A 4 Day Camping Trip with 2 Grandsons

[Haggis]

Early Sunday morning I drove to Daughter #4's house and picked up young Angus (age 12), then drove my son's house and picked up Colin (age 15) for a 4 day camping and canoeing trip in Minnesota's north woods. It was an enjoyable, if rainy, few days and nights. I told the boys that when camping with Papaw they were on their own crook for meals, as I only make porridge for breakfast and fry bread for supper. If they wanted anything else, they had better bring it, or have good luck finding it in the bush. After one night of my fry bread, I didn't have to supper for them any more. I like my fry bread, they said they did too. They said it was really good, only they didn't want any more this trip, or ever. The porridge was a hit though, and they even discovered they could add a handful of fresh picked wild blueberries to their breakfast to make it much better.

Angus having a go at sawing firewood. Sawing firewood was not their favorite activity.


Here I can't really tell what they're thinking, but it appears they're thinking they're facing a firing squad.


Day tripping; carrying enough tea for my lunch, enough gear to stay the night out, and whatever they fetched along to eat.


Angus, displaying my first aid handiwork. Papaw only carries duct tape to bandages, they thought that was funny.


Their first time ever alone in a canoe.


In the end, they made it home safe-ish. My children say I have grown soft with aging, what with treating injuries and even cooking. My son can remember many days in the BWCAW when we didn't cook or eat at all, just get up, break camp, paddle somewhere new, make a new camp, and call it a day. Injuries were treated by one rule, "If the bone is not protruding, I don't want to hear about it".

 

[GGTBod]

It's an achievement just engaging that age group in anything that does not run on electricity, did they enjoy the time? Do they want to learn more or did you scare them with your fried bread supper?

 

[Haggis]

Actually, much to my surprise, the boys did quite well without their electronics, and would like to go again. They are late sleepers though. One morning, I was up by 5am, built a fire, had my coffee and porridge, went and had a bath, came back and rebuilt the fire, made a cup of tea, drank it, and thought; enough of this! So I put the fire out, woke the boys, and told them to get dressed, we were heading out for the day. My noon tea didn't come around until 1pm and by then they were famished, and very thirsty. I keep some packets of dry soup in my kit for emergencies, they declared this to be just such a circumstance, and had chicken noodle soup with their tea. The next day they were up early enough for breakfast.

 

[GGTBod]

Good that they want to go again, boot camp for real next time? I am a strong believer in everyone chips in, you don't collect firewood you don't get hot food kinda thing, usually there is never an issue especially as it is pitched subtly at first with

"We can get the kettle on for a cup of tea after we have enough wood for the fire", amazing how much this motivates the average Brit

 

[Haggis]

They were both instant fans of cooking or heating water with the twig eating IKEA hobo stove, and with the Esbit alcohol burner, but much less so of the ever hungry fire pit and the constant need for more wood,,, more sawn wood. I'd hate to admit it to them, but there is much to say good about a twig stove. When I snowshoe in winter I carry my IKEA stove for boil-ups, and on this trip, when we'd make a stop on a island, we'd use the twig stove. They were quick to notice that fuel for the twig stove was almost too easy to gather, required no tools, and left very little in the way of ashes. Still though, there is something very pleasant about seeing a steaming bush pot suspended over a fire pit, and even more so when the Grandsons have gathered in the fuel.

 

[Clouston98]

Great stuff! Really good post!

 

[GGTBod]

I like my wood gas twig stove too especially for knocking up a quick cuppa but at night if possible i like a nice parallel log fire and find it well worth the effort nowadays, in particular i love doing that last rush around for extra wood before the light fails, i used to hate that bit when you suddenly realised everything you'd collected so far means an early night and i'd drag myself about hummin and harrin at myself gathering fuel. Now i get obsessed with equal piles of size related fuel, a good hug-bundle of each from each person who wants to sit around the fire, bigger the person the bigger the hug bundles expected to be collected, sadly this usually puts the cosh on me more than anyone just 8 days to go until i am back in the wild

 

[GordonM]

Very cool trip with the Grandsons, Haggis. I've done some dog sledding trips into the BWCA out of Ely. Love that area and hope to get back up that way soon. I'm an old school "Purple People Eaters" fan from the early 70's, too. Thanks for posting.