What's the best animal encounter you've had with your kids while camping/canoeing?

We were camping in Chippewa national forest with our oldest who was 6 weeks old at the time. Had settled in for the night in the tent and heard wolfs howling. Thought it was cool and thought nothing of it. A little later they got closer.. then a little later closer. It was late by the time the entire pack were in our camp running past our tent. It was spooky but neat. My hubby was very unhappy about the situation convinced the wolfs were out to get our baby. He had the bear mace and a knife ready and had me and her in the middle of the tent should any of these choose to come in. Of course none did and they left just as they came.

We have seen a number of moose with the kids over the years. Saw mamama and calf swimming on Brule. Kids loved that. We got close enough for all to see but not to close to bother the mama

I have lots of other stories but the kids weren't with on those

Hmmmm, my kids are kind of like bear-repellant only for all animals! Nothing is going to be surprised by us when we're coming through the woods.

We did have a loon accidentally surface maybe 3' off the bow once... and in our metro lake, a loon preened for 30+ minutes while we swam maybe 20' away.

Saw otters playing when eldest was almost 1 (BW trip), but she doesn't remember that. That was cool for me...

I do recall seeing moose near the BW with kids - the kids were SLEEPING in the car at the time, ha! And a wolf crossed the road and ran alongside our car once on Hwy 1 headed toward Ely.

Oh, I know! Last fall there was a bear in camp when oldest dd and I and her friend were sleeping (tent/BWCA). Oldest kept waking us up about the bear, but we other two were too sleepy to care. Finally we shouted about how there were three strong women in the tent and the bear should go somewhere else. Bear rolled some kitchen logs, but didn't get any food or do any damage. Makes for a good story, but not as exciting as seeing one somewhere more "natural".

The best one with my kids along has to be seing 5 moose in about 30 minutes. We were taking a "secret" shortcut that I have in the Boundary Waters to my favorite bass fishing lake. As we paddled up the stream we saw a cow and a calf on the shoreline. They let us watch them for several minutes. When we hit the portage, my youngest daughter (who was about 5) was carring the sleeping bag pack and keeping right on tail as we scurried over the portage. When we got to the end of the portage there was another cow and calf a short distance away. Then we heard some brush break and a little bull stepped out into the stream about 100 yards away! I have paddled all over the BWCA and Quetico and have never seen that many moose in that short of time.

My other really cool thing that I saw and heard was when I was guiding a party on Jackfish Lake in the BWCA. It was late afternoon and we were startled by a ripping noise coming from high above us. We both looked skyward and could not see anything. A few seconds later, we could see 2 small dots that where getting bigger and bigger. Eventually we could recognize them as bald eagles with their wings tucked tight to their body, basically doing a free fall toward the water. When they were about 15 yards directly over the canoe, they spread the wings and missed hitting the canoe by a couple of feet.

On Auroras' very first trip we seen this guy.

In the past we have only seen animals while we are driving in the car!

I think it might have something to do with the fact that we are always deep in some sort of discussion while we paddle or hike... deep discussions such as who is the "god" of martial arts... what would you do if you won the lottery... who isn't paddling enough... when is lunch time... are we stopping anytime soon for a bathroom break...

This year we will start having quiet periods to try to see some nature!

Crooked Paddler + TuscaroraBorealis- Cool moose encounters!

The only creature encounters we've had with kids are fox, assorted birds (they love whiskey jacks) and grouse.

They too, are too noisy for us to encounter much. We spend a lot of time looking for 'signs' of animals. That is by far more successful. :)

@luft & @paddlefamily, whew! Thought my kids were the only ones incapable of tripping in silence :)

@crooked - WOW, that eagle encounter was amazing. Do you think they thought you were a large pike? Or were they just showing off. Wild.

I wish I knew! It was probably the most amazing sight I have ever seen. It was like watching two meteors appear out of the sky! I thought them might go right through the bottom of the canoe!

quote CrookedPaddler1: "I wish I knew! It was probably the most amazing sight I have ever seen. It was like watching two meteors appear out of the sky! I thought them might go right through the bottom of the canoe!
"

back when my cat was a kitten (Before kids) I walked down to our river holding him. I sat down by the river and looked up in time to see a huge eagle swooping down with talons showing ready to try and take my kitten right out of my arms! I put him under my shirt and ducked down. That bird came with in feet of me. I now know what an eagle looks like through the eyes of pray. Its wing span was at least 6 feet.

They are truley amazing animals! My wife and I used to run a small resort on Fall Lake. One day we had some fishermen come in off the lake and say there was an injured eagle in the bay next to the resort. I went and looked and didn't see it, so I assumed it had gotten its wings wet and once they dried he was able to fly away.

Several hours later, another fishermen came in and said there was an injured eagle in the bay next to the rsort. I went back and sure enough it was sitting on a small island in the bay. I tried to call the game wardens and the ornithologist from the college. Eventually I got a hold of of the wardens. He told me to go catch it in a big net and put it in a dog kennel and he would be out in the morning to look.

So my wife and I took a big fish net and an extra dog kennel and caught the eagle in the net, then used vet wrap to hold the wings in toward its body and put it in the kennel. We got it back to the resort and it spent the night in our living room! The next morning everyone came out and tried to release it. It flew a few feet and we had to go catch it again. Once we caught it they took it to the vet clinic where it was discovered that it had a huge cut that was infected on its chest.

At the time, Northwest Airlines was still running a flight to ely, so they rushed it to the airport and had it flown down to the raptor center at the U. Unfortunately it died in route. But it was pretty amazing to see these majestic birds that close!

Just after we left the parking lot at the Hog Creek (#36)Entry Point on our way home from our oldest daughter's first trip a wolf ran across the dirt road in front of us. It was huge and beautiful. One bound out of the woods onto the road and one bound into the woods on the other side and it was gone.

A couple years ago we were fishing the lake our family cabin is on. We were taking the boat home so we dropped the truck/trailer off at the boat launch parking lot early in the day. Later that afternoon after fishing, we drove the boat to the launch and loaded it on the trailer. As we drove away from the launch down an asphalt country road I noticed something on the road. Lots of somethings. I slowed down and the road had snakes all of it. Garter snakes and copper bellies. All sunning themselves in the hot sun of the early fall. The kids loved this. We slowed down to drive around them as they stuck their heads out the windows to see them. After a bit, we stopped so they could get out and get a little closer to them. It was pretty neat. There were hundreds os snakes over about a 1/2 mile stretch of road.

The resort owners on Lac Seul have found a way to get rid of all of their walleye carcasses. They take them to an island and dump them all over some rocks. The owner told me to go with and help out and see an amazing site.

So I got up early and went with. There had to be 25 or 30 Bald Eagles waiting patiently for us to spread out their breakfast. Very cool.

before my oldest son's first trip, my mother—bless her heart—said to him, "maybe you'll see a moose!" i cringed, knowing that moose sightings are relatively rare. i didn't want him to get his hopes up. driving up the sawbill trail on our way in, we came up over a rise, and there is a cow slowly crossing the road. she looked at us as i fumbled to pull out the camera. by the time the shutter clicked, she had vanished in the woods. i should never doubt the grandmother!

on this most recent trip with my second son, we saw a young bear swimming between two islands on sawbill—about 20 minutes from the ep. that was the first bear i've seen in the northwoods! i guess the berry crops have been bad this year, driving the bears to travel more for food.

in both cases, it was a highlight of the trip to see a big mammal! when anyone asks son #2 about his trip, his stock response starts with a list of wildlife: we saw a bear, a snake, a crayfish with blue claws, a mouse, a red squirrel, and like 10 loons. kids dig animals!

mogos- that is amazing. you gotta take those kids everytime! :)

our kids make so much noise that we could leave the food bags out the entire trip (however we don't).