One summer when I was Bishop of the Louisville 2nd Ward our Varsity Scouts went on a high adventure in the Boundary Waters area of northern Minnesota. I went along for the trip because both Ben and Joe were in the group. Brother David Beers was the scout leader who put most of the trip together. We had a 50 mile canoe trip planned. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area is very strict and limits the size of a group that can canoe at any one place. We had too many in our group to all go together so we divided into 2 groups. We had a circular route planned. Half of the group went clockwise and half went counterclockwise. That meant we would pass each other one time halfway through the trip.
The trip began with a long car ride from Louisville to the starting point in the far northern part of Minnesota. As I recall, it took about 18 hours of driving. We had made arrangements with an outfitter to supply the canoes, so all we had to take was our packs with clothing and food and sleeping bags. We made it to the outfitters without incident and they took us to the starting point. One group started out to the left and one started out to the right. Our planned route involved canoeing the length of many different lakes that were close together in an end to beginningl arrangement, much like the holes on a golf course. The map made it look like each lake was very close to the next one. Each lake was connected by an overland trail that was called a portage. We soon learned to hate the word, "portage." At the end of the first lake we came to our first portage. Here we had to traverse the trail twice, once to carry our backpacks and other supplies, and a second time to carry our canoes. This involved turning the canoe upside down and resting the bottom on top of our heads. There were two of us to each canoe and it took both of us to carry it across the portage. It was a little difficult to see with the canoe hanging over our heads. Sometimes we just held the canoe at our sides and held it off the ground as we walked. Neither way was all that easy. The canoes felt pretty heavy once they were out of the water. To make matters worse, the trail went through thick woods that were infested with hungry mosquitoes. We would spray ourselves with Deet and that would keep the mosquitoes away, but as we walked and sweated the mosquito repellent would wear off and the attack would begin. Some of the portages were short and some were way long (I think the longest was about 1 mile). Canoes were obviously made for moving through the water and not so much for carrying across land.
We were in bear country. At each campsite we would tie ropes around our packs and haul them high up a tree to keep them away from the bears. The very first night we had a bear attack. We were awakened in the middle of the night by the sounds of something pulling and ripping at somebody's backpack. I remember feeling pretty scared, but also thinking about needing to protect the scouts. I had a flashlight that also had an emergency siren included and thought that I could maybe scare the bear away by turning on the siren. So I opened my tent and turned on the siren. As I did this, the thought occurred to me, "Well, you just let the bear know where you are." I can't remember how, but we finally got the bear to leave our camp. In the morning, we found out that Brian Haynes had his backpack taken and destroyed by the bear. Apparently, Brian didn't pull it high enough off the ground. The bear was able to stretch up and get the pack. It was all ripped up. Brian had a squeeze bottle filled with honey that was totally trashed. I remember we could see holes in the bottle from the bear's claws. That morning while we were eating breakfast we saw a bear (we think it was the same one) up the hill a little way from camp. It was a black bear. Luckily, it stayed away and left us alone. That was the only bear sighting we had the whole week, but it sure was memorable. More to come...
That would have scared me to death!!
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