Day One on the Brule River:
We woke up to the all-too-familar, constant hum that brought back memories of the mosquito war that ensued the previous night. These things are relentless. Gabriel wanted to know why God created these nasty little creatures. What a great question. As we were packing up camp I noticed that the sleeping bags were wet. Then it all came back to me. I had a flashback of taking my newly wed wife on our first camping trip in Minnesota with this tent that I won from some work contest. After spending a night in it and getting completely soaked in 50 degree weather, I realized that my company had not broken the bank to provide us with such high quality gear. Needless to say, if it rained on our trip, we were doomed given that a little dew was a enough soak our bags.
We packed up camp, drove another hour and finally arrived at the canoeing outpost. I finally conceded and choked up another $9 plus tax for a bottle of bug spray thinking that I started my first business in elementary school for less. What a racket! On the shuttle to the river the owner of the rental company for the last 17 years looked at me, the boys, three large totes of gear and three make-shift, waterproof bags (garbage bags) and said, "Are you sure you know what you are doing". Normally, I would have said "Of course, I am an expert at this kind of thing." After our study on David the night before, however, I had reason to doubt my point of view. I asked, "what makes you say that?" He proceeded to tell me about "Lenroot Ledges" and "Mays Ledges" saying that they "were a real b**ch" and that no one had done three days of paddling totaling 34 miles all year, let alone by himself with two young kids. It was right about then, that the weight of what I was doing was beginning to land on me. As he dropped of us off at our launch point the nail on the coffin was him mentioning that "we probably shouldn't tip given that the water was in the low 50's". I was picturing in my head that this would be a nice leisurely trip down the river with swim breaks and even if we tipped, we could just float down the river. I guess The Lord will have to keep us in the boat then.
Paddling down the river was amazing. Largely, we were by ourselves for most of the day passing by towering pine trees. I was reminded of the ride "Soarin" at Disney with the scene of the white water rafting, but this time I could actually smell the wonderful pine after a surgery in February to drill out the old nose. What an incredible world we have been given to live in. We passed by a few houses along the river. One in particular grabbed my attention as it was on an island. I immediately began contemplating how we could buy it in our rental business and then sneak away for a week to enjoy the peaceful river flowing by. Later I found out that it was owned by a guy names Calvin Coolidge (apparently this was one of our Presidents) and he turned it into a "summer White House". My thoughts of ownership quickly faded away.
We arrived at our campsite which was along the stream. All the other campsites were at the top of the hill so we were quite isolated from everyone else. I decided that we would take advantage of the few remaining hours of daylight and continue our story of David. Tonight we read from the famous story of David and Goliath. It is so easy for me to look at this story and think that it is about a godly young man who "stood up for God" and mustered up enough courage to take on a man nearly 10 feet tall. After a closer look at the text, it becomes very evident that there is no explanation why this battle should have ended the way it did. David approached Saul after hearing Goliath defy the God of Israel in the valley below and requested that Saul allow him to fight Goliath. David reminded Saul that "whenever a lion or a bear came and carried off a lamb from the flock" he would go after it that God would rescue him from the paw of the lion and bear. Saul recognized there was no way David would win unless God showed up and thus said "go, and may The Lord be with you." Being a man necessitates a view that we are weak and God is strong. It is often said that "Christianity is for the weak-minded". I am inclined to say "you are right", and "that is why we are in need of a strong God who takes care of us."
As I wrapped up our first evening on the river, I began cooking some brats over the camp fire. It was awfully quite around here and I remembered that I left my gun in the glove box back at the outpost. I had no idea that The Lord was removing any sense of "security" from me and He was about to give me a reminder that He was in charge and His hand alone was sufficient for me.
The boys were around the camp fire with me and I heard a loud crack right behind me. I turned around to see squarely in front of me the largest black bear I have ever seen. I jumped up and grabbed my 12 inch knife (which now made me feel woefully ill-equipped) and yelled for the boys to get behind me and walk slowly toward the bank. This beast was between us and the stairs leading up to the campgrounds so our only option was to jump into the river. As if the drama wasn't high enough already, that darn creature stood on it's back two legs towering a least another two fee above my head as if to say "all you have is that little knife". Fortunately, God was done with His teaching moment for me and the bear scampered up the hill. Now I don't know about you, but all I could think about was "stop, drop and roll" and I don't think that was what I was told to do when encountering a monster bear in the woods.
I would like to say the adventures of day one were over at this point, but this shook me up enough that I needed to go on a walk and see what options I had if that Sasquatch decided to come back that night. Gabriel tried to reassure me that "in Little House on the Prairie, the bear only had Mr. Edwards' hand." I thought to myself 'what kind of morbid things is my wife letting these kids watch' and then replied that I would prefer to keep my hand and the bear in the show was some kids stuffed animal. We walked up the hill and found only one other camper. It was an older couple with their grandkids. I told them they might want to pack up the food out of site. They smiled and nodded towards the full size RV parked next to them as if to say "we are in good shape" and "sorry sucker for those of you who have to sleep in those tents". I enviously surveyed his rig and was tempted to ask him how much it would take to sell that thing on the spot. We walked on down the trail and I noticed a dark shadow off to my right. I couldn't believe my eyes! It was another bear looking me straight in my eyes. These things were like fleas, I thought. This time the boys yelled and ran toward it (I guess they had more moxie than I did). That was enough of the "walking it off". We were going to hunker down in our little two man tent and wait this night out. The kid's dozed off, but I couldn't sleep at all. Around 1 am, I heard howling and realized that these were not beagles. I was told earlier that the Brule river forest was home to five wolf packs. After recently watching "The Grey" with Liam Neeson, I wasn't so sure the bear was so bad if it meant those creatures would stay away. I did remember that I had glass Starbuck's bottles and tape that I could wrap around my knuckles like he did in the movie, but that seemed far-fetched and didn't end well for old Liam. The Lord's message was clear to me that evening. "You are mine and I will only allow what is best for you to happen, trust me." The next morning I must have dosed off as the kids were not in the tent when I awoke. Moments after opening my eyes I hear a huge crash right behind my tent. I leapt out with my knife and no pants ready to fight, just to hear my kids laughing at me. They shrieked "it's just a branch dad, why are you so freaked out"? Glad to see they haven't lost their sense of humor.
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