Mike and Jeff

About 100 years ago, I spent three summers guiding canoe trips into the BWCA and Quetico Provincial Forest.  Those were great times.  I spent many nights around a camp fire.  I had the chance to see both bull and cow moose with calf (yes, they are really big!), bears (closer than you want to be to them), and plenty of other wild life.

Mike and Jeff were two of the guides.  Over the summers, we became good friends.  We used to have portage contests.  A portage is when you can't paddle any longer because you have either run out of lake or the rapids are too dangerous.  So, you pick up everything and carry it to the next lake or around the rapids.

Now, a true guide never put his canoe down.  That was...unacceptable and totally unguidely. So, being manly men (note: I did not say smart), we decided that competitions for distance and time were appropriate.  Alas, I did not win.  Mike did.  I could not beat the 23 minutes and 20 seconds for 517 rods into Stewart Lake.   At the end of the last year, we decided that we needed to do the Grand Portage, non-stop, of course.   We drove to Lake Superior and dropped the canoe in the lake.  We flipped a coin.  I won..and I elected to carry in.  If you don't know, that's 9 miles.  2 hours and 45 minutes later, I dropped the canoe int he Pidgeon River.   We camped.  The next morning, Mike picked up the canoe out of the Pidgeon River and carried it to Lake Superior.  His time:  2 hours and 23 minutes.  In my defense, going in included a 600 foot increase in elevation.

When this youthful adverterous time in our lives moved on, we each picked up these figures.  Mike has "Jeff and JP".  Jeff has "Mike and JP".  And, I have Mike and Jeff.  Each Christmas when the nativity scene comes out, I carefully place Mike and Jeff next to the wise men.  They have their place.   And, it makes for excellent conversation when guests are over and see them.

I would have trusted my life with either of them.  Mike was the toughest guide I ever met.  And, Jeff kept us both out of trouble and was a constant source of humor.  I laughed so hard I cried a few times. 

I may just need to get into the woods this summer.  I wonder what Mike and Jeff are up to.