| 26.9.17 18:26 |  |  | I have exactly one photo on my phone taking during our loop around the BEAUTIFUL Boundary Waters Canoe Area - here it is. I actually connected to the AT&T 3G network just long enough to annoy everyone on Facebook for having brought along my phone (what, you don't do that?) and this was during that time Sunday morning. We eventually got deep enough in that even that wasn't happening. I haven't used my CAMERA camera since the Paul McCartney concert I attended (Cinco de Mayo 2016) but brought it song for the trip; it was working fine and holding a charge so there'll be a lot of probably really boring pictures to come along with POSSIBLY some unattractive candids of my very attractive river guides (we'll do some haggling to see what gets made public ;-) ) - for now I wanted to say that having had no clue what I was really doing, having not roughed it with a backpack in probably 25 years, somehow I STILL managed to survive AND not change my shorts, underwear OR socks ONCE. I also went without once having to poop using any of the US Forest Service latrines - I used to manage to go the whole week back on the high school trips, but I don't think I would have done that this time. It did rain, but never while we were trying to get anywhere. The bugs were manageable. One particular mouse did seem to want to kill me and I experienced some trauma there, but that was really the roughest nature I encountered. We saw beavers, otters, squirrels and/or chipmunks (they did look different) and I even managed to be alone on a trail when I heard the not entirely graceful flutter of a wild turkey, which sadly I failed to capture in photo form. But what can I tell you about Kelsey and Andy that you don't already know? They are truly lovely, special people who I had the great honor of sharing close quarters with, had good times, talked, didn't talk and watched it happen around us, and pretty much fed me because all I brought was jerky, oat bran sesame sticks and gummi worms because they told me to leave it to them. They also (along with Kimber and I think Molly) helped gear me up - MAN I want a sweet Duluth Pack bag of my own now - because everything I'd ever hiked with was either back at my parents' house or more likely in a landfill from lack of utility and age. Speaking of which, I wore some of my oldest K-Swiss Classics - ALSO my hiking shoe of choice back in the old days - but did not realise how truly old these were as they deteriorated RAPIDLY over the course of the 48 hours...I'm sure it didn't help that I was constantly swapping them out for the $2 flip flops I acquired on the Portland trip, but I was certain that these shoes needed to be kept dry lest they completely dissolve. Amazingly, I managed to keep them dry - I DID squish the mud a few times, but it always came off. There's a good photo of THAT somewhere in my camera, too. ANYWAY. Andy, Kelsey, I love you, we MUST do it again, I'll happily carry a hundred pounds on my back if I have to if it means Andy will manoeuvre a canoe on HIS (although maybe I can try it next time too) and now I know the meaning of "portage" I'll prrrrrrobably never forget that a rod is 16 AND A HALF feet. Next time we go more days, fart around way more, get things a LITTLE more peak in the leaf department, MAYBE slip in and out of Canada "by mistake" AND just once, get a good fire going, even if it kills us. "I'll just blow on it some more!" Photos eventually. I definitely feel blessed. |
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