TREEHOUSE in the Boundary Waters!

Our trip began Sunday, lJune 27 leaving TreeHouse at 6:30a.m. Our first stop was at 6:45a.m. so Heather and I could get COFFEE!!!! We then stopped along the way to eat at good old McDonalds and to get necessities of sunscreen, bracelet making materials, coloring books, crayons and a word puzzle book for the remaining 4 hour drive! The van was a constant bracelet making machine, lots of singing, and random questions from the game would you rather. I still wonder how people come up with these questions, such as; Would you rather have elbows the size of basketballs or knees the size of basketballs? We finally arrived at....Grand Marais which meant we had reached the end of all electronic connection...good bye society for one week! yippeee!!!!
We stayed at the Wilderness Canoe Base that night, had chapel, yummy camp food, learned to swamp the canoe, had a swim test and went through our packing items. For me it consisted of 2 pairs of clothes, 1 wet and 1 dry.We used Duluth Packs, super durable and pretty comfortable to carry.

The rest of the week was wonderful! We had an awesome guide who taught us a lot about the 'wilderness', how to hang the packs in trees away from bears, and many other useful safety tips. I was so impressed by our girls, they carried the packs and canoes, they portaged and canoed a lot without many complaints.                   There is something about being in the open wilderness, we took some solitude time during the week and it was so refreshing and peaceful beyond what you can imagine. I love it, to live in the open with what you have, would be a true simple way of living. Through the six days we were there we did a 20 mile round trip I believe. Had a muskrat dig into our food pack and pee in it too:( Super gross by the way. We had great conversations, went rock climbing, shared each others life stories and learned how to live life together in the wilderness. I saw an article about how the attendance of the boundary waters has been decreasing. The reason was described as people are choosing not to come that far away from 'real life' because they can't be away from their communication devices, computers, and work that long. But it is a hurt to the youth because they aren't experiencing nature and they are missing out on learning camping skills. I highly suggest if you have ever wanted to or are thinking about going to the Boundary Waters........DO IT!!!! It is more than worth your time and effort.