Nature Can be the Best Therapy

Well I made it back from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) of Northern Minnesota. Six days away from the world in the wilderness.

It was..simply…amazing.

If you haven’t heard of the BWCA before, it’s about 1 million acres of pristine wilderness with tons of lakes separated by very dense forests. And lots of wildlife.

You move through this wilderness either by canoeing through the lakes (most of them do not allow motorized watercraft) or carrying the canoe and your equipment and supplies through paths that take you to the next lake.

There’s no cell phone or internet. GPS didn’t seem to work very well either. Just the old map and compass to navigate.

I had my son and his fiancé as traveling companions. His fiancé has been camping in this area maybe 15 or 20 times previously with her family growing up. Thank goodness she had. She was the true leader of the expedition.

This, however, is not a travel newsletter. It is one centered on health. I came out of those 6 days tired. The last day was wet, windy and cold. But once I had a warm shower and a good hot meal (big hamburger) I felt fantastic.

I wanted to talk about the ways this trip really helped my health.

One of the best therapies I had was to unplug from technology. I think we all need to do so from time to time. It can be difficult. The first day I found myself wanting to check my phone as we sat around the campfire grilling up steaks.

Good thing my son told me to leave the phone in his car as we headed into the wilderness.

The next was the exercise. We had to carry a 50lb canoe and 40-50lb backpacks on the trails between lakes. The trails could be very short or over a mile long depending on our location. Once we were on the lakes, we had to paddle across the lake to the next trail. We crossed 4-7 lakes a day and had 5-7 daily “portages” (hikes between the lakes).

Almost all the days except the last one were bright and sunny. I did put a little sunscreen on my face on the really sunny days and wore a hat. The rest of my body was not shielded. Wearing shorts and t-shirts most days helped expose my skin to the sun. It felt wonderful soaking up the Vitamin D.

Every night I slept far longer and deeper than I do at home. I’m sure not looking at screens before bed helped. We were pretty tired at the end of each day. We would go to sleep soon after dark. And sleep for 9-10 hours. I would have incredibly vivid dreams as well.

Of course we couldn’t resist some cold plunges into the 50-60 degree water in the lakes. Once we set up our campsite in the afternoon, we’d take a dip to wash ourselves off. That gave us a burst of energy to make dinner.

Speaking of eating, this is where I let down a little. My carnivore diet suffered. We did have steaks the first night. And some kind of packaged fish (salmon or tuna) for lunch each day. The rest of the time we had these kind of meals that are easy to carry and prepare, but not the most nutritious. I’ll have to work on that the next trip!

The trip really made me believe we can improve our health by being out in nature more. Instead of seeking the latest health ‘innovation’, maybe we just need to simplify. Get back to the basics from time to time.

Oh and one more health ‘hack’. Do it with family members you love. It greatly enhances the experience.