During my first Girl Scout canoe trip back in 1963, flipping our canoes and making the fewest number of passes across a portage (with only one girl carrying the canoe) was a source of great pride. We squashed loaves of white bread—that was before freeze-dried food—and made our Koolaid with untreated lake water. We paddled rain or shine, discovered the dangers of the rocky shore on a windy day, built fires with wet wood, dug latrines.
At that time there weren’t regulations on campsite use, so our base camp boasted 12 tents!
One Sunday I was assigned to organize a Protestant service. We sang a few familiar hymns and voyageur songs. Then I offered a short reflection on living up to the Girl Scout promise. (How stuffy of me — I am embarrassed to look at those notes now.)
I recall searching anxiously for portages where ALL the islands and land looked like Hamm’s Beer scenes, sneaking cookies, singing at campfires, deciding what “city” food we wanted the most upon our return (root beer and French fries were the top two).
When voyageurs were “baptized into the brotherhood,” they had to promise not to kiss another voyageur’s wife without her permission, and then they all had a dram (or more) of high wines. I don’t recall any such vows on our initiation, but we might have had green Koolaid instead of red. I’d love to hear what others remember.
What a gift this Girl Scout trip was! It fueled my great appreciation for canoe camping, the Boundary Waters, old maps, the fur trade, Hudson’s Bay blankets and so much more.
