This is where Eric's dad grew up.....God's country

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These were some falls north of your dad's hometown

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This is Seaoat shooting some rapids about 40 miles north of your Dad's home town.

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panoramic view of the stream

We had three couples on this trip and three canoes. I banged this aluminum canoe up badly and had a six inch gash in the side and it filled up with water. Took a styrofoam cooler and packed the gash with foam and cut some cloth and rubbed vasoline.....put that in tight and we finished the three day trip in the wilderness. The outfitter was impressed with the repair....but he wanted to know how this happened... the warning signs were all over, but I was young and maybe a bit crazy.....when I told him the truth of what I did and offered to pay for the damage....he said I was crazy and charged me $25 for an aluminum weld.....it was a great trip.

Mrs. Seaoat is shown in the photo of the falls.....and from those falls you could see Lake superior. I would have loved to have been Eric's dad traveling this country before government regulations.

You look like a kid having a blast...kool.

You look like a kid having a blast...kool.

It was a great weekend with all three couples having a lifetime experience. I was an eagle scout so I had done this stuff for years, but because we had to push hard, I had all the women crying because of exhaustion, and I warned them that we should not cross a large lake when a storm was approaching, but they insisted they were tired and wanted to get across the lake to camp. If you have ever been in the wilderness on a large American or Canadian lake when a thunderstorm rushes in.....the lightening scares you, but the waves....that is really a life or death fight. I got them to an island in the middle of the lake and we hunkered down for the night. They all knew I was a taskmaster, but from that point on there was no more democracy....they listened. As I am fading away, I can thank Eric for talking about his dad's hometown because my wife and I have had a blast going through some of our trips in the wilderness so many years ago.

Eric.....you really need to plan a canoe trip to your dad's hometown.....I guarantee it will be memorable.

The Mrs. is cuter than a button, and I LOVE all of those pictures. You look like you're having the time of your life. Pretty cool McGyver fix on that canoe, too! Thanks for sharing, SO.

The Mrs. is cuter than a button, and I LOVE all of those pictures. You look like you're having the time of your life. Pretty cool McGyver fix on that canoe, too! Thanks for sharing, SO.


In my mind my wife was always this beautiful 10 year old girl who I got to share a child like dream of adventure. Our bodies have aged, but we both love the adventure of life, and I still find her as attractive as the day I met her.....and it has very little to do with conventional beauty....it has to do with the spirit of 10 year old girls who views the world in innocence and adventure. If you can keep that child like sharing, life's adventures remain fun.....even when other's might think they are sad, money problems, health problems.....nope they are all just one more impossible set of rapids which we pass.

2seaoat wrote:

In my mind my wife was always this beautiful 10 year old girl who I got to share a child like dream of adventure. Our bodies have aged, but we both love the adventure of life, and I still find her as attractive as the day I met her.....and it has very little to do with conventional beauty....it has to do with the spirit of 10 year old girls who views the world in innocence and adventure. If you can keep that child like sharing, life's adventures remain fun.....even when other's might think they are sad, money problems, health problems.....nope they are all just one more impossible set of rapids which we pass.

That's pretty sweet, SO.

2seaoat wrote:The Mrs. is cuter than a button, and I LOVE all of those pictures. You look like you're having the time of your life. Pretty cool McGyver fix on that canoe, too! Thanks for sharing, SO.


In my mind my wife was always this beautiful 10 year old girl who I got to share a child like dream of adventure. Our bodies have aged, but we both love the adventure of life, and I still find her as attractive as the day I met her.....and it has very little to do with conventional beauty....it has to do with the spirit of 10 year old girls who views the world in innocence and adventure. If you can keep that child like sharing, life's adventures remain fun.....even when other's might think they are sad, money problems, health problems.....nope they are all just one more impossible set of rapids which we pass.

that might be the most romantic and poetically beautiful thing ever posted on here...Thanks....

In the early 70s you could travel from lake to lake for a week and not see another human being. The first time I got lost for real in the wilderness, I tried to take a short cut from a base camp to a waterfall which fed a lake. Prior to setting up the base camp, I had noticed a sandy point. After two hours in the woods with no orientation and alone.....I started to get this sick feeling. This trip was five guys, but it was September in Northern MN, and the nights drop to near freezing and we had not seen another person that week. I figured it would take two days for the group to get back and get somebody, and maybe two days to find me.....I was looking at four to five days lost in the wilderness........and then just like that I found the lake......saw the sandy point.....got my orientation.....and found the base camp.......I really did not want to let them know I had screwed up.....but after that date, I always kept a compass with me in the wilderness.

We never took a guide. We would use these amazing maps and compass. I had been trained in boy scouts how to use the same, and it was amazing going from one pristine lake to another. I introduced my wife to the wilderness I loved, and she still cherishes the outdoors. I imagine Eric's dad would take some tenderfoots out and help them get to the portages, and show them how to fish. The Walleyes and northern were great. There is nothing better than freshly cleaned walleye after a hard day of pushing yourself in the wilderness. We have a beautiful country, and I certainly now know why Eric grew up around a marina.....once you get the bug.....well....it becomes a lifestyle.

Thanks for the pics, SeaOat. It looks like fun.

We have canoe-camped Coldwater a bunch, but it has been incredibly crowded the last few times. The roughest water I have canoed has been Juniper Creek... nothing like the water in your pics.

Perdido River was a yawner.

We got infections going down the Styx one weekend. (Alabama closed the river to water contact activities the following Monday. Something about a bad sewer plant... eeeewww.)

I have done the tube ride down the Ichetucknee (about an hour's drive East of Tallahassee.) three or four times. It comes out of a hole in the ground in the limestone and it is cold! No sandbars, but heavy vegetation and what looks like kelp on the bottom. Very nice unspoiled area. http://floridastateparks.org/ichetuckneesprings/default.cfm

One of my dreams was to spend a week on Isle Royale (sp) which is north of your dad's town. It is this pristine natural island where I believe a ferry leaves from two Harbor and drops you off for camping on the island. I just got so busy with life that I never had the opportunity to take a week, and now I am afraid that the hiking would simply take too much effort.

I really cannot tell you how cool this area is.....I would have given anything to pick your dad's memories of growing up as a kid near the iron ore port of Duluth. I am a big Edmund Fitzgerald fan, and those times I would travel this country and view that beautiful and powerful lake.....well it is stunning.

Did your dad ever take you back to his hometown to visit family?

Nope. He never took us to Minnesota.

He had a lot of stories... but they were all about flying. He flew transcontinental for TWA back when they had Constellations. Every dinner he was back in the cockpit reliving his flying days. They were great stories.

I too spent quite a bit of time in northern Minnesota. My grandparents on my fathers side were from Balsam Minnesota, which was an extremely small town outside of Grand Rapids Minnesota. I know all about that area. Used to love going to Bemidji to see Paul Bunyan and the Blue Ox. In fact, both my late father and my aunt graduated from Bemidji State University. If one were go go to the community center in Balsam Minnesota today, you will see my photo with the baseball team from 1989. I'll never forget the summers spent with my grandfather, hanging out with him and his friends playing countless games of cribbage. Whenever I got bored, I had an endless sea of wilderness to get lost in. No paved roads. No developed cities. Just remote neighbors, 3 miles down the dirt road on each side. I have seen wild moose, bear, porcupine, skunk, you name it.


http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&rls=en&oe=UTF-8&q=balsam+minnesota&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x52ba7db489adabc3:0x15d182b1473f472e,Balsam,+MN&gl=us&sa=X&ei=FCHpUIPfGYye9QS4z4GIDA&ved=0CIoBELYD

Just look at all those lakes. My grandfather would deliver "meals on wheels" for the elderly who lived in remote areas. I used to ride with him, early in the morning. We would always check the lakes for what Minnesotans called the "Walleye Riple" We'd be driving along, and my grandfather would chime in "Looks like we have a nice walleye ripple today", which would mean we would go fishing later that day.

I also still remember the wild birds that propagated the area up there. Loons, whipoorwhils, bob whites. They each had a distinct call that I could fall asleep to.

We would put in at various points, but Ely which was about 15 miles east of your grandfather's and about 15 miles north of Eric's father's hometown of Two Harbor. We liked this location because you could travel from small lake to small lake and make it to the Canadian border and then travel forever in Canadian waters from lake to lake. We would bring our food, and would pack as light as we could because some of the portages were very long and difficult.

One of the great things which big bad government did was to set these areas aside for future generations to enjoy. I remember when wolves were rather rare to see, but we would see them always on a trip to this beautiful area. The nice thing was driving up to Thunder Bay Canada, and then cut over to the north side of Quetico and head south to America.....these trips were the most isolated with some trips never seeing other campers or canoeist. Other times we would go through International falls and cut over and then canoe down. If terrorists wanted to enter this country undetected.....well they could easily travel without detection. Our Northern border is amazing wilderness, but it is also next to impossible to monitor.

Mrs. SeaOat is a very pretty lady. Will she have a fit when she finds out you posted her pic?

The adventurous spirit of ten-year-olds.....I like that, a lot. Thanks.

Will she have a fit when she finds out you posted her pic? Laughing


She was helping me go through our old box of pictures looking for that waterfall just north of two Harbor. We spent a couple of hours at the waterfalls with the other couples. I had a pair of white socks which in one picture that had turned completely gray from muck I had been splashing in along the shoreline. What is really cool is that we have not looked in this box of photos for 20 years. We have pictures of our kids on vacation which we really enjoyed last night. She has facebook which I do not participate, and I have a couple of forums which I participate and we share comments from both usually once a day. As long as I do not post any of the beach photos she is ok with posting the photos, only because that waterfall was just a few miles north of Two Harbors. Yep, she is pretty and she was a great athlete, but back in 1971 when she graduated from high school....girls did not have athletics like they do today. She could out run every boy in her school and I always had guys complementing her legs in front of me.....but how could I argue.

2seaoat wrote:Will she have a fit when she finds out you posted her pic? Laughing


She was helping me go through our old box of pictures looking for that waterfall just north of two Harbor. We spent a couple of hours at the waterfalls with the other couples. I had a pair of white socks which in one picture that had turned completely gray from muck I had been splashing in along the shoreline. What is really cool is that we have not looked in this box of photos for 20 years. We have pictures of our kids on vacation which we really enjoyed last night. She has facebook which I do not participate, and I have a couple of forums which I participate and we share comments from both usually once a day. As long as I do not post any of the beach photos she is ok with posting the photos, only because that waterfall was just a few miles north of Two Harbors. Yep, she is pretty and she was a great athlete, but back in 1971 when she graduated from high school....girls did not have athletics like they do today. She could out run every boy in her school and I always had guys complementing her legs in front of me.....but how could I argue.

Watch out, SeaOat, or we'll be calling you a "leg man" next!

boards of FL wrote:I too spent quite a bit of time in northern Minnesota. My grandparents on my fathers side were from Balsam Minnesota, which was an extremely small town outside of Grand Rapids Minnesota. I know all about that area. Used to love going to Bemidji to see Paul Bunyan and the Blue Ox. In fact, both my late father and my aunt graduated from Bemidji State University. If one were go go to the community center in Balsam Minnesota today, you will see my photo with the baseball team from 1989. I'll never forget the summers spent with my grandfather, hanging out with him and his friends playing countless games of cribbage. Whenever I got bored, I had an endless sea of wilderness to get lost in. No paved roads. No developed cities. Just remote neighbors, 3 miles down the dirt road on each side. I have seen wild moose, bear, porcupine, skunk, you name it.


http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&rls=en&oe=UTF-8&q=balsam+minnesota&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x52ba7db489adabc3:0x15d182b1473f472e,Balsam,+MN&gl=us&sa=X&ei=FCHpUIPfGYye9QS4z4GIDA&ved=0CIoBELYD

Just look at all those lakes. My grandfather would deliver "meals on wheels" for the elderly who lived in remote areas. I used to ride with him, early in the morning. We would always check the lakes for what Minnesotans called the "Walleye Riple" We'd be driving along, and my grandfather would chime in "Looks like we have a nice walleye ripple today", which would mean we would go fishing later that day.

Have you been to the place where Paul Bunyan is "buried"?

Have you been to the place where Paul Bunyan is "buried"?

I have been to one of Paul Bunyon's burial spots:

Kelliher, Minnesota is the home of Paul Bunyan Memorial Park, which contains a site purporting to be Paul Bunyan's grave. Another legend claims that Rib Mountain in Wausau, Wisconsin, is Bunyan's grave site.

I have downhill skied at Rib Mountain twice. I almost killed a woman when I hit her as she cut in front of me as I was coming down the hill......I was a very very bad downhill skier.....I went fast and hard, and never mastered the turning and stopping.....not good. I honestly thought she was dead....but she got back up and said she was fine, and SHE apologized for cutting in front of me......I figured I better not correct her. Did not know old Paul was buried there though.

2seaoat wrote:Have you been to the place where Paul Bunyan is "buried"?

I have been to one of Paul Bunyon's burial spots:

Kelliher, Minnesota is the home of Paul Bunyan Memorial Park, which contains a site purporting to be Paul Bunyan's grave. Another legend claims that Rib Mountain in Wausau, Wisconsin, is Bunyan's grave site.

I have downhill skied at Rib Mountain twice. I almost killed a woman when I hit her as she cut in front of me as I was coming down the hill......I was a very very bad downhill skier.....I went fast and hard, and never mastered the turning and stopping.....not good. I honestly thought she was dead....but she got back up and said she was fine, and SHE apologized for cutting in front of me......I figured I better not correct her. Did not know old Paul was buried there though.

I saw his grave in Kelliher, so it must be the place!
My husband spent his first 5 years in Kelliher. He remembers having the run of the town as a very young child. His mom was no helicopter mom like parents today. But also, it was a very small town and everyone knew each other.

I tried skiing once...Alyeska, Alaska. I ended up bruised and battered, after basically falling down the mountain. Heck, I hate cold weather, anyway, so I don't know why I thought I'd try skiing.

My worst skiing accident was where the approach to a rope pull had gotten very icy, and I was traveling down the bunny and attempted to then go down about a mile long run, but when I hit the ice, my blades did not catch and I hit this ski patrol guy.....I mean.....I hit him....he flies through the air and ends up upside down at the base of a steel pole which anchored the rope pull....the problem was that they built up the snow with a snow machine, and the base of this steel pole was like a 6 foot deep icy hole.....he was butt in the air upside down and unable to get out....all his buddies on ski patrol came over and just crucified this guy.....laughing at him....and I knew how hard I hit him and I was seriously concerned that I broke something....It literally took about four minutes to extract him.....and I was expecting to be kicked out, but once they saw he was ok.....they were giving me high fives and laughing......I could have killed him if his head hit that steel pole, and I was probably pale white...because at one point I thought I killed him....after the high fives I finally saw the humor, but I got the hell out of there before all the other ski patrol people left, because I do not think he found the humor in the situation.

hallmarkgrad wrote:In 1972 they held the winter oplimpics at Sapporo Japan. Mr Teine. It is a long story but I will be quick. What Seaoats says about the ice is very true.
To say I was a poor skier was a understatement.
So I am standing at the top of Mt Teine over looking the Grand Slalom course. These damn things are really really steep, will with bumps (Moguls) and a lot of flags. Then It happened, some Ass pushed me in the back with a ski pole making me go on to the course.
One of the hardest things to do in Skiing is stopping. I was very poor at stopping. I made the first 2 flags but then my speed was way to high for me to maneuver. Like weaving the broken in the hiway, no problem at 5 mph but almost impossible at 40mph. I am in deep trouble, lot of little people zig zaging in front of me and here I come a out of control Gaijin. Some how I made it to the edge of the course, the out of bounds area, The faster I went the more scared I became, and got even lower in the skis making me go even faster. I almost made it. Like Seaoat there was a icy area that people and equipment used to move to different area.
It only took 2 mili secounds of the ice before I fell.
When I came to their was a lot of little guys in White jackets with a Green Crosses asking "itai? itai?) (E-tie) They loaded me on a little sled and took me back to the main lodge where I was met by some more drunk Gaijins. Only my ego and skis were hurt.
We did not advance Japanese/American relations that day. LOL

I bet the little guys were glad you weren't hurt....and happy to hand you over to the drunk Gaijins! lol.