Another thread about gear, complexity, cost and performance caused me to write this. I've been going up since I was in High School - I think my first trip was in 1970. Let's do an essential gear comparison... I'll start.

Sleeping Bag - 1970 - Coleman style cloth/flannel bag weight 6 lbs. 2006 - 30 degree down bag weight 2 pounds and compresses down to 1/5 the size of my Coleman bag.

Clothing - 1970..Wool shirt, jeans and JC Penny work boots with cotton socks. Bandana for a hat. 2006 - Zip off Nylon pants, poly pro long johns, Buzz off long sleeved shirt - Polar fleece vest - Goretex jacket - Quetico Trekkers boots and Smartwool socks - Columbia long billed rainproof fishing cap. Bandana around my neck.

Keep this thread going - I'm not sure even with better gear, that I'll ever be able to match the adventure of that first trip.

My first and only trip to BW/Q was with the Boy Scouts in 1974. Been waiting 30 years to go back, and now to bring my sons (my youngest, fresh back from Iraq, is coming on this one). So for me, the thought of 1970's vs today is perfect.

In 1974 I had such a great time that I have never forgotten. However, I can distinctly remember some not-so-great items that I'll try to resolve on this trip.

The way we travelled was 3 to a canoe. Single portage with 1 man - aluminum canoe, 1 man - pack with personal gear, 1 man - pack with shared gear. I distinctly remember being scared of my turn with the shared gear pack. It was close to twice the weight of the canoe, at least until we ate most of the food. I'm thinking the pack was around 130 lbs and I was 120 lbs at the time. It got dropped in the water a couple of times on Day 1, which didn't help as the TP soaked up a lot of water along with most everything else.

I also remember realizing after a few days that an aluminum canoe in the August sun makes a wonderful reflector that will burn you to a crisp. Putting on the cold, stiff, dripping wet cotton socks and "clodhopper" work boots in the morning makes me grit my teeth to this day.

This August I'll NOT be in an aluminum canoe, will have non-cotton clothing, and my pack for clothing and gear combined is currently running around 25 lbs (without food). Everything is dry-bagged.

My 1970's gear was exactly the same as Beemer's. My 2006 gear is a 5 lb Wenzel tent from '89 or so, 2lb Marmot Polarguard sleeping bag I picked up on clearance. Stainless boiling pot/frypan, Coleman mini butane/propane stove. Smartwool socks (I hate the price, but not quite as much as I hate wet socks in the morning), and I'm currently planning on Keen Taos footwear. Kelty tarp, and a Byer Traveller hammock. Sealline Boundary 70 pack, with various Sealline drybags double-bagging the gear.

This trip will be better than the first, which was worth remembering for 3 decades. I'm hoping it will be one my son remembers just as fondly. Minus the reflector burns, the cold wet socks, and the >100# pack. Never know though, the TP might get wet again just to help even things out.

I can only compare the way I camped as a child here in Arkansas since I did not start coming to the BWCA until 2001... Comparisons:

1970 - Cot, blanket and pillow, later a flannel sleeping bag which I
I still have 35 yrs old weighed about 5 lbs.
2006 - Kelty Down 20 degree bag weighs 2 lbs.

1970 - Canvas 9 x 10 Cabin Tent weight about 75 lbs (at least)
2006 - Eureka Timberline 4XT Tent Weight around 10 lbs.

1970 - Blue jeans, t-shirt, tennis shoes, rainsuit??? what rainsuit?
2006 - Columbia Shorts, Mossyoak Zip-off long pants, lightweight nylon tees, Keen sandals, frogg toggs,

1970 - two burner coleman stove, cast iron cookware aluminum plates
silverware from the house...
2006 - coleman dual fuel stoves, lightweight cookset teflon coated,
plastic plates and the hard plastic utensils.

Times have changed...

Bruce

My first trip was as a youngster in 1974 to the Quetico. Fly In trip for a plane ride price of $50 for all five of us and our gear (I have my dad's diary of the trip and receipts). We wore "Billy Jack" hats (cool at the time), jeans, Penney's hiking boots and the dreaded rain poncho. We ate powdered eggs with bacos and drank Tang mixed from unfiltered water and loved it. Our packs are the same packs I'm taking this year. Duluth (albeit they've been refurbished a bit). We caught walleyes on black foam spiders fished on the bottom (because we didn't know better) and a large smallmouth when I was "cleaning off" the worms I rigged because they were rotten. It is by far one of my favorite memories.

Now, I'm scrambling to buy all the boys nylon pants, waterproof boots, sandals for camp, headlamps, frogg toggs, wool/fleece shirts, etc...my fun-filled, cheap family adventure is turning into a monumental undertaking costing similar to Disney World.

Maybe I'll take a look at those "must have" lists one more time...after all, everyone should eat powdered eggs with bacos at least ONCE in their life!

Great thread!

Dean

there for three weeks in 1962 for the first time. everything in 62 was heavy/wet. now it's all light/dry. i often think that if i was still using the same gear, the grandkids wouldn't go. the expectation of a certain level of comfort has increased considerably as equipment has improved. got caught in a 50mph gale while camping last month. in our modern era mountain tent we were playing gin by LED headlamp, while in our old 1962 vintage canvas tent we would have been praying in the dark.

bump

looks like a good thread to fill. I'll add later

My first trip was in 73. Canvas,duck, flannel,wool, converse all-stars,jeans, our Boy Scout troop was made up of poor kids. We didn't care. I was 15+ years getting back up there for trip #2, but EVERY Spring it was dreamed of frequently. I guess the "Gear Stuff" and its changes have come so far that if you were to blink your eyes and wake up to todays gear.....I'd be in shock (not just sticker shock) ALOT of weight reduction, quality improvement etc......I thin progress has gone about as far as is practical unless you count grams.WOW......everything we had was usually purchased at a discount dept. store. KMart,Ontario,TwinFair. Cabelas was high dollar mail order to us then. Herter's???? or something like that was like visiting a new SuperCabelas or Basspro. Yep, blue jeans, canvas wall tents,pup tents, baker'starps, lean to ALL CANVAS. Duck/flannel lines bag, sterno was compact then (for us). jeans, rubber pochos. YUK!

When I think back, I almost feel ashamed of the notion I often have that "we MUST HAVE 'this' or 'that' or it will be a pia.

I'm thankful for the comforts we enjoy with our gear of today. I must often remind myself it's a luxury to have the gear we have today.
As long as we still see the occasional teen group dragging an old grumman, with a "RESOURCEFULL" array of equipment and attire........we may chuckle and say,(with maybe a lump in our throat) "Look at that". But we would admire their spunk, and know there is still hope. (and if I ever see an I=Pod laying around up there unattened.....I pitching it in the lake! :) oth

1969. Canvas tent with an exterior aluminum frame, very heavy and very bulky. Coleman sleeping bag, heavy and large, rubberized nylon air mattress that must have weighed 10 or 15 pounds and took about 20 minutes to inflate and half that long to deflate. Jeans. Coleman 2 mantle lantern. No stove, we cooked over a fire but we took a grate and a large aluminum cookware set. We thought we forgot the silverware and carved it all out of wood (I still have it). We found the silverware as we were unpacking at home. We had it all along! 1962 Thompson canoe.

2012. Still paddling the 1962 Thompson and I still wear jeans but everything else has been replaced. I still usually cook over a fire. I often bring a cast iron frying pan these days.

This is a good thread to remind everyone how far we have come in the quality and comfort of our current gear.

Sleeping bag: 1970 it was a cotton batting and canvas covered bag that worked well for the time and weighed a whopping 10 lbs. 2011 I carry a Marmot bag weighing 3.5 lbs and good to 20 degrees.

Tent: 1970 was a Sears Ted Williams single wall 2 person nylon tent. It leaked like a kitchen strainer and had terrible ventilation. The good thing was that it only weighed a few lbs. 2011 I use a REI Half-Dome 4. No leaks, good ventilation, lots of room and easy carry weight.

Clothing: Then I wore cotton chamois shirts, jeans and leather work boots. Now its nylon pants, nylon shirts and jungle boots.

Raingear: Then a poncho. Now a two piece rain suit that really keeps me dry.

Cooking gear: Then a large aluminum cook kit (I still have it) and a fire grate. Now a light weight kit that fits on my isobutane stove.

Canoe: 1970 I used an Alumacraft Quetico 17ft. I still use it for tandem trips on local lakes and rivers. 2011 I use a Royalex solo canoe that is 2/3 the weight and twice as responsive.

Tarp: 1970 there was the infamous blue plastic tarp. It didn't weigh alot but it easily blew out in a strong wind. 2011 we have the wonderful CCS type SilNylon tarps that are lightweight and very strong.

There are plenty of other items we could come up with but this is my main list...

Everything has changed so much and continues to change rapidly.

I think changes in material and construction rank right up there in the modifications to everything.

Tents have come a very long way. It used to be you had to spend a fortune, but now everyone can gear up on tents at a reasonable costs. You can still spend a bundle if need be, but it's nice not to have to.

Information has really changed a lot with the advent of the internet.

I still use my Duluth pack, the same one, and although I haven't used my Timberline in about 10 years years, I wouldn't hesitate to use it if I was going with 2 or 3 other people.
And my propane stove which I bought in 1975. People have been telling me for decades it won't work in cold weather, apparently the stove hasn't heard this.

quote ZaraSp00k: "I still use my Duluth pack, the same one, and although I haven't used my Timberline in about 10 years years, I wouldn't hesitate to use it if I was going with 2 or 3 other people.
And my propane stove which I bought in 1975. People have been telling me for decades it won't work in cold weather, apparently the stove hasn't heard this."

Propane, heavy steel bottle, high pressure, works well in cold weather.
Propane/butane mixes, isobutane, light steel (sometimes aluminum), cartridges, much lower pressure, not so good below 30 degrees (fuel does not vaporize).
Very different containers and valves.

Only items continued over 40 years for me are Coleman Fuel and some wool clothing.

butthead

PS: Forgot, Filson wide brimmed hats. bh

when i started in the BW in the 80's i had a 85+ pound fiberglass canoe i made,a 37 pound kevlar now.i slept under the canoe with a blue plastic tarp for extra coverage,a Akto tent now.army poncho and now a Gortex rain suit.old sleeping bag was down but from Boy Scouts so it just came up to my shoulders,a hooded 20 degree poly bag and i don't have to use the poncho for a ground cloth.flash light out of the glove box in the car v.s. a led head lamp
two things i did splurge on back then was a Coleman Peak stove and a Thermorest pad because i learned in the Army that with hot food and a good sleep you could face any hassles.
for a pack then i had the bag off a old pack frame for gear and a heavy rubber surplus bag for food,Duluth bags now and i use a lightweight pulley system to hang the bags,then it was a cheap poly rope just tossed over a branch.
the Coleman was replaced by a Gaz burner head and a few carts but i still use the Coleman square box/cook kit.small metal fry pan and now aluminum non stick.
poly clothes v.s. jeans and LL Bean flannel back then.
i went from Hi Top sneakers to Bean boots and now added water shoes for days when i know i'll be portaging down river.
heavy Nikon camera to a Panasonic "everything" with one chip per trip rather than 15 rolls of slide film.

the photo is the fiberglass canoe at the end of it's first portage on the Little Indian Sioux with the blue tarp in the bow,old photo,bad copy.

I just noticed that this thread is nearly nine years old. Today add in LED headlamps, waterproof Down bags and coats, and I'm sure there are 200 other improvements I've just taken for granted.

My first trip to the Boundary Waters (Quetico, actually) was in 1967. We rented or purchased the following from an outfitter:

17' Grumman Aluminum canoe
2 canvas Duluth Packs
some freeze dried or dehydrated meals

The rest of the equipment was a combination of my partner's and my family camping equipment, most of which was WWII army/navy surplus.

Canvas pup tent (2 shelter halves which buttoned together)
Army surplus mummy bags---always got a feather up my nose
Army surplus air mattresses
Army surplus cook kits.
Army surplus C and K rations (Oh boy, those ham and "mothers" were great, because they included a 4 pack of Camel, Pall Mall, or Lucky Strike cigarettes)

A big box of Minute Rice.
A big box of Bisquick.
A big jar of Peter Pan Peanut Butter.

Two cans of Prince Albert or Cherry Blend smoking tobacco. We were really cool, sophisticated 18 year old high school graduates, of course we smoked pipes.

A tube of Ipana toothpaste. Anyone remember Bucky Beaver?

Clothing was mostly flannel shirts and cotton "chinos" twill trousers. Jeans weren't yet quite so popular because you weren't allowed to wear them to high school. We also knew jeans sucked on canoe trips cause they never would dry. So we had these "chinos" that had a funny little belt and buckle in the back. We were stylin'.

My shoes of choice were "Desert" boots, Today they are called chukkas. Back in the good old days they were patterned after the desert combat boots worn by the British soldiers in WWII. My partner wore either a pair of Red Ball Jets or PF Flyers, both similar to today's "Chuck Taylor" canvas "sneakers."

Of course, I couldn't go on any trip without my Kodak Brownie Instamatic which used the latest technological break through..... "flash cubes."

My hat of choice was a Marine Corps "boonie" hat my brother sent me from Vietnam.

I don't need to describe today's gear

Titanium....anything.

briarwood pipes with flavored tobacco, flash cubes and PF Flyers...man those were the days! :)

Cotton sleeping bag, blue jeans and cotton sweat shirts for my first trip at twelve years old in 1961.

I am certain we did not have any down, synthetics or titanium.

Those old Grumman aluminum canoes seemed light compared to the old wooden one that I paddled on at home on White Bear Lake.

OK.

I was still a very young kid in 66. But in 76 my list was quite different. Not only because of innovation but also income. My handme down sleeping bag was canvas, cotton, and flannel. It was around 2 ft wide and 18 in in diameter rolled up, not too warm. But if you rolled into a tight enough ball in the middle and shivered, you didn't die, or freeze too many important parts.
Tent was nylon and aluminum. Not too different, maybe better made, if slightly heavier.
Pack was a modern aluminum frame with canvas, actually worked just fine.
Cook kit was space age aluminum with a real plastic cup, circa Boy Scout cook Kit.
Cook stove? A pack of matches and a sharp axe. Fuel was as least free.
Clothes. Good old fashioned cotton and wool.
Flashlight, 2c cell and incandescent bulb.

Today:
I can say spoiled, maybe not better.
Titanium everything.
Support and belt for canoe pack
DNR and down bags with Exped pad.
Still a little dated with my Apex II. But I like it, on my second one thanks to ebay.
Clothes, synthetic, wool, and down.
Flashlight, LED AAA headlamp.
Plus a bunch of stuff I now have and seem to need, but in the past didn't have and was fine.
As I got older I seem to need a heavy pack, I may just need to prove something to myself.

I cant say about 1966, but My father took Mom for their honeymoon back in the early 60's. before even the wooden thrones or iron cooks grates were in every campsite. He said he wasn't even sure there were designated camp sites. With all our new light weight gear and Kevlar canoes these days, I constantly hear stories of when he first went up there and the gear they brought

16 ft wood canvas canoe
Canvas army tent (no floor I think)
Large heavy cook set
down sleeping bags

I remember when I first went in the early 80's we had

Heavy duty aluminum Gruman canoe
Coleman two burner hand pumped stove (with a gallon of fuel)
Thermos Pop tent - canvas tent
Cotton sleeping bags
Full size axes/saws for wood
Jeans and flannel with heavy long johns and wool socks.

I still think (other the the sheer weight of the gear) those were some of my favorite trips. you worked harder at everything you did, portaging, fixing meals, gathering wood, setting camp, etc. and rejoiced with triumph when the day was done and it was time to rest. We truly accomplished and overcame obstacles.

I still love my trips up there today, but strive to push myself to be able to feel the sense that you have tacked the wilderness.

Two sides of the same coin, but it is a coin i like to carry with me.

My first trip was in 1967 90lb alum craft canvas tent ect ect

I now try and up grade to the lightest stuff I can find carbon kelvar canoes paddles light tents ect.

One cannot remake the memories of those first trips but one can be sure that making the new ones are a lot easier.

I try to take a Spring and a Fall trip every year, first trip was 1980 wife and I are both over 50

-nylon sleeping bags with flannel on one side
-cheap wood paddles from Fleet Farm
-single burner coleman stove
-aluminum/Teflon pan from goodwill
-Army surplus duffle bags
-blue menard's tarp
-80+ pound canoe
-5 gallon buckets for food
-no freeze dried foods
-Timberline 4 man tent

Not 1966 this is my list from last year

First trip was June 1972, I remember it well. Jeans, flannel shirts and cotton t shirts. Crappy leather boots that didn't dry out the whole trip. 72 lb aluminum canoes. Four dollar ponchos. A 40 degree nylon sleeping bag that weighed 5 lbs. and took up half your pack. A cheap plastic everready flashlight that threw out maybe 20 lumens and if you dropped it you were done. Boy Scout mess kit and silverware. Half inch closed cell foam pad for sleeping.

Man that was a great trip and kept me coming back for 42 years.

Some pieces of equipment that worked well from the early trips:

Eureka Timberline 2 man tent - bought it right away after that first trip as I knew I was hooked. Used it on so many trips I can't even count and sadly threw it away because it delaminated so bad after 30 some years.

Coleman Peak Stove using white gas. Bulky, heavy and I have always thought white gas stoves were a PITA but it did a better job of cooking than some of todays ultralight stoves.

Cutters insect repellent lotion, saved our lives.

The portage yokes on those old canoes worked pretty good, sadly the technology hasn't progressed too much.

Farmer matches in a plastic bag - by the end of the trip the box was pretty much obliterated and the striker didn't work very good but lighting them on your zipper was half the fun.

New Years 1976 I took a trip with 5 other buddies to the BWCA and that is where the equipment gap stands out the most for me. We had heavy, bulky equipment that didn't work well for the conditions, encountered a few mishaps including one guy falling through the ice on the Royal River, and pretty much relied on the old adage of chopping wood warming you twice to get by. We encountered a classic cold snap of minus 28-30 every night and never got above zero for 4 days. We were so poorly prepared for this trip by today standards. We spent 14-16 hours in the tent, never really being warm. Brought a bottle of wine that froze and broke, toothpaste that froze solid, and spent new years eve holding a block of cheese over a roaring fire and scraping it on to a cracker so you could eat it before it froze again. Had to chop the water hole open again every couple hours. Most of us used two cheap nylon or down sleeping bags, wool pants from the military surplus stores, leather choppers with wool liners and wooden waxable cross country skis while pulling a toboggan. But you know what, we had a great time and learned a lot. Brilliant sunny days looking over a trackless expanse of snow covered water and the deafening silence that only the winter woods can bring are memories I will never forget. If I wasn't so old I would try it again with todays equipment.

The advances in equipment these days in terms of weight, bulk, and effectiveness make tripping much easier, summer or winter. But you know what? The experience is the same.

I forgot a couple of necessary 1966 canoe trip items

A Gillette safety razor. Used "Gillette Blue Blades". Hot item back then, no multiple blade razors, no disposables.....

I had the "Aristocrat" razor. Black handle, with a knob on the bottom that lifted the head so you could clean and replace the blade. Also had a dial under the head to adjust the blade to match your beard and skin condition.

I still have this razor, but blades are harder to come by. They're still made......... in Russia. Sorry Vlad!