy Market and touring Faneuil Hall Marketplace, we toured Boston, visiting sites like the Bunker Hill Monument, USS Constitution, the Old North Church, Fenway Park, Plimoth Plantation, the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Memorial, Jenney Grist Mill, Concord, and North Bridge. While traveling in between these destinations over the two days we stayed there, we either walked along the Freedom Trail or took the bus. Along with these locations, we heard ghost stories, speeches, and saw how to load and shoot a musket.

After the two days were over, we went to New York on a four hour bus ride. Personally, I enjoyed Fenway Park the most because of its history. Some facts are that left field, AKA The Green Monster, was made to prevent people getting a free view of the games, the red chair in center field represents the baseball that went 502 feet and hit a New Yorker in the head. From that day on, the guy proclaimed his family a dedicated Boston Red Sox fan. Also, the foul poles are named after two different players, the first game played was eleven innings with 27,000 fans, and that numbers one, four, six, eight, nine, fourteen, twenty seven, and forty two are all retired for the Boston Red Sox.

The USS Constitution, a ship from the Revolutionary War.

Fenway Park - Home of the Boston Red Sox.

When we were driving to New York, our guide started explaining the history and how New York was organized. As we got off the bus the first time, we were alerted about pickpockets. We took note of them, and went over to see Wall Street, Trinity Church, Federal Hall, the 9/11 memorial, and the Statue of Liberty. After dinner, we went to Times Square and stopped by a tourist store.

Picking up a few postcards, our group went over to our final destination, a Broadway show featuring Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark. It is the most expensive show there is, people have died while performing due to falls, and it has the longest preview period. The show also holds the box office record for Broadway sales of $2.9 million in a week within nine performances.

A New York memorial for a dog team.

A WWII ship. Has many planes in and on it. It is the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum.

The next morning, we woke up, packed, ate, and left for Pennsylvania. We saw sculptures all over the city, along with the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and the National Constitution Center. At the National Constitution Center, we put accessories on a statue and took pictures of it! After that, we went to Hershey Park, an amusement park and a Hershey factory.

As soon as we were allowed to go off, we immediately went off to the roller coasters. I decided to stay on the fast roller coasters, like Fahrenheit, Sky Rush, and Storm Horse. At about 8:30 P.M., some of the kids met up and went to the giant Hershey store to buy candy and figure out how Hershey's chocolate was made. When we were all done, we left for the hotel.

Imitating a founding father.

"Dressing up" one of the founding fathers. 
We were going to use a phone instead of a wallet, but it didn't fit.

Our last stop was in Washington D.C. We went outside the White House, into the Smithsonian of Natural History. One big thing to see in D.C. was the National Archives, which had the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution of the US. Another was the guard change at Arlington National Cemetery. Guard shifts are either 30 mins, 1 hr, or 2 hrs depending on when your shift was. The guard must wait 21 seconds on each side, be perfect in uniform, and stay silent while on shift. Each guard only gets 3 mistakes before they get kicked out of the Honorary Guard.

Some memorials we saw were the World War II, Vietnam, Lincoln, Korean, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., Iwo Jima, and the National Boy Scout Memorial. Other non-memorial sites were Ford's Theater, the National Museum of Natural History, and standing right outside the White House. After three days, we left for the Jamboree.

"Holding" the Washington Monument

Finally, the big event: the National Jamboree. We first jumped off the bus after a six hour bus ride and carried a bag to our campsite, lining them up. Next, we started assembling camp, including the kitchen area, dining area, and tents. After assigning tents and unpacking, we all went off our own separate ways, returned for dinner, and slept.

The next morning, we had breakfast and went off to the opening arena show, where all 40,000 scouts were. When the show was over, we all went off and did our own separate activities. At first, my group wanted to go on the zip line, but no one was there, and we went to "The Barrels," or the shooting sports section. Arriving at noon, we stopped and rested before taking the orientations necessary that day. That day, I shot a shotgun, bolt action rifle, and a bolt action sniper rifle. The next few days, I traded patches, explored the Summit Center (the main area at the Jamboree), went to activities like zip lining and white water rafting, and bought items at the trading post.

Halfway through the week, it started raining, and lightning started coming within 8-12 miles, depending on the day. The storms always cleared up by night, and the green grass eventually turned into mud with the amount of rain going on. When the storms got really close, all activities were closed and the main path back to Base Camp Alpha and Bravo were closed. On two occasions, the storm got so bad that we had to run back inside our tents! During one of those occasions, a rain fly almost came off, and the people inside the tent decided to go out and fix it. Another time, the power went out during the white water rafting orientation, and lightning struck right outside the tent!

Near the end of our stay, we dug a trench and scattered hay all over to decrease the amount of water. On the morning of departure, it was sprinkling, and we had to take down the tents and dining area. After completing that and arriving under a tent at HQ, our bus finally arrived. We got on and drove over to Base Camp Foxtrot, where the Venture Crew was stationed. Picking them up, we finally left.

The first arena/welcoming show.

The first night.

The rain got in my bag and soaked my cards...

When we were out of the Summit Bechtel Reserve, we made our way back to D.C. and had lunch. Afterwards, we went to the Air and Space Smithsonian, touring the planes and shuttles there. Sadly, we had to go home right after that. We were so late that we managed to reach our gate with one minute to spare! About 80% of the plane were Boy Scouts, and the people sitting next to me said, "Oh, so that's why the plane was so empty," when we arrived at the gate.

The Blackbird. Fastest Speed: Mach 3+

Evasion tactics? Speed up and fly away when someone shoots at it.

Although those two and a half weeks are over, I still remember doing each activity as if it was yesterday. Even though I might have slept through a bunch of the speeches, movies, and presentations given, I still really enjoyed it and am looking forward to the World Scout Jamboree if I do go.

Brandon

Northern Tier Adventure 2013

Introduction

Exactly 90 years ago starting in 1923, scouts have been going to Northern Tier in Minnesota and Canada to canoe in the wilderness. This year, troop 33 had a chance to send 21 scouts and parents to embark on an adventure of a life time, and Brandon and I were lucky to get a spot. We spent a few months training in different lakes (including training with canoes in a swimming pool), making sure we were in decent shape for the trip, and finally, when June 16th came, we were ready.

Travel day to Minnesota

Early in the morning at 4:00 A.M. we woke up and headed to the airport. It was a beautiful typical California summer day with no clouds in the sky and still a bit cold early in the morning. All 21 of us checked in to Delta Air Lines as a group and we said goodbye to our loved ones knowing that we were not going to see them again for another 12 days.

The scouts, all properly dressed in their uniform, were too excited to sleep but a few of them managed to doze off shortly after take off. When they woke up, they all turned on their phone and played games, a few of them connected to free Wi-Fi on the plane but were disappointed when they discovered they can only surf within Delta Air Lines web sites.

Beautiful sky on the way to hotel

We landed at Minnesota Saint Paul airport at noon and found our chartered bus a while later. Gary did a marvelous job reserving the bus; it is a new, spacious bus that seats 57, so 21 of us had plenty of room with power strip at every seat, free Internet access, and so the boys were in heaven. Nathaniel brought “Miracle on Ice” movie that we put on, but only the adults seemed to watch it while the rest of the scouts had their nose stuck to their phone again.

Our bus ride to our hotel took about 5 hours. During the bus ride, I could not help but notice how beautiful the fluffy white clouds stood out against the clear blue sky, and how they reflected against the lakes as we passed by. I hoped the weather was going to be clear once we got on the lake.

We got to Giants Ridge (really a misnomer, since the highest slope that we saw was about 500 feet high), a golf and ski resort in the middle of nowhere. After we settled in, we went back out to the lobby and watched the NBA finals for a few minutes. Some of us took a walk around the resort, others went next door to play pool, snacked, watched some more basketball, and then went back to our rooms a couple of hours later.

Travel day to Northern Tier

The plan was to leave Giants Ridge at 8:00 A.M., and 10 minutes before departure there were no signs of 2 scouts anywhere. A quick check in their room found they were still sleeping, but to their credit, they did pack up in 10 minutes.

We stopped by a sporting goods place to get lessons on fishing and to buy fishing gear. The instructor did a good job teaching our scouts about fishing, and I think the two things that stood out were “Fish when the sun is in the trees” and our favorite: “You need license to fish, but you don’t need a license to kill mosquitoes”, a lesson we will get to know by heart a day later.

Troop 33 at Northern Tier Welcome Center

There was a whole welcome committee at Northern Tier waiting for us when the bus pulled in at about 1:00 P.M. Our interpreter Christopher (our guide, know as Christopher Robin to Nathaniel) was expecting us, knew our names already, and the staff made us feel very welcome. At this point, the 3 crews from our troop broke up and went our separate ways for practically the rest of the trip. After each crew checked into their cabins, we learned a quick history about the Northwest Company who traded with the Indians in the 1600s using the same water and portage trails we were about to embark. The scouts also had a chance to play the games the voyagers used to play: ax throwing, rope pulling, and stick wrestling.

Now came serious business: we went to the commissary to pick up our food for the trip, which was already pre-packaged earlier that day by our interpreter. All foods were labeled with B, L and D for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner respectively, and they were all in nylon bags. We added a bunch of Gatorade powder, some apple cider, hot chocolate, and finally, coffee.

We also checked out and inspected tents, stoves, and cooking utensils twice to make sure everything was in working order. It took us about two hours to go through this, and by the time we were done at 6, it was time for dinner in a very modern dining hall.

After dinner, we spent some time going over what we wanted out of the trip. As a crew (minus one person who fell asleep), we decided we wanted to see waterfalls, pictographs, and moose. Most importantly, we wanted to do 126 miles (because other crews wanted to do 125), but not too many portages. By the time we were done with route planning and got back to our cabin, it was already 11:30 P.M. The next day we woke up at 6:30 A.M., and it seemed way too early for us. Little did we know this was going to be the last time we got to sleep in that late over the next 9 days.

Day 1 - Departure

We woke up promptly at 6:30 A.M., packed all our stuff, left the cabin at 7:10 A.M., ate breakfast with our sister crews, and finished at 8:00 A.M. It took us a while to do the paperwork, buy all the maps we need, pick up our life jackets, paddles, our food and gear bags, and check out our canoes.

At the departure point

Finally, we were ready to leave. We carried all the bags and canoes down to the departure point and headed to the Canadian Ranger Prairie. This is a one-room cabin where we need to check in in order to enter Canada. The post was closed from 12 to 1 for lunch, when we got there at 12:30 we were happy to see our sister crews there. It seems like we were the only 3 crews that chose the Quetico route, while everybody else chose Boundary Waters. Lunch was a simple sandwich with cheese and ham, an apple, and a bag of cookies. We finished all of them. After saying goodbye to our sister crews, we went our separate ways into Quetico, Canada.

From the ranger station we went east zigzagging between Minnesota and Ontario, and an hour later, turned north, deep into Canadian territory. At 5:00 P.M., we got to our first campsite in Carp lake, where we dried our feet, set up our tents and cooked our first meal. Dinner included fajita, Mexican rice with chicken and tortilla. The chicken was precooked but fresh, and that would be the only time we had fresh food during this trip.

By the time we got to our camp, everybody ran out of water that we filled earlier from the cafeteria. We all filled our bottles with water from the lake and purified it with iodine. We had 3 Polar Pure iodine crystal bottles with us that can treat 2000 liters each, all in a bottle that’s not taller than 2 inches. Unfortunately some people figured out a way to make meth out of these crystallized iodines, therefore those bottles are no longer sold. Fortunately for us, Northern Tier stockpiled these bottles so we still have access to them. Drinking water from a lake treated with iodine was one of the firsts for me.

Another first was using the mosquito head net. Mosquitoes in Quetico are notorious, aggressive, big, and are around all the time. There are so many mosquitoes that if you stay quiet, you not only hear the buzz from the mosquitoes around you, but you can actually hear the rest of the mosquitoes hum in the forest. I forgot that I had the net on and tried to eat through the net. Funny, I know, but I would get the last laugh because pretty much everybody else did the same sooner or later.

But by far, the most interesting first for me was taking care of business when nature calls. In the wilderness there are no bathrooms so you have to choose a place that’s 200 feet away from water, away from camp and use a shovel to dig a 6x6x6 hole. When you are done with your business, you have to cover it up and put a rock or a stick on top. To prove that you did not contaminate the shovel, you have to touch the shovel to your nose to show that the shovel was clean. And those mosquitoes were there just waiting for you to expose the skins that doesn't have mosquito repellent on, they were feasting while we did our business. Needless to say, we went as quick as possible.

Let me tell you none of the scouts used the shovel the first day, but by the second day, all of them had to use the outdoor toilet, nicknamed “the grumper”, and none of them made a big fuss out of it. It is funny to think that you can pretty much go to the bathroom anywhere in Quetico, but because we only had one shovel, it’s exactly like having only one bathroom in this vast wilderness.

We went to bed happy while the sun was still bright out, with the adults sharing one tent, and all 4 scouts sharing the other. The plan was to wake up at 4:30 A.M. (that’s 2:30 A.M. California time), but nobody complained.

Day 2 - Introduction to Portages

We woke up at 4:30 A.M. to a gorgeous morning. The sun was not quite completely out yet, and you could see the steam moving across the lake to the area where the air was warmer. You could see the sun's reflection in the calm water, and it looked just like a painting. We quickly packed, and by the time we were done with packing, the sky treated us with a gorgeous red sunrise.

A beautiful sunrise.

Today we got introduced to portaging, or carrying the canoe and backpacks across trails in between lakes. When people talk about canoeing, they don’t often think about portaging, but I found that was the toughest part of canoeing, and strangely, portaging was also a nice break from the monotonous paddling. When we approach the shore, the bowman jumps out before the canoe before it hits the shore, and pulls the canoe in so others can get out. Each person carries either a backpack or the canoe, and the person with the canoe would go first followed by the backpacks. At the end of the portage, the canoe is set down first, the backpacks after, and we would then jump back in the canoe and paddle away. 

This sounds easy, but each backpack weights more than 80 pounds. It takes two people to put it on, and finding a solid footing proved to be a challenge on these steep and slippery trails. Quetico trails are not as maintained compared to Boundary Waters because there are fallen logs you have to step over, and branches are sticking out blocking your canoes, but eventually we got this process nailed down.

At one of the portages

Portaging a canoe is also interesting. We chose the lighter Kevlar canoes that weight 47 pounds, and that proved to be a lifesaver. You put your hands on the handle of the canoe and rest the canoe on your thighs, rock it a couple of times and in one swift motion, lift it over your head and start walking.

Initially we tried not to get our feet wet, but as time went by, we got so used to portaging and the idea of our boots being wet and jumping feet first into the lake became second nature to us. It’s almost like putting your feet on Walmart’s parking lot, you just don’t think about it. Our excellent Cabela’s wading boots held up really well and must have prevented us from having a couple of ankle sprains every day.

After breakfast we headed out of Carp Lake. Now I am not kidding, but the next few lakes are named “This Man Lake”, “No Man Lake”, "That Man Lake", and “Other Man Lake”. It’s as if they ran out of names for the 10,000 lakes in the region, so the naming committee asked “Who wants to name the next lakes?” People pointed to some guy and said “this man, that man, the other man”, and so that’s how the lakes were named. As for how they came up with “No Man Lake”, take a guess.

The portages today were tough, with a lot of hills over slippery rocks. With the last portage of the day Miguel fell down and bruised his knee, Chris fell into the water, and Brandon fell as well, but his gloves saved him from any injuries.

A typical one-pot dinner

We got to camp at about 4:00 P.M., totaling 16 miles for the day. We were getting a hang of things now: waking up early, paddling in a straight line, eating lunch, setting up camp, and cooking dinner.

Animals saw so far: 2 turtles (nicknamed Mr. Twirtle and Mr. Twirtle Jr. Every turtle seen after that was named Mr. Twirtle), a moose antler, a lot of loons, bald eagles, and ducks.

Lunch was pita bread with cheese and sausage and nuts with M&Ms. Dinner was tortilla soup with beans, rice, beef, and bacon. Dinner is always a one-pot meal; we put all ingredients in a pot and boil it, but Miguel did his magic and all the meals turned out delicious.

Day 3 - Leave No Trace

We woke up at 4:30 A.M. again, left at 6:10 A.M. and went through several lakes and portages. We passed by 3 waterfalls or so, each about 10 to 20 feet high, and we were real careful not to get pulled into the current and go over. It was a nice break from the scenery but the waterfalls are nothing like the ones we used to see in Yosemite.

For breakfast we had instant oatmeal and raisins. For the adults it's a struggle to make coffee and eat breakfast in time for departure, so to save time, Scott and Christopher used coffee as hot water for oatmeal; it was so efficient Scott swears he will keep doing this again after coming home. 

Boy scouts does a good job teaching the concept of “Leave No Trace”, and our scouts excel at this, but Northern Tier took it to the next level. We learned a new way to wash our bowls without dumping the food scraps in the wilderness. After we are done with oatmeal we put hot chocolate and hot water in the same bowl, stirred it up, drank it, and licked it clean. Then we added hot water to the bowl again, use our finger to rub out any food that was still stuck to the bowl, and then drank the water. All clean!

One of the new terms we learned at Northern Tier was “happy spooning”. Because we cannot throw away any food, we had to eat everything we cooked, and that meant everybody was forced to take turns having a spoon of the left over food until all the food was gone.

Bear Bag

People who go to Northern Tier are very serious about protecting the environment and leave no trace. During the entire 9 days on the water, we only saw one Gatorade bottle cap, which we promptly picked up. Quetico is so pristine, and if not for the campsites you could not tell if humans had ever set foot there.

One of the big concerns in the wilderness is bears, and therefore we took great care hanging our food box high up in the trees to prevent bears ransacking our food supply. Each night, we had to find a tall tree and throw a rope over the branch, hoisted the two very heavy food packs 30 feet up in the air and leave them up there all night. When we couldn't find tall trees to make a bear bag, we made a bear alarm, and if the bag was too close to the ground, it was considered a bear piñata. We hadn't seen any signs of bears anywhere, I guess they got tired of eating dehydrated food too.

Lunch was a bagel with peanut butter and an energy bar. Dinner was Rotini with tomato sauce, carrots, and onions. Dessert was pudding made by adding water to some mysterious vanilla flavored powder, and it tasted surprisingly good. Even cream cheese cake powder tasted good, the scouts can testify to that. 

Day 4 - Dawn Paddle

We woke up at 3:30 A.M. for what we called a “dawn paddle”.  It was surprisingly light out, and by the time we left camp at 4:30, we could see the clouds in the sky, and the water was smooth a glass, allowing the canoes to glide effortlessly.

A very calm lake

About an hour later, we stopped on the lake for a breakfast of granola and dried fruits, while keeping our eyes out for the upcoming weather. It would rain on and off today, making the rocks and trails slippery. 

Perhaps the combination of slick trails and waking up at 3:30 A.M. got to everybody, because everyone fell down while portaging today. I fell down and wet my left side, and then my right side. As if that wasn't enough, I fell down while getting off the canoe, wetting all my clothes, including the fleece I wear for warmth. Completely wet from head to toe, I started going up the trail, but I fell 6 feet down the cliff, banging my head on a tree while carrying a 80-pound gray whale pack. It took me a full 2 minutes to right myself and pull myself up.

It’s only natural to see some bruises and bleeding while going through a day like this, and when I saw blood on my shoe and a cut above my ankle, I thought nothing of it. Half an hour later, the small puncture would continue to bleed, and our interpreter confirmed it was a leech bite. When we got to the next camp, I found another leech latched onto the same wound. I pried it out, took some pictures, and Andrew took the leech and tossed it back in the lake without debate.

At the bottom of the waterfall

At the end of the day, we found the prettiest camp so far. It was spacious, flat, relatively free of mosquitoes, and right next to the waterfall. When we got to camp there was a group of girls who was at the camp already, about to leave. The older scouts (not naming names) went and talked to them, I am not sure what was said but they left in a hurry :-)

The waterfall next to the camp was a lot higher about 200 feet high, and there was a “bath tub” somewhere under the falls where the scouts spent some time there. They went out to fish afterwards and did not catch any fish, causing one scout to proclaim “there is no fish in this lake!”

The highlight of the day was definitely seeing the moose. Around noon, when we were getting out of the narrow waterway into a bigger lake, we saw a mother moose and its two calves running alongside the shore. Throughout the day, we saw a lot of moose droppings on the trails, so we knew there are some close by, but it's still amazing to see these in real life. The mother moose was huge, even seen from half a mile away. We also had fun coming up with new words for the plural of moose: mooses, meese, and meeses (We started calling moose meese from then on).

This was one of my favorite days on the trip. Seeing the moose, camping right by the waterfalls, spending time underneath the falls were heavenly.

Dinner: Spaghetti with carrots, peas, and tuna. 
Dessert: A chocolate muffin. 
Animals seen so far: big turtles, small turtles, loons, moose, and eagles.

Day 5 - Fish Galore

We went to bed at 9:30 P.M. the night before, woke up at 3:30 A.M. again today, left at 4:30 A.M., and canoed in the lake all day until 12:30 PM.

Catch of the day - trouts

We spent all day in Agnes Lake that day because it was a long lake and that allowed us to canoe all day without portage. This is the only lake where we were allowed trolling, therefore we left the fishing line in the water while paddling. We were limited to 4 fish a day, and each scout promptly caught one fish each, with Brandon taking 2 tries as the first fish got away. Andrew almost hooked Brandon in the finger, so disaster was averted. I have yet to find out the story about Nathaniel afraid of touching the fish!

We got to camp at 12:30 P.M., took an hour to eat lunch, and went out again to do another 9.5 more miles in addition to the 14 miles we already did today. This would end up being the day that we covered the most miles, certainly helped by no portages and a calm lake.

The scouts gutted, cleaned, filleted the fish and cooked it for dinner. They first put some salt and pepper on the fish, fried it, rolled it in flour and fried it again. We had fish and rice for dinner, the best dinner ever on the trail.

Because we got to camp so early that day, I built a fire by pouring fuel on the wet woods and somehow, I managed to start the fire.  Everybody put their wet clothes around the fire, and I managed to put Brandon’s underwear a bit too close to the fire, and it burned 2 big holes in it. He thought it was the Deet Mosquito Repellent that did it :-)

The sunset was gorgeous today, as you can see in the pictures. The scouts already were in the tent but we had to drag them out just for a few pictures. It was definitely worth it.

Brandon and Chris

Andrew and Miguel

Scott and Zach

Day 6 - I smell Pizza

Because we covered 24 miles the day before, we got to have a late start; we woke up at 4:00 A.M. today. Woohoo!

Portaging the canoe

One of the portages involved crossing a very small lake. The water is stagnant leaving leaves and other debris nowhere to go, and over the years they became mud, making the shore smelly and soft. The first person who got stuck was Brandon who was waist deep in the mud, with an 80-pound bag on his back, and he had to use the canoe to push himself up and shimmy over to solid land.

Nathaniel got stuck next, and then I fell down and got stuck later with my backpack on as well. I found out you cannot simply pull your leg up, you have to wiggle your foot to free it one inch at a time, and pull hard once you have only about a foot left. I was tempted to take out my camera and record when Scott and Miguel both got stuck, but common sense prevailed and I helped pull them out instead. Scott and Miguel both fell down again later, scraped their legs during a portage, and ripped their pants.

Back massage after a hard day

The headwind on Kabshapiwi Lake was awful. We had to paddle very hard in open water, resting briefly behind small islands before regaining our strength, and paddled furiously again. 

On the way to the campsite, we saw some pictographs on the side of the rocks made by the Indians thousands of years ago. We can clearly see the paintings of canoes, humans, moose, and turtles. The Indians regard these pictographs as sacred so we were not allowed to take any picture. Nevertheless, it was definitely a neat peek into history.

The goal was to do 14 miles today, and we thought it was going to be easy. It turned out to be much harder because of the tough portages and cross wind. In the end, we did it, but it was a hard 12 hours from 5:30 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. 

Everybody was exhausted from the last couple of days, so funny things began to happen. Brandon hallucinated on the water and he blurted out, "I smell pizza". It wasn't only pizza he smelled, it was pepperoni pizza, his favorite!

The rest of the night was fuzzy to me, I don’t even remember or wrote down what we did and what we had for dinner tonight.

Day 7 - Olympic style competition

There are so many lakes, blue skies, and trees you can take in at Quetico, so naturally we became bored after a while. To make things interesting, we started to grade each other on how we lift canoes. I think we got some 10’s out of the scouts at the end, and our guide Christopher got a perfect 10, and pumped the canoe up and down a couple of times for good measure.

Hey, aren't we supposed to paddle?

Christopher figured out a way to get the scouts to paddle harder: splash water at them and run away. He’s a pro at this, getting buckets worth of water with every stroke of his paddle. During one of these water fights Nathaniel and Zach’s canoe got swamped at the shore, but luckily we double bagged all the foods, and all our clothes were in the dry bags so no harm no foul. I think capsizing was the highlight of the trip for them.

We pretty much paddled against the headwind the whole day today, and as if to compensate for it, the portages were short and easy because we were getting closer to Boundary Waters. It was a pretty hot, sunny, and windy day, so we had a chance to dry everything that was damp so it felt great.

Seen so far: waterfall, sun, rain, beaver dam, wind, big lake, small lake, streams, bald eagles, loons, moose, beaver dam, turtles, fish.

Day 8 - "Short" naps

We’ve experienced headwind the last 2 days, so today we decided to get up early for a dawn paddle, meaning 3:30 A.M. wake up time again. I think we got 4-5 hours of sleep.

Dinner at camp

The portages today were short and easy, except for a 1-mile portage. We were also looking forward to a “Yellow Brick Road” portage, used in the old days by traders with Indians to trade beaver fur, which was popular in Europe at that time for fur hats and coats. All the scouts wanted to carry the canoe over this 1-mile portage, testing their strength and endurance.

When we got to camp, I got out my sleeping pad and laid down to rest. It seemed like 30 minutes but I slept for 3 hours, waking up from the same position I went to sleep in. At night after dinner, Brandon got a cup of hot chocolate and went into his tent to get something. He crashed in the tent too, and did not come out again. He didn’t even bother setting up his sleeping pad and sleeping bag out that night, and Andrew offered Brandon to use part of his sleeping bag. They’re still disputing who got to use the most of the sleeping bag that night. 

That night, the mosquitoes were so bad the scouts didn't bother setting up the rain fly after letting it air out.

Tomorrow would be the last day on the water. The portages would be easy, we only needed to do 9 miles, and the end was in sight.

Day 9 - Homeward Bound

We woke up at 5:30 A.M., a luxury at this point, and everybody’s spirit was high today.

We had to cook the last oatmeal in the pot today. It was not instant oatmeal, and it came out terrible, but like all the food during this trip, we consumed it all. After breakfast, we spent a good hour and a half scrubbing the pots and pans before heading out.

Storm approaching on the last day

We ran into a crew who went to the lake just to fish. They did about 50 miles over 7 days, and pre-arranged for a motorboat to pick them up the next day. What? We didn’t know that option existed! But we worked hard, and we were feeling good.

On the way back to Base Camp, we encountered one of our sister crews, and they stopped by a site a couple of miles away from Northern Tier, timing it so they could get into base camp by 1:00 P.M. By this time, a big cloud was coming, and we literally had 5 minutes to put on our rain gear and find a small island to take shelter on. We found out later that one of the canoes from the aforementioned sister crew got capsized in a wave during the storm.

The combination of rain and wind was nothing I’d ever seen before, it was pouring sheets of rain, the wind blowing the rain sideways, and the thunder was deafening. We put a rain fly up, everybody huddled under it, and our guide immediately started a game to get people's mind off the storm. It worked wonders.

I had to go to the bathroom when the storm calmed down a bit. About 5 feet away from me was a snake about 12 inches long, looking at me. My hand never let go of the shovel.

When the storm passed, we paddled back to base and stopped by the US/Canada border and took pictures at the "Welcome to Canada" sign. A bunch of girls were there, and they commented: "You guys looked rough". Yes, we’ve been out in the wilderness for 9 days, and yes, we did not take a single shower.

Home free!

When we got back to Northern Tier, words spread that we did 150 miles. Our interpreter who has been working there for 3 years said this is the longest trip he's ever done. One person came up and asked the four scouts if they were the crew that did 150 miles. We were a proud bunch.

Our interpreter Christopher said this was the best group he had ever had a chance to work with. Everybody worked well together, the teamwork was great, and everybody genuinely care for each other. The other two interpreters from our sister crews said the same thing about their crew. I believe it. 

We did not celebrate, we instead went to the sauna, and then we went to the trading post and indulged ourselves with souvenirs. The staff at camp put together a nice show for us at the end by the campfire.

Travel back

Back to civilization. We put on our clean clothes and headed to the cafeteria, where we ate a quick breakfast and departed soon after. All the scouts on the bus had their face stuck to their phone again except for Colin, who forgot to bring his.

It was heart-warming to step out of the plane and saw our loved ones waiting for us at the airport. We spent some time talking to each other, catching up, and exchanging stories before heading home for a well-deserved rest, where we can sleep past 3:30 A.M. and wake up whenever we want to.

Our awesome crew: Nathaniel, Zach, Andrew, Brandon, Scott, Christopher, Chris, Miguel

We’ve pushed ourselves to the limit and found out we were capable of doing things we never thought possible. As Nathaniel said when the scouts were debating to go for 125 or 150 miles “15 years from now, do you want to remember the fact that we did 125 miles or 150 miles?”. 

In the end, we covered 150 miles, crossed dozens of lakes, traveled through 50 plus portages, fell down and got up countless times, and suffered thousands of mosquito bites, so we are damn proud of what we've achieved together as a group. Nathaniel was right after all. Looking back now, we can remember with pride that we canoed 150 miles in Northern Tier.


Chris and Brandon


This is the route we took, it is actually 156 miles.