Camping Trip

Wow, it's been soooo nice to sleep on a real mattress the last couple days. I found myself last night waking up in the middle of the night and smiling thinking "this is the most comfortable bed in the world..." Actually it's just a regular bed but after sleeping on either the ground or a fold out couch for a week it feels really nice. Back to the post...

So we pack up everything we're going to need for the trip into the mini-van along with all the participants. That's 4 adults, 3 kids, 4 giant packs/bags and a whole bunch of other stuff. I really had doubts going in that it was all going to fit in the car, but somehow Liam figured out a way to make it work. That kid is a genius.


We drove all the way up to Ely (way up in Northern Minnesota) on Sunday and made it to Bill and Jane's place, a beautiful cabin perched up on a hill on a lake just outside the park. It's nicknamed "Best Place On Earth." Bill is a colleague of Angus' from the University of Minnesota Department of Psychology. He examined all of us before we went into the park to make sure we could psychologically handle the extremes of living in the wilderness for 4 days with 3 young children. We failed miserably but decided that since we had spent all this time and energy just packing that we should go ahead with the expedition despite the warnings.

After a wonderful meal and a great game of Five Straight, we spent the night at the BPOE on a fold out before we set out on Monday morning to Lake One, where we would be entering the Boundary Waters.

We saw two park rangers as they were launching from the same point. I said "Hi." They said "Can we see your permits?" And off the rowed into the park to make sure other people had their permits and weren't lighting camp fires. (There was a fire restriction in the park because of draught.) The first thing you learn when camping in a wilderness with 3 small children is that everything takes way longer than you would expect it to. While we were getting stuff into the canoes there must have been at least 10 canoes that came and went in the same time. Luckily we didn't have any dinner reservations that we were trying to meet so it worked out OK.

Bill took this next picture just as we were leaving for our adventure. It reminds me of my ability to make just about anything I sit in to look really small. Notice how the other 3 adults all look like they are proportioned correctly to the canoe and I look like I'm trying to ride in a kid's toy I got at Toys 'R Us. I'm second from the left.


And we were off. In case you've never gone on a canoe/wilderness adventure in the BWCAW what you essentially do is paddle around this series of lakes/wide rivers and fish and/or camp. There are campsites strung out through the park, but they are first come first serve. Each lake may only have 2 or 3 campsites and if they are taken then you have to keep going to the next lake to see if there are any openings. Thus we come to the word portage. It means pick up all your stuff and carry it to the next lake which is sometimes only a few hundred feet away but can be up to a mile. Which still wouldn't be bad if it were a nice smooth trail...which it isn't. It's more like a jagged ankle twisting maze of rocks and makeshift bridges... which sill wouldn't be bad if you didn't have a canoe on your head....which I did. Here's my view of portaging.


Our original plan was to get all the way to Clear Lake and spend a layover day there and then return on the following day. It would involved 3 long portages (each one nearly a mile) and lots of smaller ones. We never made it to Clear Lake.

About an hour after we set out from Lake One the skies started to darken and pretty soon we could hear thunder in the distance. We found a campsite and set up camp and proceeded to get rained on for the rest of the night. Luckily it didn't come down that hard until after dinner so we could at least eat something while we were dry. Typically we would pull one of the canoes up to the camp and flip it over to use it as a table.


The first night was probably the most concerning. The rain fly on our tent wouldn't stay tight and so it would keep drooping down and lie right up against the tent. The ground around us was all pine needles and so the stake wouldn't stay in place which was anchoring the rain fly. At the time I didn't think of using a rock which probably would have solved the problem. Instead I endured what could best be described as slow irritating water torture. I had almost every square inch covered and just as I was about to drift off into much needed slumber a single drop would hit me right in my eyeball....ah the joys of camping in the rain. Eventually I did get some sleep and eventually the rain did stop and the weather was wonderful for the rest of our trip.

The two funniest moments for me happened on our third night. We were on our way out of the park having decided to spend 2 days going toward Clear Lake and then 2 days coming back. This was our last night and the sense of accomplishment had everyone in a good mood. Even the wildlife seemed to come out and greet us. As soon as we pulled the canoes in there were a couple chipmunks that were clearly used to campers and they danced all around our bags and our feet looking really cute. We named one of them "Chippy."

Their scheme worked. Soon we were giving them little crumbs of crackers and they started to become more bold. Jumping up on the logs where we were sitting....jumping up on the canoe where dinner was being cooked....but you still don't really mind since they're so darned cute. All of a sudden Liam (the 3 year old) is highly upset and crying. We go though the normal questions....did your sister hit you?.....did you fall?.....did you spill your drink?.... Through tearful eyes Liam says "Chippy stole my cracker!" From then on Chippy was no longer welcome and we shooed him away for the rest of the evening. (Chippy's a little hard to see in this photo but he is on the lower right hand side of the picture.)


The second funny moment for me was just a normal baby occurrence. I really do look forward to having children of my own, but sometimes I'm really glad I don't have to deal with exploding babies....especially on trail.


The final day we did one more long portage and safely made it back to Bill's house, reloaded the mini-van and headed back to Minneapolis. No capsized canoes...no broken bones...no missing children....and overall a complete success. "We did it!" I exclaimed as I high fived all the kids. Would I recommend this trip to others with small children? Maybe....but only after a psychological exam.