David vs Goliath

Walking into church on a Wednesday night excited for confirmation and pizza, I noticed a new sign-up paper on the board. It was labeled “Boundary Waters canoe trip.” I recognized the name as some of my friends had gone the year before. Unaware of what I would learn, I put my name down on the sign-up sheet thinking “If my friends could do it, I could do it.” After seeing the group that was going I became more nervous, every person there was bigger, stronger, and more of an outdoorsman than me. I became scared of “Goliath,” my nickname for the boundary waters. Knowing I was the smallest guy, I tried to keep a positive attitude and convinced myself that I wouldn't fall behind.

A lot of packing and a 6-hour road trip later, it was the night before we went in. “Goliath” had gotten much scarier as we got closer to it. We had rented an old house for the night, recharging our batteries in preparation for the paddling. Still oblivious to what I was about to experience, I closed my eyes preparing for the early morning. 5:00 AM we got up before the sun, loaded up the trucks, and began our drive to the lake. I had seen pictures and videos before, but nothing could compare to seeing it with my own eyes. It was like god himself had laid a piece of glass over the whole lake. Pine trees grew tall, rocks littered the lake’s floor, and greenery took over the landscape. “Goliath” became much less intimidating. We could see fish gliding peacefully through the water right there at the landing. It was one of the very few spots left on Earth where nature went untouched and pure. At that moment I knew I was in for a treat.

My paddle glided through the water, our canoes moving surprisingly quick. As we traversed from lake to lake, any feelings of tiredness or pain were overwhelmed by curiosity and adventure. Surprisingly, I was doing a great job of keeping up with everybody. It felt like I was seeing the world for the first time again. Before we knew it we had found a campsite to stay at. We set up four tents for nine people. Being the smallest of the group, I was put into the three-person tent. After filling our bellies and throwing a line in with no luck, it was time for bed.

It seemed like we had covered every inch of the lake looking for fish, morale was getting lower as we kept casting. We tried one last convincing spot, and good thing we did because we found a honey hole for big Lake Trout. A fun fish to catch and even more fun to eat. I hadn’t been able to reel one in myself but others in our group had caught enough to feed nine people. We paddled home as quickly as we could, eager to eat our fish and hopefully beat the mosquitos before they came out. 

The next morning we woke up and changed our plans. We were supposed to stay another day but we had decided to go in early to avoid rain and thunderstorms. That day we spent portaging from lake to lake on a different route than we came in, eventually bringing us back to our trucks. Trying the different route was genius, we found spots where we were able to catch fish in. We caught more fish in those two hours than we had caught the entire rest of the trip. After traversing through our last lake, we made it back to our entry point. 

It was when we were packing up the trucks to go home when I realized that I had done it. I had conquered “Goliath.” Even though I was the smallest guy, the only one who was on their first time in, the only guy without an idea of what to expect. I had kept up the whole time, I had pushed through and put a smile on my face and because of that I had one of the greatest times of my life. At the end of the day, it was less about how easily I could carry a canoe and more about if I was willing to try.