Post- trip
10:30 AM, day 14. After we had set our gear down and taken our pictures, we now needed to find my car. Our nephew Rob had driven our car from Grand Rapids to Grand Portage, but we didn't know exactly where it was located in Grand Portage. The primary option was to put it in the parking lot for the Isle Royale ferry. Great, but we had no idea where that was. We stopped in the office at the stockade and talked to the woman working there. She gave me a ride over to the overflow lot (abougt 300 yards from where we had dropped our gear) and there was my Civic. Awesome! Especially cause if it was in the regular ferry lot we wouldn't have been able to get it until 5pm. Soooo, nice work Rob in the parking spot. I forgot I had left a big bottle of Gatorade in the car from the drive up. The chilly night had even left it cold! Nectar of the gods! We loaded up our gear and were on the road south by 11am.
I love driving along the north shore. The drive was a nice, pretty way to slowly get back into civilization. When we got to Grand Marais, my cell phone started getting coverage so we called family members to let them know we were out and safe. We had planned on meeting our niece Mistyn and her husband Rob in Duluth for a beer and burger at Fitger's. Rob had to fly out to Maryland and Mistyn had to work until 4:30; we had gotten out early and now that the trip was over were anxious to get home, so we decided to change plans. I had to pick up my ipod and keys at their house so we figured we'd eat early and then meet Mistyn after work and shower up at their house. We still had some time so we stopped at the Granite Gear factory in Two Harbors. I picked up some old model thwart and stowaway bags, as well as a small torso/food pack at a good price. The Big Boat Oatmeal Stout and burger and fries were damn good and we drove to Mistyn and Rob's full and happy. After a well earned shower we thanked Mistyn and made the way back down 35 to the Twin Cities. We got to Steve's and unloaded and sorted all the gear. We got my stuff back in the car and I bid goodbye to Steve and his family and made the 1.5 hour drive back to Rochester. It was a difficult drive. I had spent the last two weeks with my big brother and I was on my way back to an empty house. The trip I had been planning for a year and training for for 10 weeks was now over. Getting out early meant I had 4 days off before I had to be back at work, but I knew I would need all 4 of those days to readjust back to my life in Rochester.
It was strange - when we finished the brutal day 8 (Saganaga) and everything was wet and cold, I couldn't wait for my warm bed, hot meal, hot shower, and indoor plumbing. But then it got nice out again and it was hard to leave. The Grand, while hard work, wasn't a killer and I wasn't feeling worn down and sore. I was wanting more. I got home and didn't know what to do with myself. It was fun to see my friends again and see what had gone on in the world while we were out, but after a day of that, I found myself lost - Lost in Transition (apologies to Sophia Coppola). I cleaned up my gear, did laundry, and started going through the pictures. I had to make a Cabela's trip the day after we came out to get some laundry detergent (I'm particular about my laundry detergent) and I wandered the store, still in awe at what we had done and seen, but sad that it was over. I found myself walking through the camping section. They had a big Fisher map display along a wall the had most of the BWCA pieced together from the individual maps. I traced our route along the map, thinking about what we had seen along the way. I ended up talking to one of the employees, sharing the highlights of our trip. It was exciting to relate the experience. I had done the Grand the morning before, and here I was back in regular life again...
Physically I had never done anything quite like what we did. I came out off the Grand in the best shape of my life. I went into the gym the day after I got out and I had lost about 13 lbs in the 15 days since I had left. I couldn't believe how loose my pants were. I was never really sore on the trip but I was sore in the days following the return. I felt good after the Grand, and I went into the gym the next morning to life and run on the elliptical machine, but the body just didn't respond. I ended up taking 4 days off from working out to let the body recover. A massage in that time period helped, too. 10 days later I'm back to my normal workouts, and ahead of where I was before I left, but I already feel like I've lost that edge we had on the trip.
The trip was one of the most rewarding things I've ever done in my life. We worked hard, pushed ourselved physically, but still enjoyed every minute of it.
I love driving along the north shore. The drive was a nice, pretty way to slowly get back into civilization. When we got to Grand Marais, my cell phone started getting coverage so we called family members to let them know we were out and safe. We had planned on meeting our niece Mistyn and her husband Rob in Duluth for a beer and burger at Fitger's. Rob had to fly out to Maryland and Mistyn had to work until 4:30; we had gotten out early and now that the trip was over were anxious to get home, so we decided to change plans. I had to pick up my ipod and keys at their house so we figured we'd eat early and then meet Mistyn after work and shower up at their house. We still had some time so we stopped at the Granite Gear factory in Two Harbors. I picked up some old model thwart and stowaway bags, as well as a small torso/food pack at a good price. The Big Boat Oatmeal Stout and burger and fries were damn good and we drove to Mistyn and Rob's full and happy. After a well earned shower we thanked Mistyn and made the way back down 35 to the Twin Cities. We got to Steve's and unloaded and sorted all the gear. We got my stuff back in the car and I bid goodbye to Steve and his family and made the 1.5 hour drive back to Rochester. It was a difficult drive. I had spent the last two weeks with my big brother and I was on my way back to an empty house. The trip I had been planning for a year and training for for 10 weeks was now over. Getting out early meant I had 4 days off before I had to be back at work, but I knew I would need all 4 of those days to readjust back to my life in Rochester.
It was strange - when we finished the brutal day 8 (Saganaga) and everything was wet and cold, I couldn't wait for my warm bed, hot meal, hot shower, and indoor plumbing. But then it got nice out again and it was hard to leave. The Grand, while hard work, wasn't a killer and I wasn't feeling worn down and sore. I was wanting more. I got home and didn't know what to do with myself. It was fun to see my friends again and see what had gone on in the world while we were out, but after a day of that, I found myself lost - Lost in Transition (apologies to Sophia Coppola). I cleaned up my gear, did laundry, and started going through the pictures. I had to make a Cabela's trip the day after we came out to get some laundry detergent (I'm particular about my laundry detergent) and I wandered the store, still in awe at what we had done and seen, but sad that it was over. I found myself walking through the camping section. They had a big Fisher map display along a wall the had most of the BWCA pieced together from the individual maps. I traced our route along the map, thinking about what we had seen along the way. I ended up talking to one of the employees, sharing the highlights of our trip. It was exciting to relate the experience. I had done the Grand the morning before, and here I was back in regular life again...
Physically I had never done anything quite like what we did. I came out off the Grand in the best shape of my life. I went into the gym the day after I got out and I had lost about 13 lbs in the 15 days since I had left. I couldn't believe how loose my pants were. I was never really sore on the trip but I was sore in the days following the return. I felt good after the Grand, and I went into the gym the next morning to life and run on the elliptical machine, but the body just didn't respond. I ended up taking 4 days off from working out to let the body recover. A massage in that time period helped, too. 10 days later I'm back to my normal workouts, and ahead of where I was before I left, but I already feel like I've lost that edge we had on the trip.
The trip was one of the most rewarding things I've ever done in my life. We worked hard, pushed ourselved physically, but still enjoyed every minute of it.
posted by the.mrrr at 10:15 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home