What do you guys do for entertainment while at camp in the BWCA? I understand, for many people, just sitting back and watching the world pass is a huge attraction of getting away. However, as a (fairly) young man, I find that I often have a bit of excess energy while hanging around camp.

My favorite activities to burn off some energy include stretching, tossing a frisbee, playing cards, and gathering dead wood for campfires. My fellow trip mates are also typically high energy so they understand and expect me to be up-and-at-it a good amount. To many other trippers, that amount of movement may be quite off-putting.

How do you guys make use of your downtime at camp?

I can stare at a fire and the water and the stars for hours on end every evening/night.

My problem is that I’m a morning person, even more so when I’m camping. Usually have an hour or three before everyone else wakes up. Most of my tripping partners must think processed wood magically appears every morning.

It’s really just me and the dog filling time.

Play cribbage, and fish from shore. I’d rather watch a lighted bobber go down than a campfire. If someone makes a fire I will sit around it with an adult beverage and a cigar. I fish all day, then after dinner and dishes I fish some more from shore. Nothing more entertaining than watching lighted bobbers go down.

Nothing wrong with being productive during "down time". Being a firewood collector and/or preparer is a good thing. Certainly nothing off-putting about that.

Otherwise, we have a saying in our group... "We're up. We might as well fish."

Most of the day I am physically draining energy. In the evening, after camp is established. I just sit. Look. Listen. Appreciate.

But, then again I am solo….

JW

As a mostly solo tripper I really don't like camp time as I got bored just sitting around by myself so I tend to have long travel days so When I do make it to camp by the time I set up and make dinner its time to find wood for a campfire and sit back with some bourbon. If I am camping with someone else and we have camp time I like to gather firewood either for our camp to use or leave it for the next person.

I usually go on off trail hikes into the woods. In my younger years, the goal was to find the highest hill top to get cell reception, just to contact my wife and see if reception was possible. Now I do it for pleasure and use the higher vantage points to see as far as I can. I like seeing the forest areas with little to no human contact. I take a small pack with water, snacks, compass and map. Odd as it sounds, it is easy to get lost. So I caution against sane people doing this.
I also scout shorelines when possible. I like looking at the water transition and shore line fauna. Clambering over rocks uses up excess energy fast.

I agree with the above. When solo I tend to tinker around camp (getting the perfect tarp pitch) and gather/cut wood. I take more time transitioning camps and tend to travel further.

Happy Hour starts a 4pm. Double Bubble at 5. Thursday is Ladies Night.

I like to stay moving unless I am eating. Too much to do and see. Gather wood (away from camp), explore the flora and fauna, fish, fish, fish, tweak the tent and tarp, oh did I say fish.

Savage Voyageur: "Play cribbage, and fish from shore. I’d rather watch a lighted bobber go down than a campfire. If someone makes a fire I will sit around it with an adult beverage and a cigar. I fish all day, then after dinner and dishes I fish some more from shore. Nothing more entertaining than watching lighted bobbers go down. "

I like that. I need to experiment more with lighted bobbers. I love to fish and camp fishing/ridge running is definitely my preference. I do a lot of slip bobber setups, but haven't tried lighted bobbers too often. Thanks for sharing.

Some of the above is good here. I add sitting in my fold up rocking chair and either reading a book or visiting with my college room mate from 1979. I keep a light weight fold up chair for inside the tent too. Quite a bit to catch up with as we see each other once a year. Base Camping makes for a lot of time for that. Add in some daily paddling and hiking either a trail or several times over a portage is good exercise for us.

Swimming, swimming and more swimming. On hot afternoons and evenings, I will often swim 3 times. I also take exploratory paddling trips...getting back into little boggy areas or nearby streams. I journal a LOT.

My teenage son likes to hike the areas around a campsite...we make him carry a whistle but so far he hasn't needed it as he has a keen sense of direction. He has found some really cool spots on his hikes that are definitely off the beaten path.

We typically move camp everyday, but if we end up with an especially short travel day, my son and I have been known to just travel to other nearby lakes for something to do while my hubby takes a nap. But hubby likes to fish, so I often spend the afternoon paddling him around...keeps me out of trouble.

On my solo trips, I have been known to paddle more miles on a layover day than on a normal travel day. Hard for me to sit still.

Other activities I do:
Reading
Cards
Photography

I'm usually solo, traveling, and too old to have excess energy. In fact I usually have an energy deficit. Napping, sitting doing nothing are helpful, but I'm more easily amused than most. Stretching is useful. I don't fish, I don't usually have a fire, I I don't swim intentionally ;). Sometimes I wander around camp, observing animals & plant life, taking photos, looking at maps, dreaming of trips, journaling, fiddling with equipment.

boonie: "... fiddling with equipment. "

Yes! Fiddling with equipment. And some futzing.

straighthairedcurly: "Swimming, swimming and more swimming. On hot afternoons and evenings, I will often swim 3 times. I also take exploratory paddling trips...getting back into little boggy areas or nearby streams. I journal a LOT.


My teenage son likes to hike the areas around a campsite...we make him carry a whistle but so far he hasn't needed it as he has a keen sense of direction. He has found some really cool spots on his hikes that are definitely off the beaten path.


We typically move camp everyday, but if we end up with an especially short travel day, my son and I have been known to just travel to other nearby lakes for something to do while my hubby takes a nap. But hubby likes to fish, so I often spend the afternoon paddling him around...keeps me out of trouble.


On my solo trips, I have been known to paddle more miles on a layover day than on a normal travel day. Hard for me to sit still.


Other activities I do:
Reading
Cards
Photography"

Ahh yes journaling. That is my plan for this years trip. I have a Write In The Rain pad I will be using so I can record my trip and give a full trip report when I return.

I rise at four when the day is coolest and paddle into the gray. I paddle and fish until ten or eleven and then return to camp to eat and bathe. At that point, I've no surplus of energy. It's nap time. The Sun usually wakes me and I'm off to explore. Eat again at four and then back on the water until dark. I'd love some of your excess energy!

fishing, swimming, hammocks, woodcutting, cooking, cleaning.. we are never bored

During summer trips - I don't seem to have an issue keeping busy. Late fall trips, i.e. mid october, I struggle with the lack of sunlight. When the sun sets we cook dinner, then sit around the fire and I feel like i've had enough after about an hour...so that's like 7:30. Now what? Go to bed? Then i'm awake at 4am and just roll around uncomfortably for the next 3-4 hours until the sun comes up. Through the years, i've tried different things, (go to bed, stay up, drink heavily, fish) but i'm not really happy with anything. It gets cold quick at night that time of year and it just seems like there's this 3-4 hour window of darkness that is just a chore to get through.

BSing, fishing, BSing, cutting wood, BSing, swimming, BSing, taking a nap, BSing, watching the fire, and BSing. Most of my trip partners are full of BS, so we have to get it out our system and that pretty much takes the whole trip.

Captn Tony: "BSing, fishing, BSing, cutting wood, BSing, swimming, BSing, taking a nap, BSing, watching the fire, and BSing. Most of my trip partners are full of BS, so we have to get it out our system and that pretty much takes the whole trip."

Sounds like a bunch a BS to me :)

On short travel days and on layover days I try to paddle the entire shoreline of the lake I'm camping on. So much to see and discover! I feel bad when I just pass through.
I read a lot and always have 2 or 3 books along.

JWilder: "

Captn Tony: "BSing, fishing, BSing, cutting wood, BSing, swimming, BSing, taking a nap, BSing, watching the fire, and BSing. Most of my trip partners are full of BS, so we have to get it out our system and that pretty much takes the whole trip."

Sounds like a bunch a BS to me :)"

Man, I don't need the BW to do that ... ;)

Loony_canoe: "I usually go on off trail hikes into the woods. In my younger years, the goal was to find the highest hill top to get cell reception, just to contact my wife and see if reception was possible. Now I do it for pleasure and use the higher vantage points to see as far as I can. I like seeing the forest areas with little to no human contact. I take a small pack with water, snacks, compass and map. Odd as it sounds, it is easy to get lost. So I caution against sane people doing this.
I also scout shorelines when possible. I like looking at the water transition and shore line fauna. Clambering over rocks uses up excess energy fast.


I agree with the above. When solo I tend to tinker around camp (getting the perfect tarp pitch) and gather/cut wood. I take more time transitioning camps and tend to travel further. "

I too like to explore behind and beyond the campsite. I always do so expecting to see forest areas with less human contact, but more often than not find remains of past people. Old cut stumps, metal cookware and cans, glass bottles. Regardless of whether the forest is truly untouched or not, getting deeper into the woods and past the heavily impacted campsite is one of my favorite parts of BWCA trips.

Captn Tony: "BSing, fishing, BSing, cutting wood, BSing, swimming, BSing, taking a nap, BSing, watching the fire, and BSing. Most of my trip partners are full of BS, so we have to get it out our system and that pretty much takes the whole trip."

Sounds like Deer Camp during gun week in Ohio

Canoearoo: "fishing, swimming, hammocks, woodcutting, cooking, cleaning.. we are never bored"

Same for our crew. I would add that we always like to do one day of bushwhacking into an unnamed lake. We usually do this at the midpoint of our trip and some years it's a bust and some years it's one of the highlights.

papalambeau: "

Canoearoo: "fishing, swimming, hammocks, woodcutting, cooking, cleaning.. we are never bored"

Same for our crew. I would add that we always like to do one day of bushwhacking into an unnamed lake. We usually do this at the midpoint of our trip and some years it's a bust and some years it's one of the highlights."

My dad and I have done this in the past as well. On one of these adventures, we returned to our shored canoe and found (and I can't make this up) fresh bear, wolf, and moose poop all within a 60 yard radius of the canoe. There is an off-chance that we overlooked at least one of those feces piles in our excitement to begin our adventure. However, the moose poop almost certainly happened while we were hiking. I found the moose poop at the front of the canoe on both sides when we returned. So strange and a bit eerie as we were deep into the bush.

What TuscaroraBorealis said, or rather posted pictures of. Cards, chatting, fire, firewood, and fishing.

I will also take on a project once in a while. One year, I split cedar carefully to make cedar planks to grill the fish on. Another year I made a rack to hold fish above the fire to slow cook or smoke them. Sometimes we just need to keep burning leaves, needles, or somewhat wet wood to try to smoke the bugs out because they are so bad. It varies, but that's what makes it nice. No need to do the same thing every single time.

JWilder: "Most of the day I am physically draining energy. In the evening, after camp is established. I just sit. Look. Listen. Appreciate.


But, then again I am solo….


JW "

This is me as well.

Another solo tripper here. I like to travel as long as I can each day. Once I get to camp It's time to make camp, have dinner, break some wood for a small fire (sometimes). Not a drinker so an edible for me, read some or listen to a book then turn in.