Boyfriend vs Curling Iron

     My next opportunity to go canoeing came along with a new boyfriend.  He loved to go on wilderness canoe trips through Lake Trails Base Camp located on Oak Island in Lake of the Woods Minnesota.  The summer before our Senior year in High School he chose to spend the entire summer as a canoe guide there.

     I heard stories of how fun these wilderness canoe trips could be.  Drinking the water from the lake, going to the bathroom in the woods and no electricity did not have one iota of an appeal to me during that time of my life.  My one and only question I had as I considered whether or not to participate during one of the camper sessions was, "Where could I plug in my curling iron?"

     Needless to say I did not attend canoe camp that summer.  However, the next summer found me still with the same boyfriend who had some cash in his pocket to purchase a canoe.  While most boys his age saved money to buy a car his purchase was an Old Town Canoe.

     While most boyfriends took their girlfriends to movies mine took me elsewhere.  We paddled some small lakes in Central Minnesota, chose a couple of rivers to explore and even duck hunted from the trusty canoe.  Next on the list was our own voyage to Lake of the Woods for a canoe camping trip with his family. 

     We spent a week exploring the interior lakes of the Lake of the Woods.  We portaged, camped and canoed and had a great trip.  It was my first real canoe camping experience in the wilderness.  It was the first time I had ever experienced anything like it.  While I had traveled to many different places in the United States over the years I hadn’t ever camped out in the middle of nowhere.

     I found I loved the quiet solitude of the wilderness and everything about it.  Twenty years later I find myself still in love with the wilderness and still with the same boyfriend.