Boundary Waters

My family just returned from a five-day stint in the Boundary Waters. I was looking through an old journal while I was up there in which I have recorded the various trips I've made to the Boundary Waters. This was my 20th trip. It was kind of a thrill to realize that while we were there, I passed the one-hundred-days-in-the-Boundary-Waters mark. Wow. So my grand total now stands at 102 days spent, all or in part, in the Boundary Waters.

This trip we went back to an area we know well, off the Gunflint Trail to Alpine Lake, where we've stayed a couple times before. It was a restful trip, with lots of sleeping in until 8 am and relaxing during the days. I read Rudyard Kipling's Captains Courageous to the family, front to back -- still one of my favorite read-alouds. Did a little half-hearted fishing.

Most of the time a trip like that drives me more than half crazy because I want to be moving and exploring. This time, though, I needed to rest. It was a relief, actually, when the one day I had planned to go exploring turned out so windy I didn't want to be out on the lake unless absolutely necessary. So I gave up the day trip and we went to the sheltered side of our peninsula and went swimming instead, then fell asleep in the sun. It's a rough life.