A few years ago the men in our family decided to test our mettle in a little paddle into unknown territory at our favorite vacation site - the BWCAW. It was going to be just an easy day of paddling and then set up a base site from which...you know the routine. Anyway, after a full day of fighting a head wind and, what we considered, a mountain of a final portage (now named Hiway 105 by those who trod its lanes), we finally arrived at our base lake of Insula - to the East of Ely, MN.
Now to those of you who are vets at this sort of thing that might sound like an easy day but to a bourgeois who yet was in his ascendancy and leading a group of "green as pea" adolescents I was at my physical limits when we hit the water of Insula. Sure enough, every campsite we came upon had wise leaders who saw fit to sit tight and let 'er blow and who took great delight in waving merrily from their snug locations. Finally, the advance party sighted a bare campsite and heartily waved us in for a much earned rest.
After we had settled in, had lunch and a swim we headed out to explore. Oh, the wonders of new found land & water! So supreme were we in our discoveries that we changed the declarations of cartographers everywhere by naming this bay and that rock and oh-such-a fishing hole, etc.
As we gathered to compare notes around supper preparations, we found that one of the coves near our campsite had been renamed Bat Rock Bay by two of our kids who discovered a secret hiding place of one of its occupants. While coasting along a rock face with nothing in mind other than pestering the local denizens as well as casting for a few Bucket-mouths, David, the stern man, reached out to a rock face to steady the canoe and in so doing picked up a small rock from a shelf nearby. What a surprise to have two beady little eyes stare back at him! A little brown bat had decided to use this location to snooze and, while not alarmed, was much happier to be left to his slumbering. Quickly and carefully, the rock was replaced and the lads continued their explorations. Thereafter, however, they were more aware of their surroundings and neighbors and watched carefully where they put their hands and toes.
And, as we sit by the fires of home and rest from our labors with old man winter we sigh and say to ourselves, .....Ah, yes, but you should hear of the stories we could tell.....!
Another tale by Jaunty Jim? Read Flying Ants of Stardom and Stew
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