12.1 Working individually, read the following scenario:

You have gone on a Boundary Waters canoe trip with five friends to upper Minnesota and southern Ontario in the Quetico Provincial Park. Your group has been traveling Saganagons Lake to Kawnipi Lake, following through Canyon Falls and Kennebas Falls and Kenny Lake. Fifteen to 18 miles away is the closest road, which is arrived at by paddling through lakes and rivers and usually portaging (taking the land path) around numerous falls. Saganagons Lake is impossible to cross in bad weather, generally because of heavy rain. The nearest town is Grand Marais, Minnesota, 60 miles away. That town has plenty of camping outfitters but limited medical help, so residents rely on hospitals farther to the south.

The terrain is about 70 percent land and 30 percent water, with small patches of land here and there in between the lakes and rivers. Bears are not uncommon in this region. It’s now mid-May, when the (daytime) temperature ranges from about 25°F to 70°F, often in the same day. Nighttime temperatures can be in the 20s. Rain is frequent during the day (nights, too) and can be life threatening if the temperature is cold. It’s unusual for the weather to stay the same for more than a day or two. Generally, it will rain one day and be warm and clear the next, with a third day windy—and it’s not easy to predict what type of weather will come next. In fact, it may be clear and warm, rainy and windy, all in the same day.