Mama's Basecamp

Setting off for four days in the Sylvania Wilderness, my husband looked forward to retesting our gear set, our daughter hoped for a cell sig...

Capturing our precious family canoe tripping memories is one of my favorite things to do. As working parents know, finding the time to do th...

  Those of you who have visited the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) know that summer trips include cold and rainy days. You come to expect...

You waste weekends in the summer accomplishing obligatory chores. You think to yourself, "It's summer, I can camp and paddle anytim...

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 fi...

2020 rolled in deliciously fat and happy, but by mid-March things looked very different. With the Corona Virus spreading and the govern...

The Turtle-Flambeau Scenic Waters Area offers remote camping on campsites accessible only by water. Located in Northern Wisconsin near Mer...

Cold snowy days are great times for reminiscing about summer days gone by. Our 2019 four day canoe trip to celebrate the 4th of July seems...

Seeking solitude and a large dose of vitamin N, our family decided to enter the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) from a relatively unpopu...

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 f...

Kicking off our 2018 trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA), our family entered the BWCA at Entry Point #16, Moose/Portage River. W...

Ams went off to Girl Scout Camp. With a weekend to do anything our hearts desired, my husband and I took our first ever canoe trip in the ...

On our 3 day family backpacking trip to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, we backpacked 18.2 miles (29.3 km) through rain and sun. We mar...

On our 2017 trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) our family entered the BWCA at Entry Point #48, Meeds Lake. We spent 8 nights ...

Famous for its gorgeous rock formations and cliffs along the south shore of Lake Superior in Upper Michigan, Pictured Rocks National La...

The  BWCA (Boundary Waters Canoe Area) is the kind of magical place that casts a spell over visitors, drawing them back. Our family first ...

Peninsula State Park is located in Door County in Fish Creek, Wisconsin along scenic State Highway 42. Known as a hotspot for paddle sport...

Our first family canoe camping trip of 2016 in the Sylvania Wilderness in Michigan's Upper Peninsula begins with a downpour. We paddle...

Our daughter's school day off for teachers in-service training provided a perfect October Friday to head out for a family backpacking ...

As the loons prepared to gather, and the leaves began to turn, Labor Day brought our last canoe tripping adventure of the summer to a clos...