WAKWIR: Rosta Camping

Hello and welcome to a certainly snowy Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is October 24th.

You guessed it! It’s that time of year again! M E A weekend is/was here! And if you remember what happened last year during this five-day weekend, I went on a FANTASTIC camping trip with my dad and my older brother. Well, obviously we were going to go camping again, but my older brother decided to hype up a lot of his friends to go with us on what we call: Rosta Camping. Camping, but extreme. No heaters, long hikes, freezing cold, snow, etc. This would be camping at the literal minimum. With the exception of a tent. We got those.  

So I was thinking: “Why can my older brother invite friends on a camping trip and not me?” I asked my mom that question, and she told me to also invite some friends to go “Rosta Camping." So I did. I invited three friends; one couldn't come, but later my dad said I could only bring two friends, which worked out in the end. Now, I had a problem. I had very little detail about the trip. These events led to super big confusion but, eventually, my parents made a big huge game plan which ended most of the confusion about the trip. 

So eventually we all had packed and were ready. My dad rented a van, school ended on Tuesday, and on Wednesday morning, we all left by 9:30 in the morning. My older brother also got to bring an extra friend, which wasn’t necessarily a good thing, since I only got to bring two, but it wasn't a bad thing either. My dad was trying something different and this year we were going to go to the Boundary Waters. Well, either way, it was going to a super long and boring car ride. But when you think about it, it really wouldn't be so boring. Why? Because when you have 8 people in a van, all wanting something to do, someone gets creative. One of my brother's friends decided to take out a deck of cards and play Mafia.

 If you don’t know what Mafia is, it's a game where there is a mafia (killer), and the goal of the game is either for the mafia to kill all of the innocents or the innocents to find and vote off the mafia. There is also a doctor and a sheriff to make the game a little bit more exciting. The doctor saves people, and the sheriff investigates people. It’s pretty fun to play because you can’t trust anyone since they might be the mafia. 

Since we had literally nothing to do except be entertained by our phones, we played Mafia all the way to International Falls, which was about an hour and a half. Oh, and did I mention that there was a giant rainstorm that followed us all the way to the Boundary Waters? That day we didn't get much sun. All we were getting was rain and more rain. In International Falls, we stopped at Menards to buy some camping supplies, and many of us also bought lots of snacks that would fuel us all the way to our campsite. We stopped in Orr to get gas, and because we had nothing else to do, everyone except for my dad went to the Orr River Bay, and in 40-degree weather, we skipped rocks. And yes it was still raining. Somehow we still had fun. I even managed to skip my first rock, which was actually pretty cool.

As we continued to drive on, my dad told us we would be trying to camp out at the Jeanette Lake campsite. It took about an hour to get there, but when we did, we got a rather negative result. The campsite was gated off. So my dad decided to go to Plan B, and go to the Fenske Lake Campsite. Fifteen minutes later, we drove to another gated off campsite. Some of us were starting to get anxious; some more than others since it was starting to get dark. We didn't really know what to do next, and every other campsite we passed was closed. We went on many other different roads, some made me car sick. Finally, we came across one particular road. The Fall Lake Campground Road. Being optimistic, we drove down the road, and the main campsite was closed, BUT, there was a small 30-foot road that led to two parking spots, and a small path that led to some campsites. We knew that was a spot we had to take, even if there would be somewhat of a short walk to some sites. 

It was about 5:30 in the evening when we finally started to put our tents up. It was, in fact, still raining, and none of us liked it, but it eventually stopped. When I also say it stopped, I also mean it mostly stopped. It continued to mist. We set up three tents: one for my friends and me, one for my brother and his friends, and one for my dad. Our tents did get wet on the inside and out, which was sort of annoying, but we had to live with it. Once it actually stopped raining, we somehow made a fire and cooked ham, SPAM, and bread. The night started to get cold, and we even saw a few snowflakes for a couple of minutes.

After we had our very delicious dinner, we all headed to our tents, because in our tents there were sleeping bags. And in sleeping bags, was warmth. We all stayed up at least an hour but eventually went to bed at around 9:30. Why did we go to bed so early? Because we had almost no sense of time, and naturally, when it’s dark outside, you would think to go to bed. And with almost no sense of time, it felt much later than it actually was.

The next morning was a cold one. After waking up multiple times during the night, my dad woke everyone up at about 7:30. There was tons of water in our tent. Outside, it was nearly freezing, but we were alive. We had a very good, but cold breakfast that consisted of yogurt, tea, hot chocolate apples, and leftovers from the night before. Today was also going to be the first day we would go on a hike. Which hike? The Bass Lake trail that went five miles all the way around the entire lake. It was going to be a moderate/easy to moderate/hard hike. Some extremely easy parts, some harder parts.

It only took about 15 minutes to get to the trailhead, and the hike started really easily with a portage trail to a beach at the lake. It continued a while longer around the lake, with some really beautiful lookouts. We could periodically see the lake, but mainly the trail went through a really pretty forest. I would say the best thing about the hike was climbing a huge tower of rocks and exploring a super cool waterfall. We spent about 45 minutes just climbing and exploring around it. 

Speaking of waterfalls, after the hike around Bass Lake, my dad took us to a much shorter, but much more exciting hike. The hike would only be about two miles long and there was an extremely exciting landmark: The Kawishiwi Falls, a much more fast-moving, and violent waterfall that was much bigger than the one we had seen a couple hours before. When we all got to the waterfall, we stood on the edge of a small cliff and looked down into a miniature gorge. I took the initiative to just go crazy taking pictures of every single angle of the waterfall I could get. The waterfall was actually right behind a really cool hydroelectric dam. We eventually went behind the waterfall to explore the dam a little bit. 

Kawishiwi Falls

After we explored the waterfall, we headed back to our campsite, and this time we had a really nice fire and had super delicious steak, pork, and cooked onions. It was the best dinner on the entire trip. That night we also dried some of our sleeping bags and gear that got wet in the tent the night before. Again, we went to bed sort of early. That night I was also pretty cold. It even started snowing.

The next day was going to be a big one. We were going to go on an eleven-mile hike to Devils Cascade. The day started out cold and it would stay that way. It took an hour to get to the trailhead, and when we got there, it was snowing. And it didn’t stop. We started the hike in complete misery, but it eventually cleared up a little once we hiked about two or three miles. Since it was snowing, our view of the landscape was super limited. At some parts, we didn’t even know where the trail was.

After a super long five and a half miles and three hours of hiking, we got to our next destination. The view was insanely gorgeous. At the end of the trail, there was a super big, super deep gorge. At the bottom was a small waterfall that ran down towards a lake. The only thing that would've made it better would have been if I could have had feeling in my hands. Yes, it was so cold for me, that I could not feel, or even use my hands. It was a super painful experience. It got better though when we were hiking back since the whole group was talking and I put more thought into talking with the group, than thinking about my hands. 

Something that's worth noting is that while you’re hiking, talk. Talk to whoever is with you, because on our hike back it only felt like an hour's worth of hiking rather than three. Although even though we were having a super long conversation, our last quarter-mile stretch of the super long hike felt super long. At least to me it did. Since the terrain was now familiar, it felt like ages even though the last quarter mile took about seven to ten minutes.

While we were driving back to our campsite, I took a nap, and one of my friends calculated the time spent that day hiking was over seven hours. Since that night would be our last night sleeping in a tent, we feasted on hot dogs. Yes. And we ate a lot of them too. I ended up eating three or four myself, not to mention everyone else. This time everyone stayed up pretty late. I went to sleep at eleven, but I don’t know how long my brother and his friends stayed up. They stayed up later than my friends and me.

The next morning, we packed up our tents, and immediately got on the road and started going home. But that doesn't mean we couldn't go hiking one more time! Yep, on our way back we hiked the Secret, Blackstone and Ennis Lakes Trail which was only about four miles. Even though it snowed during part of the hike, it was still pretty enjoyable. When we got back, we left the walking sticks we had used on all of our previous hikes at the trailhead for new hikers.

Overall, I thought it was a really great trip. One of my favorite parts about the trip was the use of the word: "Populate." I know. It sounds kind of weird, but if you wrap your mind around it, it makes a pretty useful verb that can replace other verbs. For example: "Let’s populate the trail" or "The tea is populating." Super fun word. Credit goes to my dad for using it in such a funny, but memorable way. The ride home was a lot like the ride to the campsite, the only difference being there wasn’t a rainstorm following us.

I hope you enjoyed this particular blog post because sometimes, you just have to write things down to make the most of an adventure. Also! I have a YouTube channel! I make videos of stuffed animals. Everyone should check it out. It’s pretty cool.

Anyways, I hope you all have a fantastic day, and see you next time.

David, aka WAKWIR (Wannaskan Almanac Kid Writer-in-Residence

On This Day

Historic Highlights (credits)

2007 - China Launches Chang'e 1

It was the first spacecraft of China’s Lunar Exploration Program, which is responsible for sending unmanned robotic space probes to the Moon and the lunar orbit in order to better understand Earth’s largest natural satellite. The space probe crashed into the lunar surface on March 2, 2009, after orbiting the Moon for over a year.

1964 - Zambian independence

The African country gained independence from British rule with the passage of the Zambia Independence Act 1964 by the UK Parliament.

1945 - United Nations founded

The U.N. charter was ratified by the then 5 permanent members and 46 member states.

1930 - Coup in Brazil

President Washington Luís was deposed by the heads of the armed forces just 4 years after he came to office. The coup prevented President-elect Júlio Prestes from coming to power and the military junta instead installed Getúlio Vargas as the de facto President of the country. The coup was in part a response to the government’s “coffee with milk policy”, which allowed governance power to be alternated between the coffee-producing state of São Paulo and the milk-producing state of Minas Gerais. This policy led to a rebellion in some parts of the country, which in turn prompted the army to take action against the government.

1926 - Last performance of Houdini

The world-famous escape artist performed for the last time at the Garrick Theater in Detroit, Michigan.

Happy Birthday to You!🎶 

1985 - Wayne Rooney, English footballer

1981 - Tila Tequila, American model, actress, singer

1966 - Roman Abramovich, Russian businessman, politician

1962 - Dave Blaney, American race car driver

51 - Domitian, Roman emperor

Remembering You

2005 - Rosa Parks, American activist

1972 - Jackie Robinson, American baseball player

1945 - Vidkun Quisling, Norwegian soldier, politician, traitor

1944 - Louis Renault, French businessman, co-founded Renault

1601 - Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer, chemist

Get outdoors and make it a great Saturday!

Kim