Alone in the Wilderness A Boundary Waters Solo

I arrived at Sawbill Lake Campground and settled in for the night around a campfire. I was nervous about my first trip alone into the Boundary Waters.

The next morning, I gathered all my things together. I carried my tent, sleeping bag, clothes, food and cooking gear in one large bag and fishing gear in another. I also brought maps, cameras, a chair and paddles. And of course, I wore a life jacket any time I got in the boat.

Loading a canoe can be tricky. I turned the canoe around and paddled it backwards. I placed all my gear in the front of the canoe to help balance the boat while I was in it.

The lake was calm as I paddled. It wasn’t long before I reached the portage. I could tell I had arrived because I could see this opening in the trees.

I wanted to film myself carrying all my gear and the canoe from one end of the portage to the other. The path was clear and no one was around, so I set up my tripod to put my video camera on.

I paddled around a lake named Alton which is known for it’s rough water because of the wind blowing across it a lot. I explored several sites before I landed on a nice big one that would have room for my friend when she joined me in a few days. I liked this site because it was big and had a nice breeze that would chase off a lot of the mosquitoes! But the landing was a little tricky to get things in and out of the boat.

There was 1 problem with the campsite…the campfire area had been destroyed when someone tried to set fire to the logs that were placed there to sit on. It was hard work by myself, but I managed to move the logs around so that they could be used to sit on around a fire grate.

When I finally had the campfire area set up, my tent and tarp set up and had collected more water…I sat down for a rest in the sun. Whew! It had been a long, hard day!

Time to eat! I had better get a fire going!

Yum! My first meal in the wilderness was sausage, apples and onions! It turned out great!

Ahhhh…I sat back to watch the sunset….

…and then I watched the moonrise!

The next day, I hiked around and watched animals and insects. I saw this butterfly.

I hiked and looked at all the greenery. When I hiked, I always kept a view of the lake in sight so I would not get lost.

I found some beautiful, bright-colored mushrooms along the path!

The day I saw these…it was July 4th. Guess what it looked like to me?

A few days later, my friend Nancy joined me. I had to mark my campsite by tying a bright orange colored cloth to a tree by the lake so she would know where I was camped. Together, we did a little fishing and paddling and cooking and talking. But after a couple of days of rain, we decided to leave.

The first time we tried to leave, we had to come back because the water was too rough from the wind. But the next day…there was a mist on the lake…

…and later the lake was as smooth as glass and easy to paddle across! So we were on our way out of the Boundary Waters!

We decided to drive to Grand Marais which is a town located on Lake Superior….a very, very, very, big lake. We camped near there and drove around the area.

Early in the year, a very large fire had burned a large part of the Boundary Waters area. We decided to drive up to see what the area now looked like.

We went hiking on the Magnetic Rock Trail. The area was burned very badly but showed signs that things were starting to grow again. Even the signs were burnt.

Everywhere we hiked, there were trees that had been destroyed by the fire…but there were small plants and flowers beginning to pop out of the soil. Some trees, like the Jackpine can only begin to grow if a fire has happened.

Even though you could see the burned area, the plants and flowers were beautiful.

This was a great trip for me. I learned how to paddle alone and camp alone in the wilderness. I can’t wait to go back!

The End …until next summer!