Overview of BWCA

Ricky and I love doing outdoorsy activities so when his parents mentioned that they were going back to the Boundary Waters in 2018 – we asked if we could tag along!

They drove the long distance there and back, making stops in Michigan and other areas along the way, but we weren’t able to join for that due to vacation time constraints. 

So we flew Southwest Airlines from Cleveland to Missouri to Minnesota. I will say – not the best flights we’ve ever been on (more on that later). Our flight there was delayed and his parents picked us up super late at the Minneapolis airport and we stayed the night at a super cheap hotel and then drove on up to the middle of nowhere the next day!

Itinierary

• July 20th – flew into Minneapolis
• July 21st – drove up to Grand Marais and then to our cabin
• July 22nd – settled in and went on a hike
• July 23rd – first day of portaging the BWCA
• July 24th – second day of portaging the BWCA
• July 25th – second hiking day
• July 26th – started the journey home. Went to Duluth and Mall of America
• July 27th – flight and even longer journey home. 

For details about each location – make sure to click those specific posts!

TIP: Driving INTO the boundary water area – you take one road from Grand Marais – Gunflint Trail – you loose cell service FAST and you will not regain it without WIFI at the cabin EVER up there – there was ONE location we had to go for cell service so be aware of that on you way in – plug your location into your phone before you loose service or go old school and print out directions.

If you want to read about our saga getting home – below paragraph is for you – otherwise skip. 

Our journey home was an “adventure”. We flew home and Ricky’s parents again dropped us off at a hotel in Minneapolis by the airport with free transportation. They continued to drive home because they had a long drive ahead of them. We woke up early the next morning – got to the airport ontime and OF COURSE our airplane had issues. We ended up waiting in the Minneapolis airport for hours for our plan to leave and in tern – missed our connecting flight in Chicago to go home. We look frantically how to get home. Looked at renting a one day car to drive (it would have cost like $400 to rent one way that day) or wait 7 more hours to get on a flight home to cleveland. Mind you – it’s a 6 hour drive and a 1 hour flight. No beuno. So we called Ricky’s parents – who were still driving home and only an hour outside of Chicago – they came and picked us up at the airport (after literally dropping us off at an airport the night before) and we proceeded to drive home. We were supposed to be home 12pm that day and it ended up being like 7pm. To say I was moody is an understatement. And then to top it all off – we got to his parents house after this LONG day of travel and MY CAR WAS DEAD! My battery wouldn’t start. I’m pretty sure I broke down and cried and snapped at people because I was just tired and annoyed at that point. I called Southwest constantly to have them help us and each person I called said I needed to call a different person and was constantly passed around. So I know how twitter works and I complained on twitter and IMMEDIATELY  got help. Which actually drives me crazy – I tried to do it via the phone and not make anything public but as soon as I go on twitter I immediately get help?? The loudest people always get their way I guess. They gave us credit since we didn’t end up taking one of our flights which worked out because we were getting ready to go to Arizona that November for our friends wedding.

Over all it was a fabulous trip – just had some hiccups when it came to travel. BWCA is very serene  and you would think I would have been in a peaceful mood for our journey home buttt I don’t operate that way.