SOLO CANOE TRIP IN BOUNDARY WATERS

I am in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Northern Minnesota for a three day solo camping trip. I have my brand new solo canoe that I'm excited to use. So far, a little bit tricky. My husband and I, mostly my husband, made a yoke for this canoe and I need to be able to take it off to paddle it properly. I paddled across this little lake with it still on the canoe because I couldn't get it off at the entry point. And I didn't want to fiddle with it there because there's like a whole party going on. There's a lot of people there and it was really awkward for me to try and like mess with it with everybody watching. So I paddled across this little lake. I'm at the first portage, short portage. I honestly could probably walk up the rapids with my canoe, but I'm going to portage this just because I have to figure out this canoe yoke situation. And then we're heading on. We've got a few portages today before we find a campsite. This is our homemade yoke. So to paddle it over here, I just face this way, but that didn't really work because I'm too close to the front of the canoe. And if you're paddling too close to the front of the canoe, you can't steer very well. It's just not good. So I'm just going to figure out how to get that yoke off. The wood, like we said, we just made it yesterday and it rained overnight, so I think it expanded and the screws that are holding the yoke to the canoe are really jammed in the expanded wood. So hopefully I can get it off. So these are the screws that need to come off. This guy. It did get the yoke off, thank goodness. Just kind of dumb. I should have portaged the canoe first and I made a lot more noise than I would like to. Usually I try to be really quiet in the wilderness, but I had to figure this out and I'm right by the entrance, so I feel a little bit less bad about it, but we're going to do this portage. Getting back into the canoe right next to the rapids where there's a whole bunch of rocks was a little tricky and it almost looks like I'm going to have to get out up here and walk the canoe. I think I've done a trip in this area before, but I was pretty young, so I don't really remember it. There were a lot of shallow rocks in there. I'm surprised I didn't get caught up on one. Cute little fire pit, cute little campsite. I mean, it's cute. Look at this. It's like a view of the lake with pretty little cedar, tamarack looking trees. It only took me a few minutes to get here. I thought it would actually take me longer to paddle here. So I'm going to keep going and I know that this campsite will probably be open if I have to come back to it, but I have a feeling there are going to be other open campsites and they might even be nicer than this one. And then I get to explore a little bit more. Oh, that's so pretty. It is completely silent. No birds, just me and a couple of flies flying around. It looks like you can portage your canoe right up through there. What we're portaging around is the rapids over here. A little rapid action. So I'm standing by the lake here and you can see where I just came from right there. Apparently they call that six rods. I don't think that was even six rods, maybe two. On this lake, there are I think four or five campsites. So hopefully there's an open one. Making these YouTube videos, I get lots of comments, lots of suggestions and something that has been suggested over and over again is that I use a kayak paddle when I'm canoeing solo and I've always been like, no, that's not for me, not my style. But I think the issue was I've always had such a big canoe that's not meant for solo use when I've tried to use kayak paddles. It doesn't work well because the canoe's too wide. Now that I finally have a solo style canoe, the kayak paddle works much better. I don't think I'm that good at it yet. I can't steer as well. I can't maneuver and back up and do all the things with a kayak paddle like I can with a canoe paddle. However, like just tootling along, I feel like I can just zip and I can go so much more straight with a kayak paddle. The campsite's open. Every campsite has been open. That's crazy. But I'm going to take this one. This one looks really nice and looks like a decent swimming location. I feel like I have the wilderness to myself. I'm so hungry. This is a beautiful campsite. It's eerily quiet. It's really strange how quiet it is. There's seriously no birds, no sounds except the black flies. Wow, where should I set up my tent? It feels so good to be back in the Boundary Waters at a campsite. On the way up here, I was kind of nervous that it was going to be rainy. I was nervous about the new canoe. I was thinking about a lot of things. But now that I'm here, I just feel so good. Honestly, I felt good as soon as I got my permit. When they have you watch a little video about the expectations in the Boundary Waters and you get to watch people in the Boundary Waters in the video, that's when I always feel like, okay, I'm just about there. We're going in. I'm going to be camping and now here I am. I've been camping so much this summer and I wouldn't have it any other way. This is my cozy tent. I even have this light that has like a detachable string. So I put the string up in the top of the tent and that is where I hang my light from. So at night, it's always up here. I don't have to find it. I can turn it on and it's enough light to be able to kind of see what I'm doing in the tent. It's not super bright to like read with. We are going to head up to the latrine. Check out the latrine, how the path is. So I stopped on the way up here and bought some pizza rolls. I actually got two packs to eat that I should eat today. One is kind of like a lunch and one's a dinner. They're gonna be good. There's a mama moose and a baby moose way over there. Oh my gosh. Nothing makes my heart pound like seeing a moose. My heart is beating so fast even when they're really far away. I don't think you can really tell it all in the camera because it's pretty far away. But the mama moose swimming with the baby moose is incredible. The baby moose is like kind of off splashing and the mama moose is like deep into the water like up to her head. Kind of in the marsh. The baby moose looks like it's getting out of the water already. I definitely did not expect to watch moose bathe tonight but it's kind of interesting. One of the moose went in the water, swam around, probably ate something, I don't know, and then got out. The other moose, I'm not actually convinced it's a mother baby anymore. One that got out I thought was a baby but when it got out it looked pretty big. It might just be two moose. But the second moose is still swimming around and like splashing and it looks like it's playing. But I'm not trying to apply like human characteristics to it here. But it does look like play from way across the lake which is kind of funny. I packed up and put away my food. Now I've got my fishing rod out. I'm gonna set it up and I'm gonna go out and try to do some fishing in my canoe. If the water is calm enough I think I can do it by myself. Usually when I'm solo camping I just fish from shore because it's really hard to paddle and fish at the same time. I think with the weather being so calm right now I could actually do it. So we're gonna give it a try. I'm gonna try some fishing. Hung up my food pack already so we're good to go there. There's another moose out. It came out almost in the same spot the other two were. Oh my gosh it's okay. All I can see right now is its head. Wow. It's so cool. I wish my camera could see even better for you. It's just not a zoom camera and this camera has water damage. It's supposed to be waterproof. It's a GoPro but it got water damage from when I went swimming with it in our last Boundary Waters trip. So far I just keep catching weeds. A lot of weeds. It's gonna get dark soon and the sun's gonna go behind the trees so it might be time to just head back to camp and I think I might go read a little bit. I did not catch any fish. That's okay because we have more pizza rolls and actually for dessert this. It's freeze-dried blueberries which I have not had yet. Cory's sister started making them. She has like a little business and so I'm gonna give them a try. Freeze-dried blueberries. Yum. One of my friends really wants me to read this book so I'm going to read a few chapters each night that I'm camping. Good morning. I finally got out of bed and it's a beautiful day. Last night I swear there were so many sounds. It seems like during the day yesterday it was so quiet. There weren't birds chirping. There weren't things swimming around. The only things that made noises were the otters and the moose but then at night I could hear things scurrying and I could hear something swimming around here and it was kind of cool that finally like it felt like the forest kind of came alive and then this morning I slept in. It's probably like 8 30 and I get up way earlier than that at home especially when I'm camping. I usually wake up early because the sun comes up and then it's light inside the tent but I just kept falling back asleep. I was so tired. My plan is to camp at this campsite another night but I do want to get in my canoe, paddle down the river, and check out a campsite that is kind of up this lake and then into a river a little ways and see what that campsite looks like. There are little minnows swimming around in the water and that tells me that there are probably bigger fish out there somewhere. There are fish jumping, minnows swimming, and birds chirping. The weather's perfect. Honestly truly perfect. The bugs are not that bad. Like drawing right now I was thinking about how oh I should go paddle, oh I should go make breakfast. Oh I have so much to do when in reality I have all day to do very little. I'd also like to catch a fish. Our lunch options are Cuban rice bowl, ramen noodles, mango sticky rice, or I could make pancakes or hash browns. I actually think hash browns sounds kind of good. Before I cook these potatoes I have to rehydrate them. My plan is just to head up the river and see what I see. And I'm just ripping apart weeds paddling through here almost to the point where I feel bad. There's not really a path. I don't think that many people come through here. And to be honest I haven't seen a soul since I left the landing yesterday and I put my canoe in the water. Usually on my trips there will be a canoe or two that pass by during the day. But nobody. I've seen absolutely nobody. So I'm going to keep going, see how far I make it. Hopefully we go all the way to that campsite. That tree looks like a beaver took it down. Completely surrounded by these lily pads and water plants and flowers and it's just so calm and serene and quiet. So there's a portage there. A rapids little creek there. And the campsite I'm looking for is right here. And it looks like somebody left something orange at the campsite. So we're going to go check it out. You could swim in here. You could probably swim the little rapids. Probably would be pretty fun. Pretty fun place to hang out. So actually nothing was left at the campsite. The thing is there's somebody camping there right now. I almost walked up into the campsite without seeing the tent. The tent was like brown so there's somebody camping there so we're not going to check out the campsite. But I'm going to go check out this rapids. The battery on this camera is probably going to die so I'll probably see you back at camp after I check out the rapids. I could just sit next to that river, that little rapids creek thing and read I think all day long. If you could get a hammock close to that and just listen to the water rushing. I feel so much better after taking a dip in the water. Now I'm going to sit in the hammock and read. I'll probably pull out my sleeping bag. Not because it's cold but because the sleeping bag is going to protect me from the black flies. I have so many black fly bites. I have one more of these freeze dried snacks to try. This one I think is freeze dried ice cream. I didn't order this one but this one was sent anyways. Thanks Crystal. Okay. Actually I don't know if this is freeze dried ice cream or like marshmallow or something but I'm just assuming it's ice cream. Definitely ice cream. It's actually really good. Cuban rice bowl makes me want to go to Cuba. Seriously. Somebody who had camped at this campsite before left some wood here. Some firewood. So I'm going to reduce the size and get it ready in case I decide to have that fire tonight. This wood that I was cutting up is really green and fresh. Probably was cut down and wasn't deadened down. So I'm going to find something else to burn that probably won't burn very well. You're not really supposed to cut down trees but I don't know. Who knows what the story is. So looks like we have a dead birch tree. Heck yeah. Okay so I'm going to probably take a chunk of birch bark from this birch tree. Some little pieces like this. That is really going to help me get my fire going. I only ever take birch bark from downed trees. Oh my gosh. Wow look at these mushrooms. They're like green and pink. Holy cow the bugs are really bad. Okay I'm gonna grab a little bit of birch. Till dawn, we could stay to watch the sunrise. Cancel all our plans, we don't need, we just can. I wish I could stop time and stay in this moment. Never think about going. Won't you stay with me for a little while? Caught myself refalling deep into your eyes. These camping trips always go by way faster than I expect. And it seems like just as soon as I start to actually relax and enjoy myself and feel like refreshed, it's time to go. I've always wanted to do longer camping trips like week to two week long trips. I'm lucky enough to live close so that I can come and do many two night, three night trips. But doing longer trips than that is still hard with how busy Cory and I are. No sign of moose or bear tonight. Haven't even heard a beaver or an otter. Really quiet. There are a ton of dragonflies around which is maybe why there are fewer mosquitoes. Good morning. I did not sleep very well last night. I don't know if you can tell by how disheveled I look. But I did listen to fish jump in the water pretty much all night long. And I don't know why I didn't sleep very well. I don't know if it was because it was almost too loud. I swear at this campsite, everything comes alive at night. But then I got kind of chilly. I don't know. But I'm awake now. I'm deciding if I want to have breakfast or pack up. I'm not quite sure. But it's an absolutely beautiful morning. The sun is still coming up. The water is perfectly calm. There's like a misty, a little bit of a mist on the water. But I didn't even think the camera would pick it up. It's like a little barely at the surface of the water floating across the water kind of look. The birds actually make sounds in the mornings here. Bye bye campsite. This has been such a nice, perfect trip. Thank you for being here with me.