To the Woods

Last week, for the twelfth time in the last thirteen years, my good buddy Harry and I made our September trip to the Boundary Waters. Like any annual trip, our trip to the woods has taken on a rhythm of its own over the years. Things are added and changed every year. But much stays the same too. It's a rhythm that we both love. This year, one minor addition was our Team Liquigas hats (a nod to this year's Tour de France in addition to the obvious scatalogical reference). I'm fairly sure that the hats will not become an annual constant. Just a fun one-off for this year.

Things do change on our trips, but they do so slowly. Some attempts at evolution succeed, others fail. Just a few seconds after we began our first fishing contest in 1995, I caught a large muskie. To this day it remains the most impressive fish we have ever caught (though a monstrous northern that Harry got on land but that we could never "control" remains for each of us "the one that got away." A monster of a fish. I don't know if either of us could have found the courage to take a rapala from the mouth of that fish). At the moment I caught that muskie ten years ago this month, the annual fishing contest was born. I suppose I should note that Harry won this year's contest with a last-minute walleye that in no way made up for the poverty of the fishing we experienced. It is probably no surprise that I already have a line on a magical lure that will ensure my total domination of next year's contest. I'll break the news to Harry soon. And with that the "preparations" for next year's trip will begin.

Which brings me to the best of this year's innovations. I want to be clear that drinking whiskey is not the sole, or even a major, reason why we head to the woods. Still, Harry and I both love a good Splash (our word for the bourbon with a splash of water that we consume in our days in the woods). No one gets drunk on our trips, though we do get a bit silly. We simply manage our chemical balance carefully and well over the course of our three days or so in the woods. As in the past, we brought three types of bourbon and our trusty "Splash Cups" to the woods. A frequent issue on past trips when it is time for a drink has been finding the whiskey, the water, and two cups in amongst our gear. My brainstorm this year was to bring a soft-sided lunch pail to hold all of these essential elements in one place. And thus was born -

THE PORTAPARTY®!

Another problem solved by our intrepid travelers.

A wonderful place, the Boundary Waters. If you are having trouble being "one with the universe" in the real world, a trip to the woods may be in order. It is truly a spirit-charging place. Loaded with magic. Answers to the big questions can be found. And now, with the PORTAPARTY®, so can the whiskey.