The Northern Tier High Adventure Program is every Scout's unique opportunity to explore one of America's most pristine areas of true wilderness. It's the Boy Scouts of America's oldest High Adventure Progam: The first Scouts made their way there in 1923, when this area was a major trade route for the Canadian Voyageur.
Our group of eight from Troop 1916 spent eight wonderful, challenging, and fun days near the flagship base of The Northern Frontier, the Charles L Sommers Canoe Base near Ely, MN. For all of us, I think it was most probably the physically demanding week of our lives.
But to have had the privilege to canoe in the Boundary Waters made all the hard work and effort well worth it. Simply put: It was breathtakingly beautiful.
We spent the week with no electronics, no noise, no cars, no planes and, for the most part, no people. We didn’t get to see a moose, but we did share the lakes with the scary looking loons, the odd snake, several amazing bald eagles, and 22 trillion mosquitoes! Their reputation as the top predator in the lakes was not misplaced.
Preparing for The Northern Frontier
Let's back up a few months. Prior to heading to DCA Airport on July 1st, the Scouts had spent three 90-minute canoe practice sessions on Pohick Bay to try and get the hang of the "j" stroke and other techniques for paddling a canoe with two people working together.
In hindsight, a tad more practice would have been good, since we spent on average 6-8 hours a day paddling. But I'm not sure what can truly prepare you for that challenge.
We had one major logistical issue to overcome prior to departure. Each person had to fit ALL, and I mean ALL, their gear in one 30-litre dry bag. And I can assure you this this was not an easy task. We were only allowed one set of wet clothes and one set of dry. For you mums out there, that means we had two pairs of underwear for the entire week!!!! Up until we got on the river, this was still an issue.
Departure Day
When travel day arrived, Felix, Max, Will, Charlie, Aaron (our crew leader), Dominic, and my fellow Adult Leader, Jason Coopersmith, and I met at the allotted time at Raegan Washington National Airport (DCA) for our flight to St. Louis, MO, then on to Minneapolis, MN.
All went well and when we arrived we headed to the car rental place and picked up our two cars for the drive to Ely. We spent the night near the airport and had dinner in the Mall of America.
Up early, we headed north to Duluth and then onto Ely. Oddly, we stopped in Virginia, MN for lunch and arrived at the base at 1:30 p.m. where, much to the delight of the Scouts, we met our our interpreter (guide) for the trip. Liz was a 19 year-old mechanical engineering student from Georgia Tech!
We checked in, did the normal BSA paperwork dance, and then headed to various "barns" to pick up our gear. We spent a fair amount of time choosing our route through the lakes and purchased the necessary maps (which strangely say "not for navigational purposes on them!!!" Go figure...).
Dinner was followed by a brief "how to" video, and then it was off to bed, where we were met with by hot, smelly cabin with four bunk beds. We awoke early and headed for breakfast. Once done, we picked up paddles, PFDs, and then the all-important canoes. We were ready to go!
Three canoes, three people per canoe, one big back pack (gray whale) with personal gear per canoe (about 50 pounds), and then either the food (80 pounds at the start) or the kettle box (all the cooking gear about 50 pound) per canoe.
We didn't realize that for the next six days, from about 7:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., we would be wet from at least the waist down.
During the summer months, The Northern Tier practices the art of wet portages...a practice that requires every person and every piece of gear have to be removed from the canoe before you hit land.
Normally this occurred in knee deep water. But sometimes that didn't work or you simply slipped and, Voila, there you were swimming!
A Daily Account of Our Sojourn to the Northern Frontier
Day 1:
We camped on Ensign Lake after nine miles of paddling. We went through Moose, Splash and Ensign lake and had two portages (10 and 5 rods...a rod is the length of a canoe...16.5 feet).
It was a lovely spot but when we turned in we could all hear a noise that sounded like a generator in the distance. This hum was in fact the squadrons of mosquitoes ready to attack at the first sign of any human within reach. And these little fellas didn't care if you had clothes on or not. They could stick their blood-sucking snouts through anything!!
Day 2:
We camped on Ima Lake after a nice easy six-mile day. We went through Ashigan, Gibson, Cattyman, Jordan, and ended up on Ima lake. We had four portages of 105, 55, 5, 25 rods (BTW, why did I have to carry the canoe on the 105 portage???).
It was July 4th, so Liz kindly prepared an an apple pie to celebrate. We also found crayfish and mussels and had a bit of a steamer dinner to go along with the Walleye caught by our expert fisherman, Mr. Coopersmith.
Day 3:
Here we camped on Kekekabic lake after a long, hard 12 miles day. We got to hook up the three canoes and sail using our dinning fly for a part of the day which was awesome fun. We went through Hatchet, Thomas, Fraiser, Gerund, Ahmakose, Wisini, Strup, Kekekabic lakes and had nine portages (90, 85,10, 10, 10, 50, 30, 10, 15).
We also saw our first eagles, and the Scouts and Liz went rock jumping. The guys played a lot of cards, and Liz taught them a great new game called "Animals" (ask them about it...they even tried it in the water).
Day 4:
Liz had told us her favorite lake was Cherry. So, we camped there, and it was truly beautiful. Most of the lakes are tree-lined, but this particular lake has some amazing cliffs. We canoed for nine miles and went through Kekekabic ponds, Eddy, South Arm Knife, Ameobr, Topaz, Cherry lakes overcoming 10 portages (5,15, 20, 10, 15, 25, 50, 75, 20, 10).
On the way we stopped at Eddy's Falls. A pretty big waterfall we got to play in (safely of course). We also had a major issue finding one of the portages, which caused a slightly raised level of concern among the team for about 30 minutes.
Day 5:
Our finest, hardest day. We ended up camping on Birch Lake after a 17-mile day. We went through Cherry, Topaz, Amoeba, South Arm Knife, Melon, Seed, Carp and Birch lakes and used nine portages (20, 5, 25, 75, 15,15,15, 25, 40).
This run basically took us along the Canadian border. We did have one raiding party that landed on Canadian soil and took a rock that we placed on the U.S. side when we stopped for lunch. The U.S. is officially about 6x4x2 inches bigger than before our trip!
Day 6:
Our last day on the water involved a six-mile paddle (though Sucker, Newland, and Moose lakes, and only one five rod portage) into a really strong head wind...not much fun but we ended up at base camp at the allotted 1:00 p.m., got rid of all our gear, and had lunch after a brief shower.
Local Ely-brewed sodas were consumed and a really good night's sleep was had (and welcomed) by all of us.
Heading Home From the Northern Tier 2015
We had breakfast at 7:00 a.m. and then headed south to the airport. All our flights worked perfectly again, and we were met by happy mummies at DCA at 10:30 p.m.
Liz was and awesome guide not only for her patience in putting up with us for a week, but also keeping us safe throughout our trip. These high adventure trips are not without their dangers, and to arrive back in DC with only a few cut and bruises and a million mosquito bites made for a great outcome. She also baked us a pie, brownies and blueberry muffins that were like little nuggets of heaven out on the trail.
Final Thoughts...
I had a blast, but I couldn’t have done it without the help of Jason Coopersmith, who, with his calm demeanor, allowed me to retain my sanity and kept the Scouts and me laughing 99% of the time.
As for the Scouts, I can say with pride that all of them were terrific throughout the trip and represented the best of scouting's great traditions. They pulled their weight, didn't complain, and only had a few minor moments of craziness.
The Northern Tier also serves as an important reminder for every Scout about the importance of honoring and preserving the beauty of the great outdoors.
We all found this trip challenging and physically demanding, but I hope these more experienced Scouts learned that by pushing themselves a little bit more, the world really is their oyster.
--Matt Salt, Scoutmaster