Hello.

First off, thanks in advance to any help anyone here can provide. I'm a bit troubled by this dream, and any help understanding it would be greatly appreciated. I'm going to do my best to provide you with as much information as I can...

A bit of background: I'm a 21 year old male, grew up in Minneapolis, currently living in Chicago. I am currently in the process of planning a camping trip to the BWCA with my girlfriend. For those unfamiliar, the BWCA is a 1.4 million acre wilderness in northern Minnesota, which abuts the Canadian border. The BWCA is arguably the most remote wilderness area in the contiguous US-- no roads, no motors, no ATVS, no snowmobiles, no cell service, no rangers except at border crossings. Only canoes, kayaks, and feet. The area has a long history of fur trading and logging dating back to the 1700s but has been protected since the mid 20th century. I used to go on trips up there with my dad and uncles when I was younger, until after my uncle died when I was 14 and we stopped going. This will be my first trip since then, and also my first time leading a trip myself. My girlfriend has never been. Our trip is a short one-- 4 days by canoe, staying on the US side of the border. Also possibly relevant is that my girlfriend and I have been together on and off for the last 5 years, most recently together for a bit over a year. Also possibly relevant is that her mom has had 4 miscarriages.

Background on my dream habits: I remember my dreams after I wake up fairly often, typically once or twice a week. However, my dreams are usually very different than this one in that they are usually completely nonsensical-- full of logical fallices, impossibilities, and seemingly just a mish-mash of a whole bunch of crap. I also normally don't react to things in dreams the way I would in real life and have very little, if any, emotion. My dreams also don't normally have a conclusion. I will wake up suddenly in the middle of something. This dream was very different-- it made a lot of sense, followed a storyline, came to a conclusion, and I was full of emotion the whole time.

I guess I feel like that's a good amount of background. If more would help, please ask.

The dream:

In the beginning it was just like our trip is planned-- we set off from Moose Lake heading up through a chain of lakes to the northeast. It seemed like a sunny day, all conditions normal. At some point we came to a portage we were supposed to take, but right next to the portage landing there was a narrow stream, just barely wider than a canoe and with the water standing completely still, not flowing, like a lake. It went off at a very slight angle from the portage through a marsh and it looked like it might make for a much shorter crossing to the other lake. Since we were feeling good and adventurous, we decided to go down it. As we started going down it we realized that it wasn't really any sort of stream at all. It was an old canal made for canoes. Sediment had settled in spots, meaning we had to lift the canoe over a few places, but for the most part it was deep enough to paddle right up. It was almost completely straight, with a few turns that would thread it between lakes. We got to a few spots where the canal passed over actual streams on earthen aqueducts. We knew we were going way out of our planned route, and I wasn't sure exactly where we were on the maps, but for some reason this didn't really bother me, because I was so interested in the canal. Eventually we reached a large red building on the edge of a marsh, where 3-4 of these canals came together.

The building was long and narrow, maybe 60 feet wide and 400 feet long. It had a large front porch facing the marsh where the canals came together. Inside, there were maybe 8 or so canals running the length of the building, with a lot of machinery, old and rusted, at the far end. We were just about to go inside when another group came up to us, coming down a different canal. It was a middle aged guy, with two teenage kids, a boy and a girl, maybe 14-16. The guy was very energetic and to the point, friendly, and clearly an intelligent person who had a handle on things. We greeted eachother and both asked the other where we were. We got out our maps and the three of us (myself, my girlfriend, and the middle-aged man) worked together to try and figure out where we were. At this point I realized that I had accidentally grabbed the wrong maps when we left home (We have two sets of maps, one from the late 90s and one from the early 80s). On my older map one of the canals actually was marked, which wasn't on the man's much newer map, though it wasn't the one we came in on and we agreed it wasn't the fastest way back. We told him where our canal started, and he agreed it was the way out. I think it is important to note that I felt really comfortable with the middle-aged man, like he was immediately a good friend and someone I trusted. The teenage kids didn't really say much-- they were mostly in the background and I don't remember anything about them other than that the boy was wearing a red sweatshirt.

Just as the other group was about to leave, trying to go back the way my girlfriend and I came in, a man and a woman came around the side of the building. I think they were probably about 24-26. They said they had gotten lost following the canals and had been here for a couple days, unsure of how to get back to an entry point. About this time, it started to rain. It wasn't really storming per se-- no lightning, but it was raining pretty hard. The man told us that they had figured out that the big red building was an old lumber mill and that they had used the canals to float lumber to the mill, as well as to travel around without having to deal with portages. He took us inside the mill and showed us some of the machinery, as well as the small residence that was built into it. Long empty, but very fancy with victorian-era wallpaper, a 4-post bed, clawfoot tub, ect.

We came back around to the front porch, and the 5 of us (not including the man and woman that had been here for a couple days) debated whether or not we would leave in the rain. The middle aged man said that he was going to leave regardless of what the weather was like-- that he would rather camp in the woods in the rain than be here. My girlfriend and I decided to wait the rain out. The man and his kids left, while we stayed on the porch. I thought it was stupid to go out when it was raining so hard... No way are they going to get very far with the wind, and they're just going to be miserable trying to paddle while cold and wet. The younger man invited us into the residence part of the mill, but I felt uncomfortable about that, so my girlfriend and I stayed out on the porch.

We must have fallen asleep sitting there, because the next thing was the younger man waking us up. It was night, and it was still raining. Now it was a big storm-- high wind, thunder and all. He asked us to "come see the prince". I'm not sure why but we followed him around the side of the mill and into the residence. The woman had had a miscarriage in the bathtub. Well, not quite a miscarriage, but a very premature birth. The woman was crying and the baby was crying, trying to breathe, but it couldn't. The woman started sort of sing-talking to the baby, about how she was the heir to some sort of old industrial kingdom, the people who had built the canals. While she was singing, she held the baby underwater until it died. This whole time I was really sad. Not scared, just sad. Pretty much on par with the utter despair complete sadness that one might feel in such a situation in person. After the baby died (or some part of my mind decided it was dead... I'm not sure it actually was), there was like title screen, like from a movie. I've never, ever remembered a dream with anything like that before. The title said "a proposal".

My girlfriend and I were climbing a mountain. It was a great day and I was so happy and was feeling so in love. It was late afternoon-- with that long sideways sun that is so soft and pretty. We were clambering up reddish-brown boulders, nearing the top. For some reason in my head it was Pike's Peak, but I know it wasn't actually, because Pike's Peak isn't a lonely barren mountain in a desert, and this was. When we got to the top we realized there was a road that went up the other side, which we didn't know about. We felt kind of dumb for having climbed it, but we didn't really care, because we had enjoyed it. There were a few families up there running around. We sat on some rocks facing the sun-- the side we had just climbed up. Soon a couple came from the road and sat down on the rocks facing the same way, perhaps 40 feet away from us. I realized right away that it was the same couple we had met at the mill, though they looked a couple years older, which I thought was odd because it seemed like it was the same summer to me. I asked my girlfriend if she thought it was them and she said she didn't know what I was talking about. The girl was wearing a thick black knit bonnet. The four of us sat, watching the sunset. The man got up, and proposed to the girl. She started crying and rejected him. The two of them sat, crying and whispering to eachother while the sun made its final run into the desert. I was filled with the same sadness as when the baby died, though my girlfriend didn't seem sad, she just seemed to be feeling awkward at having just witnessed the rejection and the couple bawling.

Then the sun set, and that was it.


Thanks again in advance. This dream feels really important to me and is unlike any dream that I can remember. It would really mean a lot to me to get some feedback.