Boundary Waters Experience (BWX)

Pagami Creek Fire Presentation

News from the Trail...

Last week I had the opportunity to take out the girls of Plymouth Tree House to Knife Lake and Thunder point. These girls had so much amazing energy and were always thinking up ways to entertain themselves that involved the beauty surrounding them. The second night we had a huge storm blow through camp and the girls in my tent, while doing the lightning stance, decided they were going to cheer up the other tent by singing and at the top of there lungs they shouted an entire chorus of “It’s Raining Men” even though they themselves were shook up. God protected us! And there high spirits were so encouraging. 

On trail the girls shared their life stories with one another, and even though many of them thought they knew each other fairly well before the trip, some of them who were not so found of each other bonded over commonalities and hardships they had both survived. Our spiritual content revolved around community, and sacrifice with a huge emphasis on purity. These girls were so amazing, and had gone through so much in their lives, but they didn’t let it affect their spirit or their passion to seek God. It was a blessing to travel through the wilderness with these young women.

    ~ Jen Krussow 

 

News from the Trail...

Two weeks ago I took out a great group of guys from Tree House in Minnetonka.  It was an amazing trip!  We paddled up to Knife Lake on the Canadian border and spent three great days there.  We hiked to the top of Thunder Point, which is a few hundred foot high lookout over the massive clear-water lake and was absolutely stunning.  We were gifted with good weather all around, not too hot and sunny and not very rainy either.  We spent our free time playing various mind games and campfire games that made down time a blast as well as strengthening community. 

The time we spent telling and investigating each other’s lives through the respective life stories was very rewarding.  Many new truths or connections were made through it.  We spent the week seeing how we can see God in nature.  The most profound time was one of the first nights where we read through the Creation story and it was a joy to watch it click with the campers that this is exactly what God had created and that we are spending time in it’s purest form!  The guys formed a strong community, that even when separated for their solo and reflection time I was unable to keep the apart for barely even an hour.  It was such a blessing to grow with these young men of God as we traveled through His wilderness!

    ~ Pat Gores

 

Winter

New Route - Burntside Lake

This route through the Superior National Forest offers a little bit of everything. It includes big water lakes, winding creeks, challenging portages, waterfalls, sandy beaches, and scenic overlooks. It's a great route for groups that want a challenging experience without having to travel a large number of miles every day.

 

The thirty mile loop begins in the North Arm of the historic Burntside Lake, then turns east into Little Long Lake. A mile-long portage, the longest of the trip, connects Little Long Lake and Bass Lake. From there, groups will either set camp on Bass Lake, or portage up to the more private High Lake. A set of fun and challenging hiking loops (3-9 miles) around Bass Lake and Dry Lake feature many gorgeous overlooks before ending at Dry Lake Falls. The canoe route than continues north through Low Lake and into the Range River, where it turns east into Grassy Lake. From there, a set of portages will bring groups through Tee Lake, Sletten, Little Sletten, Fenske, Everett, and Twin Lakes. A short but pretty paddle down the Dead River and back into Burntside completes the loop.

BWX Ministry Partnership

The Boundary Waters Experience (BWX) is proud to partner with Restoring Eden (RE) in empowering Christians from many denominations and backgrounds to love, serve, and protect God's creation. 

Restoring Eden is a national movement of like-minded people who see a strong connection between our Christian spirituality and our role as caretakers of creation.  Together RE and BWX's mission is to make hearts bigger, hands dirtier, and voices stronger by rediscovering the biblical call to love, serve, and protect God's creation.

Specifically, Restoring Eden works to enhance the fruitfulness of creation and bring life to all that depend upon it through projects and programs that:

• Strengthen relationship with God through time in creation
• Encourage faithful stewardship of the earth and its resources
• Speak out to advocate for policies that protect God's creation

This partnership will offer Boundary Waters Experiences for people to gain environmental education and learn about how to participate in Christian environmental advocacy, all while engaging in the wildness and beauty of creation.

Please e-mail Abbey Kopan at RE to organizing a group from your church, college, high school, or friends to participate in this educational adventure experience next summer!

New for 2011 - Missions Preparation Trips

We have had countless groups come off the trail at the BWX and tell us that they wish they had done this trip before or in conjunction with their mission trip because it made their team exceptionally dynamic. We've been listening - here is what we have created to help you help others! 

The BWX Missions Preparation  experience was designed by mission trip experts to prepare a team of people for the mission field. The preparation comes in two main areas:

1. Intentional discussions about the specific culture, history, and needs of the mission field that the group will go into in the near future, how the team will serve in loving and useful ways of Jesus while visiting the mission community, and early prayer for the people that will be served.
2. Participants have the opportunity to work in the wilderness with one another, overcoming challenges much like they will be doing in the mission field. Every team member will give and hear each others' life stories, resulting in trust and cohesion being created that allows for teams to work together efficiently on their future mission projects.

Junior High School Adventures

The shorter five-day Junior High Boundary Waters Experience is similar to the Classic Boundary Waters Experience; however, it is carefully designed to give young campers an experience that is appropriate for their age, physicality, and spirituality.  These adventures introduce young people into God's creation, while growing in faith, and sharing with one another.  On this experience, the groups set a base camp in the Boundary Waters.  From there they enjoy daily adventures including paddling and exploring in new areas. Base-camping allows for more time to be spent in camp doing a variety of activities, designed to educate about the wilderness, facilitate conversions about faith, and entertain. The groups participate in quite times, intentional conversations about our faith, and sharing each persons life story.  The Junior High Boundary Waters Experience is a wonderful way to create rich community, while strengthening faith.

Urban Ministry at the BWX

Cristo Rey Jesuit High School has been going to Boundary Waters Experience the last three years and it has been amazing. Watching the students experience their first s'more, moose sighting, or experience being without technology is unbelievable. By the end of the trip the relationships that are established are life changing. Sharing life stories during the trip helps many students find out that they have more in common with each other than they could ever imagine. Many of them end up making friends with people outside their friend group.

On the trips I have taken everyone is challenged and receives support from others in the group. This helps them get through struggles like: eating all their oatmeal at breakfast, and finishing a hard portage or a long paddle.  Many of the students are faced with a challenge they never thought they would face or be able to achieve.  Many of the students leave the trip feeling good about themselves and more open minded to trying new things. A student that went on the trip this last year commented that this trip made them feel it was "cool" to worship God. The students and staff at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School look forward to this trip each year.

    

- Ms. Jamie L. Anderson

New for 2011 - Superior Hiking Trail Trips!

The Superior Hiking Trail is a 277-mile footpath that follows the rocky ridgeline above Lake Superior on Minnesota's North Shore from Duluth to the Canadian border. Readers Digest listed Superior Hiking Trail as one of the "5 Best Hikes in America" in 2005.  The footpath travels through seven state parks and boreal forests of birch, aspen, pine, fir, and cedar. Hikers enjoy views of the Sawtooth Mountains, rushing waterfalls, crashing waves, gorges, and abundant wildlife.

The BWX Superior Hiking Trail adventures hike between forty and sixty miles of trail during the week.  Each section is planned with physicality in mind, including moderate ascents and descents along the trail.  We also plan to have two overnight stops in our state parks on Lake Superior.

While on the trail in this beautiful classroom BWX groups will engage with nature, grow in faith, and share with one another.  In addition to hiking and exploring the beauty each day, the groups participate in quite times, intentional conversations about our faith, and sharing the stories of each persons life.  The Superior Hiking Trail Trip is a wonderful way to create rich community while strengthening faith.

2011 Registrations!

We are fresh out of the wilderness and already preparing for next summer.  Registrations are now being accepted for the 2011 season.  In addition to the wonderful Boundary Waters trips that we are known for, we are adding many new and special experiences to choose from, including backpacking on the Superior Trail, Mission Trip preparatory experiences, new routes in the BWCAW, and many more.  Details about these experiences will follow in the monthly newsletter. 

Chip Addington's New Role...

We couldn't be more pleased to announce that Chip Addington has accepted a new position at the BWX.  He is the Director of Ministry Development.  Chip has been with the BWX for four years, in a host of roles.  He started as a Trail Guide, then became the Guide Team Leader, and our Wilderness First Aid Instructor.  His new role is to develop opportunities and Spiritual content for the BWX to serve groups of people that we have not served in the past.  He is currently developing experiences with mission teams, family groups, and a wide variety college partnerships.

Note: We anticipate that this position will be self sustaining after the first year.  We are asking for donors to contribute to a fund that will pay for Chip's FY 2011 salary.  Please consider helping the BWX ministry out with this exciting position.

Gone fish'in...

Dave and I had a chance to get out on Ojibway Lake and catch some dinner.  Nice time and day.

News from the Trail...

By: Erin Gilliland

This week on trail for me was pretty exciting, as it was my first. Normally I work as base camp staff, but have guided for a couple years prior, and so when the time came to go on trail I was more than excited. I was given the opportunity to take out a youth group from Eden Prairie Presbyterian Church, from Eden Prairie MN. These kids had a long history with one another. Some had gone to college while some were just on the edge of graduating from High School and so it was a great time for them to reconnect, spend time in the wilderness, and learn more deeply about each other.

We left civilization as we know it from Moose Lake, and launched around 7:30 AM. Our goal was to head up through Moose, into Newfound, Birch and into Knife, and make the loop back through Vera and Ensign. The group was loads of fun, and we spent a lot of the time (When we weren’t paddling 10-16 miles per day) playing games, laughing about inside jokes, or having amazing conversations about random things we were passionate about.

These are things that I loved the most about EPPC: their hard work, positive attitudes, life experiences and faith, and ability to make the best out of all situations. It was such a great time for me as a guide, I felt like I was among friends the whole trip, which made everything easy.  This was a trip that I will never forget, and I hope to see them up here next summer!

BWX Half Marathon...

This was our biggest year for the half ever - seven guides ran out the 13.1 miles from the BWX Base Camp to Ojibway Lake!