When I think back to my formative experiences in nature, many of them involve public land, but no public land has meant more to me than the Boundary Waters of the US and Quetico Provincial Park of Canada. The BWCAW proper encompasses a million acres of wilderness reserved for non-motorized travel and recreation. Combined with the remaining rest of the 2.8 million acres of the Superior national forest, the 218,000 acres of Voyager National Park, and the 1.2 million acres of the Quetico, the “Boundary Waters” collectively provide over 5 million continuous acres of northern forests, lakes and waterways. These public wilderness areas showed me the beauty, challenge, and respect for the natural world.
I’ve already shared some of my Boundary Waters stories here: of my first trip, of my own personal growth, and memories with friends. I have many more stories which I’m sure I will share in the future. Hopefully, I’m not far from creating new memories in the Boundary Waters with my own kids. While the themes of beauty, challenge, and respect have come up before, each of those has particular meaning for me in the Boundary Waters.
Continue reading “Boundary Waters on my Mind”