Just got back from my second trip to the BWCA. Went with a large group of boy scouts (my son is a former member of the troup) that we also went with 4 years ago.
Left Friday morning, June 17th on a 24 hour bus ride....worst part of the trip....but fun for the kids and cheapest way to travel with all of the required gear.
Arrived in Ely, Minnesota at approximately 5:00 AM on Saturday morning, had a big carb loading breakfast and hit the outfitters about 30 minutes out of town.
These folks are a great outfitter. Out troup has been using them for over 10 years!
The BWCA is located in Northern Minnesota at the Canadian border. There are no motors allowed once you reach the BWCA area.
we left the outfitters at @ 10:00 AM (they took us, by motorboat, @ 6 miles to the entrance to the BWCA...we unloaded our canoes and gear and proceeded to paddle). Our group of 6 canoed approximately 18 miles (with 7 portages...only one of which we had to walk...we pushed the loaded canoes up the others) to our campsite for the next 6 days...
Here is the view FROM our campsite
Here is the campsite from the water
We arrived and set up camp at @ 4:00. Then we quickly set out to do what we had really come for....fish!
Here are some random pictures of the fishing, mostly featuring my 15 year old son and some of his fish.....
and a few others from the week.....
Nice carcasses AND tats!!
all bass so far....but here's me with a nice walleye
We typically got up and started fishing around 5-6 AM every morning, came in for breakfast at @ 10:00, then fished until 3 or 4, cooked fish for supper, and then went out and fished some more....
the eatin' was always good...pancakes for breakfast and all the fish we could eat every night!
The water was nice and cold....but we still managed to bathe every other day or so. Here's skiheel jr. taking the 15 foot plunge for his rinse cycle
The old Kelty V3 still going strong after many backpacking and canoe trips...
Facilities were very nice...
Scenery was beautiful
but on Friday morning we had to pack up and paddle back the 18 miles to get picked up and taken back to the outfitters.
It was a great trip for my son and me
(Here are 2 pictures from the same spot 4 years ago....wow he has grown up!) Just hits home how important it is to spend time with our kids!
We'll definitely go back again!!
Here's our group, safe and sound back at the outfitters...(ready for the 24 hour ride home!)
If you ever get the chance...and like to paddle, camp and/or fish...I highly recomment the BWCA!!
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The messageboard is now in read-only mode and no new posts or topics can be created. We will leave the messageboard up for historical purposes, but you will not be able to make new posts or comment on existing ones.
We have started a Discord server and hope that you all will join us on there. Technology has changed over the years and maintaining the messageboard has become somewhat of a pain in the butt and Discord offers many features for users, the main one being a very polished mobile app.
We really hope you all will join us on Discord and think you will like the platform. Use the invite link below to join.
https://discord.gg/skisoutheast
Boundary Waters Canoe Area
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downhillNC
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^ Translation for non-Alabamans: "Nice fish. Did they taste good?"