The Namekagon

Becky, the mom of Eli's good school pal, and I are planning to take my boys and her youngest out on the old Namekagon for a 3 night canoe trip later this summer. So I dug out our river map that I am sure is atleast 15 years old. The last time I have spent time up on the Nam must have been in the early 90's- almost 20 years ago. But looking at the names of the campsites- Whispering Pines, Norway Point, Snake River Landing, Little Yellow Banks, Sandrock Cliffs- it all comes back. I suddenly had a very vivid sensory-filled recollection of nudging a canoe up on a gravelly landing and then unbending my back and stretching into a standing position....squish squashing in my wet shoes-sand and grit invariably caught around my toes-up to the campsite to check it out. I remember the feel of crispy skin that was cooked in an aluminum canoe all day everyday on 6-9 day trips- one trip after the other all summer long. The word sunscreen had not yet been coined. It was SunTAN lotion, or even, as Amy calls it, Tanning Butter. I remember the joy of flopping out of that tin cooker and into the refreshing chilly depths of the river, and then climbing back in as we approached rapids. I remember the days it rained all day and you paddled along without rain gear because everything was already wet anyway, then it would rain all night- and the joy of finally finally getting sun at a time when you could lay out your sleeping bag, your towel, your shoes, your tent. I remember sitting on my ammo box (our inefficient, super heavy 'dry boxes') after dinner, poking at the fire with a stick while someone stirfried the brownies. I remember the brownies!! And the fruit cocktail, the spam, the salami, the alpine spaghetti, the cheese. The gloopy, sweaty, unrefrigerated cheese. I remember trying to de-greasify our hair by washing it with sand. Sand. But we thought it worked, and so it did. I remember the swimming holes and the biffies and the wobbly old picnic tables- the campsites that caught evening breezes if you positioned your tent just right, and the ones that roasted you alive in evening sun. I just wish I could remember which campsite was which....it all blends together now. But looking at that map made me realize that it doesn't go away- two decades have passed, but just reading those names made me feel it, smell it, hear it, live it, once again.