Boundary Waters

We just got back from the kids' very first backpacking/canoeing experience in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area near Ely, MN. Though the trip was filled with ups and downs, we had a fabulous time and learned a lot along the way. We put in at Moose Lake and paddled through several lakes to get to Ensign Lake which is where we camped--on an island--per the children's request. We stayed at the same camp site the whole time and just did day trips to other lakes and explored the area around our little island. The children were responsible for carrying their bags and life jacket through the portages and they only whined a little about it.

We had absolutely perfect northern MN weather. Lots of sun, temps in the low 80s, a slight breeze and all around perfect camping and canoeing conditions.
We spent a lot of time in the canoe. In hindsight, to children spending a lot of time in a canoe is worse than spending a lot of time in a car because you're forced to wear a very uncomfortable and hot life jacket, you're subject to the weather (sun, rain) and the bugs (black flies are horrible) and you can't move a whole lot. But, we passed the time letting the kids paddle (note: bring an extra paddle for the kids next time!).
Playing cards (I bet you didn't know you could play cards in a canoe!)


and sometimes even sleeping.
We also played many games of "2o questions." My favorite:
Us: Is it an animal?
Eli: yes
Us: does it have fur?
Eli: no
Sadie: is it a bald dog?

So, while canoeing wasn't the best part of the trip, they still managed to have a good time doing it, even if there was some (ok, a lot) whining along the way. Now, their favorite part of the trip? Fishing. And not just any kind of fishing, fishing for crawdads!



And they caught a lot. Even enough for breakfast, though we decided that cooking two was plenty.

They fished for crawdads morning, noon, and night until the mosquitoes started tuning up at night for their evening performance. Once the mosquitoes started their performance it was too late to get into the tent without at least 5 bites so we tried to get into our tent before they started to play! Then, I told scary stories before bed about giant mosquitoes coming to steal little children to feed to their young. Sadie loved it, Eli plugged his ears!
One morning though, it was a perfect day--weather wise-- hot, sunny, no wind. Quickly we discovered that when the lake is glassy and perfectly still the black flies come out ready to attack. We were constantly swarmed by the nasty biting suckers and we were instantly miserable getting bit about every 6 seconds. We survived by rigging up the tent fly to block the sun, but let some air in. Then we jumped into the lake with our towels and ran up to the tent and laid there dripping wet in the hot tent and sweat while playing kings in the corner. Luckily, the perfect weather didn't last more than a couple of hours and the breeze came back and kept the flies away. Here we are staying cool in the tent and eating melted chocolate. Chocolate really does make every thing better.
We also did some swimming. It was even hot enough for me to swim! And Dennis got in a little fishing time too.
While we had some mishaps along the way-- broken glasses, a forgotten water filter, our canoe almost flying off of our car at the beginning of our trip because of a huge storm that was passing through the same time we were-- we managed to make it through with a smile and thinking that we wanted to do it again, soon. The kids have already forgotten how much they disliked the canoe part of the trip because they saw an eagle pooping (think silly string) and investigated bear scat and pooped in the woods and caught crawdads and ate chocolate. We might just have to make it a yearly event.