Stuart River to Lower Basswood Falls - BWCA 2023

With the goal of seeing Lower Basswood Falls and permits unavailable for our three target entry points, we defaulted to a still available permit for the Stuart River entry point. This entry point starts with a 433 rod portage, plus five more mapped portages, as well as several additional unmapped beaver dams to climb over before arriving at the first campsites from Entry Point 19. Maybe this causes some unpopularity for this entry point, and perhaps it is this unpopularity that allowed us the permit.

May 2021 Wildflower Canoe Trip in the Sylvania Wilderness

Setting off for four days in the Sylvania Wilderness, my husband looked forward to retesting our gear set, our daughter hoped for a cell signal, and I dreamed of spotting spring wildflowers after a long winter of bare trees and dull coloration. We drove to Michigan's Upper Peninsula and stopped view Burned Dam Falls before entering the wilderness. Burned Dam Falls proved to be home to several wildflower species and I grew excited thinking about what I might see in the wilderness.

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.

Our First Canoe Trip of 2019 - 4 Days in the Sylvania Wilderness

There is nothing like a long, cold winter to make us ache for the warmer, carefree days of summer. Finally, the weather had become right for a canoe trip. With a song in our hearts we loaded up the car and headed north for a four day family trip to the Sylvania Wilderness in the Ottawa National Forest of Upper Michigan. As we drove it began to rain. We talked about the weather, the way people headed into the wilderness tend to do. Our goal for the day, to make it to camp without thunderstorms, and without our everything becoming entirely drenched.

4 Day Canoe Trip: Sylvania Wilderness 2018

As Northerners do, our family dreams of the distant springtime through the icy season. When it finally arrives, we begin our spring rituals. Spring cleaning, garden planning, keeping an eye out for the first robin. My favorite of our family's spring rituals, my husband's lowering of the canoe from it's resting place among the spiders that hang among the garage rafters, marks the true beginning of summer fun for our family.

Sylvania Wilderness 2017 Part 2

Loons swam with their chicks calling loud warnings as eagles swooped down from warm, sunny skies. They called mournful calls as night fell wrapping the lake in a blanket of cool darkness. Bullfrogs croaked. Thousands of tadpoles in various stages of development filled the shallow waters along the lake shore. Turtles sunbathed on logs. Wildflowers waved in the breeze. Fungi and moss thrived on fallen trees. Cool green ferns lined serene footpaths. Reflections of clouds on the lake mirrored the tranquil sky. The Sylvania Wilderness gave our family all of this plus so much more.