During the 2023 summer, I was one of the staff members at the Ely, MN base for the "Northern Tier" High Adventure Base for Scouts. I led 5 crews of scouts from four different states on wilderness treks. I (mostly) made sure nobody got lost in the wilderness, broke our fancy gear, got stuck canoeing in circles forever, or was devoid of random fun facts. By my math, I did 141 portages and canoed about 400 miles during the summer. It was a lot of fun!
Secret Lake, just south of the Scout base and accessed via a hike through the National Forest
A campsite on Blackstone Lake, which is along the hike to Secret Lake
Caddyman Falls, located between Gibson Lake and Caddyman Lake
View of the Basswood River, just north of Basswood Falls
Wild blueberries that I collected along the Basswood River and eventually added to the muffins we ate that evening for dessert
View of Griddle Lake from a portage trail that connects directly to the Scout base
A campsite that I stayed at twice on Basswood Lake which was perched on a rock and had a great view of the lake and Canada
Part of the post-trip "Rendezvous" performance during which the staff members sang songs and danced around
Sunset from a campsite on Birch Lake