BWCA BWCA - 7 weeks in for teenagers? Boundary Waters Trip Planning Forum
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damien381
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07/18/2018 09:18PM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
I was on a plane headed to Duluth last month for work and chatted up a 17y old kid sitting next to me from Boston headed into the BWCA. Come to find out, he was a big fisherman and begged his dad to send him to a camp that was headed into the BWCA for 7 weeks! This kid was super upbeat about it and we traded stories about the lures I use up there. He went on to tell me that one of the required parts of this camp is for him to spend 3 days solo on an island. I came back and told my daughter about it and she was jealous to say the least.

Anyone here know of outfitting groups / programs like this?

Have a great day and I hope you all stay close to pine trees and fishing poles!
 
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07/18/2018 09:38PM  
Menogyn and Widjiwagan both run youth programs in the BWCA and they run 50 day programs, but those 50 day programs are up in northern Canadian Rivers like the Thelon. I don't think either of them go more than about three weeks in the BWCA, as everything longer is more wild. The scouts don't do anything longer than a couple weeks, to the best of my knowledge. Seven weeks is a long time in a park as small as the BWCA in the summer.
Guest Paddler
  
07/19/2018 12:25AM  
Thanks for the reply. I'll look them up!
Minnesotian
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07/19/2018 08:57AM  

Camp Kooch-I-Ching on Rainy Lake outside of International Falls does big trips as well:
Kooch-i-Ching
07/19/2018 09:05AM  
Sounds like an Outward bounds type deal.
OCDave
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07/19/2018 09:11AM  
damien381: "I was on a plane headed to Duluth last month for work and chatted up a 17y old kid sitting next to me from Boston headed into the BWCA. Come to find out, he was a big fisherman and begged his dad to send him to a camp that was headed into the BWCA for 7 weeks! This kid was super upbeat about it and we traded stories about the lures I use up there. He went on to tell me that one of the required parts of this camp is for him to spend 3 days solo on an island. I came back and told my daughter about it and she was jealous to say the least.

Anyone here know of outfitting groups / programs like this?

Have a great day and I hope you all stay close to pine trees and fishing poles!"


I am not sure how much they fish or if at all but, the experience you descibed sounds a lot like the Outward Bound program. They have opportunities all over the continent including both Summer and Winter experiences in the BWCA out of Ely.

Outward Bound

My own formal introduction to wilderness experience was a 15-day Winter camping/ Dog sledding program at age 22. Looking back that 15-day experience was life-transforming. Not transforming in the "It saved me" sense but rather, it gave me the confidence to head into the wilderness on my own, ready for what ever adventure awaited. That, in turn, has allowed me to raise my own sons with adventures and wilderness experiences that I did not have in my youth.

If the boy you met on the plane was going to Outward Bound, he came back a different person.

carmike
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07/19/2018 12:46PM  
There's an outfit in St Cloud called Les Voyageurs that sends high school students into Woodland Caribou/Atakaki for 3-4 weeks. I don't know their requirements for who can go (it's usually kids from local high schools), but if you're interested in a long trip for your daughter, you might try contacting them.
07/19/2018 04:28PM  
there is also Camp Birchwood for Boys at the end of the Gunflint Trail.
07/19/2018 05:38PM  
Add Manitowish in Boulder Junction to the list of places that do long (5 weeks, I think) wilderness trips. I have a kid there now.
07/19/2018 08:44PM  
sounds pretty cool.....and makes me wonder if DEET comes in gallon size containers?
07/20/2018 08:01AM  
I was a 2nd generation camper at Voyageur on Farm Lake in the '70s - dad went in the '50s. Eight week deal. Absolutely where my love of canoe tripping came from! We didn't do the solo-on-an-island thing, but depending on campers' ages/experience, trips ranged from overnight to 14 days. Awesome place.
Camp Voyageur
07/20/2018 01:51PM  
Outward Bound does solos, but no fishing.
07/21/2018 08:24AM  
I went on a ten day Outward bound whitewater canoe trip to the Eleven Point River in the Ozarks back in ‘79. I don’t know what you mean by no fishing. I brought a rod and gear and there certainly was no restriction on fishing. That was a heck of a trip. I’ve got stories...
Looking at their site from the link provided, they have a 28 day trip to BW for $6,995. Ouch babe. What does it cost for 7 weeks I can’t imagine. I had to pay for half my trip. Can’t remember what it cost, but that was 39 years ago. I had just graduated from high school. A sudden flashback tells me it was like $800.
I just went through the OB site and viewed all the trips. Wow! - 15 pages of trips. Several are BW trips. A 7 day trip was $1900. A 15 day Quetico trip $3075, another 15 day trip $3300. There are some extended ones. One being 28 days and another 33 I think. Priced accordingly. A pretty fair percentage of the BW trips said Enrollment closed for season. So they are a popular option. Maybe I’m focusing on the cost too much. The trip I went on was pretty amazing. Stuff goes up. I’m in for the Yellowstone backpacking trip. Sign me up!

 
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