BWCA How unprepared were you on your 1st trip? Boundary Waters Listening Point - General Discussion
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papalambeau
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02/03/2022 10:46AM  
As we're all making plans for our upcoming trips I can't help but think of where we have come from since that first BW trip. Our first trip was in 1990 and we had the following rookie mistakes:

- No real packs for the BW. We used duffle bags, gym bags and athletic equipment bags. Looked like a garage sale on the portages.
- No boots, sandals or crocs. Just wet tennis shoes that stayed wet the whole trip.
- No pads on the yoke. It bit into our shoulders something fierce.
- Didn't know you could shower up at an outfitters at the end of a trip. We rode the 8 hours back home smelling like a swamp!

And it is still one of my all time favorite trips. Saw 5 moose (3 bulls) and had great fishing. Hooked for life!
 
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AirPrex
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02/03/2022 11:10AM  
I think your first mistake is the one that hurt us the most and we see a lot every trip. A bunch of smaller bags holding just a few things, a separate tackle box/bag to carry, poles and paddles in hand across portages. Having everything contained in portage packs and paddles/poles bungee dealee bob'd to the canoe probably cut our portage time in half and made life much easier. We've had a lot of new groups ask what the BDB's are when they see how neatly everything is strapped down on either end of a portage.
 
WonderMonkey
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02/03/2022 11:13AM  
I felt I was very prepared as a first-timer. I owe this to the fact I'm a backpack camper and treated a canoe trip as an extension of that, AND that I came to this site and interacted quite a bit. You fine people helped educate me. Of course, I learned quite a bit, but for a first-timer, I felt good.

Edit: I'll say that I OVER-PREPARED, which was good for our group, but heavy portages. I could not eliminate a portage trip or a pack, but could be a bit lighter. My canoe (two people) had three packs. One each and a shared one for food and some other things. If my buddy took both packs, which would be a chore for him, we could single portage and then go back and help the group. My goal is to approach a single portage on a solo trip for easier portages. On harder portages, I'd double it up.

So in reality, I think that taking too much is NOT being prepared, depending on your point of view. Again, for my first time, I felt like we did a good job.
 
02/03/2022 12:27PM  
so VERY underprepared, the results would have made a hilarious youtube.

duffel bags, coolers on wheels and not on wheels, a rambunctious dog, 4 adults without a clue, a young child with even less of a clue, blueberry muffin mix with the can of blueberries (which the bear really enjoyed), too much stuff.

went in at sawbill, i know we did at least one portage and the men carried the canoe with gear in it, right side up.

about the only thing we did right was to get the food tied way up and out on a tree branch, but the bear still got it and made a mess for what seemed like miles throughout the woods around our camp. we collected as much as we could find and hauled it out with us.

i won't even go into moving camp during the darkest part of the night after one guy shot multiple bullets "toward" the bear... yes, someone brought a handgun which became known when the shots rang out.

dog barking, kid screaming, adults throwing tent and parts into canoe, paddling off to find a spit of land to sleep until daybreak.

ugggh... this was early 1980's so i'm a little fuzzy on what the rules were then. i know only the trip leader went in the ranger station for the permit.

oh, and driving the wrong way down the only one way street in grand marais. probably people shook their heads at the tourists who needed to get in the liquor store.

after this trip i changed my college major from psychology to public recreation, eventually getting an internship at a resort/outfitter to finish out my degree and spent 1/2 my current life helping people be more prepared than i was on my first trip.
 
02/03/2022 12:35PM  
Because my first BWCA/Q trip (1978) was through BSA's Northern Tier/Charles L Sommers Canoe Base, I was well prepared. The crew of nine was in three canoes. Each canoe had two packs; one was group gear and the other was clothes/personal effects. At each portage one person carried the canoe (Alumacraft, ~70#) and the other two carried the packs. Worked great.

When my wife and I did our first trip in 1979, we used a similar strategy that has served us well for 40+ years. She carries a gear/food pack while I carry the canoe and a light (but bulky) pack with sleeping bags, sleeping pads, etc. We're still single-walking portages in our early 70s.

TZ
 
02/03/2022 12:43PM  
No spare paddle on a trip down the Granite/Pine Rv from Gunflint Lk to Sag in the early 1970’s. Within the first couple of hours on the first day we dumped and one of our paddles (mine) and the map case which I was sitting on, disappeared down the river. Fortunately they turned up in an eddy below the rapids.
 
02/03/2022 01:22PM  
May of1979, CBO on Moose provided full outfitting and my friend had provided a list of personal gear. Through Prairie Portage and up to Kawnippi and back. I learned how to paddle and camp in the wilderness from Hal. Gear prepared and with a great guide but totally unprepared for how it would change my life.
 
ockycamper
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02/03/2022 01:56PM  
We knew we were not prepared for our first trip. We booked a trip with an outfitter in Ely that was full service. . .we brought only our clothes. He provided packs, sleeping bags, air mattresses, tents, all cooking gear, all food in food packs, water filtration and a sat phone. Best decision we have made. We had done many years of river camping, but not wilderness/canoe camping. After that year, we went out and bought our own gear based on what he supplied us, and reading up on line. From then on, we only rented canoes.
 
andym
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02/03/2022 03:12PM  
We were lucky in that our first trip was with friends who had done several trips. We also found Cliff Jacobsen's basic book on BWCA camping very helpful. It helped that we had done plenty of other wilderness camping and had canoeing experience. We even did some practice paddling before the trip and battled some worse conditions during those practice sessions than during the trip. We just hadn't mixed the two. Honestly, it was a great trip and went very smoothly. And we've been glad to share that process with others.

OK, there was one tiny bit we learned right up front. Because we hadn't mixed canoeing and camping, when we left the EP our friends took off pretty quickly and while trying to keep up, we didn't have the canoe trimmed well, hit a head wind, had a lot of trouble making headway, and fell behind our friends. Got that fixed at the first portage and it was good from there on. We did learn to take it slow at the beginning of a trip with newcomers and make sure they aren't having any problems.

The new thing on our first trip was when my wife realized that it was the first time she had gone wilderness camping for fun. All of her backpacking trips had been for geology field work.
 
pswith5
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02/03/2022 03:13PM  
Being the youngest of 7 I learned at a young age to "roll with the punches" . Have always adapted well. IMO. First trip cold and rainy. No problem. Shared my extra clothes with two other guys because they were struggling. I still think I adapt well.
 
MikeinMpls
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02/03/2022 04:06PM  
My first trip to the BWCA was with a 4-H group in 1976. We paddled the Granite River route, entering through the Magnetic Lake EP. In the weeks leading up to the trip, I worked diligently to get my stuff organized and "wired tight." I thought I had my act together. I had my army surplus duffel bag. Inside it was my cotton Sears sleeping bag and my clothes organized by type with little identification tags at the top of each bag. My sleeping bag barely fit into the duffel bag but I managed to make it fit if I rolled it up really tight.

The night before the trip I slept in my canvas single wall A-frame tent with no floor, wooden poles at both ends, staked out to hold the tent tight.

Then the trip starts. I realize that the Army surplus duffel bag is not the best idea for portaging my stuff. I also realized that I brought too much stuff, and that I simply did not need a clean pair of jeans for every day, nor did I require the heavy leather alpine mountaineering boots with the Vibram sole, or most of an entire cook kit. Then the canoe got some water in it, just by wet feet. Unfortunately, said duffel bag was in the water. At the time I did not know it was in the water and only learned of it when I took out my sleeping bag. Shit.

It was about this time in the trip that I also realized that stuff packed tight actually expands. So my organizational attempts were set aside just to get all my shit into the bag in order to close it.

By the time I abandoned my organizational efforts to simply survive the trip, I made two promises to myself: first, I loved this place and I will come back. And when I do, I will do things differently. And I did both.

Mike
 
Loony_canoe
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02/03/2022 04:51PM  
True rookies, we had no idea what to expect and relied on the BWCA seasoned person in the group. I didn’t expect it to be freshman hazing. The new guys were told to carry the large filled metal cooler, full size lantern and fuel (gallon), and a cast iron skillet. Good thing I didn’t have much gear or I wouldn’t have been able to carry it. Lots of good memories, but that cooler was a bear to carry. I still canoe with the seasoned guy and my first canoe partner, so I guess I liked enough to continue going 30 years later.
 
ockycamper
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02/03/2022 05:23PM  
If I had started out with a group that told me to carry a fully packed metal freezer it would be the last trip I took with them.
 
02/03/2022 05:42PM  
My first trip at 16 (1972) was as the guest of a group called the Twin Cities Institute for Talented Youth. It involved a summer course at Macalester and I was in for Creative Writing. Every year the first week they take the group up to the BWCA to open the mind and cleanse the spirit. Yikes. I didn't even know the BWCA existed, had no idea what it was like and what I was in for. Woefully unprepared with my personal gear, thankfully they outfitted the majority of the trip. I had blue jeans, crappy heavy old boots, a big heavy cotton sleeping bag in a too thin trash bag and one of those old plastic flashlights that might have thrown out 20 lumens on its best day.

As luck would have it, I was paired in the canoe with the professor, John Caddy who led the course and was a great guy but was recovering from back surgery. I was the Sherpa for the trip - thankfully at that point I was more than up to the task. The group was probably a dozen or more kids with a couple adults and a quite diverse group, especially for the times. I was a sheltered(pampered?) city kid and was definitely out of my element. Many of them knew each other too, I knew nobody. At some point before the trip I should have asked...What's a portage? I found out.

Besides what I thought was pretty bizarre behavior by some of the group, including pot smoking and skinny dipping, I managed to do alright. I was moderately blown away by the group of people I was with. I was absolutely totally blown away by the BWCA.

On one of the nights they "recommended" that each of us go out and do a solo night on a nearby island, point or campsite. So they dropped me off about 4pm with only my pack and some food to fend for myself. Some of you experienced trippers talk about anxiety or concern on your first solo...imagine the thoughts racing through my mind. Ultimately decided to try and go to bed about 6pm...that didn't work out so well. Got up and got busy gathering wood, starting a small fire and exploring a little and actually did pretty well the rest of the night, learned a good lesson there I have never forgotten. I was almost totally unprepared for the entire trip but much more so for this surprise overnight solo.

Having said all that, I have 45 plus trips under my belt and when I am not up there I am usually planning the next trip. My mind may have been cleared and my spirit cleansed but it was also filled to the brim with sights, sounds and thoughts I wasn't expecting.

I did the trip again the next year with the same group but I was a veteran at that point (ha) an had a different experience, but still amazing. The first trip was out of Lake One to Insula, the second was out of Snowbank, disappointment and beyond.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend this as an introduction to the BWCA but what the heck, I guess it worked.
 
02/03/2022 07:26PM  
We had previously backpacked in the Porkies, had our own gear, knew how to read a map & compass, were in our 20s, so of course we were prepared!

We used external frame packs, a heavy alumnacraft canoe, wanted to single carry over our 1st portage - the long Crab EP, so we tried a 2 person carry by resting the canoe on top of our packs. So when we switched to a 1 person carry we didn’t have yoke pads. And we wore jeans.

On our way out across Burntside a couple flagged us down. The woman had huge hoop earrings (I could imagine getting snagged in the brush). They did not have a map or compass and didn’t know where the ep was. We felt very prepared compared to them!

 
YetiJedi
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02/03/2022 09:04PM  
What an excellent thread! Glad it was posted for the historical perspective alone. :)

We were "over-prepared" for our first trip but volume was a larger issue than weight. I triple portaged and my dad double portaged - into Crab Lake no less - and it was raining. Had an awesome week and enjoyed the experience immensely. I wasn't prepared for how addicting it is to spend time in the BWCA.

On our way out on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, we crossed paths with a group of college guys on the portage. They were bringing in coolers full of ice and beer like it was nothing. As life-long backpackers, this approach was foreign to us!

Again, sure appreciate reading about first trip experiences...only 98 days until my first trip in the spring!
 
02/03/2022 09:21PM  
Went with my buddy Who had been a guide for 3 summers. I’d been back for a week for. Basic training and was in awesome shape. He told me what I needed which I think I pretty much wore military stuff and Jungle boots. He had all the appropriate gear and we had an awesome trip. Did pretty close to 2 weeks in the Quetico. Our food pack was 120 lbs. we weighed it. I got to carry that and my buddy always carried the canoe. Caught fish in Kawa Bay on Kawnipi lake for like 6 days straight. We actually got tired of catching fish and let me tell you that takes a lot. I have no idea why it took me 25 years to go on my next trip. He had finished college and moved out of state. If I’d have been asked again I’m sure I would have caught the bug and gone every year but somehow I didn’t. My parents had just separated like the day before I came home with that being a surprise out of nowhere and with just getting out of basic training I was just in a different mind set.

My second trip in 2019 I studied a lot and went with Northern Tier as an adult adviser. I was paying attention big time and learned everything else I could with putting it into real practice. I lead a trip the next year.

I was lucky in that both my first trips were well organized and led. I did almost flip the canoe on my first paddle stroke after we loaded the canoe at the end of the Gunflint on Saganaga. I got whacked pretty hard with the paddle From the stern! If my buddy hadn’t been so good in a canoe we’d have flipped because I went big on that first paddle stroke!

Ryan
 
02/04/2022 07:57AM  
My first trip was a disaster in some ways and in other ways went better than I thought.

The disaster was our leader had gone many times before with his dad but this was his first time by himself and he had never really paid attention apparently :) One of our buddies…should have played in the NFL…he was 6’4” and weighed 400# but could beat most of the people on here in a race. So a big guy but not especially fat. Our leader just rented a regular 16’ aluminum canoe…it looked like a hat when he portaged :) He was so uncomfortable and such a tight fit his legs fell asleep constantly. Really limited the trip. Poor guy. Plus they tipped once and lost all their fishing gear.

Then our leader guided us on lake one form memory…no maps…we got lost right away.

I steered the canoe by over paddling on one side to turn the canoe…had no idea what I was doing. To the family I T-Boned at the lake 2 portage I apologize again…

What I learned was to reduce gear, plan equipment better especially canoes, how to steer/J stroke, and to use your map to stay found…not just check it occasionally.

T
 
02/04/2022 08:23AM  
I would say I was well prepared for my first trip, as I went with a person who had done the trip before. My husband had experience as a counselor for two summers at Camp Easton for Boys, so he knew about canoe trips. He took time to help me pack and also to help me with scrounging gear that we needed from friends, and to plan for what we would have to rent from an outfitter in order to be successful.

How It All Began, 1971

It was a fairly challenging trip, six days, just the two of us. At that point we didn't have any real gear of our own, and we made do with some items that were not the best (my PFD was a water-ski belt), but we portaged efficiently and we did well overall.

My husband wore old tennis shoes for the first 30 years of his canoe-tripping history, so boots didn't come into the picture for him as soon as they did for me. Never in our lives have had Crocs, never wore sandals on a canoe trip, although we did learn to take a pair of dry tennis shoes for in camp. We had Duluth packs from the beginning, and after our first trip we bought an aluminum cook kit from Canadian Waters, and a used Duluth Pack, both of which we were still using on our last trip 42 years later in 2013.

Of course we added gear over the years, and certainly refined gear as well. Bought our first canoe (17 foot Grumman) in 1973 and our first lightweight canoe (Bell Northwind) in 1998. Spartan1 began about that time to wear draining lightweight boots (after some issues with heel blisters from the tennis shoes). The old ponchos and Army rain jacket became Gore-Tex Pac-Lite rain suits.

But as I look back on the first trip, I wasn't prepared mentally, and I had to get past that. I had some fears to conquer (that was the easiest part, thanks to the confidence and preparedness of my partner) and some stubbornness to get over (this was quickly squashed after I decided to ignore the advice of "wear long pants and a hat!" and ended up with a painful sunburn.) Another improvement for us in canoe-tripping was the invention of sunscreen--in my opinion far more important than bug dope!

Like all of you, we learned. We learned not only what worked and what didn't, but also what we enjoyed and what we did not enjoy. We didn't fish. We learned to plan our trips for a variety of adventures, and I learned to love wilderness photography and journaling. Now we have wonderful books of memories that we can pull out on a winter day for enjoyment, or share with friends and family. And when we decided to hang it up and move to cabin weeks instead of canoe trips, I don't think there were many regrets. Trite as the saying is: "It's all good."
 
02/04/2022 08:27AM  
First trip, 1968, west end Rainy to Grand Portage(we only made it to Long Portage then out to Flour Lake). Fifteen days.

It was a scout trip and we had been on a week trip through Region 7 Canoe Base the year before. We had the fundamentals down and we planned and packed well.
We were not prepared to travel as hard as we needed to. Our breakfasts were wonderful with bacon or sausage, pancakes or French Toast, but we were spending way too much time in camp in the morning. The wind was up for the day before we got under way and that cut our daily mileage a lot. We figured this out by the end of the first week and adjusted, but by then we were a bit behind schedule to make Grand Portage.

We made a good run at it the second week with long days on the water, but still had to bail out at the start of Long Portage.
 
straighthairedcurly
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02/04/2022 08:41PM  
I was only 13 (in 1977) and was fortunate that my first trip was through a camp. It was a 14 day trip. But even with a trained guide, we had a very eventful trip. One girl became hypothermic on a rainy day. A bear stole our big salami. And 2 girls got lost while out fishing on Seagull (or was it Saganaga?...it was before I started carrying a map for myself) and ended up spending the night at another group's campsite because it was getting dark. Personally, I was about as prepared as a 13 year old can be. I had already learned to steer a canoe due to my dad's patient training. I was too small to effectively carry the aluminum canoe, but I was great at carrying the heaviest pack with all the cooking gear. I loved every minute.
 
WonderMonkey
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02/04/2022 08:58PM  
This is a great thread.
 
bottomtothetap
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02/04/2022 09:35PM  
Only one pair of shoes, so wet feet the entire trip. Cast iron pans, milk crates for carrying gear. I brought a plastic kitchen garbage bag to hold my stuff and keep it dry. That lasted for about five minutes. Did not seal food containers and had liquids leak out into our packs. That drew the bears right in. No pad for under the sleeping bag--thought a blanket on the ground would be just fine (it wasn't!).

Gawd, we were unprepared but I had a blast and vowed to come back as often as I could. My 30th trip will be in August.
 
02/04/2022 10:08PM  
We were 5 poor college students who begged and borrowed whatever gear we could. Our misgivings were more of a result of our gear being a culmination of whatever we could get our hands on vs unpreparedness, i.e. two burner coleman stove, Sears tent and blue gas station tarps, and inflatable sleep pads better suited for floating on in the pool. Our packs were heavy and many.

One guy carried the food pack and the canoe and the other a pack on his back and pack on the front and off we went. We were young, strong and it didn't really phase us, we did a loop out of Brule, over to Cherokee, up to Long Island, than over to Winchell and then back down.

We loved every minute of it and were in complete awe of the vastness. We felt like explorers. This was 1999, weekend after fishing opener and we only saw one other party. Far cry from the circus we experienced last year.

 
woodsandwater
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02/05/2022 02:45PM  
For our first couple trips we learned by getting our permit, gear, meals, and a guide through Adventurous Christians off the Gunflint Trail. I learned a lot from them. After a couple years, buying our own gear, planning our own menu, planning our own route, we went on our own. Still had to rent a couple Kevlar boats and some packs, and usually got permits and fishing licenses through an Outfitter. Started padding over 30 years ago and I am still learning and upgrading and applying new stuff I learn.
 
02/10/2022 11:29AM  
I really like this thread!

We were very fortunate as well as unfortunate because I did not know the BWCA existed until a few years ago.

I had the luxury of the internet and this site to help prepare.

We rented a kevlar canoe from VNO and stayed in their bunkhouse.
Very convenient.
Our packs were ok. 2 Walmart specials but adequate but our third pack was a hard frame pack. That thing was horrible.

We did a little training in the woods behind my house. I carried an old fiberglass Sawyer Yankee over my head and my son carried a loaded backpack.

Our biggest, albeit, little mistakes was bringing bag chairs and one of em broke so we had to carry a broken chair around. We took a waterproof food sack that was black and everything in it was always hot. I would keep a wet t-shirt on it while we were paddling to help keep it cool.

We underestimated how exhausting it would be paddling and portaging in 90 degree plus weather and were completely exhausted by the first camp.

I took a full size bow saw like the ones at Christmas tree farms.
I took dishes, pots and pans right out of the kitchen at home.
Didn't realize the difficulty in cleaning soot of pans before re-packing them in the packs.

Buying cheap water shoes was not a good idea.

Always make sure you spare paddle doesn't weigh 8 pounds.

Also never pass a campsite just because you are there early but that was where you planned to stay anyways. Ended up paddling for 12 hours that day.
 
KawnipiKid
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02/12/2022 01:31PM  
Like many posts, most of the things that seem crazy now were just a function of the times (late 1970s): jeans, bad rain gear, wet-footing in tennies, bulky orange PFDs and external frame backpacks. The aluminum canoe was heavy enough that we christened it “Silverado.” Like sedges, we had been to Region 7 Canoe Base as scouts and had a good sense of what to bring and not bring. The main thing that stands out looking back now was risk taking. We crossed big water with wind and rollers without thinking it through. We never thought about exposure in terms of lightning or hazard trees. We also ran lots of river miles in high and cold water. By the mid-80s, we were approaching things much more cautiously, probably due both to growing up a little and to going with girlfriends/wives. The women were just as adventurous, skilled and brave but were decidedly less dumb.
 
MichiganMan
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02/12/2022 03:33PM  
Great thread Papalambeau!

I was blessed with a father who started canoe tripping before I was born, mostly Algonquin and other parts of northern Ontario. My Dad and his buddies were my heroes when I was growing up. I couldn't get enough of their stories and pictures. To me they were true Voyageurs! I can still remember the mildew smell of their gear when they would come back. So I had great mentors when they started taking me along, plus lots of their gear to choose from. I still use some of it, believe it or not. It's been really fun to be able to pass on the outdoor skills they taught me to my son and some of his buddies.

 
02/13/2022 05:35AM  
There were 8 of us, 4 ten year old classmates and their Dads. We triple portaged with a cooler. Took up potatoes, onions, and peppers, one person brought a cooler. I borrowed a aluminum canoe that weighed a least 80 lbs. We borrowed a friends canoe trailer which wouldn't trail the camper because of the wind buffeting from the camper. So after driving about 30 minutes and had to turn around go back home and modify a trailer that I had. We got home 10:00 P.M. and the electricity was going to be turned off at 1:00 A.M. for some maintenance. We got on the road at about 1:00 A.M. and my wife said that the electricity shut off about a minute after we left. I sure our neighbors weren't happy about the lights on, hammering, and the saws buzzing in the middle of the night.
We drove all night, took the kids to iron mine tour at Soudan got our permits at Ely and spent the night in camper by the ep on Snowbank. We cooked a full breakfast in the camper in the morning and were ready to head out when one of the Dads decided that we needed night crawlers so we had to drive to Winton and bought some crawlers. Finally got on the lake about 10:00 A.M. I didn't know how to trim the canoe, didn't know how to pry or draw stroke so when the wind came up I ended up paddling backwards as it was the only way I could make headway.
We had so much gear we tripled portaged. Finally made to the end of Disappointment Lake found a campsite about 2:00 P.M.
Dispite all the stuff we did wrong, I caught the bug and have been going back ever since.
 
papalambeau
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02/14/2022 08:12AM  
Captn Tony reminded me of a few more things that we did or didn't do on that first trip:
- brought potatoes and onions with us that weighed down our food pack something fierce.
- never checked a thing about outfitters so didn't know about bunk houses. We drove all night, slept in the truck by Britton's ( which we just happened to find by chance) and waited for them to open up in the morning.
 
02/15/2022 10:27PM  
My first trip was in the fall of 1966. There were two of us and we had no experience. We had complete outfitting from Canoe Country Outfitters in Ely. Since we had complete outfitting, our gear was standard for the time. But because it was 1966 that is a lot different than today’s gear - 80 lb Grumman Canoe, canvass Duluth packs, Canvass tent, no water filtration, canned goods for food and all cooking over a campfire. But despite having relatively up to date gear for 1966, we had almost no skills. As we went, we learned to paddle in a straight line, to portage a canoe and read a map. Despite what is now outdated gear and our lack of skills, we managed to paddle from Moose to PP, Basswood, the S-chain, Agnes, Kawnipi, Cairn, Sark, Keefer, Kahshahpiwi, Basswood and Moose in 9 nights and 10 days. Most importantly, we had a great, great time.
 
santacruz
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02/16/2022 07:20AM  
The 8 of us sure created some laughs for Pat and Dave at Canadian border Outfitters in the year of 1993. Picture groceries in paper bags, 10 lbs, potatoes, which we ate with all the fish we did catch. We were quick learners. Followed the instructions of leaving tents open while we were gone, only to return after thunderstorms soaked the insides. the good old days, easy to get into Quetico, no hassle, Carp Lake, what a gem,
 
02/16/2022 08:21AM  
First trip to the BWCA was a loop out of Poplar/Lizz out to Winchell and back during the first weekend of October. My wife and I rented a canoe from the UMN rec center and borrowed portage packs and a blue barrel from a friend. That blue barrel included an insulated 64oz growler we filled with Castle Danger on our way up. We had plenty of backpacking experience but not much canoe camping.

Having never portaged a canoe before, the first one from Poplar to Lizz was a struggle. Not knowing the proper technique at the time, I failed my first few attempts at getting the canoe on my shoulders. A guy just finishing the portage showed me what I was doing wrong and gave us some other portaging tips. From then on it was smooth "sailing".

We stopped on Horseshoe for lunch only to discover that our growler full of beer had leaked. Only lost about a 1/3 of the beer, but the barrel smelled like stale beer for the rest of the trip. And yet, no bears found it...

The only other mishap came on our second to last morning. After camping on a beautiful peninsula site on Winchell the night before we were packing up camp and the canoe. It was a cool morning, frost on the grass, but not particularly cold given the time of year. We floated the canoe and loaded it up. I went to take a trip to the latrine before setting off. Upon returning to camp, I find a pile of clothes on shore, our canoe floating about 50 yards away, and my wife frantically swimming towards it. Thankfully she recovered it and made it back to shore. It took some effort to get her dry and warm again, despite the decent weather.

Looking back, we were not prepared for what the weather could have been. We had sunny skies, no rain, and highs in the 50s-60s for three straight October days. If the weather had taken a turn, we would have been out of our league. And that morning dip in Winchell would have been much colder.

 
02/16/2022 08:57AM  
First trip August 2015, just my 9 year old son and myself.

I'd say we were pretty well prepared, mostly due to using an outfitter for most of the gear, and also because of the research done on this website.

Belated thanks to all the members whose posts I read.
 
02/16/2022 11:47AM  
I guess I was as prepared as I needed to be
 
02/16/2022 12:49PM  
My buddies and I grew up camping; lightweight tents, good pads and sleeping bags, and frame less hiking packs. So on that front we were more or less prepared.

However, things like, a proper food bag (used my old military duffel), too much gear (thought we could bring more because, you know, its in the canoe), none of us being in a canoe for a decade or more, and just the scope of the BWCA that threw us for a loop. Oh, and we packed in military MREs (1 each for each meal for each of 6-days) because we were dumb.

Our first trip was also in 2006 during the Cavity Lake fire. Finding a spot to sleep was a nightmare. Every site was full of firefighters and we ended up sleeping on a portage because we were lost. Looking back, yeah, dumb noobs. But we learned.
 
Savage Voyageur
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02/16/2022 01:21PM  
We were not too unprepared on our first trip. We had a small Optimus 8R stove for 4 people, had to eat in shifts. For water treatment we used those iodine tablets. We brought those cheap air mattresses that were made for floating in the lake. Yes they went flat every night. Clothes and gear was brought in duffle bags. We didn’t have the greatest gear but we survived. The second trip we upgraded to a filter, better air mattresses, Duluth packs,
 
02/16/2022 03:37PM  
I cheated! Went in with a history of backpacking and canoeing in Sylvania Wilderness.

butthead
 
DRob1992
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02/16/2022 07:55PM  
My dad handled everything in terms of gear and route planning. I was informed, but he was the mastermind. Seems like he did a solid job. We had too much stuff, but we had everything we needed and the trip turned out great. So I'd say he did a good job.

In terms of my personal physical and mental preparedness, I was so-so. As a 14 year old, I was long and lean but not accustomed to so much portaging and paddling. So it took some getting-used-to physically. Mentally, I struggled a bit at the beginning. I hadn't been that removed from civilization and, initially, craved the ordinary things that 14-year-olds miss while on BWCA trips (greasy burger, friends, etc.). As the trip progressed, though, I discovered that I was staying much more in the moment and really soaking up all the beauty surrounding me.
 
Duckman
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02/17/2022 09:12PM  
Wore some knee high neoprene boots thinking I could stay dry.

Flooded them sinking in the muck thinking the mud 6 inches down at the bottom of Ada Creek was actually the bottom.

Somehow made it to Frost from Sawbill by myself on my first trip. At Frost I didn’t think I’d ever get those dang boots off. Really thought I’d have to cut them off. It was like they were glued on.

Wool socks and keens no matter the temp ever since.
 
02/18/2022 03:10PM  
I was four months old, I live so I think my parents had their stuff together. A bear did rip open the side of our orange TL4 because they left peanut butter inside while fishing...

I took a trip in college and we pretty much forgot to pack food. We fished and whatever, we had water it was all good.
 
Stumpy
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02/18/2022 08:11PM  
bhouse46: "May of1979, CBO on Moose provided full outfitting and my friend had provided a list of personal gear. Through Prairie Portage and up to Kawnippi and back. I learned how to paddle and camp in the wilderness from Hal. Gear prepared and with a great guide but totally unprepared for how it would change my life."


I was working at CBO in 1979.
I'm wondering who your guide was ?
 
02/19/2022 09:16AM  
A picture is worth a thousand words...October of 1992 trip to Disappointment.
 
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