I've been heading to the boundary waters every year for the past 10 years or so - just me and the guys. My kids are now 7, 9 and 11 years old and they're really itching to go. I would love to take them, but I'm not sure how to go about it. My question is how to fit them in the canoes. I don't feel they're ready to handle full paddling duties and there's really no room to get a third person in the canoe (two adults and a kid). Does anyone have any suggestions? I have a 17' penobscot. Do I need to upsize? We really don't do a lot of portaging, more of the base camp thing.

Do you plan to take all 3 of them on the same trip?

For what it is worth, I've found that taking 1 of my 2 sons on a trip is great; we get time to hang out together. More "bonding", I guess.

How many adults would be going on this trip? how many canoes? If you have two adults I would put the 11yr. old in the bow of one canoe and the 9yr. old in the bow of the other. Stick the 7yr. in where ever he/she fits. Stick to smaller lakes (easier/safer trip for the kids). You'll do 90% of the work but you're going to anyway with kids along. My 9yr. old daughter does just fine in the bow. She's also within striking distance of my BB paddle when she needs a little motivation! jk.

I agree with MD. Last June I had my 10 year old daughter in the bow of my grumman and my 13 year old son paddled in the bow of my brother-in-laws canoe. We went to Polly from EP 37 from Kawishiwi. No problems with traveling. We weren't trying to set any records either.
I made it a point to make one pack 'sized' for my daughter to portage.
Have fun.

We've been bringing our kids as a family since they were very young. As they grew older we let them run there own canoe, I believe my son was 13 the first time he was in the stern with my wife up front. Now he is 15 and he and my 14 year old man there own show. Carry there own canoe portage whatever is needed ect. Although at the ages you are talking on years my wife chose not to go I would get a friend or my brother to help us in the stern of the second canoe. Until they are experienced and responsible enough to handle a canoe themselves you will need help. The portaging is the easy part make it fun and do all the heavy work yourself. Remember this is fun and the kids will thank you for a lifetime.

Doesn't look to me like Mom & Dad are setting a very good example in that pic.

Very easy don't do what I do do what I say. It's worked quite well. I seldom ever wear a pfd my wife always wears her's.

I agree with Maddog with the seating arrangements, but would add that practising at a local lake helps alot and lets them get the feel for it, maybe even canoe camp before going. Also like SouixFan was saying, give them chores and such to make them really feel like they're helping out, and be patient and teach them what they need to know.

SiouxFan,
I think it says a lot about your parenting skills that you're out there "doing it" with your kids. Looks to me like you've got your kids buttoned up pretty safe. Way to go SiouxFan! Keep up the EXCELLENT parenting!

timberwolf,
That is exactly what I did with my daughter. We practiced the year before on a lake near by. I would suggest this too gundog.

Also, I took a couple of my nephews out that didn't quite "get" the stroke down. I paddled back to the dock and we sat on the end of the dock and practiced paddling. They caught on real quick (since I was right there) and we went back out on the water for another hour or so. They felt quite accomplished by learning something that day.

MD

I have a trip with my daughters planned for this summer. Here is our plan.

They ar 7, 9, 13, and 14. They have canoed very little before.

We are going to get 2 Souris River 18.5's. We are going to put my wife, 14 year old and 7 year old in one canoe. We are going to put myself, 13 year old and 9 year old in another canoe. I am told that the 18.5's can easily handle 3 people and gear.

I am planning a pretty easy paddle in (Mudro to Horse through Sandpit and Tin Can Mike). We are going to base camp and explore from Horse. We plan to see Lower Basswood Falls, Wheelbarrow Falls and the pictographs.

I figure they can portage the lighter bags. I'll carry both canoes and the heavier bags. If it takes triple portaging, that it okay.

The plan sounds pretty solid but we'll see how it actually turns out...

Gundog,

If it is just you & the kids, you could try a Wenonah Minnesota 4. All in one canoe.

LBF is a pretty long day trip from horse. start early, and pack food. if the horse river is low? a REALLY long day trip.

Besides getting your gang out on your local waters for plenty of practice, one thing that I have done when things get rough for the unbalanced troop is lashing the canoes. If you have a good branch or lashing bars as sold by Spring Creek, an otherwise vulnerable team can handle some fierce conditions. I have used back up metal paddles, convenient branches and one or two lashing bars. Just tie the front and back of the canoes, front a bit closer and make sure your center piece is lashed in tight. the distance between canoes is dependent on what you would use.

If you take that load of kids by yourself they can more then handle it. I have brought my son along since he was five. But just remember it is there trip not yours. That way you wont expect to much and you can be flexible if they decide they want to swim or explore around camp you dont have to be some where. Just enjoy be prepared to do the work and spend time with your kids.

sotaman has it right.

When you bring kids, forget about your interests.

It's their trip.

I had 2 fellows in the shop this morning with 3 children.

One was just interested in getting the children some fish at a close location, and get a little winter camping in.

The other was more "hard core" and wanted them to ski about 8+ miles into a more remote lake for solitude.

The kids had snow shoes, and some appeared to be 7 or 8.

8+ miles on snowshoes when you're that young, good luck!!!

I think dad wanted the solitude for himself, and the kids were being hauled in on his terms.

When you take children along, solitude ain't gonna happen:)

4 friends & I took our sons on a 3 night trip to Dissapointment they were 10.Fished a day and did a day of paddling and looking around. The kids sort of paddled and carried gear on portages. The neatest experiance was on the first portage they all wined and grumped about alllll the hard work. At the end of the trip when we got to a portage they knew what had to be done and they did it without being told or griping. The transformation was amazing. It was a great trip. By the way it was the first BWCA trip for 2 of us. We took alot less equipment the next time.
Also took my daughter and her friend on a 40 mile 5 night trip when she was 10.
Like alot of the other threads make sure it is the kids trip. They will want to swim, dive off of rocks, catch crawdads, etc. But I recommend they have certain responsibilities like maybe setting up the tent, or getting water or firewood etc.

We take our kids and now grand kids each summer. They just have to be out of diapers and they are good to go. The littlest(3 yr old)sits on the floor in front of the stern paddler and the other two or three get to share a compartment with a smaller packs. The trick is not to let them out number you and have small packs that are not too heavy so they can do their share. They just make lots of portage trips.

I am taking my 12 year old son on our first trip to the BWCA. We are going to base camp on Ensign which will be a busy lake. I have taken him camping several times and I know he likes to talk to people. I figure as long as we have enough to eat every day he can pick what he wants to do and where we go each day.

My advise would be to plan adventure and not distance for a first trip with kids of this age. Base camp and day trips sound good for a group of this size and ages, although if the group is up for it, would not hesitate to move at least once -- just so they get the experience. If taking kids of this age, adults should adjust to a kids level and realize they are not going to paddle or have the same interest level for long periods of time as some adults would.

I have seen them when they are not out of diapers, my grandson for one may not be out of diapers for his second birthday trip. One woman who had five kids has always had one in diapers, she washed them in a pack bag. My daughter is fighting with me on this, she wants to take only disposables. that is either going to make a big bag full to lug around after a few days or a smelly camp fire. I wish I knew more about laundry stuff so I could get her to go with washables.

YIKES! Diapers?!? I can't imagine...washable or disposable.

We have gone with disposable several times. We just bag each soiled diaper in a light weight plastic bag and then add them to a gallon Ziploc (double bag) and pack them out like the garbage. It really isn't too bad and not too smelly when they are double bagged like this. We do "dump the solids" in the latrine before bagging. I used cloth diapers for my kids some 30+ years ago. It is hard to get them sufficiently clean when doing the washing by hand without making it a huge project, especially with a rain day or two to add to the difficult of drying.

Pssst Guitar-

Don't forget that burning anything in the campfire is illegal in the BWCA. I can forgive some paper or cardboard or even a really nasty meal thats dried and burned on a log but I think I would have to draw the line at a dirty diaper.

Thats just my $0.02

Obviously packing it all out and keeping all the dirty ones is more work, but that little extra is what changes an ordinary place into an extrordinary place!

I'm now thinking it will be just myself and the two older boys. We should be able to manage in one canoe. We will probably be going late June. So if you see two kids trying to maim each other with paddles, you'll know who we are. Who knows, maybe there will be some brotherly bonding happening by the end of the trip.

My son went along for this first time last summer. He was 5 and he had an absolute blast. Catching crayfish, looking under rocks, "explaining" things to me, eating pancakes with real blueberries.

I think the best part was that the wilderness felt brand new to me again. I had forgotten all the facinating little things I saw for the first time when I went as a teenager.

He had is own "portage" pack and responsibilities as to what he needed to carry. And we kept him between two adults on the portages and within eyesight at camp. He does swim but we made it a requirement that he wore his life jacket at all times.

Even when it rained he thought it was fun hiding out under the tarp.

Bring plenty of easy snacks (that they like)
Try to do whatever they want do
Give them their own flashlight
Make them feel they are an important part of the camping team

Sounds like you did exactly the best for your son, congrats, you will have a kid who will always enjoy taking canoe trips with you.

nice patches! thats great!

Patches,
I'll be bringing my daughter, who will be 5 by then, on her first wilderness trip in August. Wondering what you did to entertain in the rain? I'm thinking books and maybe UNO should be enough. Could use some advice from someone that just did it themselves.

Tim

"Not all those who wander are lost."

This is what we did when our girls were very young (& we got stuck on Bald Eagle in a very windy rain storm).

The girls had coloring books as well as books that were "read-able" for their age (they picked them out at school). We read a great kids book about a "phantom" dog. I read a couple pages & then each of them read a page or a paragraph, depending on whether it was my older daughter (then 8) or my younger daughter (age 5). Almost every kid I know loves when their parents read these kind of books to them & getting them to read a bit is a good thing.

Another thing we did was explore. As long as they were dry & warm they were fine. We put ponchos on them & explored the back area of the camp site.
!!Now I understand why you asked about Internet! You'll see I fixed web and made it 'camp' :-)

Wow, VoyageurNorth--you were able to get internet and explore the web when you were on Bald Eagle?
;)

Nope, didn't have my laptop or solar panel way back then! :-)

Hey Tim,

My son likes to investigate and dig in things. When it was raining I'd ask him some questions like, why do think the rain follows the tie lines down to the ground. Have him explain anything he's found, have a discussion on "little" boy topics of "big" consequence. etc. etc. Figure out what they like and bring it along.

This year he's REALLY into Lego, so we're packing a bag of Legos.

I should also note, we've been campground camping with him once or twice a summer since he was 18 mos. I'm not sure I'd recommend the BW as a first time camping experience for young children. You never know how their gonna act to their first storm in a tent, and I don't think I'd want to find out in a tent miles into the bush.

He's also big into watching my countenance so I try to work extra hard at being positive and putting a positive spin on adversity.

He's got two little sisters fast on his heels so I'll be in your boat soon enough. Let me know how goes with your girl.

Patches,
We got a pop-up two years ago, and I think my daughter would rather stay in it than her own room. She helps build the "log cabin" for a campfire and loves hiking. I can't wait to take her out into the real wilderness. She LOVES to swim, so we'll try to find a good campsite for that. Cherokee seems like it's got plenty of options and might not be too full for a middle of the week trip in August.

Tim

"Not all those who wander are lost."

This year we are taking my grandson, he will turn two while we are in Quetico. He has had lots of practice on Rainy Lake, should be interesting.
The one thing I wonder about for those planning on base camping. In the Bdub quite often the entry lakes have no available camp sites, which force folks to travel much farther than they intended. On Disappointment we have shared our camp site with folks frustrated and desperate for a site several times. My daughter ended up on Alworth once when she was planning a Disappointment base camp, as there were no open sites. she took a gamble at Ima that no one went there and found a site open on alworth as it was getting dark.

I started taking mine around 4 years old. I brought along the girls that sat with the kids. They have been going up every year since. I would start out with a shorter trip and make sure you do things they want to do. Kids get bored easily and with no TV, cell phones, copmputers etc you will have your work cut out for you as far as keeping them occupied. Mine are 18 now and still look forward to the annual May trip.

Great tips folks! I plan on starting my two year old on car camping this year, and hopefully taking him on his first BW trip next year at age 3. This has been a very encouraging thread!

Ben Nicholson
Always remember it's never to early...and for those who need time with their kids it's never to late.