Starting this business, Wilderness Journey, has been the most important endeavor I have ever taken on. I can’t begin to explain how much this business and all the clients have done for me personally.  As you probably noticed, I feed off of all the energy that the clients provide and I am trying to push it to the next level. After this last season, I realized that the wilderness experience and leading this experience for others is not just a job but pinnacle to my happiness in life. It is not only a part of me but my driving force for the rest of my life. Intense, I know.  

A few weeks ago we had a presentation at the Ann Arbor's REI and after the presentation one of the women commented that she could tell how passionate I was about this area. This we can promise to all our clients: this passion will never vanish.

Days before I left Ely, it was like “whew! That was one tough season!” I was (kind of) glad it was coming to an end.  As I drove back to my winter home in Michigan, I realized how it affects me.  I was already thinking about next year!  I would like to thank all our clients for the great memories.  I would like to thank Sarah my niece for the great job she always does. I also would like to thank my friend Gregg Benson in Ely for all the help he has given me over the last few years.

We have high hopes and big plans for next season!  Sarah, Nate and I are working on new packages for the Boundary Waters.  Meanwhile, we are booking BWCA trips, adding new routes, ordering new equipment, making plans for the upcoming sport shows, presentations and dreaming of the next season. Nate is also working on a “survivalist trip package” (for those that really want to challenge themselves). We are also planning trips to PMA’s (primitive management areas) where groups are only allowed with a very special permit.

Free Trip Raffle

Everyone who is currently on the Wilderness Journey email list will be entered into a raffle to win a free trip with Wilderness Journey. We will be recruiting new adventurists’ emails by referral and at the outdoor shows. The raffle drawing will take place March 31st 2012. The free trip is 6 day trip for one person.  This can be used by the winner alone or with a group. Anyone who has already booked a trip will still be eligible for the raffle.

Congrats again to 2011 Raffle winner, Neil Childs, who also is featured in this month’s trip report.

Save the DATE!

Wilderness Journey- BWCA Presentations:  Hear the stories and see the amazing photos.  It’s like sitting around a campfire! (except that we are indoors watching a slideshow)  The major benefits to attending one of these presenations is that you can learn what to expect, what to bring, ask questions  and be able to shop for your personal BWCA items that day.  Share stories of your own with other adventurists!  We will keep you posted on our facebook page with upcoming presentations.    

The Childs Trip

Every year we raffle off a free trip to someone on our email list. As it turns out, this year’s winner  was a veteran BWCA paddler, Neil Childs.  Neil has been going to the BWCA for the last 40 years and has over 25 trips under his belt. Not only is he a accomplished paddler but Neil (spartan1) is also on a bwca forum website.  I am a member of this forum as well and he and his wife Lynda (spartan2) are avid contributors to this site. When I realized who they were I was both excited and a little nervous because they have written many trip reports on this forum and of course I was hoping all would go well to ensure a great trip report.  As it turned out, it was a great trip!

When he won the trip; he was thinking, “why would I go on a trip with a guide that I don’t know. I can just go with my long time (and favorite) partner, Lynda.”  However, after talking to Lynda he had realized he could learn something.   For all the trips they have been on, they have never fished the BWCA.  So Lynda told him he could learn how to fish and that would give him a whole new perspective on the BWCA… so the trip was on!

This trip report will not be a typical report but rather how the BWCA can affect a person and their significant other. Don’t worry… we will have a few fishing, wildlife and terrific scenery stories but it will be about a couple who has made the Boundary Waters a major part of their life.  It will show how through the years, it has strengthened their relationship at the most crucial and turbulent times of their lives.

When we decided the trip was a go! Lynda sent me a detailed email about Neil and his medical problems and how worried she was about him going on a trip with a stranger that they really didn’t know. After reading this long and detailed list, I must admit I was a little worried. The facts laid out helped me to make an easy decision: Neil had been to the BWCA over 25 times so he knew what it could provide and what BWCA can throw at you. I decided that if anyone ever deserved a free trip to the Boundary Waters, it was Neil.

Neil is a man of few words but the words he chooses to say always provide great meaning.  Neil is a 66 year old Vietnam vet who has 2 purple hearts.  (God bless him and his service and he will always be a hero to me!)  His medical history is important to note: he has had type 1 diabetes for decades and then he came down with kidney disease quite a few years back. When they found out about the kidney disease, doctors told him it would be within 5 years that he would need a transplant.  It took almost 15 years before his transplant. (I believe this is because Neil is stubborn and one tough SOB) The transplant was performed 2 ½ years ago.  When Neil and Lynda found out that it was time to place him on the transplant list 5 years ago, their actions spoke volumes.  Instead of letting life pass them by and play the waiting game, they decided to make the trek to the BWCA every single year( instead of every other year). Then, as if that wasn’t enough, they started to travel even more to experience life to its fullest. Since the transplant, they have travelled overseas, and to Alaska and many other places.

I must admit that writing this causes tears to well up in my eyes. My mother had the exact same list of medical problems almost 20 years ago.  I really wish she had the same opportunities that Neil and Lynda have.  Back to the subject… this story is not about my mom, but about Neil and Lynda Childs.

When I met with them the day before the trip, we reviewed the menu, the spot locater, in case of emergency, the glucagon injections and all the tools that diabetics have to signal abnormal levels.  Being experienced with own mother’s diabetes, I was not too worried. I could tell that Lynda was just a little worried but I hope that all the preparations and precautions we took made her feel more at ease.

The first day started at 5:00 am and we were on the river by 6:00 am the weather during the entire trip was pretty much fantastic. We made it to the falls and after a short rest and lunch.  I asked Neil,  “how do you feel?”  His reply: “Great! what are we waiting for?”  We hit the pictographs, took some photos and continued on. To my surprise, Neil did great!  We had to stop a few times to replenish with water and a snack but everyone was going strong!  We traveled 22 miles that day and arrived at our planned campsite. The one surprise was that in over 22 miles we only saw 3 occupied campsites.  That is always a welcome sight. After camp was set up we had a small campfire and drifted off to sleep.

Over the next few days we had great weather, good fishing and a wonderful time. I could see him smile every time he had a fish on and that always makes my trip! He caught numerous walleyes including a 24 incher, a northern over 30” and a large 19” smallie. We ate fish just about every day and enjoyed the experience. We did so well that at one point I said, “Fishing isn’t as hard as you thought, is it?!”

On the 5th day we discussed what route would we take; the easier way back, the way we came in, or the more difficult loop and continue on.  Neil being a true voyageur decided to continue on and so we did, we stopped at a campsite on Fairy Lake and by noon the next day we were back at the parking lot.

It was a great overall trip but the following are a few moments during the trip when Neil told me stories that really touched me. (Remember he is a man of a few but great words.)  These moments showcase a relationship between a man and a woman who are not only a hero and heroine but who are meant to be together.  If there was ever proof that everyone has a soul mate out there, it is Neil and Lynda Childs.

When we stopped at our first break for lunch on that first day we were looking out over the falls and he said to me that in all the years of his marriage that the Boundary Waters was the one constant in their lives. (I think at that moment he was thinking of Lynda)

We stopped at a narrows at the top of Thursday Bay due to low water.  We took a break as he looked over at a nearby campsite.  It was the campsite that Lynda and he used to warm-up on there in a 1985 trip, after a cold, rainy trip from Curtain Falls.

Between lunch and fishing, Neil went exploring back in the woods behind our campsite. During this trip, he found pieces of a Styrofoam cooler. One piece had a little 3” pine tree growing in it. The pieces were collected so we could haul them out. He had told me a story of how on a trip to Pine Lake years ago he had found a teeny-tiny tree in a downed log and how Lynda had planted it, hoping it would survive. Then about going back years later and not being able to identify for sure where she had planted it. I then took Neil’s folding trowel and planted the little tree he had found. (that one’s for you Lynda)

Neil told me a touching story about his transplant donator.  It was his son in law’s mother from out east. There were other people who were able to donate their kidney but this incredible woman (being religious) said she believed that it was not only the right thing to do but her duty to her fellow man and God would want it that way! Another Heroine. 

Then he went on and told me a story about how they went to Italy after the transplant and visited the Vatican just so she, his hero could say she had been there. How great is that!

Now the most touching story of the entire trip was when Neil and I were slowly trolling around the bay and he told me how he met the woman of his dreams.  (I could hear the love in his voice) On a bus over 40 years ago, on the way to the Rose bowl, Lynda asked the woman sitting next to Neil if she was interested in him. She said “not really” so they exchanged seats. Just like that a lifetime was started full of trials and tribulations just like we all experience in life.  It’s getting through the tough times that really test a relationship.

I am a very lucky man I not only teach people about the wilderness, mother nature and this great gift that our universe has given us but I receive the  greatest gift of all…I learn that there are great people all around us. Some people have books written about their life and others just happen to enter our lives. We may pass them on the street, meet them at the cash register, after they won a trip or maybe just sitting next to them on a bus on the way to the Rose Bowl.  After all these years as a guide, I can tell you that there are many more great and heroic people out there than you can ever imagine.