MINNEAPOLIS – When Bill Rom set his canoe in Larch Lake in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness late last month, by his calculation it marked a major milestone.
It was the last place the 80-year-old believed he needed to check off on his quest to visit what he thought was every lake reachable by portage in the BWCAW and the adjacent Canadian wilderness of Quetico Provincial Park, he said.
Though he has since learned that he likely missed several lakes, he said, visiting nearly all of them is still a feat that few others – if any – have accomplished. It has taken Rom roughly six decades…