Savanna Studio 2012: Bonding In the Boundary Waters

September 15th-18th, 2012
The Group belonging to Michael Martin

The morning of the 15th couldn't come soon enough for our group of eight, and we enthusiastically threw our bags into the van, not realizing what was in store. Our day of canoeing started off easy in placid waters and no breeze, but as the day progressed, we found ourselves paddling into strong headwinds and finding no campsites. By the time we made land, we had searched four or five campsites in vain and canoed a total of 7 hours. And with the help of fishermen and a few friendly campers, we were able to navigate to a beautiful western facing campsite, although it was a bit small.

Portaging became an adventure all of its own, between four quite large canoes, six bags of roughly forty pounds each, and two fully packed food barrels, we were lucky enough to have only had very short portages. Portaging, as some of you may not know, is when we need to cross a landmass in order to avoid the rapids, which involves unpacking all the canoes and carrying the gear to the other shoreline. They can range from a measly five rods to a whopping 160 rods, which is equivalent to about half a mile.

One of the first portages we experienced. Photo courtesy of Jorden.

Although the trip may seem like just fun and games, we learned some very valuable lessons during our stay in the woods. The first of which is to always, always, remember to check where your belongings are. The first day we had stopped to eat lunch on a small island, and after canoeing for a few hours afterwards, Cormac discovered that we had, in fact, forgotten his backpack sitting on the rocks. The next morning was spent fetching his backpack, which he said ended up being quite an enjoyable day of bonding with Michael.

The second lesson is one that the girls remember quite well, and it involved the creatures of the boundary waters. As we were all settling down to go to bed, we hear a loud yell from the top of the hill, "There's a mouse in our tent!". Somehow a little field mouse crawled inside our tent, looking for warmth and perhaps a little snack, but it was not greeted with a warm welcome. Luckily, the animal-loving Allison jumped right in and snatched him up in her hands and carried him back to safety. From then on, Hannah made sure that our tent was safely zipped tight to avoid another encounter with the wildlife, unless such encounters involved seeing another beloved moose.

We learned our last lesson through the painful misstep of a shoeless Jorden. Being that one of the days was quite warm and sunny, Jorden was content enough to roam freely around camp without any shoes. He thought he had stepped on a splinter at one point during the day, and just forgot about it, since it wasn't too bad. But by the next morning, Amanda was bent over his foot with needle and tweezers in hand, digging out the splinter. After removing the inconvenience, we realized he had managed to step on a very small thorn, and not sure where it had come from. Only in the boundary waters will you find someone willing to pry a small thorn out of someones foot.

Being in Michael's group, we were able to learn more about the ancient rocks that were found all along our campsite and molded and dug up by the glaciers that tore their way through northern Minnesota. We also were able to spend more time with our sketchbooks by adding the beautiful scenery to it, along with working on our water coloring skills. The campsite we had provided a good model for our first topography map, which allowed us to show the changes of elevation throughout it. A good plant walk was a must considering we are landscape architects, so we got in some good "botanizing" before our departure.

The topography map of our campsite. Photo courtesy of Amanda.

Allison's watercolor of a small marsh area. Photo courtesy of Amanda.

Cormac lounging in the woods as he works diligently on his watercolor. Photo courtesy of Amanda.

The boundary waters has quite an interesting history that we were able to learn all about. It once started off as hot spot for the logging industry of Minnesota, and much of the forestry was completely wiped out and fires consumed parts of it. With the dying off of the logging business, local land owners came in and tended after it, and they were able to freely use the land to their own accord. But when people began to realize how unique the boundary waters were, it was slowly turned into a national forest area, and the land that once belonged to the locals was taken over by tourists and fishermen. This resulted in rebellion of the angry locals and led to numerous altercations in the past, but over time, there is a movement spreading across the land to save what's left of this beautiful place.

A highlight of our trip was the chance to work in and among nature like the great artist Andy Goldsworthy. His is very interested in the forms of nature, mainly the forms of rivers and water tides. He takes the organic material that is surrounding him to make land-art forms, most of which create very powerful statements within the landscape. We were given an entire day to spend time in the natural settings and to be inspired by a place, or a tree, perhaps even the way the light moved through the forest, and expected to create something that would interact with the space around it. It was a time of deep bonding with the land and it brought a peaceful aura into each of us, perhaps in completely different ways.