PADDLE PIZZA IN THE WOODS

                After a long day paddling 5 miles and portaging which entails carrying a 55 pound canoe on my shoulders for about one and half miles in the woods, I am tired enough to take a nap. But the excitement keeps me alert and it refreshes me. I started counting my luck on fishing the west bank of our camping site island.

               With a sip of Cabernet Sauvignon, fishing was not even boring at all. I opened my favorite snack pack “RUM-PUM” which added flavor to my fishing time but I was eagerly awaiting the pizza for dinner. I heard all day about it and I kept wondering how my friend Christina was going to make it in the woods where we had few survival tools. Despite this, the chocolate pancake she made that morning was one of the best breakfasts I ever had.

                Oh Wow! I caught a bass but it was not big enough to feed us so I decided to let it go. I granted his life back but god knows for how long.  I had the biggest catch the day before among those fishing.  Christina and Pankaj also caught fish that day and we had fish dinner.  It is my third cup of Cabernet Sauvignon but I am having no luck with fishing.  It is not a warm and pleasant day anyways. I see Christina gathering firewood for dinner and I go to help her out.

          Sauhadra is already helping her out by shredding three different cheeses for pizza. She has begun chopping onions, garlic, tomatoes, and red peppers.  She stir fries it in a pan. On the top of the tortilla, Sauhadra puts three different cheeses and the stir fried onions, garlic, tomatoes, and red peppers. With the peperoni topping, it looked amazing.  Then Christina puts that pizza in the pan and the cheese starts melting.

             The melting cheese and the flavor from wood fire added aroma to the pizza. I never had very good pizza and I am not a big fan of pizza. It reminded me of how crazy my high school friends always were to order Pizza whenever we hung out in a restaurant’s in Pokhara.

                  With the wind breeze, it was already getting cold in Mid-August.   We were camping on an island in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness or BWCA.  It is located in Minnesota in the northern third of the Superior National Forest. Over one million acres in size, the BWCA extends nearly 150 miles along the international border adjacent to Canada's Quetico Provincial Park and is bordered on the west by Voyageurs National Park. The BWCA wilderness contains 1175 lakes varying in size from 10 acres to 10,000 acres, over 1200 miles of canoe routes, 12 hiking trails and over 2,000 designated campsites. The BWCA wilderness contains the largest contiguous areas of uncut forest remaining in the eastern United States.

                    After the couple of hours of sun set, there are still some glows of orange lights in the western horizon. Water and trees are silent but we start hearing a “whoooooo” sound.  It sounds to me like someone is lost and asking for some help.  It is a loon, the state bird of Minnesota. We came to know this when Christina explains. The eerie sound reminds us we are deep in the woods and all we are surrounded by are trees, water, birds and wild creatures.  Pankaj and I chased the Loon couple in the afternoon to take some pics.

              Bon fire, darkness, no means of communication, and the smell, reminds me of my mamaghar in Syanga when I was little. I used to get scared every night with the sound coming from the jungle close by. Tonight I feel like I am very close to the nature and I am really connected to it. Finally at around 11, inside my tent, I recalled all the events of the day, all those amazing places we went, and the Pizza which I decided to call “Paddle Pizza in the Woods”.