A Visit to Remember

Sunday, June 22, 2025

Thursday, I was invited to lunch at Anne’s cabin. She lives over an hour away. This is the first time I’ve been to this neck of the woods. I carefully followed her directions to the landing where she was waiting to pick me up and boat me to the island she lives on. I didn’t know what to expect of the lake, the island, the cabin nor her. I had only met her briefly twice before and that was last summer.

Terry and I were at one of Superior National Forest Service Visitor Centers. We were looking at one of their big maps and wondering aloud if it was possible to paddle from Rainy Lake in MN to Hudson Bay in Manitoba Canada.

Anne heard the question and told us that she had just come from the final leg of a paddling trip with two friend Deb and Deb. They were paddling from Itasca MN to Hudson Bay, which is a long paddle approximately 2,400 miles. They only had one leg left of this voyage when they hit a rock going through a rapid. The boat flipped, they dumped and all sustained injuries. Anna broke some ribs. Their only option was to return home and finish the paddle the following year 2025. One of the Debs was not going to continue.

“Would I be interested?”

Now, a year later, here I am speeding with Anne on her boat toward a cabin on an island on a gorgeous summer day. Wow what a place and day. In the past year we have developed a plan via text, email, zoom and phone for the paddle trip. The second Deb had also resigned. So it was just the two of us. We would be paddling for 14 days from Oxford House Manitoba to York Factory, Hudson Bay on the Hayes River. We would drive to Thompson Manitoba because it’s the end of the road. Then catch a fight to Oxford House.

During the past year, Anne found a guide service, Wild Loon, in Winnipeg that was making the same trip. We signed up. We will be joining six other paddlers and two guides.

This makes it seem much safer, but I have not paddled any whitewater. And we will have many rapids to navigate. I’ve got work ahead. We’re leaving on Aug 4th.