May Term in the Wilderness

Today was wet, and grey, and misty and cold. It made me think of two things: my trip to London, and more importantly in terms of this blog, my May Term trip to the Boundary Waters (most of the weather was great, but there was a day or two in there that were just nasty!). May Term is one of the things that makes Simpson awesome! It's a 3 week term after second semester...starts in May. You can either take a class, do an internship, or take a trip, and it's great!!!! I know I gave you a little tidbit of my trip to the Boundary Waters in a previous blog, but dabbling in it doesn't do the trip justice. Thus, I will dedicate this blog to the trip of my lifetime to the Boundary Waters. Here I am, all decked out in wilderness gear!

I've been to a lot of places, but none was ever as challenging as that week I spent in northern Minnesota getting my butt kicked by the wilderness. Why's that, you ask? Well, let me give you a little background. I'm not much into sweating...I don't like getting all gross, and I really hate smelling. I'm a clean girl--I shower daily (except on some Sundays, but that's a different blog). I'm not what you would have called the extreme canoeing-wilderness type. I didn't own watershoes, wool socks, vinyl hiking pants, a camp stove, or a sleeping bag for that matter. This was definitely going to be a trip that was going to push my limits.

What was the trip, exactly? It was 4 canoes, 8 people, tons of lakes, and miles and miles of hiking. We packed all our gear in a five portage packs (big gigantic backpacks), all our food in two bear barrels, strapped on our hiking shoes and took off on a 7 day adventure through the wilderness--real wilderness. No cell phones, no computers, no people, no houses, just us and the moose and the bears. At least one of my best friends, Lucy (in the pic--we met in our LAS class freshman year) was going to be there, too!

Did I have my doubts? Oh, heavens yes. On the walk over to the parking lot where we all met at 5 a.m. to head north, I was convinced I had screwed up, but I was this far in and I knew my canoeing partner probably couldn't steer the boat alone. I had committed. I was in for the long haul. In all honesty, before this class, I had never canoed before, and after signing up for this trip, I questioned my sanity. I was very unsure of my ability to get through it. It is highly physically taxing, and requires a great deal of mental and physical effort—neither of which I was sure I had the Sunday before we left. Me and my partner, Mosa, are in the picture to the left.

When we finally got on the water Tuesday morning, I thought for sure the beauty of the scenery would outweigh the anxiety I was feeling…that hope lasted for all of 15 minutes. Soon enough my arms started to tire and the portages definitely tested my strength. The first couple of portages were short and pretty easy—you just strap everything on like a pack mule and hike through the wilderness until you find more water. The first long portage we did was 190 rod long—which is over a half a mile. It was on this portage that I convinced myself that this trip may not have been a good idea. I had my backpack on my back and a canoe over my head resting on my shoulders--I was carrying this canoe all by myself. After I started walking, I wanted to cry, and I was certain I wouldn’t make it half the distance I needed to. After lots of struggle and a little help, I made it through. This picture is a couple of us taking off on a long portage.

To make it worse, I found a tick burrowed into my back which totally freaked me out, and my partner and I lacked a little communication and subsequently ran our boat into rocks several times. This picture is Leah checking my head for ticks, pleasant, I know. Also, getting over the fact that I would be drinking lake water and wouldn’t be showering for 7 days (uck!) was a great big mind hurdle. I just had to get up the motivation to jump. By the end of the week, we were having a blast, and walking a mile long portage was just another thing we did. The trip went faster than I ever imagined.

Going out in the wilderness is very much like embarking on any new journey in life. At times, starting out, we may find that we’ve run into a rock, or that we cannot quite maintain our balance. In fact, we may even discover a tick attached to our side and feel as though it is sucking the life right out of us—in these situations we cannot panic, but calmly find the tweezers and take care of the problem. And, sometimes you have to sleep on the ground--there's a pic of one of our campsites. Eventually, there may come a time when we aren’t sure that we will actually be able to go on, and at the end of the day we might sit down and ask ourselves what in the world we were thinking to head in this direction...but the end is always in sight--even if you can't always see it.

I think this trip is also a testament to the lessons I learned at Simpson. Strapping a canoe on your shoulders and committing to hiking several miles in the wilderness was not neccesarily my thing--but by the time I came out of the beautiful landscape, I knew I was changed. I was physically, mentally, and emotionally stronger. I was faced with a challenge unlike any I had ever faced before, and I conquered it--and it felt great...even better after the four dollar-fifteen minute shower I took when coming off the water! And, most of all, the 7 strangers I went into the wilderness with were now great friends, and we spent 7 days having a GREAT time. May Term is great, the Boundary Waters was fantastic, and is just one more awesome thing I add to the pile of cool experiences I had at Simpson.