Teen Finds Joy Paddling in the Sylvania Wilderness, September 2020

Our daughter Ams is a teenager now. Everything is boring. On canoe trips it's always a fight. She wants to sit in the middle seat and fiddle with her phone. Canoes, being a part of "everything", eyeroll, are sooooo booooooring. To offer her a bit of independence, not to mention exercise and fun, my husband decided to pick up a kayak and start bringing it on our canoe trips, at least the ones that require a smaller amount of portaging. Let me tell you how it went.

June 2020 Canoe Trip in the Turtle Flambeau Flowage

On a hot, windy June Tuesday morning, we arrived at Fisherman's Landing in the Turtle Flambeau Flowage. A stiff breeze provided a bit of a relief from the hot sun on nearly the longest day of the year. The upper and lower parking overflowed with vehicles and motorboat trailers. We wanted to try a new landing just for fun, and -this looked like the hot-spot landing for motorboats rather than canoes. We loaded the canoe, and paddled against the wind in search of a campsite.

Watching Goslings on our First Canoe Trip of 2020

With limited dispersed camping areas open in Wisconsin due to the Covid19 pandemic, we set off for a  closer-to-home destination. We went on a rainy spring day thinking the Turtle Flambeau Flowage would not be busy until Memorial Weekend. On the way, we saw other cars carrying canoes. As one sped by, I said to my husband, "Look they're racing you, they're trying to beat you to the campsite." We laughed, in a state with so much water, they could be headed anywhere. Imagine our surprise when we got to the landing and there they were, putting their boats. And yes, they did beat us to the first open campsite, although it wasn't a race and we were looking to go further in.

Boundary Waters 2018: Moose River Entry Point 16 to Campsites on Nina Moose Lake, Lac La Croix, Iron Lake, and Oyster Lake

Kicking off our 2018 trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA), our family entered the BWCA at Entry Point #16, Moose/Portage River. We spent 9 nights camped on Nina Moose, Lac La Croix, Iron and Oyster Lakes before exiting on day 10. We got rained on, paddled against gusty winds, sunned on slabs of rock and swam. We started awkwardly, careful with each move, then fell into a rhythm with our packing, portaging, paddling and camp-setting that made us feel like part of this place. Just as we began to feel like we truly belonged, our time in this quiet wilderness, like the summer of 2018, began to draw to a close.

Father's Day Paddle on the Sugar River

On a bright sunny Father's Day we set out for a paddle on the Sugar River. I cast my vote for an early departure as the forecast called for hot, sunny weather. However, getting the family moving proved a challenge as our eight-year-old had enjoyed her first sleepover ever earlier in the weekend, so her tiredness slowed our pace. We finally got on the water somewhere around 11:00 am. According to my GPS we paddled an easy 8.5 miles from Attica to Albany on the Sugar River in Green County, Wisconsin. My husband's guidebook indicated something closer to 7.2 miles.