#bruleriver

My first time doing any type of backpacking was when I was 16 years old on the BWCA I’m 36 now. Some back story:

My friends and I where in high school and always planning some type of adventure. We started of camping along the St. Louis river in Superior WI we were 13-14 at this time and spent a few days camping and fishing on the river then after a few years of doing this we moved on to bigger things like camping on and kayaking down the Brule river in Brule WI. Every summer in our teens we moved up to something bigger lol. It was a test for both us and our parents, I say this because we were kids. We had to prove to our selves that we could do and prove to our parents that we could be trusted that we weren’t going to get lost, maimed, or kill our selves without any parental supervision and I’m happy to say none of did.

 Then came the big trip for us the BWCA or Boundary Waters Canoe Area. We started planning this during the winter. One of my buddies made the reservations for the week long canoe trip. We had it planned for 3 days after school was out. We couldn’t wait for school to get out, we were counting down the day’s. Then the day came all of our gear was loaded the night before food, fishing poles, canoes, tents, etc, and couldn’t wait to go. It was a great trip with as you can tell great memories after this trip I moved here to the U.P of Michigan and haven’t done it since. I still would head out to the woods hunting, trapping and fishing but never went out hiking or backpacking.                                       

Then a few years back I was watching some one on YouTube backpack in Scotland and thought I want to do that; there was something about it that I liked. It would be a few more years before I fully committed.

Present:

 I didn’t realize how expensive it was but my wife and I slowly gathered our gear a few tents one for us and one for our daughters from Wal-Mart, sleeping bags from amazon our stoves are Diy Fancy Feast alcohol stoves . My backpack was the biggest expense; I’m a big guy not tall but a little on the wider side so the cheaper backpacks I couldn’t get in my size so I bought the Osprey Atmos 65 liter I really like it very comfortable and our cookware is Texas sport. We didn’t really want to break the bank just incase we didn’t like it but we did end up liking it. Our first trip out was the beginning of October of last year on the NCT- North Country Trail in Ontonagon MI. We my wife, daughter and I did an over nighter our daughter loved it hopefully this year will be loaded with more memories.  We are going to try and get our youngest daughter to come with us to the Porcupine Mountains here. I’ve been told that this is a great place to backpack and that it also has some really nice views.