Introduction

On Memorial Day weekend, 2001, I took a short, 4 day canoe trip in the BWCAW with Basil, Sharon, and Bob.

Basil, a draftsman from St. Paul, was the leader of the trip. He organizes several trips a year for the Sierra Club and the Twin Cities Rovers club and I had been on several winter campouts and river canoe trips with him, as well as one backpacking trip in the Boundary Waters. This was my first BW canoe trip with him though.

Sharon is an educator from Minneapolis who used to be an instructor with Outward Bound. Bob is a real estate lawyer in St. Paul. For my own protection, I'm not even going to try to guess ages.

It's 6:00 pm when I arrive at Basil's on Thursday, May 24. Basil and Bob are in the final stages of tying the 2 canoes, Basil's Wenonah and Bob's Mad River, on top of Bob's car. Sharon arrives shortly after me and we soon have the car loaded and are on the road at about 6:30. We make a quick stop in Cloquet for gas and snacks, otherwise it's an uneventful trip. I'm kind of surprised -- I was expecting to fall asleep on the way up but instead, I stay wide awake.

As we near Ely, we see the small sliver of the New Moon reflected in the ponds we pass along the way. We're hopeful that the weatherman is wrong and that the persistent low pressure system that's been hanging on all week will finally clear out. We head on through Ely towards our destination for the night, the USFS campground at Fall Lake. We arrive, get a self issuing permit, and go in search of a campsite in the dark.

The campground is nowhere near full and we soon find a site that seems like it's big enough for all 3 of our tents. We do find that we're not alone however... hoards of tent caterpillers or army worms are hanging from threads all around the campground. We try to avoid them as much as possible while we set up camp. After my tent is set up, I go in search of the latrine. I stay to the middle of the road to avoid the "worms" as much as possible as I search in the pitch black. Along the way, I'm heartened when I hear the far off call of a loon out on the lake. I feel like I've come home.

I finally find the latrine, take care of business, return to camp and settle in for the night. The air is a little cool which makes for great sleeping. Despite the excitement of starting another adventure in the Boundary Waters, I quickly go to sleep and slumber deeply.