It's one of the ultimate fears of wilderness travel: something happens, something bad, and you're forced to leave an injured loved one stranded while you go for help. Hoping that you're doing the right thing, you travel as fast as you can, praying all the while that whoever you leave behind is still alive when you return.
Such a situation arose over the Fourth of July weekend for Minnesota residents Christine McConnell and Chris McLaren. The young couple were two of hundreds of canoeists caught in a powerful windstorm that swept through the million-acre Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), leveling an estimated 25 million trees with straight-line winds of up to 100 miles per hour.

McConnell and McLaren had already spent three days paddling and were returning on Sunday to their entry point on Island River when the tree they were standing under blew over and landed on McConnell, breaking both of her legs. "I immediately felt a sense of hopelessness," McLaren says. "Ten men could not have lifted that tree."
At first he tried to dig her out but McLaren was eventually forced to make a tough decision: leave his girlfriend—his fiancé actually—and paddle for help. Though the paddle back to the car wasn't as long as he feared, the road out was blocked by dozens of trees, forcing him to continue to the next entry point, where he was able to borrow a cell phone and call for help. After 35 minutes of terror and agony, McConnell pulled free with the help of rescuers.
More than 1,000 campsites were affected by the storm, which cut a swath 12 miles across and 30 miles long. Minneapolis paddler Scott Augustus tells a story of crossing Ensign Lake and taking the portage to Vera Lake when the storm hit. "Afterwards," he says, "we were collecting our gear when a couple of canoeists paddled by looking for a canoe that the storm had blown into the lake."
Canoeists in the region weren't the only ones who came out on the losing end of the blowdown. As negative publicity on the event spread, visitor numbers to the BWCAW plummeted. "I'd say our business is down 40 percent from last August," says Kathy Williams, owner of Bear Track Outfitters in Grand Marais. "Our outpost up on Sea Gull Lake was out of power for three weeks while they reconstructed 55 miles of power lines."
Williams says all of their canoe rentals were returned undamaged but that she heard some incredible stories from people out on the lake when the storm hit. "Some people were literally thrown or sucked out of their canoe on the way to shore," Williams says. "But access now is fine so I wish the papers would stop telling people not to come up here. It's like kicking people when they're down."
Indeed, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Gil Knight was quoted in the Minneapolis Star Tribune as saying, "We're not discouraging people from coming up here. It's a heck of a wilderness experience right now. If you want wilderness, we'll give you wilderness."
Aerial photographs of the affected area, estimated to be 250,000 acres, show thousands of downed trees all laying the same direction, many crossing and clogging already difficult portage routes. Williams points out, however, that all the downed timber has opened up incredible vistas in some areas. "You'll be driving along the Gunflint Trail and suddenly say, 'Wow, I never knew there was a valley down there.'"
As for McConnell and McLaren, they recovered in time to enjoy their September wedding. And yes, she was able to walk down the aisle.
—Tom Bie

Originally Published, Paddler November-December 1999