Although this is not the canoe carried by the hearty wilderness guides, this is surely a restful scene they could appreciate at the end of their trek.
How far can one person portage a canoe without putting it down or resting? A couple hundred yards? One mile? Two miles?
How about 8½ miles up and down rugged trails?
Four canoe guides at Wilderness Canoe Base spent Tuesday, July 27, doing exactly that. In doing so they learned something about themselves. Theyalso accomplished something maybe no one has ever done before. In groups of two, they portaged an 80- pound 16½ foot Grumman canoe 17 miles, the length in and out of the Grand Portage.
And neither of the canoes touched the ground.
“The canoes touched Lake Superior and the Pigeon River,” but that was it,” said Will Tanner.
Tanner, age 23, Christian Bane, age 23, Dan Baneehrens, age 21, and Paul Scholtz, age 22, each shouldered their Grumman canoes 8 ½ miles non-stop along the famous French fur trade route.
And why did they do this?
“We did it to test the limits of our endurance, to test our perseverance. We did it because people said it couldn’t be done in one day. And besides, it was our day off,” said Tanner.
Sometimes it takes awhile to figure out that not all of the “old ways” of doing things were wrong. Nothing tastes better than bread baked on a wood-fired stove. Here Shevanise Harrison of Kingston, Jamaica tends to bread at Gunflint Lodge’s new outdoor oven. Built of stone by Gunflint Lodge owner Bruce Kerfoot, the oven is not only beautiful but produces great tasting bread. Shevanise is in her second summer as an intern at Gunflint Lodge.
The team of Dan Baneehrens and Paul Scholtz completed the round trip in six hours. It took Will Tanner and Christian Bane a bit longer, but both groups finished in good shape, albeit exhausted from their effort.
“We knew we could all walk a long way carrying a canoe, but we started wondering just how far we could really go?’ said Baneehrens.
To make the journey more possible the one carrying the canoe was given water and Gatorade by their teammate.
“That and a lot of encouragement,” said Tanner.
“It took a lot of determination and God gave us the strength to finish,” said Bane.
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