This will be our troop's first canoe adventure. We have one crew and will be on the water for five days.

Has anyone gone since Northern Tier opened for treks? How was it?

Any general advice for newbies is appreciated. We go the last week of July. We know about the bugs already. I'm going to take my hammock and tarp. I'm new to hammocking and had hoped to get some trips in this Spring, but of course that fell apart.

I'm a little over two weeks from taking two groups to the BWCA, but not thru NT. We're staying in town @ VNO, then splitting up the next morning. One group is going to LIS and LLC, the other is going to N. Kawishiwi and exploring the triangle. Both groups will be out a week.

It's my Troop's second BWCA trip. I sponsored the first one five years ago as part of my WB ticket.

I did Northern Tier. Last year on a Lone Voyageur outing. Ended up with three from Minnesota, my son and a friend. Three from New Jersey. A father and son from Houston Texas. Our interpreter was from Connecticut but went to college in New York.

Trip could have gone any way since we couldn’t know the plan until the boys voted the first night at NT. We ended up having an absolutely epic trip. Amazing! Seventy-five miles. Really great group of Scouters from all over the country.

This year, I’m going back in on the same date, but taking the family. My wife and daughter haven’t camped much at all. We’re doing seven days and six nights.

What kind of trip did the boys plan in your Troop? Do you know your route? Based on that information I could give a little more guidance. Not sure about hammocks with NT. They aren’t allowed at Philmont. I know it’s OK in the BWCA, but not sure if NT has a stance on it. I ended up sharing a tent with the dad from Texas.

Once I knew that night what we were doing, I downsized a ton of gear. I’d ask the interpreter if I should bring this 1lbs. Helinox chair. He’d say, "Well, someone is going to have to carry it." That was code for “No”. Or that’s a lot of fishing tackle! Ok, I’ll downsize half of it.

YIS
Ryan

Unfortunately, we really don't know what we're doing, either. We just haven't been able to do anything beyond a gear check. We're going to Ely.

None of us are fans of portaging (is anyone?). We're inexperienced with canoes but several did get the Canoeing merit badge, which is a little better than staying at a Holiday Inn Express the night before, but it's something. We're going to practice some things next week. Any advice on a trek is appreciated.

Hammocks are permitted. I have a Warbonnet Eldorado and a Warbonnet tarp. My underquilt and top quilt combined are lighter and more compact than anyone else's sleeping bag. Well, I might loan my Zpacks quilt to my son. The rest of my gear is lightweight backpacking gear.

How did they handle coffee? I have a tiny backpacking stove.

So I was the only adult that drank coffee on my trip. Based on that with the distance and portages we had planned I had bought Alpine Start instant packets prior so I just made do with that. They will have coffee and a coffee maker if you have coffee drinkers. It’s critical for adult advisers.

Think of portaging as just a way to get to the next lake! It’s not a big deal! Embrace the challenge of it. You’ll see more and I’m here to tell you it’s amazingly beautiful in the BWCA. Knife Lake, Ottertrack, Kekakabic. Thunder point on KnifeLake is cool. Our interpreter portaged an aluminum canoe to the top of Thunder point. I’ll be Hiking up to Thunder Point again with my family trip this year. Eddy Falls which is South Arm of Knife lake and Eddy lake is cool.

You could look at something I had to edit out to get it to post which is an awesome source for everything related to canoeing. I’ve planned our route this year using that. Also let’s you know the best campsites for the ones that are rated. Last year since I couldn’t plan it wasn’t really helpful. This year it’s been essential since I can plan.

I’m trying super hard to stay lite this year and single portage which is pretty much the NT standard. Sounds like you have lite gear and I’m guessing have done Philmont based on the Z Packs quilt. We were supposed to be at Philmont this year but that isn’t happening due to Covid. Honestly I’m more excited to be back in the BWCA this year.

Yes, we did Philmont last year. Four of the 6 scouts and both of us adults were on that trip. That experience should help.

I'll start researching what you've posted. We've been watching some videos, but it's all brand new to us. When people mention places, it's tough having nothing to reference. I guess that's also the job of the interpreter.

Both of us adults are coffee drinkers. A properly caffeinated scoutmaster is the most important safety concern in scouting! :)

I sent you an email. Glad to see you have a full 9 with interpreter. It just works better at NT with 3 per canoe. Sounds like you’ll have a crew that most of them have already done one major trip together. When they load out food our interpreter told us you get the same amount whether you have 6 or 9. He said smaller crews have a hard time eating all the food.

Interpreters are great and definitely know what they are doing. We were lucky and our interpreter was probably on his last year and it was like his. 12 th trip. He’d never done a Snowbank lake exit and our crew gave him that. We portaged into camp from the back side instead of paddling!

Ryan

For coffee if you want to go the instant route but don't want to pay a premium for Via, try Cafe Bustelo. I haven't carried a perc since switching to instant, although I occasionally do miss the all-day-on-the-firegrate hot coffee in summer.

mirth: "For coffee if you want to go the instant route but don't want to pay a premium for Via, try Cafe Bustelo. I haven't carried a perc since switching to instant, although I occasionally do miss the all-day-on-the-firegrate hot coffee in summer."

I've tried Bustelo, but didn't care for it. I'm not a coffee snob, but both of us adults like our morning coffee. We're fine with instant. On our car camping trips, I take a Jetboil coffee press. For this trip, I'll take my tiny canister stove and grab a canister on the way.

It looks like NT uses white gas stoves, which I hate. I've seen fuel get spilled way too often.