Welcome to the Northern Experience!

             Welcome to The Northern Experience! My name is Andrew Patterson. I have previously made four trips into the Quetico Provincial Park and Boundary Waters Canoe Area (B.W.C.A). This year, I am an interpreter at the Charles Summers Canoe Base in Ely, Minnesota. As an interpreter, I guide groups of Boy Scouts into the B.W.C.A. and Quetico.

             I arrived on base about two weeks ago, when Bryan, my brother, needed to be up here. My job however, doesn’t officially begin until Sunday the 29^th, so I’ve been helping around base in various functions.  I’ve helped maintenance move mattresses and fix lockers. Then I got involved in helping in the Bay Post (outfitting center). There is a lot of new gear this year – packs, tents, radios, cooking gear – the works. But now the Bay Post is all set to send out crews and training is set to start Sunday night. Most of the interpreters and a fair bit of base staff are arriving Sunday (between 80 and 95). It’s going to get absolutely crazy on base with all the new faces.

            The base has changed a lot in the last couple of years. In the last week, I’ve been helping move stuff into the new Sandy Bridges Program Center, which is the new home of the dining hall and trading post. We have our first meal there on Sunday morning. The new center has the displaced the old parking lot and historical area, so both of those have had to move. The historical area was easily relocated, but a new parking lot is being built. In the short term, it’s actually really annoying, as there are big dirt trucks running through base ALL day. However, I’ve heard that there will be a nice trail directly from the parking lot directly to the Off Road Cabins, which will be really nice (previously campers have had to drag their gear up a fairly big hill to get the cabins. Anyways, the construction should be really nice when it’s done – which should be soon.

            Anyways, thanking for reading! As the summer progresses, I’ll get some nice posts up on my trips into the parks!