After our first trip to BWCA, I thought I'd post a few of the lessons we learned. We have canoed before (Kenai Alaska, Swan and Swanson "the other boundary waters" and are active backpacker/outdoors persons.

1) I'd add GPS coords to portages and camping site locations to the maps the outfitter provided. We had some difficulty in finding some of the camp sites, some we never found.
On some of the bigger lakes, a couple of portages took some time to find the correct bay.

2) The outfitter packed way too much food and (cooking equipment). I'd go through the food bag and take out some of what was packed, including the griddle, camp water bag, 40 coffee creamers, too many snacks, etc)

3) I'd not use (and carry) the seat cushions next trip

4) Glad we bought and brought the head nets! Best $3 spent on the entire trip :)

5) I'd use an exit portage and pickup instead of paddling back to Farm Lake to exit

6) I'd buy Keen sandals or similar instead of tennis shoes. Every entry and exit from the canoe was into ankle deep water.

Did you have a good trip? Will you be back?
Hope so, even after many excursions I'm still learning and bettering my trips.
Great notes and advise!

butthead

I agree with #2. One trip was put together last minute and being fairly new to the BW we didn't know all the tricks or good foods to pack so we opted for the complete food pack from the outfitter. It was WAY too much food and it felt like as soon as we cleaned up one meal we should be starting the next. We learned a lot about food that trip but it was what not to bring instead of what to bring.

Concerning #6, it is best to go with a boot that drains water and has with upper ankle support and a harder foot bed. My buddy learned the hard way that sandals don't protect the bottom of your foot from tree roots and he dealt with a serious foot injury for months after a trip.

quote SevenofNine: "Concerning #6, it is best to go with a boot that drains water and has with upper ankle support and a harder foot bed. My buddy learned the hard way that sandals don't protect the bottom of your foot from tree roots and he dealt with a serious foot injury for months after a trip."

+1 Go with footware that fully protects your feet.

quote SevenofNine: "Concerning #6, it is best to go with a boot that drains water and has with upper ankle support and a harder foot bed. My buddy learned the hard way that sandals don't protect the bottom of your foot from tree roots and he dealt with a serious foot injury for months after a trip."

Keen sandals are actually fairly protective. They obviously aren't as protective as a good quality hiking boot.. but I'd rate them even higher than tennis shoes. They are made for this type of trip.

What maps were you carrying? Seems to me that GPS coordinates, although most likely helpful (I've never used a GPS on a canoe trip), a good map will put you in the neighborhood, if not exactly on the portage.

Head nets are great. Couldn't agree more about the value of a $3.00 piece of gear.

Couldn't agree less with you regarding Keen (or any other brand) sandals for portaging. Wet feet go with the territory in the BW and Q and the need for foot protection far exceeds anything else when one considers what would happen if you injured yourself. This could blow up into a "best type of footwear" thread so I'll stop there, but I'll agree with SevenofNine and Deerfoot that good portaging footwear will pay dividends every trip.

Great idea for a thread, by the way. Nice to hear the perspective of someone after their first trip.

Great thread.

What maps would be interesting but I find reading the topography is key to staying oriented and a little unique to this kind of trip.

Are there any outfitters who don't pack too much food? Common first trip experience.

1) I usually trip with my two sons. We carry two sets of maps (fisher and mckenzie), compass, and gps. The gps is always on and tracking so there is a bread crumb trail. I like downloading the tracks when I get home and revisit the trip on the computer.

After many trips both boys have become proficient at reading the maps. There is always a portage that is a little off from the map, or overgrown making it harder to find. We aim off the portage a little and canoe the shore line looking for it. We also look for the lowest part in the treeline, openings in the trees, and signs of canoe wear etc. High water vs. low water portages can make it a little more confusing.

Our best resource for portage locations has been the outfitter, and this board.

4) We always bring our bug nets. They don't weigh anything and can be invaluable on a long portage especially when carrying the canoe.

5) we always use an entry and exit tow. It maximizes our time in the Q.

6) We bring keens, but they are our dry shoes for around camp and swimming. We always wear boots while tripping. Mucks when the water is cold and Merrell Moabs when the water is warm.

Homers,
Thanks for starting this thread. I hope that you enjoyed the trip. It is always a good idea to assess a trip and record the lessons learned. Although we have always planned and packed our own food, there came a time when I decided to note how much and what kind of food remained at the end of a trip so that we could reduce that amount next time. Ditto for personal gear. Being a lover of maps and GPS, I've always tried to mark potential camps and portages before the trip. Sometimes, however, the coordinates can be wrong for several reasons, so using observational strategies (see Billconnor and Linkster) is key.

Welcome back, glad you had a good trip.
1) A GPS with the locations on a chip or manually entered is a huge help. Paddle Nav or Garmin makes a chip that works nice for this. They both cover the BWCA and the Quetico.
2) I agree that outfitter food can be too much. Hard to please everyone when food is involved. Better to be too much than not enough.
3) Seat cushions are a waste in my opinion, puts you too high in the canoe.
4) Head nets can be a trip saver. Better safe than sorry.
5) ?
6) Some kind of shoe made for water is needed, I like Keens but small pebbles get caught in the shoe.

Yep, don't be embarrassed! I quickly learned to do my own food but more for the cost value. Your navigation confusion is not unusual either, my first trip we had some of that too.

Think twice about the sandals. I know the tennis shoes get wet, etc. but I retired my sandals after the bugs ate every square inch of exposed foot. The result was more uncomfortable in my book.

I would probably keep the camp water bag though, did you have filters?

Thanks, homers. What were the dates of your trip?

You will find there are varied opinions on footwear here. I personally think there is no one answer. Depends on time of year, personal preference, and physical conditioning. One could argue for both the sandal and the boot crowd and everything in between. There have been numerous threads in the gear forum about this very topic.

Also on point #1: Don't be surprised to find that even with GPS coordinates you may find that some of the campsites are not where they're supposed to be. Many of the GPS data files you'll find online have older closed sites marked and lack some of the newer sites, and may not be 100% precise. I have some maps that are only about 5 years old and can say the same thing for them as well. I think part of the fun can be exploring looking for sites, but understand completely when you're getting towards the end of your day and you just want a spot to rest how frustrating it can be not finding a site where it's supposed to be.

One thing that may be helpful in addition to getting the coordinates of the sites is getting a good USGS quad map with the correct scale and learning to use UTM coordinates to find where you are on the map using your GPS. Takes some of the guess work out of figuring out which point/bay/island is which and UTM is really quite simple to learn.

I agree with many of things being said here.

The footwear discussion has been something that has been debated for many, many years. For my two cents where, the Keen or Teva sandles are great for around camp, but give me a good pair of boots for on the trail. Having wet feet is just part of a canoe trip. I started by wearing the military surplus "jungle" boots, and have now moved up to 16" bean boots (my feet get damp but now soaked like the jungle boots.

As far as outfitters food goes. You are correct in that they tend to pack to much food. When I was in outfitting, i went over how we packed the food with every group so they knew there was a method to the madness of food packing. There were three snacks per day packed per person; 1 intended to be eaten between breakfast and lunch; 1 between lunch and dinner; and one in the evening. I usually through 1 extra snack per person in for every two days of a trip. So, the snack bag looked huge, but once explained people tended to use the snacks as intended.

I also talked with the group about safety and one of the things I learned from taking my Wilderness First Responder Course was that something like 85% of serious accidents in the wilderness occur within and hour of meal time. Blood suguar is low and groups are trying to get "one more" portage in or get to the "other side" of the lake. I talked about taking a few minutes for a snack in those situation to prevent accident or injury.

Homers - great notes. I just took my first BWCA trip after a 24 year absence and echo many of those same thoughts. On my recent trip my experienced brother used a map and I used my GPS when needed. Maps are great to show you where you want or need to go, a GPS is perfect for telling you where you are at any given time. Another very useful navigating tool is a small pair of binoculars. Works well in spotting campsites and portages from a distance. Also useful for determining if a campsite is open or not from a distance.

I packed my own food and packed way too much. I found that although I eat breakfast at home, I never felt like eating breakfast in the BWCA. I know that it is the most important meal, but I was never hungry until lunch time. I also didn't eat many snacks. I just never felt hungry. I did drink a lot of liquids because I never felt like I was hydrated enough.

We rented Crazy Creek canoe seats from the outfitter. The 1" thick seat pad was nice but the biggest benefit was the back rest. They stayed strapped to the seats the entire time so we never noticed the weight and didn't have to portage them or keep track of them.

The head nets were only needed once but it was an hour or so into the trip during a paddle down a river so I wasn't prepared to dig it out (i.e. couldn't remember where I stashed it). It did turn up in the pocket of my PFD later in the day, hahaha. Another great tip from my brother was lightweight pair of gloves to keep the mosquitoes off your hands while portaging the canoe. I treated mine with permithrin and they worked great!

I brought both boots and Keen sandals. I have never liked sandals because I have never found a pair that are comfortable for my flat feet. I purchased a pay of Keen's this spring hoping that I could wear them in the BWCA. They are the most comfortable and versatile shoe that I have ever owned! I did get the ones that are not made of leather and dry quickly. Some days I wore them by themselves, some days with Merino wool socks. I wore my boots only around camp. The Keens had MUCH better traction on slippery rocks, wet roots and mud. I also liked the fact that I usually had somewhat dry feet (I HATE wet feet). The Keens also offered a good amount of protection compared to most others.

quote bottlebass: "

quote SevenofNine: "Concerning #6, it is best to go with a boot that drains water and has with upper ankle support and a harder foot bed. My buddy learned the hard way that sandals don't protect the bottom of your foot from tree roots and he dealt with a serious foot injury for months after a trip."

Keen sandals are actually fairly protective. They obviously aren't as protective as a good quality hiking boot.. but I'd rate them even higher than tennis shoes. They are made for this type of trip.

"

Never once had an issue with Keens. They have 1" (at least) rubber soles that allow one to step on any pointed rock or surface and not get hurt. The rubber also extends up and around the toes so toes are fully protected.

I tripped with 5 Finger Shoes...we didn't go a long ways and the portages were not all that hard but I would do it again. I did wear my boots out the last day as I was no longer worried about them getting wet.
These

quote SaganagaJoe: "Think twice about the sandals. I know the tennis shoes get wet, etc. but I retired my sandals after the bugs ate every square inch of exposed foot. The result was more uncomfortable in my book."

Couldn't agree more. Like Jackfish said - at the expense of this becoming a footwear thread - I wore sandals on a recent canoe trip and the mosquitos bit up every square inch of my foot as well and I am STILL paying for it two weeks later! I prefer lightweight wool sox and my Keen Targhee 2 boots.

Yes - that first step into ankle deep water with hiking boots and sox is not the most comfortable thing - but you get used to it, and then bring a dry pair of shoes and dedicated dry sox for around camp. Just my 2 cents.

But always - to each their own.

Finding the right amount of food to bring is a delicate balance!

as in life make sure you drink that box of wine or whatever other substances you enjoy only after you have all of your campsite ready for the night. hanging a food pack, setting up a tent or splitting fire wood are much more dangerous after you have imbibed. portaging much more so. booze/meth or whatever comes out only when all camp chores are finished. always. (my take on the pfd rule).

It's quite easy to end up packing too much food. Did that on my first trip and had about twice as much as I needed.


I usually go over my maps and compare with satellite imagery (google earth) to ensure the portages and campsites appear in the correct spots.


As far as footwear, use what you are comfortable with hiking with and note it will get wet.
I personally use Vibram Fivefinger Signa shoes on my BWCA trips. They are the water type with good drainage. Wore them with a taller wool sock treated with permetherin and had no issues with bugs. Ankle support is not important if you have strong ankles and feet, and that comes from wearing foot wear that doesn't have support. YMMV

The food issue is driven by the goals of the group. If you are doing multi portages and pushing hard each day. . .or lots of portages to a base camp and getting up to push off each morning at daylight, back at dark, food preparation is kept minimal.

We go to relax. We are also base campers. Our groups (we usually take 2-3 groups at at time) take time for cooked breakfasts and dinners that are from fresh food and meats. Time around meals is part of what we go for.

Most of us are business owners or in jobs that are high stress and when we go to BWCA we don't take schedules or mileage expectations.

As such, we probably take more food then most groups as we have things like biscuits/gravy, pancakes, breakfast casseroles for breakfast and dinners are steaks, chops, burgers/brats, pizza, etc. We don't bring any food that is "add boiling water" type.

On the shoes, some of our guys like the keens water shoes, but most bring knee high neoprene boots (Muck boots). Canoeing does not have to be about getting wet feet.

Regarding #5 - the Farm Lake entry/exit is a bit deceiving. It's at least a 2 mile paddle across Farm to the takeout, or nearly 3 miles if going all the way back to Canoe Country Outfitters outpost at Silver Rapids. You deal with a lot of boat traffic and if there is a good south wind, Farm can get dangerously rough in a hurry. You can always arrange for a tow from either Moose Track outfitters directly on Farm or Canoe Country, but there's additional expense and the whole timing element involved with that.

About having GPS coordinates for the portages: it isn't that easy because some of the maps disagree on where the portages are and the same is true for the GPS databases. We do have the paddlenav data on our GPS and it is nice. But it is also important to know how to search for a portage based on topography, how they look, and the practice of aiming off and then searching back along the shore.

From CrookedPaddler1, "I also talked with the group about safety and one of the things I learned from taking my Wilderness First Responder Course was that something like 85% of serious accidents in the wilderness occur within and hour of meal time. Blood suguar is low and groups are trying to get "one more" portage in or get to the "other side" of the lake. I talked about taking a few minutes for a snack in those situation to prevent accident or injury."

That is fascinating. My wife and I are not very tied to meal times and do much better than most people when putting off a meal and relying on GORP. But we have a friend, an extremely experienced camper, who is exactly the opposite. When she needs to eat, she really really needs to stop and eat. We've learned to respect that.

1) Careful attention to what a map and compass is telling you will usually put you close enough. Practice, practice, practice. I will admit, however, there is a great deal of reassurance readily available when using the features on an advanced gps that has maps, waypoints, and tracks marked. Take a look at the gps forum on this site for lots more.

2) Too much food has always been the case in our men's group. We have refined (reduced) things a great deal over the 30+ years together. The biggest shocker came this year when the consensus was to cut the ribeye portions in half for next year!

3) First I've ever heard anyone using these.

4) +100 on headnets.

5) Yeah, Farm isn't the most exciting spot to see twice.

6) Just returned from a trip on which I first tried portaging with Keen sandals and Smartwool socks. Lots of rocky portages and wading in knee- to shin-deep at landings. The only trouble was the occasional debris to clean out from under my arch. On previous trips, I have used a shoe designed to drain quickly... like a low boot with mesh panels in the sides (still with Smartwool socks). Research footwear further here, but be ready for unwavering opinions.