Ely!

After what seemed like forever, we completed the last 82 miles of this segment of our adventure and arrived in Ely MN.  Ely is one of my favorite towns and is a major jumping off point for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.  Ely has dozens of outfitters, and there are probably as many canoes here as there are people in town.  It is one of the last great bastions of the open canoe, at a time when kayaks seem to be taking over the rest of the world.

We checked into the US Forest Service campground on Fall lake where we enjoyed a pull-through site with 50 amp electric and 4 bars of 4G internet service.  Heaven!

Then trouble.  When I took the boat off the car I realized that there was a 12" section on my port gunwale that was totally rotten.  How could this be?  I had repaired some woodwork on the stem and the stern before leaving home in May, and I had sanded and oiled the gunwales thoroughly.  Everything was fine when we left home.  But there it was, chunks of rotten wood crumbling off with just finger pressure.  It occurred to me that the boat had been wet pretty much the whole months of June and July while driving through Alaska.  The woodwork apparently just gave up the ghost.

Ironically I had looked into getting new gunwales when we where here last fall.  Our favorite outfitter, Spirit of the Wilderness had quoted me a pretty good price ($300) for replacing the wood gunwales with aluminum gunwales.  I really didn't think I wanted aluminum; the ash just looks so good.  Steve called Ted Bell, who built my boat and got a quote of $1000 plus to replace the gunwales with like wood gunwales.  I took no action then because they didn't seem to be too bad, and I could repair the damage to the ends myself when we got home.

Spirit of the Wilderness

But now something had to be done.  I contemplated making a temporary repair.  The boat was still structurally sound.  I talked to a friend back home who is an accomplished woodworker and once built a cedar strip canoe.  He said we could build and install new wood gunwales when I got home.  Long story short: in the end I decided to go with the aluminum gunwales at Spirit of the Wilderness.  They might not be as pretty, but I could get them done now, I wouldn't have to do the work myself, they will require zero maintenance and they should last the life of the boat.  It turns out that he would not be able to do the work before our scheduled put-in on the 24th at Lizz Lake.  We forfeited that permit and got another permit for Moose lake on the 25th.  We also extended our stay at Fall Lake CG from 4 nights to 5.  We had planned to stay in the wilderness for 14 days.  Now it will be only 13 days until our scheduled check in at Fall Lake CG next month.  We will still carry enough food for 14 days and either take out on Sep 6, when our campground reservation begins or stay in an extra night and check in a day late.

Our new gunwales.  They're not wood, but they look pretty good.  We're happy.

Not my boat.  Even so, the gunwales look relatively good

It is a tradition that we eat breakfast at Britton's Cafe on the morning we put into the Boundary Waters.  This day was no exception.

The breakfast burrito at Britton's.  They have all the hot sauces covered.

We're off into the wilderness this morning and will be out of touch for the next two weeks.  Bon voyage!