Fires cut short Collegebound trip

Wildfires caused a Collegebound trip to flee the Boundary Waters this summer.

In late August, Collegebound took their annual trip with a group of incoming students up North. This trip was the first in two years after last year’s trip was canceled because of COVID-19.

This year’s trip was planned with smaller groups and one group destination to help mitigate the unknown factors with COVID-19 and the wildfires in northern Minnesota for the students’ safety.

This year, the trip’s destination was the Boundary Waters. Those planning the trip closely monitored the wildfires up North throughout the week before departure. Assistant Director of Environmental Education, Kyle Rauch, commented that although the team had been watching the fires, the largest fires started and spread the day they departed. Rauch mentioned that the wind picked up that day and spread the fires closer to the Boundary Waters.

The trip was cut short by the fires. Just hours into the Boundary Waters the group received a satellite call that they needed to head back.

“It wasn’t a rapid evacuation. It was precautionary,” Rauch said. “Before the fires were anywhere close they were giving people about 24-28 hours to make their way out of the park.”

All the students left in about 24 hours and moved on to a secondary plan for the trip.

Once students left the Boundary Waters, they met at Voyageur Canoe Outfitters until they set up a group camp in Grand Marais. Student coordinator Addie Fischer said that students had invented the “Collegebound Olympics” and took a county school bus to the Gunflint Trail in Grand Marais.

“Kyle Rauch and I developed our emergency response plan and had made the contacts with the necessary people in case we needed support in the event of changing circumstances,” Fischer said via email. “The participants came away with a stronger community and personal growth, and that’s all I can ask for.”

Rauch indicated it was still important for the trip to go on, even with the fires causing a change in plans.

“We still had an obligation to all our students to provide for a safe, meaningful and successful trip.” Rauch said, “In many ways, it wasn’t the trip we planned for, but in the face of that adversity we did well. The students did an awesome job relying on each other through the stress. In many ways we still met the goals of getting students to connect in this great place.”