5th day in a row of chemo means one week in the books. Finally get a small break. I go back Tuesday and that is the only day for week 2.
Doing ok overall and even went out and bought a new tv finally after 12 years.
Friday, December 19, 2014
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Day 4
Today Travis and Joel were with me to help pass the time on this 4th day in a row of chemo. After 3 days of having the same injection site it is required to start a new one in my arm to avoid any infection. So today after 2 attempts in my right arm, my veins were not cooperating for some reason so my left arm is much better apparently. After a total of 3 sticks from needles and a little blood, 3 times was the charm.
My appetite is ok but not as good as the past few days. Tonight's dinner was tomato soup, crackers and spinach with mushrooms and red peppers. Trying to drink lots of water and gatorade to help flush out the kidneys. The intake of all the fluids each day does have an effect but it must be done. Tomorrow will be 5 days in a row and then I will finally get a break for 3 days.
One day at a time and so far so good. I know I am not alone in this. Your support is definetly felt. Thank you.
My appetite is ok but not as good as the past few days. Tonight's dinner was tomato soup, crackers and spinach with mushrooms and red peppers. Trying to drink lots of water and gatorade to help flush out the kidneys. The intake of all the fluids each day does have an effect but it must be done. Tomorrow will be 5 days in a row and then I will finally get a break for 3 days.
One day at a time and so far so good. I know I am not alone in this. Your support is definetly felt. Thank you.
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Day 3 December 17th, 2014
Not much to report from today as things went well. I was in and out after 3 and a half hours, my shortest day yet. I feel fine but the anti nausea pills are important not to miss. This helps keep my appetite good so far.
Spending my down time at home tonight watching survival shows on Discovery. A good time to catch up on movies the next few weeks as well.
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Day 2, December 16th, 2014
Last night I started feeling a bit nauseous which is to be expected from time to time. I do have 2 different types of prescriptions to take at home and they seemed to work after a while. I had two emergency buckets by my bedside just in case but once I laid down for bed I felt better.
My Brother was with me the whole time today at the hospital which again is a huge help. I watched the movie The Grey with Liam Neeson. Movies, Tv and facebook help pass the time. My nurse is great and really have no complaints today.
My appetite is still good today and just relaxing and going to watch the Blackhawks and Wild tonight with my bro. Another friendly Chicago-Minnesota rivalry. I am thankful I only have to drive 5 miles for treatment and get to sleep in my own bed at night.
Monday, December 15, 2014
My Journey with Cancer Day 1 December 15th, 2014
So as for this battle, today was my first day of chemo here at the Northfield Hospital and day 1 went pretty smooth and had the support of 2 great friends coming to visit me. It was a huge boost. Then my Brother from Florida flew in and is now staying with me for a couple of weeks which is great. I can't travel to see the rest of my family like I usually do for the holidays but will be with my Brother and some friends for Christmas if I feel ok. My family is always with me no matter where I am if only in spirit.
I was given an anti nausea right from the start and plenty of fluids to help offset any side effects. My appetite is good and had lunch catered to my room. This week I go every day thru Friday so we will see how I feel after week 1 but so far so good.
The picture above is the view I had from my room as I was all hooked up and beginning the chemo. It was a dreary, rainy, gray day outside but when I see this I think a little differently as I tend to take a view from a camera perspective.
No matter how rainy, how cold, how gray, how muddy, how snowy, how hot, etc. I don't let that stop me from going outside and finding that perfect angle or view to get that next shot.
I guess I use that type of mentality no matter what life throws at me.
As I know this fight will get harder before it gets better so I will try and post as much as I can on this blog about this journey for those interested and to one day look back at this bump in the road of life. Thanks for your support!
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Trip Report: 2007 Solo BWCA Trip, Granite River, Saganaga Lake
Thurs. Aug. 2nd, arrived at Trail’s End Campground 8:15pm. Stayed at site #30 at end of Gunflint Trail.
Friday August 3rd
Had breakfast at Trail’s End Café, Pancakes, sausage, hashbrowns and coffee. Noticed a lot of “Chicago” sports teams on the walls, found out later owner is from there.
Left car in parking lot and was shuttled down to Gunflint Lake for start of trip. Hit the water at 10:25am. A little windy on Gunflint Lake, but that is pretty normal with the size of it. Paddled to the narrows that lead into Magnetic Lake and official entry into the BWCA, entry #57. Oh, one more note about the shuttle to Gunflint Lake. They young guy who drove was from Green Bay. He was friendly and gave me some suggestions on the route but here I am deep in the woods at the end of the Gunflint Trail and I am surrounded by Bears and Packer fans!! That should not happen….lol.
There were some nice homes in the narrows to Magnetic Lake that were saved from the fire. My first portage was short but a very rocky landing. Small rapids and I wanted to get a closer look and that is where I got my camera wet as I was turning around to go back to the portage and had a moment where I thought I was going to capsize as the canoe started to lean a little too far to one side. My heart rate jumped up a lot there but was able to lean it back just in time.
2nd portage was at Little Rock Falls and this is a nice spot to take a break. Short and rocky portage. 3 younger kids were swimming at the falls and were nice and portaged my canoe around the falls. Saved me a trip. Thanks! Was not expecting that. The first 2 portages were on the Canadian side so I can say I was in Canada 2 times this year without having to show a passport, ha.
I am now on the Pine River and paddle to the 3rd portage of the day called the Blueberry portage. Short 30 rod portage but rocky and a little hilly.
4th portage of the day was the Pine Portage leading into Clove Lake. 105 rods (.35miles). Arrived at Clove Lake campground around 4:15 and decided this was a good spot to spend the first night. Nice sandy beach with a nice view of the lake. Lake was calm. 2 girls from the cities paddled up and asked if I knew about the other campsites on Clove. I told them about one to check out and that must have been open so they took it.
Weather- sunny and mid 80’s. Covered 9.5 miles and burned 5300 calories for the day.
Saturday August 4th,
Woke up about 6:30 to a beaver crossing the lake gathering sticks for his dam. Interesting to watch. Had a breakfast of biscuits and gravy and of course coffee…..sooo good. Started paddling about 10:40 to the next portage. A couple arrived about the same time as me. Only other people I saw for the day and it was brief. At the end of this portage is where the Granite River starts. Very nice and you really feel isolated and deep in the wilderness. Today was a long day as I covered 17.5 miles, 5 lakes and one river. Sunny and warm again which was nice. Pretty strong south wind on the open sections of lakes but nice on the river which is protected by some high cliffs and rocks.
Arrived at 2nd portage of the day which is called Swamp Portage. It was pretty muddy and swamp like for sure. This was also a haven for biting flies and skeeters so I did my best to get through it and out of that section. It was about a quarter mile. When portaging though you make 3 trips and with all the gear and food it is not exactly a walk in the park. 2 more short portages and one surprise rapids in between on the Granite River. There was no portage so it was either run the rapids, which was only a class I, but when
you are alone and in a Kevlar canoe, I was not taking any chances . Rocks on each side of the river, lots of rocks too. Big rocks too. So I did what is called “line the rapids” I chose one side to get out and walk the canoe down the river by hanging onto the back of it as the current pulled it down and I walked in the waist high water on the rocks carefully as some were slippery and then you have the current pulling on you at the same time. It was too overpowering but you sure knew it was there. That was another time that had my heart rate up quite a bit for that section. You just kind of look around you and realize how deep in the wilderness you are and do your best not to get hurt cause there is nobody around to help. So after getting through that I could relax a little. A nice challenge though.
After this section I came into a whole different scenery. The river section was done and headed into some serious fire damage scenery. Wow! It was a little overwhelming at first. The first lake was Gneiss Lake and it was just burnt all the way around pretty much. The next lake, Devil’s Elbow was the same way, but had some sections on it that were narrow and made you feel really isolated again with high cliffs around you. Next it really opened up to Maraboef Lake, which was a lot bigger than what I expected. It is a long lake from south to north, and had a strong south wind to deal with but that was better than a north headwind. Paddled up to the last 2 portages of the day and nice spots to rest. The first was the Horsetail Rapids portage which again, the portage was on the Canadian side. Short but very rocky again and steep in one part. A huge red pine tree had fallen and had just enough room to get under it. The last portage was Saganaga Falls, which is the entry on the east side to this huge and awesome lake. The Sag Falls is really nice and a great spot to relax and enjoy the falls. Very short portage but wow, really rocky and steep again.
Sag starts out calm and small from here but once you go up and round the bend it really opens up. This lake is full of islands and was by far my favorite lake on this trip. I am really glad I had my GPS and compass on this trip cause I could have easily been lost without it. It was getting pretty late by the time I got to Sag so finding a campsite before dark was the mission. Once I got to the open section south of Horseshoe Island on Sag I found out quick what a strong wind can do and not to mess around on this big lake. It was about 8:00, the sun was starting to set and there were whitecaps I had to deal with for about 15 minutes. First time in whitecaps like this and once again my heart rate jumped but I stayed calm and went into the waves head on as that is the best way to deal with this. From all the paddling I had done so far I had a pretty good rhythm going and felt comfortable but on a big lake like this in strong winds, it can be intimidating for sure. The canoe handled the waves great and I was able to find an empty campsite on horseshoe island. The site sat up on a high cliff and had a great view. There were lots of nice thick red pine trees too so that was nice. Nice site with cut firewood but there were no campfires allowed due to the drought. I was tired and had just enough time to set up the tent before it was too dark.
Burned 6500 calories today. Wish I could do that more often.
Sunday, August 5th
Slept in until 8am. Had breakfast of coffee, bacon, Denver Omlette, Pop tarts and apple blueberry granola with milk. I was pretty tired from the past 2 days so today was no paddling and just relaxing. 2 of my favorite times out here was sitting in a camp chair just soaking in the view with a hot cup of coffee and what I like to call “hammock time”. Nothing quite like it out here in canoe country.
Windy at times and sunny. Mid 80’s again. Upper 60’s at night. Clear and lots of stars.
Monday, August 6th
Woke up at 6:30. Breakfast was oatmeal, blueberry bagel, granola and of course coffee. After nights at this site, I was on the water at 9:50 and paddled to the west side of Sag. This was a nice leisurely 9 mile paddle as it was calm and I was able to really check out some of the islands along the way. I went through a stretch that was more remote and it did not seem like a huge lake at times passing between islands and such. I decided to camp on Long Island after exploring campsites throughout the day. Picked the NE side so I could try and catch a sunrise for once. This was a nice spot too as there were islands around and lots of loons to listen too. Tried some fishing but the wind started to pick up so that did not last too long. No bites.
After spending some time in the hammock, I noticed a nice big pile of poo about 20 feet away. That got my attention as I know it was not from a moose. I have seen enough of moose poo to know the difference. I did not know for sure what created this pile but my first thought was “bear”. So now I was looking over my shoulder every minute for about an hour until I got over it. I never saw a bear on this trip so that was ok. I did not see any moose either as I was hoping for that. Maybe next time. Lots of loons though. I went for a swim in a bay by the site and that was refreshing.
Tuesday, August 7th
I was able to get up in time to finally see a great sunrise. I got out of the tent and parked my camp chair right on the shore and it was just like going to the movies, Boundary Waters style. It was clear with just a few clouds that made it a sight to see. It was well worth getting up for and made for a great start to the day.
I decided to check out this one campiste I had heard about on Englishman’s Island. It was a short 2 mile paddle and luckily it was not taken! I was thinking of moving on to the next lake but after seeing this, I could not pass it up. It was a great site with red pines and a nice sandy beach on an island with only 2 sites. I was really liking Lake Saganaga that I decided to stay a 4th night on it. Good thing I did too because it got really windy today. There was a northwest wind and it was strong all day. Finally calmed down later that night. Relaxed and went for a swim. So nice to do up here. I did not see one other canoe today. That is odd being August is such a busy month. It was nice though too. Had some friendly ducks come up and hang out though. They were not afraid of people I could tell.
Wednesday, August 8th
Well by the end of this day I was glad I spent 4 nights on Sag. I ended up hitting the water about 10am and was on my way heading south now to Red Rock Bay. This was a very sunny day and calm. So nice to paddle in. I crossed a big open section of Sag to Red Rock Bay and checked out some campsites. I found a really nice one I will remember if I ever get back on this lake again. I checked out some other sites and met a guy who was on a solo trip too. He was from Minnetonka and we chatted for a few minutes. Nice guy. He was looking for a site to camp on. So next was Red Rock Lake. A short portage here. This is a nice lake too as I looked at about 4 empty sites on the north side of the lake. My original plan was to camp a night here. Well, it ended up being a short paddle from Lake Sag to this point and it was super nice out and I wanted to paddle some more. Well, I should have stayed a night on the north side of Red Rock like I planned. Once I got to the south side the fire damage made another appearance and it only got worse as I continued my route. I ended up covering 23 miles today and this ended up being my last day. I did cover the whole route I had planned, I just did not stay as many nights as I planned.
The portage from Red Rock Lake led to Alpine Lake, where there was a big fire there 2 years ago. I was aware of that so I was ready for it…..so I thought. I had seen plenty of fire damage on this route plus the one I took in June so I thought I had seen it all. Alpine Lake was just downright scary to me. It started to get a little more cloudy and there was burnt and black everywhere. It was like a scene from a horror movie. The way this lake is shaped and the water did not look blue anymore because of the black trees, it just creeped me out so I paddled across it as fast as I could looking behind me now and then making sure “Jason” from Friday the 13th was not after me in a canoe…lol. This fire had happened 2 years ago and it looked like it happened yesterday. Just dead and eerie. So I make it to the portage that leads to the last lake on the trip which is Seagull. The portage trail is also just surrounded by trees that were knocked over from the July 4th blowdown of 1999 plus they were all burnt now too. There were lots of flowers growing though that made the trail very interesting to see colorful flowers surrounded by burnt trees all over. Seagull Lake was another lake I had been looking forward to camping on as there are lots of islands here too. Well after getting to Seagull I noticed a lot of fire damage too, not as much as Alpine but enough to wish I was back on Sag again. By this time it was late afternoon and so I paddled around exploring and checking out campsites along the way. There must have been some sites closed from the fire as I could not find a few that were listed on the map. Anyway I came to this conclusion about Seagull. This would be a great looking lake without the fire damage. This lake is also very easy to get to as there is access right from the Gunflint Trail. Come to find out, lots of people like to go here who do not like to portage so they base camp here. It did not take me long to figure that out. It was crowded compared to the other lakes I was on plus all the sites were taken that I could find. There were large groups on some sites and it just seemed a little too loud for my taste as well so I just paddled right to the Trail’s End Campground where I started and stayed the last night there as my car was there waiting.
Overall it was a great trip. I think I learned a lot as I had to do everything myself and really had to be conscious of not doing anything too risky to not get hurt. Oh, and the new portage boots I used saved my ankle from spraining again. On the very last portage from Creepy Alpine Lake to Seagull I stumbled on a rock (they were everywhere on every portage trial) and fell. My ankle turned and if it were not for the ankle support on these boots I would have been in trouble. I was so thankful for that. So my first choice on trips like this would be to have friends with me but sometimes it does not work out like that. I would continue to do solo trips as there are just endless lakes and trails to explore but having friends with would be better. The camp stove worked great and I can now set up a tent that is windproof and rain tarp although I did not need that once. I also brought WAY too much food, but I guess that is better than not enough.
So a new camera is on my birthday or Christmas list this year…..:) plus a waterproof case.
Shane
Friday August 3rd
Had breakfast at Trail’s End Café, Pancakes, sausage, hashbrowns and coffee. Noticed a lot of “Chicago” sports teams on the walls, found out later owner is from there.
Left car in parking lot and was shuttled down to Gunflint Lake for start of trip. Hit the water at 10:25am. A little windy on Gunflint Lake, but that is pretty normal with the size of it. Paddled to the narrows that lead into Magnetic Lake and official entry into the BWCA, entry #57. Oh, one more note about the shuttle to Gunflint Lake. They young guy who drove was from Green Bay. He was friendly and gave me some suggestions on the route but here I am deep in the woods at the end of the Gunflint Trail and I am surrounded by Bears and Packer fans!! That should not happen….lol.
There were some nice homes in the narrows to Magnetic Lake that were saved from the fire. My first portage was short but a very rocky landing. Small rapids and I wanted to get a closer look and that is where I got my camera wet as I was turning around to go back to the portage and had a moment where I thought I was going to capsize as the canoe started to lean a little too far to one side. My heart rate jumped up a lot there but was able to lean it back just in time.
2nd portage was at Little Rock Falls and this is a nice spot to take a break. Short and rocky portage. 3 younger kids were swimming at the falls and were nice and portaged my canoe around the falls. Saved me a trip. Thanks! Was not expecting that. The first 2 portages were on the Canadian side so I can say I was in Canada 2 times this year without having to show a passport, ha.
I am now on the Pine River and paddle to the 3rd portage of the day called the Blueberry portage. Short 30 rod portage but rocky and a little hilly.
4th portage of the day was the Pine Portage leading into Clove Lake. 105 rods (.35miles). Arrived at Clove Lake campground around 4:15 and decided this was a good spot to spend the first night. Nice sandy beach with a nice view of the lake. Lake was calm. 2 girls from the cities paddled up and asked if I knew about the other campsites on Clove. I told them about one to check out and that must have been open so they took it.
Weather- sunny and mid 80’s. Covered 9.5 miles and burned 5300 calories for the day.
Saturday August 4th,
Woke up about 6:30 to a beaver crossing the lake gathering sticks for his dam. Interesting to watch. Had a breakfast of biscuits and gravy and of course coffee…..sooo good. Started paddling about 10:40 to the next portage. A couple arrived about the same time as me. Only other people I saw for the day and it was brief. At the end of this portage is where the Granite River starts. Very nice and you really feel isolated and deep in the wilderness. Today was a long day as I covered 17.5 miles, 5 lakes and one river. Sunny and warm again which was nice. Pretty strong south wind on the open sections of lakes but nice on the river which is protected by some high cliffs and rocks.
Arrived at 2nd portage of the day which is called Swamp Portage. It was pretty muddy and swamp like for sure. This was also a haven for biting flies and skeeters so I did my best to get through it and out of that section. It was about a quarter mile. When portaging though you make 3 trips and with all the gear and food it is not exactly a walk in the park. 2 more short portages and one surprise rapids in between on the Granite River. There was no portage so it was either run the rapids, which was only a class I, but when
you are alone and in a Kevlar canoe, I was not taking any chances . Rocks on each side of the river, lots of rocks too. Big rocks too. So I did what is called “line the rapids” I chose one side to get out and walk the canoe down the river by hanging onto the back of it as the current pulled it down and I walked in the waist high water on the rocks carefully as some were slippery and then you have the current pulling on you at the same time. It was too overpowering but you sure knew it was there. That was another time that had my heart rate up quite a bit for that section. You just kind of look around you and realize how deep in the wilderness you are and do your best not to get hurt cause there is nobody around to help. So after getting through that I could relax a little. A nice challenge though.
After this section I came into a whole different scenery. The river section was done and headed into some serious fire damage scenery. Wow! It was a little overwhelming at first. The first lake was Gneiss Lake and it was just burnt all the way around pretty much. The next lake, Devil’s Elbow was the same way, but had some sections on it that were narrow and made you feel really isolated again with high cliffs around you. Next it really opened up to Maraboef Lake, which was a lot bigger than what I expected. It is a long lake from south to north, and had a strong south wind to deal with but that was better than a north headwind. Paddled up to the last 2 portages of the day and nice spots to rest. The first was the Horsetail Rapids portage which again, the portage was on the Canadian side. Short but very rocky again and steep in one part. A huge red pine tree had fallen and had just enough room to get under it. The last portage was Saganaga Falls, which is the entry on the east side to this huge and awesome lake. The Sag Falls is really nice and a great spot to relax and enjoy the falls. Very short portage but wow, really rocky and steep again.
Sag starts out calm and small from here but once you go up and round the bend it really opens up. This lake is full of islands and was by far my favorite lake on this trip. I am really glad I had my GPS and compass on this trip cause I could have easily been lost without it. It was getting pretty late by the time I got to Sag so finding a campsite before dark was the mission. Once I got to the open section south of Horseshoe Island on Sag I found out quick what a strong wind can do and not to mess around on this big lake. It was about 8:00, the sun was starting to set and there were whitecaps I had to deal with for about 15 minutes. First time in whitecaps like this and once again my heart rate jumped but I stayed calm and went into the waves head on as that is the best way to deal with this. From all the paddling I had done so far I had a pretty good rhythm going and felt comfortable but on a big lake like this in strong winds, it can be intimidating for sure. The canoe handled the waves great and I was able to find an empty campsite on horseshoe island. The site sat up on a high cliff and had a great view. There were lots of nice thick red pine trees too so that was nice. Nice site with cut firewood but there were no campfires allowed due to the drought. I was tired and had just enough time to set up the tent before it was too dark.
Burned 6500 calories today. Wish I could do that more often.
Sunday, August 5th
Slept in until 8am. Had breakfast of coffee, bacon, Denver Omlette, Pop tarts and apple blueberry granola with milk. I was pretty tired from the past 2 days so today was no paddling and just relaxing. 2 of my favorite times out here was sitting in a camp chair just soaking in the view with a hot cup of coffee and what I like to call “hammock time”. Nothing quite like it out here in canoe country.
Windy at times and sunny. Mid 80’s again. Upper 60’s at night. Clear and lots of stars.
Monday, August 6th
Woke up at 6:30. Breakfast was oatmeal, blueberry bagel, granola and of course coffee. After nights at this site, I was on the water at 9:50 and paddled to the west side of Sag. This was a nice leisurely 9 mile paddle as it was calm and I was able to really check out some of the islands along the way. I went through a stretch that was more remote and it did not seem like a huge lake at times passing between islands and such. I decided to camp on Long Island after exploring campsites throughout the day. Picked the NE side so I could try and catch a sunrise for once. This was a nice spot too as there were islands around and lots of loons to listen too. Tried some fishing but the wind started to pick up so that did not last too long. No bites.
After spending some time in the hammock, I noticed a nice big pile of poo about 20 feet away. That got my attention as I know it was not from a moose. I have seen enough of moose poo to know the difference. I did not know for sure what created this pile but my first thought was “bear”. So now I was looking over my shoulder every minute for about an hour until I got over it. I never saw a bear on this trip so that was ok. I did not see any moose either as I was hoping for that. Maybe next time. Lots of loons though. I went for a swim in a bay by the site and that was refreshing.
Tuesday, August 7th
I was able to get up in time to finally see a great sunrise. I got out of the tent and parked my camp chair right on the shore and it was just like going to the movies, Boundary Waters style. It was clear with just a few clouds that made it a sight to see. It was well worth getting up for and made for a great start to the day.
I decided to check out this one campiste I had heard about on Englishman’s Island. It was a short 2 mile paddle and luckily it was not taken! I was thinking of moving on to the next lake but after seeing this, I could not pass it up. It was a great site with red pines and a nice sandy beach on an island with only 2 sites. I was really liking Lake Saganaga that I decided to stay a 4th night on it. Good thing I did too because it got really windy today. There was a northwest wind and it was strong all day. Finally calmed down later that night. Relaxed and went for a swim. So nice to do up here. I did not see one other canoe today. That is odd being August is such a busy month. It was nice though too. Had some friendly ducks come up and hang out though. They were not afraid of people I could tell.
Wednesday, August 8th
Well by the end of this day I was glad I spent 4 nights on Sag. I ended up hitting the water about 10am and was on my way heading south now to Red Rock Bay. This was a very sunny day and calm. So nice to paddle in. I crossed a big open section of Sag to Red Rock Bay and checked out some campsites. I found a really nice one I will remember if I ever get back on this lake again. I checked out some other sites and met a guy who was on a solo trip too. He was from Minnetonka and we chatted for a few minutes. Nice guy. He was looking for a site to camp on. So next was Red Rock Lake. A short portage here. This is a nice lake too as I looked at about 4 empty sites on the north side of the lake. My original plan was to camp a night here. Well, it ended up being a short paddle from Lake Sag to this point and it was super nice out and I wanted to paddle some more. Well, I should have stayed a night on the north side of Red Rock like I planned. Once I got to the south side the fire damage made another appearance and it only got worse as I continued my route. I ended up covering 23 miles today and this ended up being my last day. I did cover the whole route I had planned, I just did not stay as many nights as I planned.
The portage from Red Rock Lake led to Alpine Lake, where there was a big fire there 2 years ago. I was aware of that so I was ready for it…..so I thought. I had seen plenty of fire damage on this route plus the one I took in June so I thought I had seen it all. Alpine Lake was just downright scary to me. It started to get a little more cloudy and there was burnt and black everywhere. It was like a scene from a horror movie. The way this lake is shaped and the water did not look blue anymore because of the black trees, it just creeped me out so I paddled across it as fast as I could looking behind me now and then making sure “Jason” from Friday the 13th was not after me in a canoe…lol. This fire had happened 2 years ago and it looked like it happened yesterday. Just dead and eerie. So I make it to the portage that leads to the last lake on the trip which is Seagull. The portage trail is also just surrounded by trees that were knocked over from the July 4th blowdown of 1999 plus they were all burnt now too. There were lots of flowers growing though that made the trail very interesting to see colorful flowers surrounded by burnt trees all over. Seagull Lake was another lake I had been looking forward to camping on as there are lots of islands here too. Well after getting to Seagull I noticed a lot of fire damage too, not as much as Alpine but enough to wish I was back on Sag again. By this time it was late afternoon and so I paddled around exploring and checking out campsites along the way. There must have been some sites closed from the fire as I could not find a few that were listed on the map. Anyway I came to this conclusion about Seagull. This would be a great looking lake without the fire damage. This lake is also very easy to get to as there is access right from the Gunflint Trail. Come to find out, lots of people like to go here who do not like to portage so they base camp here. It did not take me long to figure that out. It was crowded compared to the other lakes I was on plus all the sites were taken that I could find. There were large groups on some sites and it just seemed a little too loud for my taste as well so I just paddled right to the Trail’s End Campground where I started and stayed the last night there as my car was there waiting.
Overall it was a great trip. I think I learned a lot as I had to do everything myself and really had to be conscious of not doing anything too risky to not get hurt. Oh, and the new portage boots I used saved my ankle from spraining again. On the very last portage from Creepy Alpine Lake to Seagull I stumbled on a rock (they were everywhere on every portage trial) and fell. My ankle turned and if it were not for the ankle support on these boots I would have been in trouble. I was so thankful for that. So my first choice on trips like this would be to have friends with me but sometimes it does not work out like that. I would continue to do solo trips as there are just endless lakes and trails to explore but having friends with would be better. The camp stove worked great and I can now set up a tent that is windproof and rain tarp although I did not need that once. I also brought WAY too much food, but I guess that is better than not enough.
So a new camera is on my birthday or Christmas list this year…..:) plus a waterproof case.
Shane
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