Kids Camping

[pierre girard]

Just saw my youngest two off on a camping trip. Tim, 19, Sara 17, and three of their friends, will be canoeing through the Quetico boundary waters for five days.

I helped them pack, tried to see they got what they needed - and left what they didn't need (Tim wanted to bring five books - some of them hardcover). With more fatherly advice than they cared for - they were out the door. Wonder if I should just let them learn the hard way?

There are some things you seem to need to learn the hard way, like: "If it isn't in the pack - it will get left in the car."

I've been somewhat saddened that none of my children have been too interested in outdoor living or wilderness canoeing. I think of the difference between their enthusiasm level and my own at that age.

I don't remember my first canoe trip, but I remember my first trip where I was in charge. It really wasn't much of a trip. My brother was eight, I was ten, a friend was a year younger than me, and his sister was a year younger than my brother. We only paddled a few miles - across Wake-em-up Bay in Lake Vermillion - and set up on a small rock island for the night. Late at night, I was awakened by my father and my friend's father shining lights in our faces. They'd come to check and see we were o.k. They left, and we went back to sleep. We returned home the next day.

Still, as a father, I can't imagine having let my kids do the same trip at that age.

I guess it was in how we were raised. We were in the water every day. We had the use of the canoe for fishing and traveling. Early on, my father took us out a 1/4 mile from shore, told us to dump the canoe (he was in another canoe) and told us to get in the swamped canoe and paddle it to shore. It took a long time, but we eventually reached shore. He told us if we dumped - we were always to stay with the canoe and get to shore with us still in the canoe. After that, we were allowed to take the canoe any time we wanted. We were very young.

When I was young, we had no TV, no internet, and no distractions to keep us from seeing the beauty of the wild country we lived in. It is a late start, but I'm hoping my children's first canoe trip alone - that is, the first they've ever taken without their parents - will awaken that love of adventure and exploration that I've felt since I first got my hands on a paddle - all those years ago.

[Abbe Osram]

Is it as hard leaving the kids go off alone for their first trip when they are 19 and 17 as when they are 11? This summer for the first time I let my 11 years old go on a summercamp for 10 day, I got wet eyes. Didnt like the feeling but she enjoyed it a lot. I wonder how I would feel letting my big kids go for a trip.

I believe I would check on them just in case. LOL

all the best
cheers
Abbe

[Siecroz]

Abbe

Speaking from the other side of the fence as an Army Cadet Instructor, each year we go away for a couple of weeks and become "Local Parentus" for up to 700 kids 12 to 18 year olds. Some get homesick, but generally they are all in high spirits and enjoy the freedom :-) .

I have a 4 year old boy, a 2yrs old girl & a 7 month old Girl. As both myself and my partner are instructors, no doubt at least one of them will follow in our footsteps. I imagine I too will feel strange even though we are part of the organisation.

Maternal Instrinct.. even us Alpha's have it matey. :puppy_dog

[Zodiak]

I am an Explorer Scout (14-18) leader and letting them get away by themsleves is one of the best things that you can do for them. Just be ready with the band aids and master card when they get back :)

The bits they will remember most will be the things that were not planned or went wrong especially if they involve somebody getting embarrased.

Don't worry about this, the bits you checked out are "yours" the bits that just happened are "theirs" so be prepared to smile and look interested, even if inside you are screaming "NOO!!!!!" :eek:

[pierre girard]

Hello, this is Sara. My Daddy made me write this.

We went to the boundary waters.

We went in on Saturday. We spent the night in Ely at my friend KaLyn's aunt's house. It was fun. We had a pillow fight.

The lady's house was an old retro kind of house - old furnishings. It had retro colors like burnt ornage. The upstairs was

just a hallway and bedroom with four beds in it. The girls slept upstairs and the guys slept in the living room. About

11:00 PM, the boys went downstairs, but then my brother, Tim, came upstairs to get pillows and he stole all our pillows -

even though he didn't need them. Kali and I jumped him. We were really too tired to wrestle with him, so we all laid on our

backs and flailed at each other with pillows. That was our pillow fight.

We got up at 5:45 AM and left. We stopped at a gas station near the place we got the permits and had "breakfast," which

consisted of a long john and a Starbucks frappachino. Tim had one of those packaged gas station sandwiches and a fruit pie.

We went somewhere and got the permits, but I don't know the name of the place we got them.

We drove up the Echo trail and off on some back road and ended up at the Chainsaw Sisters. We parked the car at the Chainsaw

Sisters Saloon. We got there at somewhere between 6:45 and 7:00 AM.

There is a little stream between Picket Lake, where the Chainsaw Sisters have their saloon, and Mudro Lake. It was very

shallow, so we waded down it, pulling the canoes along as we went. Afterwhile it was deep enough, so we hopped in. At

first, Tim and I didn't have our stuff together and we hit one bank. After that we got our act together Tim was in the

stern, and he paddled really hard and I just steered from the bow. We had a lot of fun. Matt was in the bow of the other

canoe and we were trying to tell him how to steer from the bow, but he wouldn't do it.

We got out on Mudro. It was perfect. The weather was fairly warm. It was early, with no wind, and the sun was up and the

sky was a bright blue.

We got to the portage between Mudro and Sandpit, 80 rods. It was straight up and straigt down, very steep with lot of rocks,

what my mom refers to as an "Ankle Breaker." It took us about 20 minutes. I carried "Big Bertha," which is what we named

my dad's huge pack. Tim carried the Bell (canoe). By the time we were through with the trip - almost everything had a name,

except our canoe, which was just "The Bell." We named the other canoe, "Fatty McFat Fat," because it was such a tub.

We were across Sandpit Lake pretty quick. The next portage was 160 rods, and we were across it in half the time it took us

to get across the 80 rod portage between Sandpit and Mudro.

Tin Can Mike Lake has high cliffs on the west, and is a very pretty lake. Not a very well named lake.

The next portage was 90 rods of easy going into Little Horse Lake. Then you go through a narrow passage and into Horse Lake.

Tim mentioned the blueberry ridge to the west, where mom and dad had made us pick blueberries for hours on a previous trip.

There were a lot of blueberry plants all over, but we didn't see any blueberries this trip (Tim didn't want to see any).

We went up the Horse River. It had two more portages than the map said. The map says three portages, and we had to do five,

plus, in one spot, the river was so narrow, we just picked up the canoes and lifted them over the rocks until the river

widened up. My dad says they have done as many as 11 portages on the Horse River, when the water was low.

We came out of the Horse onto Basswood River and when we got to the portage around Lower Basswood Falls. There was a guy

there, with a little person. We couldn't tell if the little peron was a boy or a girl, but we finally decided, in spite of

her short hair, that it was a little girl, because of a butterfly embroidered on her jeans. The girl and her dad were

obviously new at this kind of thing. All their equipment was rented, and they were both wearing jeans, heavy sweatshirts,

and big rubber boots. We were all wondering, "Aren't you hot?" We were wearing tank tops, shorts, and sandals (the girls),

and the boys were wearing the same with T-shirts. I think that they were trying really hard not to get wet while we were

just jumping in the water all the time.



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Lower Basswood Falls

Beyond the falls are the pictographs on cliffs on the west side. There were people in canoes looking at some pictographs on

the cliffs. We didn't get too close because the other canoers were in the way.

We saw the overdressed little girl and her dad again. He kept asking us if this was the right place to turn. We weren't

sure, but were not near as worried as he seemed to be. He pulled out his GPS - which said we were on Basswood River. In

other words, the GPS was really no help at all. They finally stopped on a campsite on Basswood River, while we kept on.

We apparently paddled right by Table Rock, which is kind of a famous place, without noticing it, and into Thursday Bay of

Crooked Lake. Crooked Lake is very large and confusing. We kinda got lost and went to Canada. Crooked Lake has lots of

islands. There are islands everywhere. The islands and shore are mostly solid rock - with pine trees growing out of it.

Crooked Lake is about nine miles long, but it is so confusing, that each of the huge bays is named after a day of the week,

which indicates how long it would take a person to find his way out of each bay if they didn't have a map.

About 4:30 PM, we stopped at a nice looking campsite, but when Matt went back to use the latrine, he saw a bear, and we

decided to move on.

At about 5:00 PM, we camped in an inlet near the Candian border. It was a very nice campsite, though the latrine was in

sight of the campsite - something we girls did not like too much. It was rock all around the shore, which slowly sloped into

the water. Off on the side was a gravelly beach where we pulled up our canoes. There were pines all around, though the site

was open. There was a rock fireplace on the rock. Someone had built log benches. There was a flat rock space in back of

the fireplace that we used for counter top. We cooked up hot dogs. This was kind of funny as Kali is a vegetarian, and she'd

brought tofu hotdogs which were purple and reminded Tim of the color of rasberrry yogurt.

Over to the north of the fireplace was a nice grassy spot - just large enough for our two small tents. We'd traveled 25

miles, and we were bushed. About 8:00 PM, Tim, Kali, and I went to the tents supposedly to read, and slept until 8:00 AM.

It was very comfortable sleeping.

In the morning, we had pancakes. They were very good. Tim and I did not have anything to do with the menu. The food was

good, it was just very different than what we usually have on canoe trips.

After breakfast, we went back to the tent again supposedly to read, but once again we just fell asleep. We woke up and Matt

and I went swimming. After that I read for a while. As were staying overnight again in the same spot, we just kind of

vegged the whole day.

(continued)

[pierre girard]

(continued)

For lunch, we were supposed to have ramman noodles, and we didn't. I can't remember what we did have.

After lunch Tim walked south through the woods and came on a very creepy campsite. He came back to camp and said he'd found

a campsite, that a boulder, bigger than our house, had dropped on. Tim and I went to look at it. We headed south along the

shore for about 30 yards, then cut east into the woods. We got to the base of this big cliff like place. Slowly but surely

we made out way up this big rock-like hill. When we got to the top, we headed north east. Then we saw this huge boulder,

about two stories high, that had fallen right into this campsite. There was a brown and tan nylon tent, all ripped up, and a

lot of debris, including clothing and a lot of tinfoil, spread around the campsite. It was eerie.

We sat around camp and read for the rest most of the afternoon. Tim, Kali, Matt, and Kalyn went swimming, While I watched.

For supper we had spagetti. The spagetti was good, but we tried to make some kind of brownies for dessert, and they got

burnt, We still ate them, and they were good, but not all they could have been. They were more of a brownie mush than

anything else.

We went back to the creepy campsite later, when it was dark, with Kali, and we all started making up stories about what had

happened there. Because some of the clothing belonged to a little kid, Tim made up the story that the camp belonged to a

Windigo, diquised as a scoutmaster who'd eaten one of his little boyscouts. It was creepy, and I got a little scared and we

all left.

Tim was afraid someone had been squished by the rock when it came down, but it looked like the campsite was at least a couple

of years old. We reported it to the Sheriff when we got back out and they said they'd send someone to take a look at it.

In the morning, we had grapenuts and flavoured instant breakfast stuff - and it was good! We loafed around for a while, then

broke camp and set out into some really windy windy bays of Crooked. There were lots of whitecaps. It was really hard

paddling across Thrusday Bay. Inbetween Thursday Bay and Friday Bay, we pulled up on a sandy little beach and put more weight

in the front of the canoes. this helped some when we got out on Friday Bay, but it was still really hard paddling.

At the bottom of Friday Bay, we had trouble finding the portage as the map we had was old, and the portage had been moved

lower in the bay. We found the original poratage, but you could see it hadn't been used for years. About that time, we saw

some people coming out of the woods, much further down the bay. While we were waiting for the other canoeists to depart, we

sat and had PB&J hardtack. Then we paddled down to where they had come out of the woods and that was how we found the

portage.

The 95 rod portage was low and wet with quite a few muddy spots, but it was nice and level and we were soon through it. We

came out on Papoose Creek, which ran into Papoose Lake, which was small, with a lot of weeds. On the other side of Papoose

Lake, we went back into Papoose Creek, and took a wrong turn at Chippewa Lake, going into the lake, instead of following the

creek. Tim discovered our error, and we were soon back on the creek, There was a small portage, like ten rods, and we

continued on through the weeds finally entering Nikki Lake, then Wagosh Lake. These lakes are all a bunch of potholes. Once

you are out of Crooked Lake, the character of the country changes from high rock cliffs to low swampy country with a lot of

spruce and tamarack trees, floating bog, and cranberry plants right up to the waters edge.

On the far side of Wagosh Lake, we were on the mile long portage. We did the whole thing in one trip. It wasn't a bad

portage, just long. Tim wasn't too happy about carrying "Big Bertha." When we were almost to the end, Tim, who'd already

finished, came back and got my pack and ran off down the trail. We were almost at the end - the big show off! I found a

nice ballcap on the trail. At the end of the portage, we all laid down for a while as we were bushed.

We were now on Gun Lake and on the east side, we found a nice little grassy clearing in the middle of the forest. As we were

paddling by, it was like a little doorway in the forest. We didn't even know if it was a campsite. We finally decided to

stop and we were glad we did.

We set up the tents and made camp. We set up the food pack down in the woods and had to make a trail to it. For supper, we

had rice, black beans and three cheese bisquits. Later, we had smores. We sat around and read for a while, then went to

bed.

Our campsite had a bit of a slant, and I woke up a couple of times to find I was in the bottom of my sleeping bag.

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We got up at 6:30 AM and had oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins. We broke camp and were on the lake by 7:20 and paddled

down to the 50 rod portage into Fairy Lake. We wanted to see fairies, but they must have all been busy elsewhere.

We portaged 15 rods into Boot Lake, which was a long paddle. We did the portage, probably about 60 rods, into Forutown, and

passed Naked Man Point. On Fourtown, two canoes were coming towards us. Our two canoes were beside each other, and we

played pirates, threatening to board them. We pulled up by them and exchanged information, "Where ya been, we've been here

and there, etc."

We did the nasty ten rod ankle breaker portage, then the nasty 140 ankle breaker. We passed three groups of people headed

the other way, between the second and third portage. They were all headed for Fourtown, and did not intend to go any

further. None of them seemed to know what they were doing, and couldn't believe we'd gone all the way up to Crooked.

The third ankle breaker portage was 30 rods, and then we were into Mudro and straight on into morning. After the sandbar and

the winding stream, on the other end of Mudro, we were back at the Chainsaw Sisters, our car, the radio, and a quick trip to

Pizza Hut in Ely.
Sweeta!!

[led]

Thanks for posting that, it was excellent reading. I'm sure you haven't a clue how jealous that's made most of us over here in the UK!

[Spikey DaPikey]

Sounds like a whole lot of fun !! :)

[rik_uk3]

How times have changed, my parents let me go off with three friends, on a train, to North Wales, then a local bus to a youth hostel for a week stay, I was 13 maybe 14 I think. No supervision, just trust in us and the safety of a youth hostel to sleep in at night. By the time I was 16 I was away in Snowdonia with friends camping wild. That was 30+ years ago, would I let my kids do that at the same age? NO way, a sad sign of the era we live in, danger these days is not just from nature.

As pretty much a newcomer to this forum, its so refreshing to see some of you guys (and gals) involved with the Scouts, Cadets and your young families etc, passing on skills, great stuff. It was also fantastic to see, so many youngsters at the bushmoot, having the time of their lives, without a TV, playstion, PC, mobile phone etc, sort of restored my faith in children.

[British Red]

Hey Sara!

Your Daddys a bear huh? Making you write on the forum indeed!

Tell me something - did you enjoy the trip? I'm always trying to get my daughter to come on trips, but she's not really into it (shes a year or two younger than you I guess). I have often wondered if she would enjoy it more without the old man around - I reckon she would - I know I did when I was you age! I'm just kind of interested in seeing if I can get her to not spend all her time horse riding or in malls - but I guess I'm getting old huh?

Any tips you have on persuading her would be great!

Red

[Ed]

restored my faith in children.
Amen to that.....

I work with children alot, teaching them wilderness living skills and it made me realise they have just the same sense of adventure that I had as a kid .... they aint ALL bad ..... and even the 'bad lads' are completely different when you get them out in the wilds away from a troubled environment.... never had any agro with 'em.

Excellent blog by the way.... wish we could get our kids to write as much!!

:)
Ed

[pierre girard]

Hey Sara!

Your Daddys a bear huh? Making you write on the forum indeed!

Tell me something - did you enjoy the trip? I'm always trying to get my daughter to come on trips, but she's not really into it (shes a year or two younger than you I guess). I have often wondered if she would enjoy it more without the old man around - I reckon she would - I know I did when I was you age! I'm just kind of interested in seeing if I can get her to not spend all her time horse riding or in malls - but I guess I'm getting old huh?

Any tips you have on persuading her would be great!

Red

I enjoyed the trip a great deal!! I think any young person can enjoy the wilderness when their in the company of those that they usually have fun with. So maybe if your daughter brought a friend along. I always enjoy going out with my parents, but I know that I will probably have more fun with my friends. It was hard going at times, but in the end I felt a real sense of accomplishment when we made it all the way to Crooked Lake. It was an adventure.

Sara

[swyn]

Hey Sara, thank you very much for a super read.
Please can you tell me, what is a rod? we used to have measurements called rods poles and perches. Chains and fathoms too. All have gone with metricification, including inches and yards although bizzarly we still use miles! Cheers from Swyn.

[Tadpole]

Hey Sara, thank you very much for a super read.
Please can you tell me, what is a rod? we used to have measurements called rods poles and perches. Chains and fathoms too. All have gone with metricification, including inches and yards although bizzarly we still use miles! Cheers from Swyn. A rod is16 feet 6 inches (about 5 and a half yards) there are 320 to the mile.

LOIKIA (and proud of it :lmao: )

[pierre girard]

Hey Sara, thank you very much for a super read.
Please can you tell me, what is a rod? we used to have measurements called rods poles and perches. Chains and fathoms too. All have gone with metricification, including inches and yards although bizzarly we still use miles! Cheers from Swyn.

Dear Swyn:

My dad says a rod is 16.5 feet. According to my metric conversion, that would be about five meters. A 30 rod portage (easy) would be 150 meters, a 60 rod portage (not too bad) would be 300 meters, a 160 rod portage (getting tiresome) would be half a mile, and a 320 rod portage (backbreaker) would be a mile. Anything more than a 320 rod portage - think real hard about whether you really need to go there - before setting out.

Of course, any of these portage distances can be made into a "back-breaker," or an "ankle-breaker" by addition of hills or rocks.

Sara

[British Red]

Fantastic advice Sara thank you - I love the idea of always enjoying going out with your parents - I would say that too (especially if they could see what I wrote ;)). Its a great idea trying to get her to bring a friend along...I'll look into that. Tell me - do you think she would enjoy the planning of a trip or would I be better of to make all the preparations and just ask her to come?

Red

[pierre girard]

Fantastic advice Sara thank you - I love the idea of always enjoying going out with your parents - I would say that too (especially if they could see what I wrote ;)). Its a great idea trying to get her to bring a friend along...I'll look into that. Tell me - do you think she would enjoy the planning of a trip or would I be better of to make all the preparations and just ask her to come?

Red

Hey British Red,

I don't think that your daughter would have any particular interest in helping plan a trip unless you think she would actually have a opinion. She might have something to say about food, but it doesn't sound like she has much camping experience. I know that I've never helped plan a family trip. Adults tend to have more experience.

Sara

[British Red]

Thanks Sara - you have been really helpful!

If you do anymore trips, I'd love to hear about them - you describe them in a really - I don't know - lively(?) way. All the old codgers on here (like me ;)) tend to talk about how we did stuff (you know "I made the fire this way" or "I used this sort of axe") or stuff like that. You talk about how it felt - really makes me smile and remember that sense of fun. I'm sure you plan to be something like a lawyer or doctor, but maybe you should write a little too - you have a very engaging style and we would all love to hear a little more about life up there from your point of view (I know my daughter will when I send her the articles when she gets back from Germany where she's on holiday). That is when you can kick your dad of the computer :)

Thanks again hon

Red

[swyn]

Thank you Sara (and Tadpole) for the explanation and your grading, ankle breaker etc! As Red has suggested, keep up the writing as not all of us have the gift of being able to put pen to paper well, most here enjoy a good read. I know 'blog' has become a fashionable word, although I would prefer 'journal' in this instance. Cheers from Swyn.