"This is the year we are going to do the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness as a family."
These words once spoken brought excitement and joy, now looking back it was one crazy adventure. I am not even sure where to start...maybe right at the beginning.
With our friends, Keith and Crystal, and family tucked tight in the suburban with gear for five days and two canoes loaded up top, we drove north to the beautiful land of the BWCA. The trip seemed to go quickly as we roared up to the Tofte Ranger Station and checked in. We learned there that the area we had chosen has bears and we all nodded our heads thinking, "they always say that." So we loaded up once again and headed into the wilderness excited and feeling well prepared for our greatest adventure of the summer.
Keith and Jason taking one last look at the map.
Seth running between the canoes and helping pack them up. 
Our first family photo in the wilderness. (Seth was not interested in joining us so you can see him as the red speck in the background...he, he.)
Ready to take on whatever comes our way: Seth and J mom. We paddled Kawishiwi Lake looking for a campsite. As it was late afternoon and we were hungry and tired for along day in the car we wanted an easy first day. With no sites on Kawishiwi available but no portgage necessary we headed into Square lake and saw a campsite available right away. In fact it was a great site. It had three tent areas which was just what we needed and a amazing view of the water and tree line.
We got camp set up and made our Hobo dinners which tasted delicious. Tiredness still a factore, we decided to make it an early night. As the sun set we pulled into our tents for the night. Seth in his own small tent, J mom and Dad in there tent and Keith and Crystal in their own tent slightly further into the woods. We were expecting to get a great night sleep and wake up ready to paddle further into the wilderness for our next camp site.
Little did we know...
Around 11 pm Jason was in Seth's tent (Seth was so overtired and restless he needed someone to be by him to help him keep getting back to sleep). I was in our tent and heard some loud rustling. Now I have been in a tent and heard mice, racoons, even deer but this sounded really BIG. Jason was also hearing this noise and popped out of Seth's tent and in the light of the moon headed toward the sound. Next thing I hear is, "A BEAR is in the food bag".
Within moments I was running from my tent to our son's, now yelling for mom, with my sleeping bag in tow. While comforting him, my husband is banging our pots and pans together and yelling in his deepest, darkest voice, "Get out of here, Bear!" It was either panic or pray. We chose to pray! Seeing the bear in our food and not being able to deter him Jason yelled for Keith to start a fire. Crystal, not wanting to stay alone one second, joined Seth and I in the tent.
May I stop to mention that we can hear this bear breathing and eating. He is a mere fifteen feet from our tent! My son is the bravest little boy ever and Crystal and I are great actors at being brave. Had Seth not been there I think we would have been freaking out or passed out on the ground!
The bear finally walked away about an hour and a half later with a very full belly. We all sat around the fire discussing possible plans and finally moved tents closer to the fire ring and each other for safety. Jason and I also joined Seth in a tent as we were not letting each other out of sight any time soon! The guys surveyed the damage and we assumed we were safe until morning. We decided to get a few hours of sleep and then decided what to do in the morning about our lack of food and newly developed fear of bears.
Oh how wrong we were...
To be continued...
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