Voyageurs: One By Sea?

Voyageurs National Park...accessible only by watercraft! Naive Mike rolls up to the Kabetogama River Visitor Center to find one thing...closed! It was a Monday and due to the sequester, the park couldn't afford to staff the visitor centers on Mondays. The sequester strikes again. Grrr.

A rogue Ranger walked past me and asked if he could help the very obviously lost me. I told him I had ambitions of camping in the park and all I had to get me to the sites was my little blue one person kayak. When he finished laughing at me he suggested I'd better test my luck down at the Ash River portion of the park. So...I did.

Long story short, I loaded up the kayak with the most minimal amount of gear required for a few days on the water (not to include my camera. Sorry folks...all phone pictures below). Luckily I had the presence of mind to put on my rain gear before shoving off and to put my bag's rain cover in the most accessible part of the bag. A decision that quickly became one of my better ones since setting off on 28 July. The skies opened up....but I was dry...and so was my gear.

Running out of day light and growing hungry, time was running out for me to find a place to call home for the night. Being the only person on the waterways without a speed boat, I started to see why the Ranger laughed at my expense. So much for doing things the old fashioned way...the way the Voyageurs of yore did it.

As my hope started to fade, I floated up to a lone motorboat stocked with a crew that was having the same type of luck finding fish. It was a family who I approached, hoping to glean some intel on the site situation down river. Not long after my inquisition, and without prompting, they cruised down a few miles to only then return with news that all the nearby sites were taken. Perhaps it was pity or just the infectious good nature the parks bring out in people, but what happened next changed my Voyageurs experience markedly.

The family offered to pick me out of the water and allow me to make camp on their site....8 miles down river!! A kindness I could only hope to one day return. A hot meal, hilarious conversations, mind-reading (September birthday - they'll get it), ominous hikes, star gazing, Hearts, falls, and birthday smores only describes a portion of the events of the following 48 hours. I will never forget their kindness and hospitality to a total stranger (without danger - so they'd would find out)...thanks to Debbie, Jessica, Elizabeth, Laura, and Alex.

P.S. Sorry for all the selfies haha

My Plan B Home

My Island...

On my island...its mine.