[Dave-S]

My wife and I got a Sierra Designs Meteor Lite (I think is the name) when we got married 13 years ago. The rainfly comes all the way to the ground so it is very rain-proof.

It has been a fantastic tent for us through BWCA trips, mountains in Colorado and down near Canyonlands in Utah.

It packs down pretty small for backpacking yet for the two of us it was always plenty of room. It was even OK with our 90 pound Golden Retriever in it in the BWCA – goofy dog liked to stretch out though when he slept… We went to sleep one night in the mountains of Colorado near Estes Park and when I woke up the next morning, there were 6 inches of snow that hadn’t been there the day before. Never even knew while we were inside.

Great tent for us and worth taking a look at.

[Dave-S]

It is in todays Star Trib.

Joe Soucheray talked about it for a while yesterday afternoon too on am 1500.

[Dave-S]

We always bring a spare adult sized paddle on our wilderness trips. Never on our local day trips. But the kids each have their own paddle so I suppose we have plenty to get by in a pinch.

[Dave-S]

Here’s my 18′ Dann-Craft with me, my daughter Sammy and dog on Rose lake in the BWCA.

[Dave-S]

We have two canoes. The first was a birthday present to my wife from her parents about a dozen years ago. A 17 foot Old Town Penobscot. That thing has done countless BWCA trips including two moose hunts. It sure does take abuse and just trucks right along.

The second is a canoe built for my by my dad, Dan Strootman. It is his 18 foot model. Wood canvas. It is a heavy boat but it paddles oh so nice. I paddled it in the BWCA again this summer and it routinely handled me, one or two of my kids AND my dog AND gear.

I’ll try to find a pic of it on our computer to show it off.

[Dave-S]

I have a friend who swears by Brule lake. He stays right on the big lake on the North side I believe – he is a little evasive on his exact location…

He did tell me that he does best with leaches and fishing the drop-offs to deep water towards evening.

[Dave-S]

@timmy 27 wrote:

I like to bring 6 or 8 of the old fashion wooden close pins with the wire-o-springs. With that 100′ of cord you can string up close lines for drying out most anything. Or, if you’re handy with a knife, carve your own from a small dead branch-no springs attached. I understand you can find real nice, hand made knives, from Dan in Sunburg.

Dan does make a nice knife. I was just admiring a couple of his the other day. Actually, I had people try to buy them off my belt on two seperate occasions within the last week.

[Dave-S]

If you go to the Advanced Paddle drop-down and go to the books section, it is listed a little ways down and there is a link to Amazon.com for it.

[Dave-S]

The reference book we are using for trip planning is called simply:

Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Volume 2. Eastern Region. written by Robert Beymer. I assume he wrote it or edited it. It was put out by Wilderness Press.

It’s a good resource (for us) and includes sections on BWCA history, wildlifeFires, safety as well as Chapters on Planning a Wilderness Trip and desriptions of the different areas of the Eastern Region, the Sawbill Trail and Gunflint Trail. It descibes many popular routes including their level of difficulty, suggested trip plans and points of interest or special challenges that a given route or area may have. It even has a nice map in the back to help in planning.

I think we got this copy at either Barnes and Noble or maybe even REI.

I hope this helps.

[Dave-S]

No kidding on the extra shoes. I forgot my sport sandals at home last trip so I was doing wet launches for my wood-canvas in my hiking boots. Luckily, I remembered that I had forgotten my sandals before leaving the truck so I brought my trail shoes, which I had planned to leave in the truck for the drive home.

Camera – check. Not only is it always along but it’s always HANDY. You never know when you might get a crack at something really cool.

My wife swears by her canoe “repair kit”. A roll of Duct tape. She did lots of white-water canoeing in college and litterally taped a boat back together after it was wrapped around a huge rock in a river.

I like having about 100 feet of good para-cord too. It can be used for so many things around camp from setting a bear-rope, clotheslines, tying off boats, making a make-shift anchor, hanging tarps or anchoring tents.

[Dave-S]

I just did a trip after the 4th with my family out of Grand Marais. Me, my wife and three kids aged 9, 8 and 8.

Our entry point was Duncan via Bearskin and we portaged back to Rose. I am still trying to find time to write up a trip log for the site. Rose is a fairly popular lake I guess but it was my first trip back. We saw people but were not crowded. The staircase portage was a treat alongside the waterfall. My wife took two first-timers there a few years back.

We’ve also done trips off Poplar, Sawbill (?) and Brule. I’m going to go back through some of my notes and maps later for you and see if I can remember some of our better trips from when our kids were younger and when we had first-timers with us. I remember some really nice trips back to a Kelly Lake but I can’t remember the entry point off the top of my head.

Also, we have a couple of really good guides that my wife bought and I’ll post their names when I dig them out.

[Author]

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