We have accepted a couple of challenges from “Backpacker Magazine” this year: 1) take a new hiker in the back country (and presumably bring them back alive and relatively unharmed—we took my cousin, Chris, to the Grand Canyon in February of this year, and are now taking my brother-in-law, George to Isle Royale on this trip); and 2) make it to 3 National Parks this year (we are planning on the Gray Wolf Loop in Olympic National Park this September). We’re starting to get this primitive camping/backpacking thing down. Who needs beds and hot showers every day? Porcelain—let’s consider this one a little bit more.
After a night of drinking heavily last Christmas, Pam and I decided that George needed some hobbies to keep him active now that both of his daughters are married and live away from home. Plus, he’s looking at retirement in the near future so he will have more time on his hands. Since we only have one hobby (other than drinking, which we have already gotten George involved with) we decided to share the joy of the backcountry with him. I’ve got enough airline miles accumulated from work for all 3 of us to fly free to Minneapolis and, having evolved my gear over the years and not gotten rid of anything, have enough spare gear to outfit him for the trip. Worst case outcome of this trip (second worst case, actually with worst case being his death, que sera sera) is that we will develop him as a resource to handle trail shipments when we hike the AT. Best case outcome, he’ll do the AT with us and buy us food along the way as a means of showing us his gratitude for getting him out of the house and back in shape. I really like free food so I’m hoping we pull this off.
As usual, I have taken care of all details for this trip including airline tickets, rental car, hotel reservations, ferry to Isle Royale, gear and food for all 3 of us, and itinerary. All Pam and George had to do was get their own clothes and cameras and keep track of that while I do everything else (woe is me!). I’m always three steps ahead of Pam in details. By the time we start the trip, she asks me if I’ve done this—yes; do we have this—yes; how about that—yes; but did you remember to do that—yes. Like working as an engineer, I take care of all details to only have the boss question every decision and activity after the fact. As further evidence of my acumen, I accomplished all of these details while moving our household from Sikeston to Cape Girardeau all without Pam missing a single day of work. Even though I got us moved earlier than we were supposed to, she still had to have a perfectionist meltdown because not all of the pictures were hung before we left for this trip.
I got us all up on time to make it to the airport and do curbside check in of our luggage while I went to park the car. I’m pretty sure I got us up early enough to draw Pam a bubble bath and wash her hair while she still snoozed in the tub and I had a full breakfast ready and waiting for Pam and George when they were ready. As planned, we made it without incident to Minneapolis. We had our carry ons with us and headed to baggage claim to retrieve our packs and gear. We each donned our packs, George and I grabbed an end of the duffle bag of excess gear and food (George placed his camera on top of the duffle) and we headed to the car rental counter. We got an SUV, threw our gear it and headed north—no problem, flawless planning.
We stopped for lunch at Pickwick Restaurant and Pub in Duluth and had a table overlooking Lake Superior. It was perfect. We were on schedule and had plenty of time so we decided to take the scenic drive along the coast to Grand Marais. We stopped at a scenic overlook north of town and decided to take some pictures. Pam and I are snapping away while George is shuffling luggage to get his camera out. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle yet still no camera. Clothes and camera are the only responsibilities Pam and George had and I took care of EVERYTHING else. Houston, we have a problem.
He was amazingly calm considering he’d lost a $1000 of camera equipment. I called the rental car company to see if someone had turned in a camera—no luck. We returned to Duluth and went to Best Buy for George to buy a newer Canon camera, zoom lense, and memory cards. $1,100 later we’re back on the road.
We got to the hotel in Grand Marais a little later than planned but we still had time to head out for pizza before we went back to our room at the Best Western to repack gear to get ready for an early start in the morning. We have reservations for the 7:30a ferry so we need to be ready to get up and go. Add in a little uncertainty about time zones with our departure times and that means we need to hit the road by 5a. As we are packing up, we are having a difficult time getting everything to fit. Both Pam’s and George’s packs are bulging so I keep agreeing to take more gear. We’re going to be on the island for 8 days and we hadn’t realized how much space the extra food would take. We managed to get it all attached (there was more hanging off of the packs than I would like, but it will dissipate in a few days as we eat).
Finally, we got it all together and put the packs in the SUV. We kept just what we had to wear in the morning and our toothbrushes and went to bed. Pam and George both snore. I wake up every 15 minutes afraid we’ve overslept.