My question is how does everyone pack...do you let the kids each have a small backpack with their clothes in it or do you try to get it all in one canoe pack? I am thinking with four sleeping bags, a tent, cookware, etc. there's going to be no room for our clothes in our canoe pack. Does that mean two canoe packs, but then there's food, etc. How do you minimize the gear you take? We are looking at doing a trip next year with minimal portages, but I still see the need to minimize gear. Any suggestions?? Thank you!

Give each kid their own 'pack' that they use to carry some of their stuff in. By stuff I mean a teddy bear, crayons/coloring books, or other 'comfort' items.

If they're older then I say they help out w/the real load, maybe one of the lightest packs like one that has the mats & sleeping bags in for example.

I'm planning on taking my 9 year old son (will be 10 when we go) on his first trip next summer and I fully expect him to be able to portage the lighter pack w/our light stuff while I get the heavier pack. I'll help him get it on & off if he needs help, of course.

So do you have 2 packs - one with clothing and the other with sleeping pads/bags in it? What about food? And then who carries what when you portage? Do you make multiple trips?

We took our oldest a couple summers ago when she was 5. She carried her own small pack (CCS Rucksack) that had her sleeping pad, clothes, and personal things like stuffed animal, markers, coloring books, books.

We single tripped the portages. Many people make multiple trips, even without kids along. That's what we did our first couple trips.

We had one big pack that had the food, cooking stuff(stove, fuel, pots/pans/, dishes etc), and other misc. camp gear. I carried that pack w/ the canoe.
A second big pack was the tent stuff..... tent, 3 sleeping bags, 2 sleeping pads, clothes for the 2 adults, camp shoes etc. And a small day pack with things that we need quick access to like fishing tackle, rain gear, first aid kit, snacks, water bottles, etc. My wife carried those two packs(small one stacked on top of the big one) and the paddles. While our daughter carried her own pack.

So, for 2 adults and 1 kid we had 2 big packs and 2 small packs.

When we add our younger daughter to the mix we will have 2 big packs and 3 small packs.

Next summer our daughter will be 7 and her pack will most likely have her sleeping bag added to the other stuff she had in it when she was 5.


Have fun! Taking kids to the BWCA is a great gift.

Sorry, I don't know what happened w/ the pics being so far down. I even tried putting them in between the last 2 paragraphs.

Thank you so much for the info! That helps with my planning immensely!

Ducks,

Two questions:

What route did you take? Where the portages very tought. We tried the same with my 5 year old son last year and he was unable to carry his pack on the portages, it got to heavy. How did your daughter do carrying the pack on the portages?

2. How did your wife attach the second small pack on top of the larger pack so that it did not fall down?

Also, what kind and size of packs do you have?

5 people= 5 Duluth packs that DH and i carry across. Oldest is now 7 and she carries a back pack with all our rain gear in it, second will be carrying all the kids rain boots and shoes in her pack. Hubby and I take the rest.. Dog carries her own pack.

the youngest (2 at the time) got to ride on top of a duluth pack on my back this summer. he loved that lol

quote moose664788: "Ducks,


Two questions:


What route did you take? Where the portages very tought. We tried the same with my 5 year old son last year and he was unable to carry his pack on the portages, it got to heavy. How did your daughter do carrying the pack on the portages?


2. How did your wife attach the second small pack on top of the larger pack so that it did not fall down?


"

1. EP 36 Hog Creek to Perent Lake. It was an easy route as far as portaging. Great trip for kids. 2 short portages. 10 rods from the car down to the creek and another 12 rod portage on the creek, plus a few beaver dam pull overs. It's an hour and a half to 2 hours twisting down the creek plus another hour plus on Perent looking for a campsite so she had plenty of adventure without having to portage much. She did great on the portages and wanted to carry a pack like mommy and daddy. It's tough to say how long of a portage she would have handled w/ the pack at that age. 20-40 rods maybe??? She was and still is 90 plus percentile for height and weight and she is a tough little bugger.

2. My wife doesn't attach the smaller pack. She just sets it on top. She just moves it around a little bit until it's balanced right. She says she can "feel" when it's good. It has never fallen off. She did it that way on 2 other trips without the kiddo so it works on longer portages too. Our last trip entering and exiting at Skipper EP 49 had a 320 rod portage to start and finish.

Here's a pic of her 2 pack method from another trip w/ 2 different packs.

quote kimmycanoe: "Also, what kind and size of packs do you have?
"

My pack (food/gear pack) has two 30 liter blue barrels in it and is call the Red Rock SuperPack

My wife's pack (tent/clothes/sleeping gear) is a CCS... Cooke Custom Sewing Guide Pack which is the biggest of their Hybrid Packs. Before we bought that when it was on sale for 30 percent off we used a Cabelas Boundary Waters II backpack in the large size (it's the blue pack in the picture below) Sorry, for some reason I couldn't get the link thing to work for the cabelas pack but you can go to the cabelas website to look at it and get the size dimensions.

Here is a pic of our stuff before and after it's packed for one of our trips with just my wife and I. Everything in the pic besides the fishing poles, the map case, and green bow bag by the orange backpack went in the pack in front of it.

Here's my two girls portaging:



The big girl (12) has our rain gear in that pack and our day food (lunch, snacks). She actually cannot carry very much weight due to medical issues. The little one (age 3 in the picture) has her own little pack and it had some toys in it and maybe a polar fleece sweatshirt.

Our other packs: One internal frame pack that I carry, and it's not very big. We had our food in there. Then we had two big packs, one with clothes and sleeping bags, and the other with gear/tent. At least I think that is how it went. It seemed like a lot of stuff, but when I'd go through it, I couldn't see where to pare down. Packing for the whole family was a job, I admit.

How old are your kids? Where in Wisconsin are you? We are in Madison.

We are in Hartford, not too far from Madison. My boys are 4 years old.

We are in Hartford, not too far from Madison. My boys are 4 years old.

One great thing is that we hardly brought any toys and they were not needed. We had a couple games (cards, dice) in case of much rain (didn't use). We had one puzzle book that the older one used. The little one had two small wooden toys, two small stuffed animals (the kind that came with happy meals at some point...very small and cheap), two dip nets (oops, one ended up on the bottom of Lizz Lake) and we had a packable sand toy kit, which is really awesome. It folds flat. We only got it out once, though. Rocks, sticks, weeds, etc. were their main toys. For in the canoe, the little one had her own paddle, which was great. Highly recommend that. Then she had a boat on a string which was great, too. That's all. And we could have had less. They find their own fun. Of course, had it rained...I'm sure we would have used these things more. If I were to really skimp on toys, I would skimp on the regular ones and make sure I had things for in the canoe (the paddle and boat) because they are confined then and can't explore. Also...I would have brought more snacks. Antsy kid in the canoe? Feed it. ;-)

Kids all had their own waterproof backpack. Sized like a school pack it could carry all their own clothing and sometimes their sleeping bag if cold-weather clothing not needed.



That got them in the habit of carrying their packs and in addition we would have one pack with tent/adult clothing and one pack with food/kitchen gear.

Then kids got bigger and stronger (and their clothing got bigger too) and we started merging stuff into larger packs. Cinching down the packs and NOT filling them, means a kid can still easily carry an adult pack. So now, for five of us, we may have 3-4 packs. Superior One can fit all sleeping shelter stuff for five (sleeping bags, pads, tent, tarps, etc.). Another pack is all food/kitchen. Third pack might be clothing for all three kids. Fourth pack two adult clothing and miscellaneous. Again, I would rather every person carry a lighter pack than some not carry a pack...

nojobro - we have that packable sand toys kit...awesome! the kids love them and they are so easy to carry. When we car-camp we really don't bring too much as far as toys go. The kids end up playing in the sand, with sticks and rocks, etc. We usualy bring a few little trucks and things and that's about it.

So, what would you suggest I pack for a 4-year old for a 4 day trip in late August??