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We received our orientation for Sommers Canoe Base at a replica of
a French Fort. |
On the Road - Sommers
Canoe Base: Day 3
Up at 5am again to break camp and get on the road. Grabbed another
fast-food breakfast at Hardee's and arrived in Ely, MN at 11:00am.
Everyone split into groups to shop the outfitters, buy Quetico Provincial
Park maps, select fishing gear and grab some lunch. Drove to Sommers High
Adventure Base, arriving at 1pm. We all got quite a shock when we arrived,
seeing large sections of the stockade fence and LOTS of trees blown down.
Hurricane winds went through the area on July 4th, two weeks before we
arrived, and although a lot of clean up had been done, a huge amount of
damage was left. It will take years for the area to recover. Check-in went
well and only took about 45 minutes to do the paperwork. We split up into
our crews, met our camp interpreter (Garrett) and started getting our gear
from the Camp Quartermaster. Since we were a voyageur crew, an interpreter
wouldn't be going on the trek with us (Jerry C. had done this trip before
and was acting as our guide). We set up and checked out all the tents (had
to go through six to find three good ones). Went through every item in the
equipment pack to make sure it was okay. Then we went to the commissary to
count and check our meals, only to find out we were missing four lunches,
which the camp quickly gave us. Once our food cases were stored on our
assigned shelf, we went back to the vehicles and lugged our personal gear
to our assigned 'off road' cabins. Of course, our cabins were at the top
of the highest hill in the area, as far from everything as they could be.
Each cabin was small, hexagonal, with 5-foot tall doors (duck!), six beds
and next to no ventilation. Our crew ran into a problem - we didn't have
one of the three large personal packs for our clothes and stuff, so a
couple adults had to track down the camp quartermaster after dinner to get
one. That really slowed down the packing process, but we got it done and
were in bed by 10pm. |