Well my long planning is finally coming to an end as just next week I start my first BWCA trip with an entry date of July 15 and planning on coming out July 26. Packing food is expedition crazy for 9 people with 3 allergic to soy and gluten! The longest I have ever camped is for 3 nights so this is quite different. Just got done ordering last minute items I think we need and I am trying to figure out what else I need to do. I am getting so excited that I'm not getting much of anything else productive done. Ahhh the excited jitters are getting to me!!!

I hope all the bugs have decided to kill themselves off, the fish naturally seek out my canoe to jump into, water is high, and the weather is wonderful.

Say hi if you see our group. It will be two Souris River 18.5 canoes red and green with a whole passel of monkey wrestling kids. We will be doing some sort of route subject to change leaving from Moose and coming out at Lake One routing through Kekekabic. 30 miles a day plus or minus 30 miles a day will be the goal with lots of food, pictures, swimming, and saddling up bears to ride on. Happy Paddling Folks!

Have fun! Looking forward to a crazy trip report.

For a passel of monkeys you will need a bunch of bananas. Tell each they must keep it from bruising the first day, it will be an important part of the evening meal. Yuk, Yuk.
Thirty miles per day? That route, eleven days. Might want to rethink that number.
Have a great trip and may the wind be with you and your monkeys.

Yea the 30 miles a day subtract 60 and add 40 for a total of 10 might be workable but we shall see. So if paddling into a strong headwind and the canoe is going backwards does that count as negative miles? lol. Oh I am just too giddy right now and two new paddles just showed up today at home according to wifey! A new Mitchell 7 degree bent and a BB Straight Espresso direct from Starbucks. Also just arriving were two pairs of Binocular Floating Straps to avoid me making a SCUBA trip up north some year.

Hmmmm What else to think about? Oh Awesome Bannock recipes I need to figure out if anyone has a particular tasty favorite.

Remember the bug dope and hats. I don’t see the need for bug netting, but there are plenty of mosquitoes around and the deer flies are getting bothersome.

For bugs I bought a Thermacell with some extra refills. I also bought some Permathrin in a 10% solution that I will dilute to .5% and soak clothing a few days before leaving. We do have head nets just in case and some more standard bug repellent will also get packed. Biting bugs can take a lot of fun from an otherwise fun time. Thanks Inspector13.

Oh another cool thing today: In the mail the Secchi Disk kit from the State of MN showed up. I hope that doing this will be fun for the kids and be helpful data for the BWCA.

Thanks for doing that.

That's twelve days by my count. That's a lot of monkey business. Good luck. You seem to have the right attitude. I'm thinking a frisbee may be handier than a secchi disk. I can't imagine meal planning, much less cooking for that crowd for that many days. Bravo to you sir! And onward towards the fog. I hope you have a great trip.
Make sure you schedule a snipe hunt into your plans. They are very active this time of year.

Enjoy your trip, vnzill! We'll eagerly await the trip report ;).

The food thing has to be just crazy for 9 people, including some kids, with different tastes and special needs. Good luck with that!

You'll have a blast!

Have a wonderful trip. You have all you need: A good attitude defeats bugs, bad weather and any other mishap that might come your way.
Good luck with the monkeys. How old are they?
Might see you as I just cut a deal to do a quick trip next week, perhaps in the same area.

Maybe a deck of cards , cribbage, or uno for downtime or rain.

Wait a minute! Nine people-----in two canoes?

quote GraniteCliffs: "Wait a minute! Nine people-----in two canoes?"

Ya it will be tight but the small kids can share a middle seat and then one kid will sit in or on some gear. If as packing progresses it appears too tight we could take a kayak also but really do not want to take it. We have paddled with five in one canoe several times with no problems but never tried with this much gear.

Snipe hunts sound fun. Kids are 7,9,9,10,12. When my boys were age 3 backpacking I took them to search for Oompa Lumpas as we obviously were in Oompa Lumpa land. That was a hoot.

When it rains my wife tells Uncle Remus stories with a heavy southern accent and the kids love it. Some cards would be good though. Maybe we will build a trebuchet trap for bears that try and eat our food.

Play hide and seek. And hide in a tree. My kids searched forever to find me. To this day they remember the day I hid in the tree in the BWCA for what seems like hours taunting them with whistles as they tried to find me.

quote GraniteCliffs: "Play hide and seek. And hide in a tree. My kids searched forever to find me. To this day they remember the day I hid in the tree in the BWCA for what seems like hours taunting them with whistles as they tried to find me."

Oh that does sound fun. :)