For a spring break trip, the Rose-Hulman Outdoor Venturing Club (OVC), planned a backpacking trip along the North Shore Trail in Minnesota. I had never been backpacking before, and it sounded like fun. I liked camping and the outdoors so I figured I would give it a try. After all, who wants to spend spring break somewhere warm and on a nice beach with women in bikinis?
(Slight spoiler, things did not go exactly according to this plan)
Our plan was to leave Saturday morning (the 19th)—classes let out on that Friday. We would then drive from Terre Haute, IN to Duluth, MN and spend the night in a hotel there. The next day (Easter), we would drive to the trailhead and backpack on it for the next week. On Sunday, we would then drive back to Terre Haute and be ready for classes to resume on that Monday.
A total of five people went on the trip (including myself). I knew some of them by name, but none of them real well. They were:
| Bryant Eismeier | OVC vice president. Knew who he was from the White Water Rafting. |
| Jedediah Frey | Only knew his name from his semi-often posting on the Rose-Hulman news groups. |
| George Nixon | He had worked on the Habitat for Humanity house quite a bit and I had seen him there. We used his van. |
| Joey Richey | This is me. I do not know him very well. |
| John Schlehr | Freshman on Bryant's floor. I had never seen him before. |
The following entries are from the days of the trip. I jotted down quick notes about each day within twenty-four hours, and then when I got back to civilization, I wrote them down in this expanded form. Read through to hear about my adventures.
