A Little History About the Trip

We've been doing these canoe (and occasionally kayak) excursions for about fifteen years. It all started out with the three of us hanging around in my living room (many years ago) lamenting how we miss the boating and camping that we used to do as boy scouts. One of us said "Hey, instead of whining about how much we miss it, why don't we just do it?" And we did... a three or four-day trip down the Upper Iowa River. From there it became an annual event.

Our trips initially took place on Labor Day weekend, but we frequently ran into problems with low water, so somewhere along the line we changed to Memorial Day weekend. The water is much better, but I tend to get a little cold at night and early in the morning... especially when we go north. Fortunately, we went south this year, and I loved the weather. Next year should be back to the same old stuff though... we're planning on going to the Boundary Waters in Northern Minnesota and Southern Canada. I think I'm going to have to start purchasing my warm gear now.

Over the years, we've done a lot of different rivers. We've repeated the Upper Iowa once or twice, and we made repeat trips to Northeastern Wisconsin during our whitewater days, but for the most part, we do a different river each trip. I think back to our early excursions and see how much we've grown and changed over the years... and how much we're the same. We used to intentionally try to sink each others' canoes and play pranks on each other. Those days are gone. Now we talk... or sit together in content silence. We reminisce. We used to carry a lot of stuff that we didn't need. Now we carry a lot of stuff that we do need.

I think that we all see our trips coming full circle. The tradition was started by remembering trips to the Boundary Waters, which is where we're going next year. Furthermore, during this trip, I asked the other guys if they'd consider doing something completely different... something like a motorcycle camp trip. They were both open to the idea. One guy even suggested a trip to Vegas, because he's "never been anywhere."

I took some video footage of the trip. I plan to edit the footage and turn it into a video, which I'll probably post on YouTube. I will also be talking about the trip itself over the next several posts.