Escaping Fire in the BWCA

Introduction

0:00This episode of The Flush Podcast is brought to you by Onyx Hunt, Waltons, North Dakota Tourism, All Clear Hearing Protection, Game Virtual Shooting Simulators, Lucky Duck Kennels, Black Gold Dog Food, and by Federal Ammunition. You are about to hear a real-life survival story from my friend Avery Elfs. Avery was in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness just a few days ago when the fires ignited, and the journey to get out of the wilderness was anything but easy. We're sharing this story today because it might give you perspective and a few things to

0:33think about before you embark on your next great adventure. The Flush. So fast, it hardly seems real. So vivid, the moment freezes in time before erupting in a blur of spurs and feathers. It's why we change the way upland loads are built with Prairie Storm. Exclusive flight control flex-wad technology and a mix of copper-plated lead and flight stopper pellets combine to create dense deadly shot strains through any choke. Longer shots, more power, fewer missed burns. Only from Federal.

Welcome to The Flush Podcast

1:21Welcome to another episode of the Flush Podcast. I am your host, Travis Strength. Big Al is our producer. I am not in the roost with Al today. I am sitting on the shores of Lake Waconia next to my friend Avery Elfs. Avery, you work at the in-town marina here. I do. And you've been here for quite a few years. Avery shared his story, life-changing story. Was it a year ago that we had you on or two years ago? Two years ago. Two years ago already. Time flies. Man, and you got yourself into quite a situation. And we're going to share the story. I spent about an hour on the phone with you a few

1:56days ago when you got out. And I feel like we shared some tears. I had goosebumps many times. My jaw was wide open. And I'm really grateful for the outcome. But it could have been so much different. And we're going to get into that. But before we do, I want to give a shout out to

Shoutout to Jacob Meyer

2:17Jacob Meyer. Jacob is a loyal listener from Texas. And today, the day this episode drops, Jacob turns 18 years old. So happy birthday, young man. I'm told he wants to get a Brittany soon. So maybe, just maybe, there's a puppy as a birthday gift coming up. Welcome to our listener mail today. Alex would normally be reading this, but Alex is not here today. I will read it. This one comes to us from Will Higgins. Hello. I hope you are all doing well

2:50and enjoying the summer. I've been a long-time listener of the podcast and have watched every episode of The Flush. With today's cool weather in the Twin Cities, it's hard not to think that fall is just around the corner. I'm a scientist by profession. And although I grew up in a hunting family in Maine, my career has taken me away from great hunting and fishing opportunities for much of my adult life. This past winter, my family made the move from San Diego to Eden Prairie, Minnesota, which is in the suburbs of the Twin Cities. We wanted to be closer to family, experience four

3:26seasons again, and build a lifestyle that kept the outdoors at the center of our lives. The move has already been worth it. Our two boys have caught more fish this summer than they did during all the years that we lived in Southern California, and it's been rewarding to watch them discover the outdoors. We even raised a brood of wood ducks this spring in the box we built in January at a youth Ducks Unlimited event. Wanting to give back to the conservation organizations that make those experiences possible, I've become involved with the local Ducks Unlimited, Pesants Forever, and Rough Grouse Society chapters. Our Twin Cities RGS chapter is working hard to spread the word about our annual

4:00banquet, which is coming up one month from today. I thought I'd pass along the invitation in case anyone on your crew or listeners happen to be available. The event details are Friday. I'm looking at this flyer that he attached to it as well. Friday, August 21st, it's the 44th annual Twin Cities chapter Rough Grouse Society and American Woodcock Society banquet. Doors open at 530 with a seven o'clock dinner. There appears to be quite a few raffles and items that you can win, and obviously the

4:37proceeds go towards the conservation of forest wildlife and support of the local chapter. It's in Golden Valley. If you want to learn more about it, Avery, I'm trying to find a link on this attachment. Yeah, roughgrousesociety.org. And then if you search Twin Cities chapter. Anyway, he finishes by saying whether or not anyone from your team is able to make it, thank you for everything you do to promote hunting conservation and the outdoor lifestyle. Your work has inspired

5:12many of us to spend more time outdoors and to give back to the resource. All the best, Will Higgins.

Response to Listener Mail

5:17Will, I'm so glad to hear that you are sharing the outdoors and the outdoor life with your family and that they've caught a lot of big fish already this year. It is July 22nd as we record this episode and it's going to be airing on the 30th. I will not be in America when this episode airs. So we're recording a few days beforehand. We're, we're, I guess they say going off the grid, um, in just a

Pre-Trip Planning

5:51couple of days, which I'm looking forward to. But before I did that, I, I wanted to sit down and talk with Avery. Um, how long ago did you get out? Uh, so yeah, it would have been on, let's see, we would have got out on the 14th that Tuesday of July. So just over a week ago is the day we got out. Um, I don't know the status once this episode airs, I don't know the status of the fires,

6:23but if you're not familiar, there are thousands and thousands of acres currently smoldering and or burning in the Boundary Waters canoe area wilderness in Northern Minnesota, the most visited park in America. Um, it's a place that has been very important to my life. And I was literally right where you were three weeks before you went, we go in on the same entry point. We go in on the

6:59same portages. You camp in a different place. You go in further than I do, but it's very familiar to me. And I remember talking to you, was it like two days before you left that you're heading up and

The Journey Begins

7:13you're all excited about it. And my goodness, how things changed quickly. Yeah. It was unexpected. That's for sure. Absolutely. There are, I don't even know how many hundreds of firefighters, firefighters up there battling the fires right now. So I just want to say without knowing what could change between now and then, as far as the status of these fires and the smoke and everything going on, uh, there has been rain and it does appear that some of the fires are a little bit more under

7:47control, but there's been a discussion that some of these might, might smolder until we get snow to really put them out this winter, uh, which is really crazy to think about. Um, but this is a very special place. You do have a map here right now that you've got pulled up, which part of me wishes we would turn on a video and Al was here to, to record this so we could really break this down. But, um, let's, let's just say without knowing anything that can change between now and then,

8:19we are grateful for all the people that are up there fighting this. We realize that these fires are changing lives up there. Businesses, um, are, are being affected as we speak. It is closed as of today. And I don't know that I, I don't know that I've ever remembered the boundary waters being closed. Yeah. The, the whole, the whole boundary waters is, I mean, every entry point, they're not letting anybody in, you know, at least till the 25th and they don't even know if they're going to open it

8:50back up by then. So, yep. So things are going to be changing a little bit, but what won't change and what'll never change is the fact that you went through, um, a pretty unbelievable, not going to call it, well, maybe survival or escape or getting out. It was a journey, a journey. Yeah. It was a journey. So let's go back to that point and, uh, let's, let's break this down because there's going to be a lot of lessons that you can speak to personally. Um, close calls.

Close Calls and Lessons Learned

9:24I don't know if we say near death, but, um, things got really serious up there. Really, really, really serious. And you guys made it out. And there are lessons that I think are important for our listeners to take away from this conversation today, because it seems so simple until it wasn't. Exactly. Yep. Yep. And your next hunting adventure, your next family camping adventure, whatever it might be, does probably seem simple and it probably will be until something could

9:59potentially change that. So you've been going to this place for several years and you're going in with a group of how many campers? Uh, there was five of us total. Um, it's kind of a family tradition trip with my, my father-in-law and, uh, him and his brothers, they've been doing this trip for, for decades. I mean, honestly, I think that they've been doing the same trip for the last 30 years at least. And I've been fortunate enough to, to go along and be part of it for the last five or six years. I think I've been, been doing this trip and it's always been same, same gear, same trip,

10:34same route, you know, and minus getting the number one campsite a few different times. But, uh, we do a lot of fishing while we're up there and, you know, do a little bit of hiking and just relaxing. So it's, uh, it, it's very sentimental to my in-law side of the family and, and, uh, just been part of my life the last few years. I'm pretty grateful for it. So. You're currently training for what? Uh, I'm doing an ultra marathon, a 50 mile ultra marathon in October, uh, which will be in the, the Murphy Park Reserve down, down in Savage this October.

11:07And this is important because this comes into play in a little while. You are physically fit. You're quite a specimen. A lot of work at that. Yes. You've worked at it, but, but it, um, it matters in this story because you have been training very heavily. So your body is able to endure probably more than maybe two or three years ago, would you say? Yeah. I mean, it's been continuous progress the last three years of, of running and, and, uh,

11:39the amount of miles that I'm doing for this ultra marathon definitely, definitely helped. And I think that, uh, that day getting out of the woods will probably be my, my number one training day for, for this race I'm doing in October. So that's the way I looked at it, I guess. So how far is a marathon and how far do you have, is it all running? Is that, yeah, I mean, a normal marathon is, uh, it's 26.2 miles. And, and I did, did that, um, three years ago or whatever. I think that would have been three years this upcoming October. Um, the ultra marathon is anything technically

12:13over 26.2. So, um, you know, if you're doing a 30 mile up, up until 200 to 300 mile races, I guess, but, uh, I'm going to start simple. I'm going to do the, the 50 miler to, to see what I can do, but, uh, it's going to be 50 miles of trail running through the Murphy Park Reserve down in Savage. And, uh, it's mainly trails and single track trails and up a hill, down a hill, that kind of stuff, which seemingly was kind of fitting for the Boundary Waters. I was down there yesterday running and, uh, felt like I was on a portage. So, yeah. Uh, I'll ask you, you, you tracked what

12:49you guys went through. We'll get into some of those numbers of what you physically went through to get out of the Boundary Waters, but, um, set the stage for us. Hot, hot, hot. Yeah. Hot. Yeah. It was, I mean, record temps, I guess, for, for that week up there. And, um, we knew it was going to be warm and, and, uh, the winds weren't necessarily what they said they were going to be. It was windier than, than we thought going into it. But, um, yeah, during the week, it was 90 plus pretty much every day, all day. And at night it was still, you know, I mean, we didn't have a thermometer, but,

13:21uh, I would say it was still plenty of warm, um, did a lot more swimming that week than we normally do up there. And, um, yeah, it was just very, very warm, very hot. So you go in out of Ely and you portage how many times to get where you're going? Um, so we go in on, on fall lake and there's two portages that we do, um, to get up to Basswood where we camp and, um, the Newton portage, the Pipestone portage. Yep. Those two. And they're pretty standard and they're, you know, double wide. And I mean, obviously you've been there and, um, they're, they're not groomed by any

13:56means, but they're well traveled. Um, you know, and they're, they're meant for groups like you and I with portage wheels to, um, you know, wheel everything through and, and get up the hill and down the hill and back into the water again and, and get around those two falls that you, you have to portage. Um, and that's, that's just a normal trail or normal, normal, uh, trip that we have to do is just those two portages. And by the time where we, you know, can't use the motors anymore, that takes from fall lake to, um, that, that boundary is like about three hours total,

14:27I would say. And then we ended up paddling another mile, mile and a half, two miles and that another hour. So by the time we get from fall lake to our, our typical campsite, it takes about four hours total. Okay. If you guys are just pushing it, you're hoofing it. Yeah. On a normal day. So the boundary water is the way that the, the wilderness works. There are a few places that you can bring up to a 25 horsepower motor on a boat. And then there's a, there's a point where you can't go any further with the motor for people listening around the

14:58country that have never been to this place. It's pure wilderness, pure wilderness, but there are these trails that have been there. Basically some are more like a deer trail. Some are more gravelly. Um, they do have park rangers that'll go in and, you know, cut down branches that fall over the trails and keep it so people can walk through. And we're talking a lot of people that go into this wilderness. Obviously it's the most visited wilderness in America, um, by permit only. So once you have a permit, then you can go in. Um, and you mentioned that this is an area that

15:31you can bring a boat up to a certain point or a motor, I should say. And then after that, it's strictly paddle only. Yep. And that's what the majority of the wilderness is, is, is paddle only. Um, but what the, what the motorized area allows people to do is experience it in a way that maybe they wouldn't be able to, um, if they were only just paddling. Right. Yep. Uh, in the wheel systems that you talked about are something that we've used before. When we go up there, we, we have different

16:04wheel systems that we've rigged onto our boats where you can lower the wheels and then push a small 14 foot fishing boat with your gear through the portages. And then you raise the motor or the wheels up and then you can motor as well. Or the, the outfitters up there in Ely and went and they have these wheel systems that you can rent as well to slide underneath a little bunk with wheels on them that you can push them through. So there's people that have come up with ways to kind of get your gear

16:34in to where you're going. Uh, we go in fairly heavy and we might make a couple of trips with our gear, but the wheels allow you to push them through. We don't go where you go. You go in even further, but I'm very familiar with where you're at, which is why as soon as I heard where the fire was, I knew you were, you were in it. Yeah. Um, explain your boat setup and the gear that you bring. Um, so this year we went in with two 19 foot square stern Grunman canoes. They're, you know,

17:08thick gauge aluminum. They're, you know, heavier than any average canoe. Um, and you know, bigger than, than others and wider and stuff. We have nine, nine, you know, two stroke Johnson motors on them. And then the, the portage wheels that we talked about, they're basically just off-road dirt bike tires that have a, have a frame that, you know, slide into a pipe and, uh, we're able to pin them down. And, and, you know, when we go through the portages, we drop them down. And then once we get, you know, to the other side, we pull them off and then continue on or whatever. But, uh, um,

17:42the 19 foot canoes, I mean, we, we pack quite a bit of gear that we have. Um, you know, we got obviously our, our food packs, our, our tents, our sleeping pads, you know, our personal bags. But then on top of that, we, we bring some luxury items that most people aren't bringing into the boundary waters. But, um, you know, we got coolers that we bring in, we bring a propane stove, we bring propane, we bring, you know, a flat of night crawlers, you know, and, uh, quite a bit of gear, I would say.

Boat Setup and Gear

18:11Yeah. You go in heavy, but you can't one time set up tent one time and stay there. Yeah. For the week. And yeah, we typically, what we do is just go in on Friday morning early and, you know, make our way up to camp and then set up. Um, and then we stay there until Tuesday and then, uh, you know, obviously pack out on Tuesday. Um, and that's a normal year for us. The, usually the week after 4th of July. So. Five of you, you and, uh, in-laws. Yeah. So my father-in-law, um, his nephew, um, and then his nephew's son. And then there was another young man with us that, uh, um, he was dating the nephew's daughter or whatever.

18:45So, um, it's been the same group the last two years and, um, it's changed over the, over the years with, uh, my father-in-law's brothers and they're all getting older and stuff. And, um, just because we're glamping, so to say, uh, it's not, not easy, you know, when you're sleeping on the ground and doing all that work and stuff, paddling around. So. Ages of the participants. So my, my father-in-law is 60 years old. Um, his nephew, Mike is, is 50, I believe. And then myself, I'm at 30. And then the two young guys we had were 17 and 20.

19:15Okay. So you go in on a Friday. Um, when did, when did things change?

When Things Changed

19:21Um, things started to change Monday. Um, I mean, it was obviously hot and windy throughout the week. Um, Sunday was too windy to get off camp and go fishing. Um, we made a made a, made a trek up one of the higher peaks, which is near a campground. Uh, we call it blueberry Hill. It's big, big high peak on the lake. And it's pretty, pretty neat. And we overlooked pretty much the majority of Basswood Lake where we were camping and, and was able to get cell phone service up there. And there were, there were no alerts. There was no notifications

19:53of fire. There was nothing. I mean, you, like I said, you could overlook most of the lake. And I mean, there was a fire way North that, uh, I think it was one of the ones in Quetico we could see, but, uh, yeah. And, uh, but at that point we could not see the camp campfire down by, um, like I said, the West side of Basswood Lake or West of Pipestone Bay. But, um, Monday we got out early, went fishing, didn't see any smoke really. Um, we got back to our camp after fishing, the wind started blowing really hard. And, um, we, we cleaned our fish, ate some lunch, and then we ended up

20:30taking a little nap during the middle of the day and got up from that. And it was like three o'clock, three 30. And that's when we really could see that plume of smoke from, from the campfire. Um, and that's, that's when things got real, you know, it was like, Oh man, that's, that's close. That's not one that's, you know, 20, 30 miles away. This is Describe that view. What is like the plume of smoke? I mean, I mean, it felt like, you know, kind of like Pompeii in a way, I guess. I mean, it was just this giant cloud of smoke. And when you're at your camp over looking at it, you know, the wind's

21:00blowing at you and it's, it's coming in our direction, but there's no perspective on how far or how close it is. It was just like, that's there, you know, and it's, you know, you could feel this, you could feel it, see the smoke in our campsite. Um, it wasn't like one of those foggy smokes where it's just like at ground level. I mean, it was going up into the air and, um, just a giant plume. It was like a volcano went off, I guess. So, yeah. So this is Monday afternoon. Yep. That was right around like three o'clock, three 30 that we saw the, saw the smoke. And then

21:34at four 30 was when the forest Rangers came to our campsite. Um, and you know, that's been on the news. They've been talking about that, how those, those two guys in the 14 foot, uh, you know, they were in like a 14 foot lawn with 25 horse motor and they were going to every single campsite. Um, going around checking to see where people were, they're getting tabs on where people were and talking to them about the plan to get out. Um, and that was at four 30 on Monday night and they're, they're telling us, Hey, you got to leave. And we were like, okay, let's, you know,

22:07we're planning on leaving tomorrow. Um, and they said, Oh yeah. And you can't go back the way you came. You know, they told us that we're not allowed to go back through Pipestone. Um, even though the fire was on the West side of Pipestone and when we were talking to them, um, it was hard to gauge cause we were asking, well, what if we leave tonight, you know, and what if we get out of here right now? And they still didn't want to send us through Pipestone. But at that time, I don't think they believed the fire was going to jump, you know, jump the lake onto the East side of it. So you don't know until you know, really. I mean, um, so

22:42they told us that we had to leave Tuesday morning and once they, they left, you know, they kept on their trip to, to check on all their campers and we ended up, they wrote on our, our, uh, permit that we were able to go get our motors. Cause we left them, you know, where, where we did outside of the, the, the boundary part for motors. Yeah. And they wrote on our permits that we were able to have our motors. So that, that Monday night, um, my father-in-law and then the nephew, Mike, um, and I, we took one canoe, paddled to our motors and we're able to pick them up, recover them and then make our way back

23:18to camp. But at the time that was pretty difficult. I mean, let alone, you know, just getting there, it was 20 mile an hour winds and we heard paddling through, you know, big waves, big waves and getting wet up in front. And for anybody that's paddled in wind in a canoe, like you can't stop. I mean, it's just like one of those things where it's like, you just have to go until you get there. And if you stop, you're, you're instantly making backwards progress. So, um, paddling through those waves that took a lot more time than

23:51typically does. And then just let alone getting to shore. I mean, you've been there, you know what it looks like. It's all rocky slate and sharp and jaggedy. And, um, we had to paddle up into the wind and then kind of control our drift back to shore. And then I had to jump out of the canoe and I was in water, you know, over my, you know, it was up to my chest, just hanging onto the canoe, making sure it wasn't going to, you know, tip or, or, you know, swing into shore or go up against the rocks. Um, while Mike hopped out and grabbed the two motors and the four wheels and the, and the two gas tanks. And then you had to go back in. Yeah. Yeah. So then we had to paddle back and then, you know, I think it's

24:25what was the fire doing at this time? So that, that point, it was still the big plume of smoke. Um, being where we were, we had a little bit better perspective on the fire and that, that made us feel a little bit better about the situation, to be honest. Um, you know, obviously you still don't know how close you are and with the wind, you know, it's still coming at you, but, um, getting over to the motors that did give us a better perspective that we weren't as close as we thought we were, you know, like it's, it, it helped the

24:57nerves a little bit, but it's like, okay, we still got a lot of work to do. So, um, seeing that smoke, I mean, it, uh, it's, it's real. And it was, it was, you know, being there made it seem a little bit further away. So that, that, that helped. And then getting our motors, we made our way back to camp that night and we packed up everything. I mean, pretty much had everything all loaded minus our tents and sleeping pads pretty much. And, and, uh, everything was down at the beach, you know, getting ready to put into the canoes of the following morning. Um, and, you know, we pretty much just went

25:30to bed and we, we set our alarm. I got a little bit of sleep. Um, not, not much, but, uh, how about the other guys? I don't know. I can't, I, I can't say that, uh, we had our best night, but, uh, um, everybody was up at four, everybody. Yeah. Everybody was ready to go. I mean, it, uh, there wasn't much messing around in the morning. Um, we just put our stuff away and, um, you know, had some, had some water and, and a granola bar and kind of just said, let's, let's do this, you know.

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29:14Where did you go? What was your plan? How did you know which way to go at this point? So when we had talked to the Forest Rangers that previous day, Monday afternoon, they were kind of explaining to us which routes we could take, you know, and that direction we had to go was going to be unfamiliar territory for us. I mean, never had we been up and around U.S. Point, but we were going to have to paddle. Still wasn't in the motor zone yet, so we had to go all the way up and around United States Point and then come down the lake. And then

29:49you get to Washington Island, which is a pretty significant island, but that's kind of like the marker zone for where you can start using motors again. And that was a trek in itself, just getting paddling all the way around there. We left camp at 6 a.m. And I think it was about 8.30 when we got to Washington Island where we could start using motors again. Well, at this point, you must not have felt like you were in harm's way to not fire up a motor and

30:21just save yourself. Yeah. And we discussed that and, you know, contemplated it. I mean, the forest ranger said, you know, I mean, he can't say, go ahead, use it. Right. But really I, in that moment he didn't, you know, and he just said, nobody's going to be around, but you know, can't use your motor, but there, there won't be anybody else around to stop you, I guess. I think his words were, you can't use your motor, wink, wink. Yes. There's nobody here. Yeah. And we, we contemplated it. But at that point when we woke up Tuesday morning,

30:53it was weird. Cause like the smoke wasn't there. I mean, that, that whole big plume that we saw wasn't there. And it was like, gosh, really? Did they get the fire out? You know, like what if we did sneak down Pipestone Bay and we'd be fine, you know? And, um, the amount of fuel we had and the day we were going to have, it didn't seem like we were in that imminent of danger right away in the morning. And we kind of wanted to conserve our gas, uh, to get around Unite's, you know, the U S point, um, just cause there were the two options that we were given as far as

31:27getting out. And one was going to require all the fuel we had. And it was just like, okay, if we do use our motors, you gotta be strategic. Yeah. I mean, it might save us an hour. Two in the long run, really. I mean, it was kind of like, that's how we felt. And the wind wasn't blowing, um, that, that bad in the morning when we were paddling. And, uh, I just think we underestimated how much work it was going to be to get out, you know, and we never felt like we needed to use the motors at that point. Okay. So you have a granola bar for breakfast. Yep.

32:05You start paddling. Yep. This is where I think I was really surprised. You didn't have a filter to drink water. Yeah. Um, when we're up there, I mean, like I said, they've been doing this trip forever. And when I first started going on the trip, I was like, really, you guys don't, you know, filter your water or anything like that, you know? And, um, but we drink the, the lake water up in Basswood and, and never have had any stomach issues from it. And I mean, you just go into the middle of the, of the bay. Yeah. I mean, when we're out fishing to just try

32:37to, try to drink, you know, from the deeper water. And I think it tastes good. You know, I mean, we, it doesn't bother me. I think the water's fresh, you know, but I filter it. Yeah. And I mean, if it makes a difference, we put like a lemonade mix or something in there, you know, we got her, got her, uh, Kool-Aid mixes that we'd bring on. Sure. But it's, it's, uh, would have been something that we should have brought along, you know, to have the back backup. There's a lot of things coming up here that you can say hindsight knowing now, which is again,

Hindsight and Reflections

33:07why we're having this story together. So you, you were told you can go these two ways, but you guys didn't bring a map. Yeah. And that's another thing that, uh, the, the first thing I did, on Wednesday when I got, you know, woke up the next morning is I went into town. I bought a couple maps. Um, that was the first thing I did. Um, I mean, those guys never had any issues. I mean, they just know where they're at, you know, and you do something for that long. Here's the deal.

33:37Yeah. I don't bring a map either. I know where I'm going as well. Yeah. I've been going for 20 some years as well into the same place. Yeah. And when you told me some of these details, I'm like, Holy crap. Yeah. You know, start to think. Yeah. Yeah. We did have one map, but it was like one of those, you know, little eight by 11 lake maps. And it only got like a third of the portion of where we needed to go. It just gave us like the three reefs we fished. That's about it. But it was fishing maps. Yeah. Pretty much. But here's the deal. You got to find deer trails in the woods. Yeah. That didn't have that marked on that map. I can tell you that.

34:09I can't stress to somebody who's never been there, how wild this place is as far as just trees and water and rocks in every direction. And by the way, there's a lot of islands. Yeah. Islands, bays, points. Yeah. Everything. So you start paddling and you feel confident at this point that you're going the right way. Yeah. I mean, we, we did take pictures of, of the map from the forest ranger. So we did at least have

34:40that, but there again, you know, we only had one phone in each canoe that had a picture of the map and they're not high quality and different angles and stuff. And, you know, you're up in the woods, you don't have service. You know, we, I mean, my phone was at like 40% when we started the day or whatever. And after being up there for a week and I don't use my phone when I'm up there, but you turn it on every other day or whatever, just to take a picture or, you know, check in with somebody, I guess. I mean, you get enough service that you can at least. Some places all of a sudden you'll just get random, like a bar.

35:10Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Used to be when I started going. There's nothing, but nowadays you get like one bar and, you know, it was weird. You get a bunch of texts that would show up all of a sudden, but then you can't respond to any of them, you know, and then you, you try responding and take 10 minutes to, to send out. And then you wasted 10% of your battery just by trying to load the, load the weather or whatever, you know, but, uh, so we did have a picture of the map at least. And that, I mean, obviously helped us out quite a bit. So, I mean, having that in each canoe, we, we knew which way we were going, but, uh, it's not,

35:44I would have preferred having a actual copy of the map than just going off of my phone, I guess. So I envision being in these, in this canoe and looking at the Island thinking, is that the one, is there a trail somewhere? It's not like there's big signs and no flags waving that tell you this is where the trail is. Well, and Washington Island is huge, you know, and when we were coming around the point, you know, you're looking at, you're like, is that, is that Washington Island or is that the Island? I mean, that doesn't look like an Island. It looks like mainland, but you know, that was it, you know? And, um, there, there's enough landmarks, I guess that, uh, we knew where

36:20we were at, but there's a lot of, a lot of little islands. So, yeah. So you finally get to a point where you can turn the motor on, right? Yeah. So at Washington Island, we could start using the motors. Um, and before we even got to Washington Island, we had just rounded around us point and we were about halfway down. And then the forest Rangers that we talked to the day before they actually caught up to us and they were a making sure that we were on our way out because, um, you know, it was time to leave. And then B, they were also letting us know that the fire had jumped

36:54the West side of Pipestone Bay onto the East side and, you know, went through the Newton Lake portage that we would have been going through. Um, and with the wind direction, it was, it was blowing North and East up to back Bay, which is, you know, another connected area to everything up there. So, um, and we had talked to them and they just, you know, we told them, this is what we're doing. We're going to exit out at Wood Lake. And they just said, all right, good. Yep. Good luck. And they were just confirming that that was what our route was going to be. Um, and then we

37:24made our way down to Washington Island and that's where we, you know, we're able to, uh, start using our motors and we kind of took a breather there. And that's where we were really looking at the maps and, and confirming which route we were going to take. And the two routes, one was going to involve heading East up Basswood Lake for a long distance, um, through the main Lake and then getting to Prairie Portage, which is a, you know, pretty well-known portage on the Canadian border. Um, they have, um, like a track dolly system where you can throw them 20 bucks. I don't even know what it

37:55costs, but, uh, they'll, they'll portage your gear across the train track type deal. And then we could have motored down Newfound Lake into Moose Lake. And we had thought about that. And with the wind we were going and the fuel we had, um, I don't think we would have made that. I mean, realistically, I mean, if, if we were in 14 foot boats, like you guys, you know, I had the fuel, you have more stability with the boats, their wider base. I mean, it would have been a different story. Um, if we would have had, you know, Kevlar canoes or regular aluminum canoes and didn't have all the

38:28gear we had, it would have been a little bit more doable, I would say. But that being said, it, it would have been like a three-day paddle just to get all the way around, you know? And, um, with what we had, we figured we, you know, the other option, option B was going to be the route we were going to take, which was, you know, motoring from Washington Island into Hoist Bay. Uh, we had four portages total that day getting out. We, you know, went to Hoist Bay, made a portage into Good Lake, which was 69 rods, um, into Good Lake, into Hula, which was

39:01the hardest part of the day was, you know, 130 rods. And then from Hula, we made it into Wood Lake and that's a 60 rod portage. And then there's the entry point on Wood Lake, the main entry point. So that's, that's where you're, uh, you're like, guys, we can do this. Yeah. Yeah. You felt like you could do it in one day. I, I thought, I think we underestimated, like I said, how much work is going to be, you know? And, and I, you know, I've been on a lot of trips over the years and, and when I was younger and stuff, I mean, I did one long trip with a bunch of strangers where we,

39:33it's kind of a church group thing that we did 80 miles of paddling. And I don't know how many miles of portaging. I mean, we did the grand portage and, you know, I just, with all of the training, I was like, we can do this, you know, looking at the map. What did the other guys say? They, they just said, well, that's what we're doing. You know, I mean, realistically, when, when we got to Washington Island, the wind was blowing. I mean, it was, it was cranking and there were, there wasn't protection from the wind where we had to cross. And there were two, three foot rollers that we had to go through and looking at it. It was like, well, we can't go that way. Otherwise

40:05we'll swamp. And then this is the way we got to go, which was, was probably the, the scariest part of the trip, I'd say was just getting across that bay with that open water, with, with everything we had in the canoes. Um, so we did that route. And, um, I mean, when we were talking about it, the, the younger guys didn't, they'd never been on portages, so they didn't really have an idea. Um, you know, I, I looked at my father-in-law the night before and said, we're going to do this. We'll, we'll, we'll be fine. And he was, he was on the same page as me and, and Mike, you know,

40:40he's a firefighter his entire life and he knows what it was going to take. And he grew up in Ely. He's, he's grown up doing portages. So, I mean, you just don't know what condition the trail is until you get there really. Um, but that, that was the best route I, we thought at the time to do. So we went that way. So. Did you, were, were there any concerns at this point? And like, what time of the day was it when you, you made it to this island? Um, I mean, it was like eight 30 when we

41:11got to Washington Island. And, and then once we got to the, the first portage on Hoist Bay is about nine 30. Um, that first portage was kind of like a learning curve for us as far as like how we were going to carry everything, you know, how we were going to get the canoes through the portage. And, um, what does it, what did it look like? That one wasn't as bad, but, uh, as far as getting through with the canoes and stuff, but they're obviously narrower than the other two that

41:41we came in on. Um, I mean, pretty, pretty regular canoe portage rocks and trees. And it seems like the, the forest services make them just narrow enough where you can't do what you want to do. And, um, I mean, there, it was up a hill and then down a hill winding through the woods. And, um, there were a couple of wet spots, but nothing major. Um, but that first portage, we started at nine 30 and we got done fully, fully packed up into the other into the canoes at 1120. If I remember

42:14right, I think that day, I don't know, did it hit a hundred degrees actual Fahrenheit? Because if I remember right, they were saying there was some heat warnings, records being set up there. Cause you were hotter up there for some reason than we were down here and we were in the upper 90 or mid nineties here. Yeah. I think it was, I mean, I didn't look at the weather when I was working through the woods, but, uh, I think it got to like 98, you know, and then you got the heat index and humidity and you're walking through the woods and it's just, everything's humid and

42:47hot and muggy. Um, so I think it was like 98 or whatever that day. I don't know what the actual temperature was. When was the last time you took a drink of water? About 30 minutes ago. I don't know. Oh wait, that day. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I, I had been drinking as much water as I could on the paddle down. I mean, knowing that, uh, we were able to drink the water out of Basswood Lake. You know, I was drinking, I was weird. I was drinking water pretty regularly. I was probably drinking more water than the other guys, but, uh, I mean, we stopped several

43:17times along that paddle to, to refresh. Cause you were still in an area that you felt comfortable drinking the water. Yep. Once we got into that hoist bay that gets shallower and stuff and weedier and, and, um, you know, there's beavers and stuff like that with, you know, dead heads and everything else that goes along with it. So we knew that we weren't going to be drinking the lake water, um, from that point on, but, uh, and that was at nine 30 in the morning or whatever. Um, the, the first portage, you know, was 1120 when we got done. And I mean, at that

43:52point it didn't, it didn't feel like, Oh, this is going to take, you know, 10 more hours or whatever. It just was like, well, we got through the first one and see what the next one looks like, I guess. And the second one was the hardest of, of everything I'd say. Cause that was during the heat of the day. Um, and we started that one at like 1130 and we got done at four 15. Um, but with our coolers that we had along, um, you know, we had two coolers, one we call the refrigerator, one we call the freezer and in the fridge, we

44:23keep, you know, our, our sandwich meat or bacon or eggs, um, you know, everything, butter, whatever food that we have that we keep cold in there. And then the freezer, we, we, we have half gallon milk jugs that we fill full of water and then we freeze those. And on a normal year, those will stay ice blocks the entire time we're up there. Um, so having that we didn't really even think about it until we got to the, to the second portage, it was like, Oh my gosh, we got this cooler full of water, which saved us. I mean, honestly, um, and we were drinking that water and, and by the end

44:58of the day we had drank it all. So. You get, um, how far before like the ashes start coming and the ominous feel of where you're at and the reality kind of sets in that this is not like, this is pretty serious. When we were working on that second portage, um, I mean, when you're in the woods, you know, the ash wasn't falling on you and all, but like when you get to

45:29the, the lake, you get to, to the end of the portage. And I mean, it took several trips, obviously through the woods. It wasn't like, Oh, put this bag on your back. I mean, I don't know how many trips I made per portage, but every time I made it from one end to the other, I get, and I look at the gear that we had already brought through and there was more and more ash on each bag. Every time you went through and it was like, Oh my gosh, it's starting to snow. And then once we got to, um, the, the final lake Wood Lake, it was later in the day. And that's when it

46:01was like, everything was orange and there were full size leaves, burnt leaves falling out of the sky on that final, uh, motor route to get, you know, on the final lake. So that, that last lake was like probably the most sobering part of it, you know, it was like, and we didn't know how close we were to the fire. Um, I mean, realistically, if we needed to camp one more night, we would have been fine with the fire, but it was so smoky. Well, knowing that now. Yeah, no. Yeah, exactly. Now looking back on it, we didn't know. Was there any panic that set in from any five of you?

46:33No. Um, everybody kept, kept their cool. I mean, nobody, everybody got along. There were a couple of times where we might've snapped at each other a little bit, but everybody got along. Everybody kept their cool. Everybody just knew like, Hey, we're here. This is what we're doing. We're getting out. And, um, nobody, nobody freaked out. Um, at one point on that longer portage, we saw the four, there were, there were a forest ranger guy and a gal in a canoe and they were coming in. Um, and

47:04they stopped and talked to us and they were going in, they asked us if we seen any other campers, they were going in to check campsites in the area. Um, and when they came through and we talked to them, it was like, okay, they didn't say drop everything and leave. So we just kept that thought process that. You wanted to get all of your stuff out, leave it, leave it the way it was when you got there. It's still in your mind. You're not going to leave anything behind. At that point we weren't leaving anything behind. Um, and when we talked to them,

47:35they didn't tell us to, Hey, you got to get going. So we just looked at that as a positive. Now, if they would have caught up to us on the way out and said, Hey, it's time to go, you know, then things would have been a different story. You were moving fast enough for them to feel good about. They just had, I don't remember if they, they were estimating between like seven and 10,000 people were in the boundary. Yeah. Yeah. So they saw we were on the way out. We weren't their number one concern, I guess. So, but they didn't tell us to drop everything and go. So that was, like I said, we looked at that as a, as a

48:07positive. And that's just what we kept reminding ourselves through the day was that nobody's evacuating us, you know, we're, I mean, I should say like telling us that we have to go now. I mean, there's no helicopters flying around that are coming to pick us up. Did you see any of the planes coming through? Yeah. I mean, through the week, um, we saw planes, which is never like a, a good feeling when you're up there. Right. And, and, uh, on, I think Monday afternoon, well, yeah, Monday afternoon when we were actually paddling to go get our motors, there was one point when there were two planes that touched down and got

48:41water, um, from our, in front of our campsite. Um, so that when you see that, that makes, you know, makes you not feel as good either when you, when they're literally scooping water from where you're trying to catch walleyes that, you know, but, um, so you, you gotta be feeling pretty good about getting out at this point. Right. I mean, you're still making pretty good progress. Um, I think if I remember right from, you know, I, you called me when you got out and we, we talked for quite a while, but, um, the heat really kind of finally started to take its

49:15hole. Yeah. I mean, that, that second portage was, was the hardest and that's when. How many rods? That's 130. So, I mean. Give that miles. It's just under a half mile or yeah, just under a half mile. So rod is 16 and a half feet. 80 rods is a quarter of a mile, you know, so we're just under, just under a half mile on that second portage. And like I said, that was the longest and the hottest part of the day. Um, on one of those portages on that portage, we, we carried one of the

49:46canoes on our shoulders, which, you know, we didn't have thwart pads there. They're not an easy canoe to just throw on your shoulder. Um, that, that zapped a lot of us. I mean, took, that took a lot of energy out of us, but in the back of mind, you know, we got one more portage to do by ourselves and then that one's the shortest, you know, and you're just hopeful that it's flat and easy and, you know, you just, you just are hopeful that you're, you're going to feel better by the next time. Did you ever question your route that you weren't going to find the trails?

50:17Um, no, uh, no, I, I, I had confidence that we were going to be able to find it. You know, I, I, with the picture of the map and how small the lakes were, um, I, I thought we had a pretty good idea on where we were actually heading. So, I mean, even though we didn't have a physical map, you know, with the picture of the map, I think being with who I was, that wasn't ever a concern of like, oh, where's the portage, you know? But, uh, I, I shouldn't say that either. Cause that the last portage was a little bit harder to find, but we had our family, I was up a

50:49creek and, and that was the one that got kind of cut off on the picture. So we were on Wood Lake and the, the entry point, the picture we had kind of cut off the, the portage. And, uh, we, we figured we were in this bay and it's all covered in lily pads and, and, uh, we were like looking for the, the portage on the shoreline and, and our in, my in-laws, we had help on the way out and, uh, um, we were on the phone with them or whatever and, and they were hooting and hollering and they kept saying, you got to go up the creek. And we

51:22just trusted them. You could hear them yelling from the woods or what? Yeah. I mean, we were in that bay and, uh, I mean, I guess that's part of the story was, um, we had help on that final portage getting out. Um, and the, the portage entry point was up a Creek, I don't know, quarter of a mile up this narrow Creek that, uh, um, was full of lily pads and, and you can't see it from the lake, but we're trying to figure that out. And, you know, they just kept telling us, you got to keep going, you got to keep going. And so we did. So. Is that before your father-in-law passed out?

51:53Well, he didn't pass out, but this was, yeah, there was one guy that, that at the end, I mean, once we got to the trucks, he was pretty much out of commission. Um, my father-in-law didn't pass out. Mike had heat exhaustion so bad that, uh, we got to the final portage where the vehicles were and we just put them in there, turn the air conditioning on and gave them water. So, um, my father-in-law and then meet myself and the other guys, we were all cramping up pretty bad. So I know he, he suffered from cramps in his calves, pretty, pretty tough, but.

52:25But you made it out at what time? Uh, we made it to that final portage entry point at about six 30 in the evening. And it took all of three hours on that final portage to, to get all of our gear from, from the entry point to the parking lot where, where our family had met us with our vehicles. So.

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54:23location sharing feature that allows you to see where your hunting buddies are at in real time. You can also find out which crops are in fields when timber harvests and fires have moved through a forest, and you can even see the weather that will impact the birds and your hunt. There's always something new at Onyx Hunt, but what hasn't changed is their commitment to helping us become better hunters. Know where you stand with Onyx Hunt. Sounds like... I mean, you look back on this experience, right? I talked to you the

54:57next morning. Everyone was in pretty rough shape after pushing their bodies through. You, having been training so intensely now for a while, took on your own extra heavy burden. Mm-hmm. What did your group say to you? I mean, it, it didn't go unnoticed. Um, I mean, there were a couple times like on the first portage where I would start lapping them, you know, and, and I wasn't trying to, it wasn't like an ego thing ever, you know, it was just like, I would carry a pack, I'd drop it off, I'd go

55:30back and I, you know, I started lapping them and they'd be like, Hey, you know, take it easy, take it easy. And I just, I said, we're going to get there. We're going to get there. Um, it didn't go unnoticed and I mean, they, I think they just were in, in awe and shock that I was able to continue on as much as I, I, I did, you know, and there was one point where one of the younger guys, I mean, he, he was doing everything he could on that. It was that third, third portage. He was doing everything he could not to throw up. And he just kind of sat on the, on the bank

56:03and we're in a swamp and he's just got, I mean, I looked down at him and he just had deer flies. He had mosquitoes. He was just, everything was covered his back and he's just sitting there with his hands in his face and he couldn't, he was doing everything he could not to puke. And I just thought, God, that looks miserable, you know? And I just felt bad. I just said, Jack, we're going to, we're going to get you out. You know, I just said, I don't care if I have to put you on my shoulders and we're going to get you out. And, uh, I mean, it, it didn't go unnoticed with what I was capable of doing to get, uh,

56:33to get our group out of there. So. Was there ever a point where you guys were concerned for your own safety? Um, I mean, obviously not knowing where, how close the fire was, um, there was a sense of urgency on, on getting out. Um, I think those few portages, I was, I was concerned for the other guys in the group as far as dehydration. I was, I was nervous that somebody was going to, you know, twist an ankle or whatever. You're going to have to splint something stupid.

57:06And, and, you know, it's more thinking like, Hey, at what point do we stop carrying a 15 pound anchor through the woods? I got five of them at home, you know, like at what point do we, do we leave the cooler full of walleyes and, and jugs of water? You know, like you guys hauled all, I mean, all of our gear. Yeah. And, and there was a point, um, after every portage, I would turn my phone on and I would text my wife and say, Hey, we made it through, you know, Good Lake. We're

57:37onto Hula. You know, once we got to Hula, I'd said, okay, we're here. And it's hard to tell the timing of everything just because of the cell phone service is so touch and go, but, uh, it turned my phone on and I have, you know, new text messages saying whatever from, um, different people. And, and there was one message that we got saying, leave everything, you know, take one canoe, get out. We'll go back, you know, whenever we can to get the rest of the stuff. And at that point we had made it through the third final portage and it's like,

58:08we're, we're here. Let's, let's just keep, keep going, see what it looks like, you know? And what saved us was, um, I mean, my, my wife and my, you know, her whole family, all the, my in-laws family, they, they were up in Ely at a campground up there on one of the lakes, just out of town. And, um, they knew where we were. They knew what we were up against. Um, one of her uncles, he's lived in Ely for 50, 50 plus years. It was pretty much all of his equipment. Um, they, it was on

58:42the same page that they were going to meet us at that, at that entry point to give us help to get out. And I mean, knowing that it was like, okay, well we got this, we get, you know, we can do this. All we got to do is get to there and they will be there. We will have, you know, fresh hands. They'll have water for us. You know, we'll be able to do this. So that was one of the main things of why we were so gung ho on, on getting further. You know, I mean, if they, if we didn't have that option, I mean, most people don't have, you know, family in town that they can

59:13call to, to give them, you know, help getting out. So, I mean, we would have been looking at staying another night somewhere, you know, on Wood Lake or whatever to do that final push. Or, you know, we would have been looking at leaving some gear and making it to. Now we know which way the fires went, but when you're, you know, when you're in it, you can't really probably anticipate, you know, like a wind change or how close you are, how fast fires go so fast. Yeah. I mean, that fire grew from 500

59:44acres to 1500 acres in a matter of 10 hours. Right. So, I mean, it's, I mean, it's real. It went all over all the news outlets around the country. And I mean, it still is, as we sit here today. You know, there's not concern for fire right here. You don't think about it. Yeah. I never, three weeks ago when I was up there with the kids, when we go back there next time, where I have been going my whole life, that's going to be charred. Yeah. It's going to look so

1:00:17different. Yeah. Um, next year. And, you know, I don't know what's going to happen with the, with the fires up there for the rest of the summer. It's still really dry. They didn't get some rain. Um, looking back now at this journey that you went through, I feel like the next morning, the intensity of what you were

Post-Trip Reflections

1:00:39still feeling was, was really real. Yeah. You know, on the phone, I felt like I was, I was paddling with you. Yeah. You guys are taking water on your canoe. Um, you know, your, your, uh, campers with you are, are laying on the ground, you know, stuff like that, where you just never expect to be in that position. I, I think, you know, there's probably quite a bit that you'll do different next time you go or at least a few things, what would they be? Um, I mean, knowing those guys, we're

1:01:14still going to bring stuff that we bring along, but, uh, just definitely have a better grasp on, uh, the loose items. You know, I mean, when you, when you start putting things in canoes, um, I guess narrowed down what needs to be brought and what doesn't need to be brought. I mean, um, just, I mean, it's just, it's, it's amazing how much stuff you can't just like put on your shoulders and walk out with, you know? And, um, I guess having that idea of like, Hey, maybe we don't

1:01:45need, you know, this little thing or, or extra stuff that we brought, whatever it was, but, uh. Well, you never think you're going to have to go out of a way that you didn't come in. Yeah. I mean, they've had trips where they've been, you know, had to take an extra day or two, you know, or when they're coming down through Pipestone, they've had to, you know, take a different route around a different Island or just because of the wind and the waves. Yeah. But they've never had to go in a different direction, literally go down a different Lake, which is probably why they didn't bring a map. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you're fortunate that you were able to take a photo of the Rangers maps to be able to have some form of

1:02:20navigation, but I just can't get over the fact that you didn't have some sort of a filter. Yeah. Definitely. You know, even, even some iodine tablets would have saved us. But, uh, I mean, if we didn't have that cooler full of frozen ice water, I mean, it would have been completely different. You had to haul that out. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it would have been completely different, but yeah. I mean, as small as a filtration system is, it's, uh, probably one thing I'll be ordering two of for sure. Right. Well, and you know, I, a lot of bird hunters go on their

1:02:52own walks and hikes. You're a pheasant hunter. You're a bird hunter. You've been doing a long time. Does this give you any ideas as to like, oh, this place that I've been going to for a while. I don't know. I mean, just thinking big picture about some of the adventures that you go on. Do you think about them differently now based on this experience of having to haul this out, having to help other people, the mindset that it takes to help other people get through something really, really

1:03:22challenging? Yeah. I mean, it, it really puts perspective on like, you know, how far away you get from your truck or, you know, do I have X, Y, and Z to do this? If, if you do twist an ankle or, or, you know, I mean, if you're in a swamp, I mean, what's my option to get out of here and type of deal. I mean, certainly for duck hunting, I've been in situations where you're, you're a long ways away and it's cold usually during duck season and you're wet and definitely having backups for backups is something that you gotta, you gotta do. So. Right. Well, yeah. I mean, and I think

1:03:56I'm not telling everybody to go train for an ultra marathon here, but you guys, do you think you'd have made it out in a day if, if you weren't physically in condition to do so? No, no. And those guys said that too. Um, without me, they wouldn't have gotten out that night. Um, and typically we have, you know, a couple, a couple other guys there, my father-in-law's older brothers and, and, you know, it would have been three canoes and we would have had two more guys and they, they're in their sixties and

1:04:27seventies and it just would have been that much more. And, and, you know, those guys couldn't believe what we did and they were there to help us get out that night. But, uh, they just, you know, we're in like, Holy cow, you know, what if we would have been along this year, you know, and would us not necessarily, I mean, it would have slowed us down, but it's just like that, that's just ramps everything up even more for injury and dehydration and, and everything like that. So, I mean, my family and my, my wife's side, they, they were very grateful that, uh, that I was long on

1:04:59that trip. And I mean, I think you've said it and a few other people have told me that, you know, God, God didn't want me to train for the ultra marathon. He wanted me to train so that I was able to get my family out. And, and I not, not say I don't believe it, but I do believe that God works in mysterious ways and, and everything happens for a reason. So. He's, uh, people in town were talking about you guys. Yeah. So when we had gotten to Washington Island, there was an outfitter that came down and, and, uh, he was in like a 16, 17 foot John boat and he had a boat rack on

1:05:35top where he had two Kevlar canoes and he was on his way to get customers or clients or whatever that had rented their gear out. And he had checked on us when we were stopped there for a minute and, and, you know, he's asking if we're okay. And, and said that, Hey, he's heading down to Prairie Portage. You know, if we need anything, he'll be making the trip, you know, whatever, a couple of times. And we said, all right, thank you. You know, we're heading this way though, over to Wood Lake. And he just looked at us and said, you can't, you know, he's like, it's, it's on fire, you know? And he said, you're, you can't do it, you know? And we're, this was 20 minutes after we had just

1:06:08talked to the forest rangers and we confirmed our route with them. And, and I don't, you know, he, I think he just knew how much work it was actually going to be and didn't believe seeing what we had, we were going to do it. But, uh, evidently we did. And, and like I said, the first thing I did on Wednesday after I went out, I stopped in town and I grabbed a couple maps and I had the map on the counter and the gal was looking at it. And she's like, Oh, were you, were you supposed to be on a trip or were you, you know, did your trip get canceled? And I just said, well, we were camping here. Uh, we had to go this way to get our motors. And then we had to go up and

1:06:41around. And before I could even say, you know, up and around us point, she stops me and she's like, were you in the group with the two square sterns? And I was like, yeah. She's like, and you had the portage wheels and the motors and the gas tanks and all the gear. And I'm like, yeah. And she's like, and you guys went through wood Lake. And I, I, I just kind of chuckled and I said, yep, we, we did. She's just like, I heard about you. And I was like, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Cause I mean, either we're new local legends of Ely that we did what we did and, or,

1:07:14or she thinks that we're a bunch of, a bunch of morons. Yeah. I don't know. It goes both ways, I guess. Cause she said, you know, she's looking at me, she's like, those portages aren't meant for the gear you had. And I'm like, yep. Confirmed. We did it though. And she looked at me and she just was, I'm very grateful to see you guys made it out, you know? And she's like, you know, obviously they don't want to hear anything on the news about campers not getting out. I mean, their, their priority was, you know, getting their customers out and stuff like that. And she was

1:07:48just, she was grateful that I, you know, we made it out and she was grateful. She knew how much work we went through. She, she totally understood and she never bashed us or anything like that. But, uh, I don't, like I said, it goes both ways. I don't know for local legends or the local dunce cap. I don't know. You made it out. And, uh, there's a lot of resources up there that are trying to help other people that aren't, um, probably as equipped to get out, to know a different route, to be in

1:08:18position to, you know, boy scout groups, girl scout groups, or, I mean, I know of several rescues for, I think helicopter rescues and others. I mean, you did it on your own terms. That's one thing you said to me too. He was like, I, I, I'm kind of, even though looking back at it, we went in heavy cause that's what we've always done. We brought everything out. We wanted to, we wanted to leave on our own terms and we were able to do that. Uh, the heat exhaustion set in and everything at the

1:08:50end. Cause once you guys got out, was it nine o'clock or something? It was after nine 30. So you start at 4am and you got out in one day, it's impressive to get out considering the heat, you know, almost a hundred degrees. Um, I still, I'm like, you're an idiot. I can't believe you didn't have any way to purify the water, but, um, bet you don't go back in there again without that. Yeah. I mean, like I said, the first few years I was going with those guys, it took me a long,

1:09:20long time to come to terms with just drinking the lake water. But, uh, I think that's something I'll, if they don't want it, I'll put it in my own bag. I don't care. Right. Yeah. It's very lightweight. I started thinking about, you know, so I'm planning this adventure that we're going to go film up in Alaska in a few weeks and we're going to be doing it on our own. And so then I'm like, well, what do I need? You know, I'm starting, I'm going through this mental checklist on some of the

1:09:52essentials. You really don't think about a lot of some, a lot of the right gear until you're in a position when you need it. So thinking through with these other guys that are going with, I don't want to haul you off the mountain. You need to get yourself ready for this. You need to be ready for this adventure that we're going on because my goodness, can things change in a hurry here. This happened to be fire. Who knows what it could be blizzard or ice, or there's so

1:10:23many things that can happen when you go on great adventures. Obviously the, the challenges that you face make it what they ultimately become like in this instance, you know, an orange sky with leaves falling and ash falling all around you. And you're trying to figure out a route that you've never been through a wilderness. I think you kept it together better than most would. I think it's easy to second guess yourself. Are we, is this the right place? Are we paddling the right way? Should we go

1:10:56across this bay? People die up there. I don't know if it's every year, but close to it, there's some people that, that die in the boundary waters from a canoe gets capsized, things like that. You know, you had big, big, uh, winds that you were paddling through and pushing through and you're taking on water. You know, I think panic is something that can do a lot of people in, in a lot of different situations, whether it's cold water, whether it's choosing a wrong direction, getting lost,

1:11:32things like that. You start to panic. You don't trust where you're going. And pretty soon you're in a tough spot. You know, um, having people that you were with on this, that trusted each other, that's a big deal. Cause obviously if somebody starts questioning it, not believing it, we go the wrong way. You start to believe that too. Right. You start to believe you can't do something motivating each other. I mean, there's so much to take away from this. You're never going to forget this experience. Right. No, we, we, uh, kind of started calling it the Woodlake Death March and

1:12:07it's gonna, it's gonna be in my, in my in-law's family forever, I guess. Right. Right. Um, fortunately to my knowledge, there's no, no deaths from this fire yet up there. Right. Yeah. Not that I've heard of. Not that I've heard of. Everyone so far has been able to get out. Um, these fires, the smoke, everything, um, the impact of that. I, I mean, uh, there was a couple of days where

1:12:38the smoke changed and it blew through here and everybody just stopped what they were doing outside. Yeah. You know, but thinking about the people up there that are in it, that are powering through it, that are fighting it. It just, you know, when you stand out here and you're not exerting much energy and you think about the people up there that are, the other thing I think about too, is like some of us that have been up in that campsite area together, we've talked about this lately. Like this place has never burned in our lifetime. Yeah. And look at it. Yeah. This whole

1:13:13forest is covered with gasoline. Fuel. Fuel everywhere. Everywhere you look. Everywhere. The needles on the ground are literally little pieces of gasoline ready to go at a match, you know, and the lightning strikes up there that started it. There's so many different hotspots that are still going right now, but the forest has always burned before we started managing it and going up there. And there's arguments to be made on both sides of us managing it differently and letting the natural

1:13:48course take over. I'm curious to see what comes of this. Yeah. Obviously we know fire is the greatest reset on, on our planet, right? Everything is going to reset up there on, on those islands that burned and it's going to come back better than ever. That's how it's always been, you know, and we're fighting against it right now. Millions and millions of dollars are being spent up there. Big picture things, right? Taxpayer dollars are at work up there paying people and the machines and the planes

1:14:20and all that to fight the natural occurrence that has always taken place up there. Um, you probably have a different respect for it being in the middle of it. I'm a couple of hundred miles away from it right now. I didn't get to see it except for, you know, hear about it from your perspective and see the photos and see what people are doing up there. But do you feel differently about it? Yeah. I mean, it's, it's crazy to put in perspective. I mean, like you said, the smoke rolled in down here the other day and a lot of people, you know, in our area had never seen it like that. I mean,

1:14:53I remember last summer record for smoke and dangerous to be outside. And like last summer when the fires were going, we had a little bit of smoke down here, but you know, when you're literally right next to it, I mean, it's not like we were seeing flames. I know we weren't the closest ones to the fire. Um, but we were up there and when you're out of town in Ely and, and, uh, um, ashes falling out, you know, on your trucks and everything, it's like, this is real. You know, it's like, you're, it's, it's crazy how far the smoke can travel. I mean, the, the fires up in

1:15:25Quetico, the, the smoke gets in the jet stream. It's out on, you know, on the East coast right now. It's just like, it really shows you the power of how, how much it, it can, can burn. Oh, it's unbelievable. We could literally watch it. Yeah. That night when it came through the metro area, I was biking with my kids and you just, they were like, what's that? Yeah. Like that's smoke. And it just, yeah. And at that point, it just seems like a foggy day with a little bit of a bonfire smell to it. But when you're up there and I mean, everything's just orange,

1:15:56you know, and in the ashes, you know, you think it's snowing, but it's just straight ash coming out. And that was another hard part was just trying to breathe, you know, while you're doing all this stuff. I mean, just, just breathing on an, if you were just normally walking through the woods on these, on these portages, you know, for the certain someone, it would, it would be difficult, you know, let alone carrying your gear out. So. Well, Avery, I'm glad you made it out. Um, thanks for just reliving the, the journey that you guys took. And I, I don't know, I guess this is personal for me cause I know exactly what that

1:16:33place looks like, you know? And then I thought about putting myself in your shoes and what would I have done in that position. Um, probably being prepared a little bit differently next time I don't bring a paper map with me cause I've been up there so many times now, never thought about having to go a different route. You know, now I'm thinking about this next trip I'm going to take, what am I going to need up there? And you know, there's, there are certain tools now. The fact that you didn't have, sorry for the lawnmower that's firing up. Yeah. We'll, we'll end this pretty quickly here, but

1:17:07like just thinking about the Onyx SOS feature. Yeah. If you needed to press that button, they'll come rescue you. And that's something that we all have access to the Onyx hunt app. We probably use it. Anyone listening here that doesn't already use the Onyx hunt app for bird hunting, um, they've added a new feature to it that allows you the ability. If you want to, uh, open that option, you press SOS and they'll come pick you up anywhere in North America. And, um, who knows if you might

1:17:43ever need it? Hopefully you don't, but it's now there and available. Um, I think Garmin feature on their, yeah, their in reaches, on their in reach, you know, I'm thinking ahead to where we're going and the lack of any sort of coverage up in the bush country and what I might want to bring along just in case. You never know. Um, did you guys have, I'll call this the last question. Did you guys have a first aid kit ready to go? If somebody were to break something on that, on those rocks or trying

1:18:16to get through there? I mean, not easily, easily accessible, but I mean, Mike, he's like I said, a firefighter for his entire life, his entire career. So, I mean, there's a lot of trust that you put into him. I never put that in, into concern needing a first aid kit. I mean, we have one, right. But, uh, with Mike's knowledge, I was never, never crossed my mind. You know, I mean, obviously if something happened to him, then it would be us trying to fix him up. But, uh, um, yeah, but think about, think about that though, because the rest of you aren't ready for CPR and

1:18:52all that, all that other stuff. I did the training last year and I'm so glad I did, but it happened because I was in a position where I didn't know what to do. Yeah. My dad had collapsed on a pheasant hunt. I thought he collapsed. It turns out it wasn't that way, but I thought he had a heart attack. I was running over to him because I thought he had a heart attack out there and I didn't know as I'm running what I was going to see and what I was going to do. And that feeling of being unprepared, scared the crap out of me. Yeah. And it made me decide I'm going to get CPR certified. I want to learn as much as I can about helping other people because man, the panic that sets in when

1:19:27somebody's, when they need you and you don't know what to do. Yeah. That's real. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. We're going to wrap it up because the lawnmowers are here too. Uh, Avery, um, beautiful day out here on the lake. You've got to work and, uh, what a, what a beautiful place that you get to work right here. I'm, I'm pretty, pretty fortunate. Yep. Yep. All right. Uh, we'll be back next week with another episode of the flesh podcast.