Nate Carlson (in back, third from the left) is pictured with the group of young men he went on a long canoe trip with last summer with YMCA Camp Menogyn. The energetic Carlson also participated in a mission trip to El Salvador during the summer. Nate is the son of Julie and Rod Carlson, Grand Marais.
Nate Carlson began his first day of cross country running practice with a seven-mile run, pretty good considering he hadn’t run much this summer.
“I’m out of shape but it will be all right. I’m just going to jump right in and do the workouts even though my teammates have been running all summer,” said a smiling Carlson.
The ever-smiling, easygoing Cook County High School junior from Grand Marais had a couple of good excuses to miss practice this summer because he had been on a mission trip to El Salvador and followed that up with a 30-day canoe trip into Canada.
“My abs are in good shape, and my upper body is in pretty good shape, but I’m not really in any kind of running shape,” Carlson said as he talked about his interesting summer.
“In early July I went on a mission trip for 10 days with six people from the Catholic church from Two Harbors. We joined six people from St. Benedict’s parish from Duluth. All in all, about 40 people from all over the country went to volunteer with Sister Gloria’s FIAT (Faith In Action Together) International Project in El Salvador,” said Carlson.
While some of that group built a house for a mother and her six children or built a two-room school house, Carlson spent 10 days digging trenches for pipes that will someday carry fresh water to every home in the small remote village he was working in.
“When I left the water system wasn’t in place yet. We worked hard and made good progress but we didn’t finish it.”
Carlson got back to Grand Marais on July 19 and left July 22 with five kids and a counselor on a canoe trip out of YMCA Camp Menogyn.
Carlson’s group paddled and portaged between 5 to 30 miles a day as they traversed the Allenwater River to Brennan Lake, Granite Lake, and Wabakimi Lake, which led to the Kopka River and then on to Lake Nipigon where they finished.
“We used three canoes—two Alaskans and one Old Towne Tripper,” said Carlson, adding that each camper carried a No. 3 or 4 backpack that weighed 70 to 80 pounds when full, but got lighter as the trip progressed because much of what they carried was food.
“We all took turns cooking and cleaning up. The food was pretty good. It was textured but tasted pretty good. We made tacos and burger meals. We also caught some fish—a few nice walleye and a few nice northern—and cooked those and they tasted really good,” said Carlson.
The crew Carlson traveled with knew each other from previous trips they had taken in the past. For Carlson, this was his sixth year at Camp Menogyn. Only experienced campers who have proven they have the skills and the right attitude to undergo the rigors both physically and emotionally that a long wilderness trip will inevitably throw at them are allowed to take the longer canoeing and backpacking trips with Menogyn.
“The weather was very strange. It would rain for an hour, then stop and turn to 80 degrees. Then it would turn back to freezing rain. It was hard to dress for the weather it changed so fast. We just had to be ready for anything,” said Carlson.
Along the way Carlson saw four moose, lots of beaver, eagles, otters and enjoyed the rugged beauty of the land around him. One thing he didn’t enjoy were the throngs of bugs.
“I was surprised by how bad the bugs were. They were relentless,” he said.
At night while the rest of the crew slept in the six-man tent, Carlson said, “Most of the time I slept in a hammock I took with me.”
As for canoeing, Carlson said, “The water was really nice. We paddled some white water, but we didn’t have any accidents. We scouted all the sets really well and didn’t have any trouble running the rapids we encountered.”
When asked if he would go on another long canoe trip, Carlson replied, “Maybe someday on my own with a few friends. But we’ll just have to wait and see.”
When asked if he would go on another mission trip, Carlson didn’t hesitate with his answer, “Absolutely. In a heartbeat if the chance comes up.”
All in all, said Carlson, it was a great summer for making new friends and learning new things about how other people live in far away places and learning new things about himself. But now he’s back in school, back to running cross country, back to helping in the concession stands and back to filling in at the family business, Joynes Department Store.
When asked what had taught him more, (or given him more satisfaction) handling a shovel or handling a paddle, Carlson said, “I guess I like to paddle more than shovel, but I learned a lot from doing both of them.”
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