Harry's Gang: I prefer a warm, dry camp

Now we can't camp overnight in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

I say it's no big deal, for now.

It's a ban lasting only until May 18. But who camps in early May except the diehards? It's too cold. The ice just went out, which means the water's cold. The air is cold. The ground is cold.

Sure, there are no mosquitoes, but it's been a rough spring. Even the neighborhood kids who set up their tent in the backyard last weekend came into the house about 10 p.m., mildly hypothermic.

In the Boundary Waters you don't have the option of crawling into your warm bed. You're stuck out there till morning.

Camping in the BWCA brings back quite a few fond memories, though.

My Boy Scout troop went once or twice in the summer. Around 1977, we unloaded at an entry near Ely one cloudy day and headed off for six days of camping, canoeing and general fun. After a few hours, it started raining a bit. Being prepared, we all had adequate rain gear and we just kept paddling.

Into a storm, apparently, as the rain got harder and wetter. Well before dinner time, our scoutmaster decided we'd traveled far enough for one day and we set up camp. We had those good, solid 1950s-style tents: made from thick, grey canvas, donated from Army surplus (because no sane modern soldier would sleep under one of those, much less portage 180 rods with one on their back). Those old tents were wrapped around a big, solid pole, and the whole package weighed at least 40 pounds. Slightly damp, those tents weighed even more.

For the next five days, the rain never stopped. It would vary between a light mist to a drizzle to a full downpour, but it never stopped. Campfires were nearly impossible, and everything got wet. Very wet. And heavy.

We had planned a route that would penetrate deep into the wilderness and get us into Canada. For a second trip that summer we looked for the shortest portages. We'd learned our lesson.

It rained until the early morning of the last day of our trip. We woke to sunshine and some slightly warmer air. So we decided to get to the landing a few hours before our parents picked us up, figuring we could lay out our gear to dry while we went swimming to salvage some of the trip.

We came to a lengthy portage down a stream with rapids that looked mild. To save time, we thought we'd "shoot the rapids" rather than unpack and pack everything again. We were Boy Scouts, after all, trained in nature and camping and safety. But the rapids were too rapid, so midway we got out and guided our fully loaded canoes down the side of the creek. Sure enough, one of the canoes got too far into the stream and capsized, sending all our gear into the water. We spent the next half-hour rescuing gear as it was swept away by the current. We had thought we couldn't get any wetter. We were wrong.

For some reason, I don't recall my many other trips into the BWCA as keenly as I do that one.

Last summer, my son Tommy and I had a chance to do a little canoeing in the mountains out east. He's pretty good in the bow, although we rise a bit high in the water when I'm in the stern. We spent most of the day paddling around, calm, peaceful. We decided that this spring we'd take a daytrip into the BWCA. He wants to camp overnight, but that is on hold for now.

Oh, I'll take the kids camping this summer. Maybe to Bent Trout Lake or Pattison Park or one of the many other public campgrounds. But I secretly won't be too disappointed if the only camping we do this summer is in our backyard. It's so much closer to the fridge.

Pete Radosevich is publisher of the Pine Knot News and an attorney in Esko who hosts the talk show Harry's Gang on CAT-7. Email him at Pete.Radosevich@Pine KnotNews.com.