As part of building our daughters' backwoods skills, Heavy Canoe and I are putting them in charge of the trip this year. Meal planning, route planning, packing lists, and navigation will be on them. The dads are simply propulsion this time. We will act as a safety net but only as a last result. We want them to solve problems like looking for a portage in the wrong bay. Hoping to build the girls' confidence and, perhaps more importantly, alleviate the Dads' concerns over future girls' only trips. Ages are 17 and 14. How old before unrelated friends can go alone?

Sounds like a great idea. If this goes well, I don't see why the next year or trip they could do alone. Taking other buddies? Maybe have them do a trip near an EP for starters so they're not miles from civilization for their first on their own.

My daughter is a take charge type gal. But going with tripmates her age is like dating... 35 is the age I threw out there.

Age for going alone, without an adult, depends on skills and maturity level. Only you know your kids.

Age for taking unrelated friends- are they good friends and are their parents comfortable with the trip? Or is there potential for "extra curricular activity" ? If still in high school I would err on the side of paranoid. Once they are out of high school you really do not have say in who they take along, but I too was would push for 35.

4keys: "Age for going alone, without an adult, depends on skills and maturity level. Only you know your kids.


Age for taking unrelated friends- are they good friends and are their parents comfortable with the trip? Or is there potential for "extra curricular activity" ? If still in high school I would err on the side of paranoid. Once they are out of high school you really do not have say in who they take along, but I too was would push for 35.
"

40 for an extra margin of safety.

Set up a drone system where you can rotate two drones in and out for fuel purposes. While they are out and about, your concerns about safety will be served until something happens. When in the tent, your worry meter could go way up, however. The good news, you might have to go on a parallel trip to accomplish your goals.

First trip was 4 of us (ages 15-16). A couple of us were experienced, the other two were not. We went into Slim Lake and base camped on Rice Lake for a week. 25 years later it is still an annual tradition.

As long as there are a couple of experienced, confident girls in the group I don't see a problem with letting them go on their own. It will be a great experience for them.

For some reason the number 21 comes to mind. I know that's just an arbitrary number to legally consume alcohol, but it's at that age you're legally allowed to do almost anything. Some outfitters might not even rent you a boat if you're under 21. A bunch of girls travelling together without at least one old enough to do things like rent a car seems a little dicey.

It is cool that they have an interest, and that you are doing a trip as tagalongs for them to practice. You could even modify that by getting two permits for the same entry and take separate trips on the same lakes.

If they are comfortable enough to ask to go on their own trip, they are likely getting to the age where they can handle it.

Enjoy your trip!

Love your idea. I went to BW with one friend from school when I was 18. We had a wonderful trip. I had the benefit of having done a lot of very long trips in Quetico, northern Ontario, and northern Manitoba before that. I say power to them!

Rob thanks for the post. It got me thinking, my daughter was 15 the first trip we made to BWCA. It was my first trip too. She is now going on 23 and we are still going together every year. Generally, each trip is getting longer and more challenging. We are doing WCPP for 14 days on water next trip. To a fault, I plan everything and I am pretty much in charge. We do discuss what we are doing, but she certainly isn't the leader. I keep telling her, one of these days she will be taking ME on the trip, instead of the other way around. I really need to work on that. We need to have a conversation and find out if she wants to take on the responsibility. It is a big time commitment, and at this point I'm not sure she would even want to take it on. But we will talk!
Joe

My daughter and several friends did a month long backpacking trip in the wrangell-st. elias mountains when she was 18. She has quite a bit of experience so I was fine with her going. Several years after that I was backpacking with her in Yellowstone, I let her lead figuring she knew what she was doing. Grizzly signs were everywhere, we were heading into some thick Bush with limited visibility, she showed no concern. I did and exercised my rights as dad. I took over. Sure enough within a minute we encountered a huge grizzly eating at some winter kill. Fortunately I was singing Black flag - tv party A song I had sung many times myself when I lived in Alaska.

For future trips as far as ages for going alone, I'd say my minimum recommendation would be at least one person over 18 and at least one other able to drive in a pinch, just to cover logistics if something comes up along the way. Beyond that, they're probably fine - you'd just want to also require proper detailed float plans, like we all know we should do but many of us probably skip, and a PLB.

treehorn: "For some reason the number 21 comes to mind. I know that's just an arbitrary number to legally consume alcohol, but it's at that age you're legally allowed to do almost anything. Some outfitters might not even rent you a boat if you're under 21. A bunch of girls travelling together without at least one old enough to do things like rent a car seems a little dicey."

I rented canoes when I was 18.