Boundary Waters Passage Part One: Epic Journey
Tony Jones “baptized” his son Aidan, 14, when the group entered the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness at Height of Land Portage, where new voyageurs were christened centuries ago. (Photo by Aaron Lavinsky)
The morning hung still and warm as our group of five eased two canoes into Gunflint Lake. In the bow of my boat sat my youngest son, Aidan, and I wondered if he really grasped what lay in front of him. We’d been on this northern Minnesota border lake once before, when he was 5. I was mid-divorce, and I stole away with Aidan and his brother and sister for a weekend at Gunflint Lodge; Aidan caught a big lake trout during our four-hour boat rental, a good memory from an otherwise trying time.
Now 14, Aidan pulled his paddle through the water.
“Drop your bottom hand lower,” I told him, “and you’ll get more power in your stroke.” I hoped to make new memories with my son on this trip, to baptize him into the wild beauty that is the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA).