Back on Dry Land

It has been 12 hours since I pulled my car in the garage after 4 days in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area & Wilderness (BWCAW).

I have never before in my life pushed myself so hard physically and challenged myself on every level as I did this past weekend. But holy crap was it all worth it.

I paddled a canoe with an almost complete stranger and made a new friend.
I carried a canoe on my shoulders for 80 rods through the wilderness and didn't collapse, break, or die.
I carried 50# (at least, maybe more, there are no scales in the wilderness) Duluth packs over portages that would be challenging hikes for me in normal circumstances and was able to turn around and go back for another load.
I slept on the hard ground in a tent with only a thin pad between my sore body and a bunch of tree roots and woke up feeling more rested than any other time in my life.
I paddled a canoe across a lake with only the light of the full moon to guide us.
I sat in a canoe and stared up at the full moon while being serenaded by a chorus of loons.
I woke in the night and had to walk 100 yards in the dark to a latrine with sounds from an unknown source all around me and I didn't panic and didn't piss myself.
I heard the unfathomable sound of millions of mosquitoes hatching and buzzing all at one time over thousands of acres of woods and wetlands.
I was almost sucked dry by those same mosquitoes but eventually learned to live with the welts and swollen eyes and ankles.
I overcame my addiction to diet Pepsi in favor of fresh lake water.
I jumped off a 40 foot high rock cliff into dark deep waters and returned to the surface a different person.
I learned exactly how far I could push my body before I collapsed from complete and utter exhaustion on the last night. And that because I had been part of a team all along, my team mates would willingly pick up the slack and not begrudge me my weakness at that moment. Because of that I was able to recover and rejoin the team full force the next morning and enjoy the end of our successful journey.



**Click on any of the above photos to see them larger and to go to the Flickr album with more photos from the trip**


I also managed to do a small amount of knitting on the trip. Some in the car and a very little bit on the campsite. I took a sock I've been working on as my campsite knitting. I've been working on this design for a week now and intend when it is complete to offer it as a free download pattern. I have the first sock done but need to tweak a few things and get all my notes translated into a knittable pattern.

The yarn is STR "Titiana" and I was enchanted with how the colors were so perfectly matched to my Boundary Waters' surroundings.
These are toe up, with a simple 4-stitch, 4 row repeat rib pattern with an eye-of-partridge heel.
I can't decide on a name for this pattern. The choices are so far:
1) Boundary Waters Socks
2) Eye of Loon Socks
3) Sawbill Socks
4) Minnesota Moonlight socks

Help me decide by voting in the comments or adding your own suggestions.