A Through-Paddle from Ely to Atikokan
Rod Franz
Day Three 7/09/02 Virginia to Ely
The crews split this morning, with the two crews scheduled to start in Atikokan
splitting off to go up through International Falls. We had to split the Gear--The
Ely Crew 'off-water' gear had to go with the crew to Atikokan, and vice versa.
'Off-water' gear is essentially clean clothes to change into after we get
off the water. Breakfast at Mickey D's again. Arrive Ely about 10:00 AM--had
to kill some time, so we turned everybody loose to go to the various outfitters
headquartered in Ely. Once again, an opportunity to spend more money on 'essentials'.
Lunch at Burger King (do we sense a pattern here?), and after a brief visit
to the International Wolf Center, down the road to the Base we went. Arrived
base at about 12:30 (a bit early), and cooled our heels for a short period
of time in a shelter house. It is already clear that the fly population is
going to be significant.
We discover on check in that they have our crew scheduled for a loop route, which is a problem, since all of our stuff, as well as our transportation home will be in Atikokan. After some 'discussion' and a phone call to Atikokan, we work it out. Turns out they had scheduled one crew at each end for a loop, and they just rescheduled both of us.
We met our interpreter, Frank. Since most 'through paddles' get assigned to senior staff, Frank was elated to discover that this had fallen in his lap. This was not normally a trek he would have been assigned. The afternoon was spent in orientation, packing food for the trip, and collecting gear.
We also did a shakedown of personal gear to get rid of everything we did not need, or stuff that could be shared. Rod chose not to bring rain pants, and the crew consensus was that this was going to bring a rain curse down on the expedition.
Spent night in new crew cabins, which were pretty crowded and warm.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
