I had not been to Minnesota's Boundary Water Canoe Area for twenty-nine years. I was a freshman in college the last time I trekked up there, and the desire to return never dissipated. Finally, this summer, our family went up there as part of a two week whirlwind relative-visiting tour, and with my parents we spent a wonderful two nights and one full day in the Boundary Waters.

One full day is not nearly long enough to appreciate and enjoy the beauty of that area. The pristine surroundings -- kept that way by stringent rules and regulating how many people can be out there -- are breath-taking.

As a youth, we would drive from western Iowa up to Ely, Minnesota, nearly every summer, and we would always start our voyage at the Kawishiwi Lodge on Lake One, east of Ely. Even back then, permits were required in order to camp in the Boundary Waters.

I tried getting permits to camp this year, but by the time I applied (in April, for our August trip) it was already too late. The proprietor of the Kawishiwi Lodge said that I need to apply in mid-January if I want anything at all for the summer.

So, since we couldn't go tent camping without permits, we decided to rent a cabin (bunkhouse) for a couple of nights. The Kawishiwi Lodge had one available and we took it. It was clean and perfect for our needs. The folks at the lodge are doing a great job with managing the facilities and establishing rapport with us visitors.

I managed to catch four Northern Pike and one Largemouth Bass in my short time there. I released everything I caught. The pike pictured below was way too small to even consider keeping.

We fished with a variety of lures -- spoons, Rapala minnows, spinners, jigs, worms, and everything in between -- but I caught all my fish with one generic plastic minnow lure that I bought at Wal-Mart last year for ninety-nine cents.

When fishing for northern pike, especially at dawn and dusk, you can't be shy about casting right to the edge of the shoreline. Three of the four pike I caught were with casts that landed within a foot of the shore. I caught the bass right on the edge of some weeds.

Our first night there, I took the two younger boys out in the canoe to fish. We went around the bend and into a cove, and there on the opposite shore we saw a large animal. My first thought was that it might be a small black bear -- we were far away, but it was a large animal.

As we got closer, I could see that it was the wrong color and wrong shape. It turned out that this was a huge beaver! The beaver saw us, dived into the water, slapped its tail with a loud WHAP on the surface, and then started swimming underwater toward us.

"This can't be good," I thought to myself. I paddled us out of the cove, and the beaver swam parallel to us, perhaps twenty yards away from us, for a while. Finally, he slapped his tail again and swam away. He sure didn't want us fishing in his corner of the world.

I found out later that beavers in the Boundary Waters can get up to about 100 pounds!  That's a big beaver!

We fished in the rain for nearly the entire day on our one full day there, but the weather didn't deter us from having fun or from enjoying the beauty of the area.

We took a break at mid day and hopped out of the canoes to stretch our legs and to enjoy a picnic lunch that we had packed.  There were five of us fishing; the other four, who preferred not to fish, stayed back at the cabin and enjoyed a relaxing day.  They also took kayaks out on the lake and explored the area a bit.

The fishing crew came back in time for dinner, and then a couple of us went fishing afterwards and again early in the morning.

The mist rising off the lake at dawn is one of the most beautiful memories I had from my youth, and I wasn't disappointed this year ... it was gorgeous.

We've got some beautiful areas on this planet of ours, and we need to take care of them.  They are also there for us to enjoy, and enjoy them we did.

I can't wait to go back!