Overlooking Rose lake and Canada on the Border Route Trail

The Boundary Waters Canoe Trip of 2021 never happened because of a few large fires (and over 60 smaller ones) in the area that closed the wilderness area for nearly 2 weeks just before our trip last year. We postponed it to 2022 and secured our a permit for Bearskin Lake (entry #61) on a below zero day in late January 2022.

Day tripping/family canoe time

BWCA or bust!

We decided to attempt the same trip again as this area was not devastated by fires and we heard there were lots of fun day trips. Furthermore, we were looking forward to seeing the newly renovated "Staircase portage" down to Rose Lake and the Rose waterfall and hiking the Border Route Trail (BRT). It also happened to be the week of Grandpa's 68th birthday and his first official retirement vacation.

Dad (and his favorite daughter) on his birthday at Rose falls

Blowing out a s'more making "cake" for his birthday

The BWCA was a perfect place to celebrate the birthday of a man who absolutely loves the outdoors, sunsets, fishing and being one with nature. Thank you Dad for sharing your love of nature with me at a young age. Sending me to YMCA camp and taking me hiking. Going car camping and to the BWCA when I was 12. Despite never being in boy scouts, you taught me more than most badges I could have earned.

The perfect view

I hope our generation will work to preserve this natural wilderness. Keep it free from development, contamination, mining, and over logging. I hope my kids and future generations can enjoy these beautiful wild places. Humans have an amazing ability to selfishly overuse natural resources until they are no longer sustainable. Protecting places like the BWCA is essential. We are so fortunate that people protected state and national parks and forests and wilderness areas so we can visit them and see what the land was like before humans excessively altered it. I hope my kids continue to explore, have adventures of their own, and learn to play together. If you need to disconnect from the constant glow of screens, emails, polarizing headlines and misinformation, the BWCA is the place to be!

Up close and personal with a common loon

Theo caught the first, the most (15) and the largest (17" 2lb. small mouth bass) fish

17" small mouth bass caught on Rose lake

The best sunsets

How to plan a BWCA trip

Some people need a hot shower everyday. Some people need to check their email or social media every day. Some people like to camp or go backpacking but are intimidated by long arduous canoe trips. Friends, let me tell you how to take your family to the BWCA where you can unplug, unwind, and wake up to the call of the loons and not your alarm clock.

Item 1: pick a few dates that you'd like to "go in", a.k.a. enter the BWCA wilderness. This should be somewhat flexible as most entry sites only have 1-3 permits per day. They have strict rules. You must enter the BWCA at the entry point and date on your permit. You may not enter/re-enter at a different point. You cannot enter on any other date using this permit. You may stay as many days as you like and can go wherever you want once you enter. You must also state how many people are in your party. The max is nine (9) people and four (4) watercraft. You may not exceed this limit at any time or anywhere (on water, portages, or campsites) in the BWCAW. Smaller groups increase the wilderness experience of you, those traveling around you, and decrease the impacts made on nature.

Item 2: pick a lake or two that you'd like to explore. For beginners, I'd recommend entry on Sawbill with either camping at Sawbill and day trips to Alton or day camp on Alton lake. Then, mark your calendar for the day the permit system opens, log in, and reserve your desired permit.

Item 3: plan your menu. The company, Camp Chow, sold at Trailcenter on the Gunflint trail, has the BEST dehydrated food. We bring frozen steaks and a veggie packet wrapped in foil for night one. S'mores. A dozen eggs for breakfast on day 2. Left over veggies. Lots of snacks like beef sticks and salami and dried fruit for lunches. PB&J. Dinner is mostly dehydrated meals and shore lunch if we catch anything. Breakfast is coffee, hot cocoa and oatmeal or Krusteez pancake mix (measured in a ziploc, just add water). We bring a jet boil stove and a fry pan. We mostly boil water for meals with the first night cooking over an open fire.

Item 4: pack light. If you've gone backpacking, you know what I mean. Canoe camping is a mix between car camping and backpacking. You can bring a few pair of clothes, a swim suit, a small pillow, a headlamp and a lantern, camp chairs and a stool, a hammock, and other luxury camping items (within reason as you will have to carry them across at least one portage). We've upgraded some of our gear and try to buy ultralight so that it takes up less space and weighs less when we have to carry both our gear and gear for our kids. For example, an REI kindercone synthetic kid sleeping bag is like 18"x 12" whereas the REI adult down bag packs nicely into a 6"x 4" stuff sack!

Item 5: get a canoe "Duluth" pack. This is a special canoe pack that carries a ton of food or other stuff (50L) and fits nicely into a canoe. Your backpacking pack is fine for extra stuff (or if you plan to hike the SHT or Border Route Trail) but nothing beats all your kitchen gear or food fitting into one a giant Duluth Pack when you portage with your canoe on your shoulders.

Item 6: make a packing list and then cut it down as you will have to carry everyone your pack. Pack your bags. Turn off your phone and enjoy the BWCA!

Here is a copy of our packing list for this BWCA trip (3 adults, 2 kids):

tents x 2 (4 person and 3 person big agnes backpacking tents)

sleeping bag x 5 (32-55 degrees)

sleeping pads x 5

sleeping liner x 5

pillows x 5 (small or travel size)

lantern x 2 (one for each tent)

headlamps x 5

camp air chairs x 2

camp stools x 4

camp table

jet boil

fuel canisters x 3

MSR pocket rocket stove

MSR large pot

fry pan

GSI java coffee press

tarp x 2

paracord/extra bungee bag

pocket knife/leatherman x 2

nalgene bottles x 5

5 gallon folding water jug

sunscreen

bug spray

extra sandwich and gallon ziploc bags

black garbage bags x 5 (one for each pack)

aluminum foil

binoculars

cutting board x2

knife kit

spatula

whisk

tongs

ladle spoon

plates x 6

bowls x 6

cups x 5

spork x 5

extra knife, fork and spoon

pot holder

duct tape

wash bins x2 (one or dirty and one to rinse)

drying towels x 2

wash clothes x 5

sponge x 2 (cut in half)

biodegradable dish soap

hand sanitizer x 2

toilet paper roll x 2 (assemble with hand sanitizer and put in ziploc to leave next to latrine)

paper towel roll

baby wipes

door mats x2

clothes line

water purifier pump

water purifier tablets

Canon camera

extra camera battery

walkie talkies x 2

medical kit with lots of band aids and blister pads

laundry bag

quick dry towel x3

crocs/flip flops for camp

thermocell mosquito device

fire starter and waterproof matches

flint

saw

hammock

sun hats x 5

sunglasses x 5

winter hats x 5

mittens x 5

fishing gear - tackle box, fishing poles x 3, fishing net, 2 boxes of green worms

life jackets x 5

seat pads x 2

BWCA map and waterproof case

canoe paddles x 5

canoes x 2 (2 person and 3 person rented from Hungry Jack outfitters)

card games - qwixx, uno, spoons, spot it, and taco/cat/goat/cheese/pizza

stuffies - 2 max per kid (no blankies)

books to read - 1 each

phone and waterproof case

food (see above)

bear barrel (borrowed from a friend)

toiletries - tooth brush, travel tooth paste, medications, hair brush, tissues, hair ties

clothes - each person had the following in a 10-15L stuff sack: 1 swim suit, 1 pair of underwear per day, 3-4 pair of wool socks, 1 quick dry pants, 1 cozy sweat pants, 2 shorts, 2 t-shirts, 2 long sleeve, 1 jacket/fleece, rain pants, rain jacket, 1 pajamas, 1 bandana, 1 pair of keens or water shoes, and 1 hiking shoes. Preferably all clothes are quick dry as they frequently get wet and slightly baggy to make it harder for bugs to bite you.

packs - all of the above fit into 9 bags: 2 x large Duluth Packs, 3 x large 50-80L backpacking packs, 2 x small/kids 20-30L day packs, 1 x large canvas duffle bag, 1 x fishing tackle bag, and 2 x small dry bags

The only items we wished we had but either forgot or would bring next time were: better water shoes that don't tear up your pinkie toes, a better air mattress, extra rope, more graham crackers for s'mores, ice pack/cooler for worms, extra canoe pack

Talk to the hand

Beautiful climb up the cliffs over Rose lake

View of Rose lake

Rose falls

Stairway portage

Stairway portage down to Rose lake

Fishing at the falls on Rose Lake

Picnic at the bottom of the falls

Clouds rolling in on Rose lake

Our lovely campsite on the peninsula

Canoe tipping time

Where is the canoe?

Day 2 - back to hike the BRT

Hiking on the BRT

Views on the BRT

family pic

View of Rose Lake and Canada on the cliffs from the BRT

Relaxing and enjoying some salami for lunch

Birthday lunch with a view of moose pond (but we didn't see any moose)

Frog trap at the portage

Frog catching and trapping

Day 3 - Ready to portage the canoe to Partridge lake

Strong man Seth over the more rustic portage to Partridge lake

Portaging to Partridge with the fishing and canoe gear

Portaging back from Partridge lake

Fishing at the campsite on Duncan

Theo helping take off his sister's bass

Relaxing in the hammock

Hanging the food line

Game time at the campsite

Playing quixx

Hammock play time

Gathering sticks and driftwood to use as firewood

Firewood cut and separated and ready for a campfire

Sunset

Grandpa and his sunsets

Enjoying a perfect sunset for his 68th birthday

Happy Birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!

S'more cake!

S'more roasting time

So delicious with Ghirardelli mint dark chocolate

Watching sunset

Sunrise and steam on Duncan lake

Sunrise on Duncan on the last day

Sunrise over Duncan lake on the last morning

Theo and Grandpa paddling out

Packed and ready to paddle home

Final (painful) portage

Exhausted

Portaging back on Bearskin lake

If you must know, this is how we pee and poop in the woods

Fauna of the BWCA

Hello Mr. Loon

Fishing

A little closer

Common merganser

Merganser flock

Beaver house

beaver swimming

Big frog

One of many frogs they caught

Giant dragonfly

4 frogs in a pond

moth caterpillar

Chippy #1

The shy woodchuck that rumbled through our trash bag

Friends have asked, "How old were your kids when you first took them to the BWCA?"

The short answer is 6 and 8 years. However, we like to camp and pre-kids we used to backpack and car camp a few times every summer. We took Theo camping when he was only 3 or 4 months old (we won't talk about who left the diaper bag on the kitchen table but someone had to go buy diapers at a local gas station shortly after he had a blow out and we discovered the error).

Growing up, my dad loved the outdoors. He would take us to the BWCA when we turned 12 and were old enough to paddle into the wind. It was a rite of passage.

My kids are fairly experienced car campers and the first time they went to the BWCA, Theo was 8 and Marit was 6. We went to Sawbill and portaged to Alton lake. We didn't have an extra adult so Theo had to paddle with Seth and they actually managed pretty well. They say the front person is the "motor" of the canoe and the pack person is the one who steers. Sometimes if you have one person then you can flip the canoe around and the adult in the back becomes the front and can do both or instruct the child to rudder if needed.

Flora and fungi of the BWCA

Next time I'm definitely going to have to do brush up on my fungi taxonomy and do some reading to figure out which of these 'shrooms are actually edible! Did you know that fungi rank third among eukaryotic kingdoms in terms of species richness with an estimated 2.2-3.8 million species!