BWCA

Luke and I headed up to Ely on Saturday to "vacation" in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA)! We joined 3 other couples for a week of hard work and fun!

We arrived in Ely Saturday afternoon and after visiting Voyageurs North Outfitters, we made our way to our "hotel" and worked on unpacking and packing our packs, etc.

For many many years Luke and "the guys" went into the BW for an 8 day trip. This was the first year the girls were invited. The tradition is to eat a Bucky Burger at The Ely Steakhouse and sing karaoke on Saturday night before "going in" on Sunday.

The Ely Steakhouse

The Girls!
Mary, Ellen, Molly, Me

Luke, Skip, Dan and Matt

Matt and Ellen singing karoke-they rocked it!

Molly and I waiting to leave Sunday morning

Molly seriously ROCKED the trip! She carried the canoe (and her pack at the same time)! I was so impressed!!

Molly portaging the canoe

Luke portaging ours! :)

It was a tough trip and we traveled (canoed and portaged) a lot--we traveled about 25 miles! Us girls were proud that they didn't take it easy on us and baby us....as it was the hardest trip the guys had been on!

We went in at Entry Point 13 (Little Sioux) and camped at Shell Lake the first two nights!

Luke swimming in Shell Lake

Shell Lake

Skip and Mary's tent on Shell Lake

On Monday we had a nice, relaxing day at our campsite. Luke and Dan took the canoe out to fish and came home with plenty for dinner! Luke caught the biggest walleye and bass he's ever caught and it was VERY tasty!

Luke and Dan's fish!

A loon on Shell Lake

On Tuesday we got back in the canoes to travel to Fat Lake. It was quite the day! We had 4 portages, most of them being long. Luke caught another walleye on the way, so we had some fish for lunch!

Luke filleting his fish for lunch

The last portage that took us to Fat Lake was an unmarked portage. That resulted in a very tough portage, including many downed trees and a path that wasn't groomed. The guys struggled to get the canoes through the woods and we were all exhausted by the time we reached Fat Lake. We had to make 2 trips on each portage, due to all the community gear (food, drinks, gear, etc). Most of the time I would have to pump after portaging and since I didn't want to hold anyone up, I would pump and Luke would head back to get the very heavy food bag!

Fat Lake only has one campsite, and it was open when we got there (at 7pm). Ellen and I canoed over to claim the campsite and then shuttled some gear back and forth to help ease the load for everyone else.  We all scrambled to get the campsite set up before dark, but we were all just glad to be done traveling for the day!

Matt, Ellen, Dan, Molly, Me, Luke, Skip and Mary!

There were 2 very large snapping turtles that visited us at our campsite. I got this picture and others took even better pictures, which I'll try to post, if I can get them on my computer.

I was a little nervous about how I was going to pump in the woods for a week, but it worked out just fine. It was a bit of a hassle, especially dumping the milk. We didn't want to dump it right by our campsite, as we didn't want to attract bears or any other anmials. Luke was so helpful and usually took the milk to dump it at night, so I didn't have to wander out in the dark by myself! This picture was taken  on Wednesday. Luke and I took a day trip to a lake near Fat Lake. We had such a fun day together! We canoed, fished, had lunch and just enjoyed some one on one time!

Pumping in the woods

Our Day trip to Eugene Lake

We enjoyed some beautiful scenery. The stars were bright at night and the clouds and sun were beautiful!

Thursday we tried to get as close to the take out point as possible, so we could get out at a decent time on Friday. We had another long day of traveling and a lot of canoeing. Unfortunately, it was a bit windy, so we had to paddle pretty hard into the wind. We didn't make it quite as far as we would have liked, so we ended up camping at a campsite between two lakes. It was on a cliff with a waterfall.....so the view wasn't so bad!

This is a picture of Luke and I down by the river from our last campsite!

We all agreed that we worked very hard and it wasn't an easy trip at all.....but it was fun and full of wonderful memories. If I get other pictures, I'll try to post them!