ELY – What does it take to canoe 221 days on a solo canoe trip?

Gary Fiedler and his wife, Dawn LaPointe, spelled out the various aspects of this once-in-a-lifetime journey at a session of Ely’s Tuesday Group earlier this month.

Fiedler’s time in the wilderness stretched from March 20 (well before ice-out) to Oct. 26 last year. Along the way, he made various excursions throughout the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Quetico Provincial Park.

“On this trip, I began to live,” he said, “I had no doubt I could do it, but had to prove it to myself.”

2014 marked the 50th anniversary of the enactment of the Wilderness Act, 25 years since Fiedler’s first canoe trip in the BWCA, and the tenth anniversary of his survival and recovery from a brain aneurysm.

Those 221 days on the trail involved 811 miles of paddling, 178 miles of hiking, and some 14 miles of portaging. He visited 83 lakes and rivers, lost about 25 pounds of weight, and carried 350 to 400 pounds of gear (half of that in photo equipment) in his 18-and-a-half-foot canoe.

Along the way he also made over 40,000 photographs and estimates he ate some four gallons of blueberries.

He saved money for five years to pay for the trip. He obtained new gear, a new tent, packs, canoe, satellite phone, and computer equipment. “It was good excuse to buy new camera gear, too,” he said.

Obtaining permits and licenses was also part of his preparation. Most of his time was spent in the Quetico “and those permits aren’t cheap,” he said.

He carried about 140 pounds of food during each of his loops, returning to Prairie Portage every four to six weeks to be resupplied by LaPointe.

He started out on the first day of spring in an aluminum canoe, because of the ice conditions, and spent the first 45 days in the same campsite on Fall Lake waiting for the ice to melt. To pass the time, he built a snowman he dubbed “Wilson.”

“I enjoyed the whole transition from winter to spring,” he said. On April 10, day 22, he heard his first robin song. “Then I knew spring had arrived,” he said.

Throughout his presentation, Fiedler would reflect on the challenges he experienced. “The late ice-out was the first challenge,” he said. “It takes an incredible amount of time for ice to melt and even longer when you are waiting for it to melt.”

While the couple hadn’t typically used a Moose Lake shuttle service for canoe and supply hauling to Prairie Portage, LaPointe decided she’d rather complete the trip in 20 minutes instead of a two- to six-hour paddle.

“I brought him about 140 pounds of food, and swapped out any gear that wasn’t earning its keep. The resupply rendezvous also included “catching up with each other, lots of laughter and short adventures, even a haircut,” she said. “One of the highlights was always a photo show and tell and sharing of what he saw.”

Most of the food he ate was dehydrated vegetables and fruits. “I had quite a few kinds of wild berries to choose from out there,” Fiedler said, “including blueberries, gooseberries, and I really enjoyed the wintergreen berries.”

Perishable foods, like cheese, butter and ground beef, and various staples were always part of the resupply items. “One of my favorite morning meals was oatmeal with coconut oil, brown sugar and walnuts,” he said.

LaPointe noted that her husband was highly organized in what foods he would need for each resupply cycle. “That made my job really easy,” she said.

“Believe it or not, I only ate about 10 fish out there,” he said. “I didn’t care so much for the hassle of cleaning the fish. I ate that once in a while for a treat.” He said his fishing gear was in the pack mostly for back-up in case a bear got into his food packs. He chose not to carry the heavier skillet needed to cook over a fire.

The fact that his gear already weighed almost 400 pounds, also argued for economy. The heavier gear included photo and video gear and lenses, solar chargers and batteries, as well as computer equipment. He typically carried two or three food packs, a tent big enough to stand up in and to keep gear dry in case of bad weather, clothing and camp supplies. “I used almost everything I brought, except for the first-aid kit, which was a good thing,” he said.

Each portage required 13 trips, seven trips to haul his gear and six walk-backs. “The bugs were another of the big challenges on the portages as well as whenever I would try to photograph, especially at night,” he said. “The ticks and black flies were really bad in June, July and August.” He video-recorded most of the portages and is still working on processing the footage.

“Another challenge was it was difficult to find any downtime. If I wasn’t paddling and portaging or photographing, I was tending to camp chores or editing the images,” Fiedler said. “The portages were also physically demanding and time-consuming.”

In preparation for the resupply on day 164, LaPointe said a friend had sent along a dozen chocolate cupcakes to give to Gary. “As soon as he opened the bag, he downed three of them,” she said. “I think I got two out of the whole batch. “The next morning, he got up early to download and transfer photo files. I woke up about an hour early to find the rest of the cupcakes were gone,” she said.

Feidler called his odyssey “a trip of experience, not a trip of conquest.”

His “re-entry” back into the everyday life proved interesting. “First of all, I thought as we were driving in the vehicle back home that we were going pretty fast,” he said. “Then I noticed all the man-made smells and the loud sounds. It took me at least two months to re-acclimate. My whole thought process had geared down and to come back into society, my intensity had to come up. It took quite a while to do that.”

Fiedler and LaPointe are photographers with Radiant Spirit Gallery based in Duluth. They explore the north woods of Minnesota and Ontario, capturing the wilderness experience on camera. LaPointe’s award-winning “Sunset Paddle” photograph (captured in the BWCAW during their honeymoon) is being honored in the Wilderness Forever exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. Their BWCAW video footage was also included in the “Aerial America: Wilderness” documentary produced by The Smithsonian Channel in 2014.

For more information, go to www.inspiredbywilderness.com.