We have a few fun things coming up? We are going to Jay Cooke for Memorial day. Pretty excited to see it after the flooding. I wish the swing bridge wasn't broken. Me and a friend are doing a BW trip in July. Going in at Hegman then heading up to Beartrap. Then hopefully a family trip up to Seagull in Aug. You?

Mike

I'm taking my son, my paddling buddy, and his wife to the Sylvania Wilderness in August. Hope we get cool, bugless, clear nights for the meteor shower!

We go to Chippewa National forest ever year for Memorial day. Then ever other weekend we camp after that. We have 2 bw trips planed as well

Yes, we've made three reservations, not including scout camps, for the summer so far.

A trip to the b-dub in June. Moose EP northeast to Splash, SE to Ima, SW to Snowbank. My 7 year old sons first canoe camping adventure, and our first b-dub adventure as a family. I can hardly wait!

Then a mid July trip to Whitewater SP to do some trout fishing and bluff climbing. We've never been to Whitewater so I'm interested. Trying to talk the wife into pack camping that weekend, but it's tough to convince her when all the amenities are right there! LOL!

And an early October weekend to Banning SP. We LOVE the Kettle river!

quote mirth: "I'm taking my son, my paddling buddy, and his wife to the Sylvania Wilderness in August. Hope we get cool, bugless, clear nights for the meteor shower!"

when is the meteor shower in august?

Perseids, peaks around 8/12.

So excited to have the chance to finally indoctrinate grandchildren this year. You do the "math"...

2 BWCA grandparents + 1 (7 y/o + 6 y/o + 5 y/o + 4 y/o) + 2 canoes + (?#) packs + 2 lakes + 1 30 rod portages + 1 sandy beach base camp x 3 days in August = infinite memories and fun!

Goin up to Maine at the end of june. Stopping in Niagra Falls Canada, Plymouth MA, Bar Harbor Maine (Acadia National), Lake Sabego then working our way home.

quote ripple: "So excited to have the chance to finally indoctrinate grandchildren this year. You do the "math"...


2 BWCA grandparents + 1 (7 y/o + 6 y/o + 5 y/o + 4 y/o) + 2 canoes + (?#) packs + 2 lakes + 1 30 rod portages + 1 sandy beach base camp x 3 days in August = infinite memories and fun!"

How fun! What are some of the activities you have planned for them? We'll be going up with our kids again in Aug.-ages 14,11 + 8. I am hoping to fine a sandy campsite or one with a good rock to swim off of.

quote paddlefamily: "

quote ripple: "So excited to have the chance to finally indoctrinate grandchildren this year. You do the "math"...
2 BWCA grandparents + 1 (7 y/o + 6 y/o + 5 y/o + 4 y/o) + 2 canoes + (?#) packs + 2 lakes + 1 30 rod portages + 1 sandy beach base camp x 3 days in August = infinite memories and fun!"

How fun! What are some of the activities you have planned for them? We'll be going up with our kids again in Aug.-ages 14,11 + 8. I am hoping to fine a sandy campsite or one with a good rock to swim off of. "

We have tons of fun car stuff to do. None of the kids have ever been on a long drive and they are addicted to video games for even around town- so we are going to try to make them have fun without electronics... Plastic Lap Tray Desks Coloring books, little toys, tons of snacks...
-I have a cool scavenger hunt idea- pictures of various things to find at the campsite that I have made into card size laminated collections for pairs of kids to hunt down.
-A campsite bingo game I also made and laminted.
-The ice cream ball for the first day while ice will last.
-Fishing-lots of fishing.
-I have some other of fun games as back up if they are bored- from this great book The 175 Best Camp Games - flashlight tag with their headlamps, redlight/green light, 7 up, funny camp songs, Fire Color Changer
- then I have and disposable cameras, Light Sticks for night lights in the tent....
- We have started the gearing up for them- Sleeping bags , Packs, Portage boots, Sporks
-Each kids is getting a little bag of things to use around the site. I found these amazing plastic magnifying glasses at Amazon Jumbo Magnifiers
- We have T-shirts we made for them (Camp Grandma & Grandpa), we made fleece camp pillows with fleece they had fun picking out with me one weekend- along with reading so many great books listed in another thread- we are building the excitement
- Finally my favorite idea- We are going to write a book (journal as we go and take pictures) so the kids will have a book to remember the trip.

Can you tell we are excited?

Ripple...I'm going to have to comb through your list slowly! Looks fantastic.

Love your campsite scavenger hunt idea. I did that one year...went over really well.

One of our fav car games that appeals to many ages is something like this scavenger hunt. Kids draw a car that has them search for specific signs or vehicles or animals, etc.

Our kids killed many hours doing this. There are others out there that are specific...like "In the City" or "In the Country" cards.

The grandchildren (6) are my husband's daughters (2) kids. Neither of the girls ever had a world where they knew how to build memories like these. His ex evaporated with them in a time an place where Dad's rights were not very well protected. His heart aches for all the time he missed with them- this trip is a way to make some of the wrong- right.

I raised 5 kids who were experts at traveling across country by car 2-3 times per year. My now 20-30 year old kids report their best memories are of long car drives and camping trips. I know these kids will have great memories- but my fear is they are a bit "soft" never having a time without the electronics and TV. It is something we feel strongly the kids need from us- a sense that world is bigger than they see everyday. A new set of "googles" to know how to have fun

Did the first weekend "car camping" trip to break the kids in. We wanted it to be a low key- guaranteed fun time-just overnight to be sure not to be scary. We went to Chain o Lakes in Illinois where Grandpa grew up. We stopped by earlier in the week to be sure the fish were biting, made sure the weather would be perfect and took them for 36 hours of "perfect" camping. The result... both kids can't stop talking about the next trip where we go to the "real" woods in BWCA!!!


Grandpa teaching the kids how to fish
1st cast- first fish!
2nd cast first fish!
Big Tent! Best fun..
S'mores seal the deal!

Ripple, love those sticky smore filled smiles! It looks like your devious plan to hook them for life is working like a charm.

I am still job hunting so I can't get too firm with my plans that far ahead this summer. So for now we are heading up to the Brule area later this week for our longest trip yet and then hopefully another trip up to base camp at Sawbill for the 4th of July with day trips out of Sawbill EP.

Taking the family to Starved rock State park for a good time next week. Then taking oldest boy, 7, to BWCA with a buddy and his 6 and 14 year old daughters. Will be first canoe trip for all the kids, should be a hoot!

I have never heard of Starved Rock State Park. I just googled it and it looks gorgeous.

Have a great trip!

Starved Rock was one of the first trips we took with my kids. It is an amazing spot.

Another really beautiful place to head is Mississippi Palisades- These are some ancient pictures but they give you an idea of another great family spot in Illinois.



Matthew is now 33 years old with 3 kids, Daniel just graduated grad school- and teaches Environmental Education.

The trails have spectacular views-

Thats great, you guys are making me excited!

Lots of great trips! So fun to read about.

Starved Rock and Mathiessen State Parks were awesome!!!! I can't believe I have lived so close to them and never heard of them. I will be going back soon to explore some more. The kids loved hiking up the canyons and playing in the water.

Just got back from a 4 night trip with my 9 and 10 year old daughters. Fish were not biting, but the bugs sure did! Kids had a blast catching crayfish, fire fly's, dragon fly's and swimming all day long. Savored every moment.

Bud - I passed by Starved Rock on the way to/from a canoeing overnight with the Scouts last weekend. Seems like its pretty close to our area, maybe a 2 hour drive?

quote George: "Just got back from a 4 night trip with my 9 and 10 year old daughters. Fish were not biting, but the bugs sure did! Kids had a blast catching crayfish, fire fly's, dragon fly's and swimming all day long. Savored every moment."

Where did you go?

Just got back from a trip. Brule bay baby II

(You'll have to scroll through the first 8-10 comments.)

quote mirth: "Bud - I passed by Starved Rock on the way to/from a canoeing overnight with the Scouts last weekend. Seems like its pretty close to our area, maybe a 2 hour drive?"

Yep about two hours, and really awesome.

quote bumabu: "

quote mirth: "Bud - I passed by Starved Rock on the way to/from a canoeing overnight with the Scouts last weekend. Seems like its pretty close to our area, maybe a 2 hour drive?"

Yep about two hours, and really awesome."

I realize that it still January....but has anyone put anything on their calendar (even wistfully) about paddling trips for this summer? Can you tell winter's been a long time coming :)?

We're going to Knife in June again this year. My 5 year old boy is going and I'd love to take my 3 year old but unless he makes some huge strides he's still gonna be in diapers which is a road I'm not going down. I can't wait!

quote DeanL: "We're going to Knife in June again this year. My 5 year old boy is going and I'd love to take my 3 year old but unless he makes some huge strides he's still gonna be in diapers which is a road I'm not going down. I can't wait!"

That will be a great trip no matter how your "crew" works out :) We're going in LIS north over Memorial Day weekend. Might get up Sawbill over 4th of July. My wife teaches so we have to work around 3 day weekends in the summer until mid-July. Anybody else?

we have all kinds of trips planed but I pulled Jury duty for July, so I'm not sure what we are doing yet

My wife, sister-in-law, and I along with our combined 5 kids between ages 7 and 10 will be doing an estimated 10 day BWCA trip departing from #25 at Moose lake at the end of July into August. Trying to get all the planning lined up but very excited.

I have been holding back making plans due to job hunting but have now thrown caution to the wind and started carving out chunks of time off from my current job.


So far I have a Mother's Day camping cabin trip with another family and the boys, a 10 day BWCA solo trip in mid May, a BWCA trip with another family and the boys in early August, a long weekend over the Labor Day weekend as a possible trip to Texas,and maybe another long weekend BWCA trip in with the boys over MEA weekend in Mid October.



Hopefully a new job won't ruin all my careful planning:-)

We are going in LIS over Memorial Day. Also doing Sawbill up to Cherokee over the 4th. Floating the St.Croix with another family over June 6-8 and staying at Wild River...then there will be the Algonquin trip in late July...should be a few new scratches on our champlain by that time :)