My last post triggered a trip down memory lane to earlier athletic endeavors.  The summer before my sophomore year of high school I talked my girlfriend N into signing up for a boundary water canoe trip through our church camp outside of Ely, Minnesota.  The humor in this is that no matter what N and I did together while growing up, we ALWAYS got into trouble.   My mother adored her, but would cringe at the thought of us together because we lost all sense of sound decision-making.  Memories of this have faded over the years, but here are a few: 

• I believe we canoed over 70 miles that trip.  
• We drank, swam and bathed from the same water. 
• N and I often went together to the pine box so that we could sneak cigarettes. 
• All of the food was dehydrated and it tasted like it was dehydrated. 
• A camper brought a bottle of Freon (good GOD what was he thinking…there goes the ozone) so that we could have ice in our drinks a couple of times during the trip. 
• We took communion with pita bread and grape Kool Aid. 
• We had to carry these gargantuan backpacks stuffed with all of our crap, they had to fit in the canoes. 
• The one time N and I set up our own tent, it rained that night and we woke up in a puddle, (cigarettes drenched)
• Not one fellow camper wanted to get in the canoe with me, cause, I tended to tip it over.  (cigarettes drenched)
• On an especially windy day, I remember shouting to the world while slapping the lake with my paddle “Lake Agnes is a Bitch”  The fellow Christain campers and counselors chuckled despite the profanity!   Here is a topo map of the dear Lake Agnes in case you ever want to experience her windy wavy freezing hell. 

Here is a topographic map of the area that includes Lake Agnes.

I recently looked at the Indiana United Methodist Church camps, looks like you can still register to go back up to the area.