Ernest
11-18-2009, 10:56 AM
This is in reply to Adam's inquiry re backpacking, but posted separately so as not to hijack his thread.
As kids we backpacked to trout streams in the neighborhood. I started with friends when I was 10, and was going alone by the time I was 12 years old. It wasn’t very technical and we didn’t have nice equipment. We just took the stuff we had, dragged it into the woods, ate brook trout, and went home in a couple of days.
The terrain and vegetation have a lot to do with backcountry travel. In the Upper Midwest we have lakes and rivers and bogs and forests. The indigenous peoples traveled by canoe. The early white men traveled by canoe. By the time we had driver’s licenses and the strength to carry a canoe across a short portage, we traveled by canoe also.
Canoe travel is the backpacking of the Upper Midwest. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is the premier canoe country.
http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/superior/bwcaw/
It’s significant that Camp Widjiwagan, a YMCA youth wilderness tripping camp near Ely, MN, sponsored canoe travel first, and when they got into backpacking they went to western states.
http://www.campwidjiwagan.org/pages/page_145.htm
Widji sponsors backpacking trips to Isle Royale and the Lake Superior Hiking Trail, but these are recent developments.
http://www.nps.gov/isro/index.htm
http://www.bwca.cc/activities/hiking/su ... trail.html (http://www.bwca.cc/activities/hiking/superiorhikingtrail.html)
There are plenty of canoe tripping opportunities outside of the popular and sometimes crowded BWCAW.
Our best backcountry stream or river fishing trips are by canoe. Think upper Mississippi, St. Louis River, St. Croix River, and others. This is mostly for warmwater fish like smallmouth bass and muskies.
Most of our trout streams are too small for canoe travel, but floating the larger rivers will bring you within reach of trout streams that have no easy overland access. Some of these streams are never fished, and they can hold surprises.
The upper Namekagon offers an excellent two or three day float trip, with big trout, if you can catch them.
http://www.nps.gov/sacn/index.htm
Like skyphix, I walk to streams and ponds, and then sleep in my own bed at night. If I was going to walk in to a remote campsite at my advanced age, I’d consider borrowing a pack animal, maybe a llama, to carry my tent.
As kids we backpacked to trout streams in the neighborhood. I started with friends when I was 10, and was going alone by the time I was 12 years old. It wasn’t very technical and we didn’t have nice equipment. We just took the stuff we had, dragged it into the woods, ate brook trout, and went home in a couple of days.
The terrain and vegetation have a lot to do with backcountry travel. In the Upper Midwest we have lakes and rivers and bogs and forests. The indigenous peoples traveled by canoe. The early white men traveled by canoe. By the time we had driver’s licenses and the strength to carry a canoe across a short portage, we traveled by canoe also.
Canoe travel is the backpacking of the Upper Midwest. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is the premier canoe country.
http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/superior/bwcaw/
It’s significant that Camp Widjiwagan, a YMCA youth wilderness tripping camp near Ely, MN, sponsored canoe travel first, and when they got into backpacking they went to western states.
http://www.campwidjiwagan.org/pages/page_145.htm
Widji sponsors backpacking trips to Isle Royale and the Lake Superior Hiking Trail, but these are recent developments.
http://www.nps.gov/isro/index.htm
http://www.bwca.cc/activities/hiking/su ... trail.html (http://www.bwca.cc/activities/hiking/superiorhikingtrail.html)
There are plenty of canoe tripping opportunities outside of the popular and sometimes crowded BWCAW.
Our best backcountry stream or river fishing trips are by canoe. Think upper Mississippi, St. Louis River, St. Croix River, and others. This is mostly for warmwater fish like smallmouth bass and muskies.
Most of our trout streams are too small for canoe travel, but floating the larger rivers will bring you within reach of trout streams that have no easy overland access. Some of these streams are never fished, and they can hold surprises.
The upper Namekagon offers an excellent two or three day float trip, with big trout, if you can catch them.
http://www.nps.gov/sacn/index.htm
Like skyphix, I walk to streams and ponds, and then sleep in my own bed at night. If I was going to walk in to a remote campsite at my advanced age, I’d consider borrowing a pack animal, maybe a llama, to carry my tent.