No, Voyagers is not the wilderness experiance you have "up north" but it can be fun. I took my daughters, ages 11 & 12 to the visitor center at Blacks Bay on Rainy Lake a few years ago. We parked at the visitor center, safe and free parking. We put in our loaded canoe here, cut across Blacks Bay and paddled and camped for 4 days amoung the Island studded south east shore. This is a back channel and looks similiar to areas in the boundary waters. The big boats can't travel in here, but you will see a few smaller fishing boats. Camp sites are pretty easy to find, and there are enough to pick from that finding an available site should be no problem. There is no fee to stay here and most sites have a large bear locker that also make for a nice flat surface to cook on. The dissadvantage is that you will see people every day, with motorboats, and we had to spend a little time cleaning up campsites before we set up. I am fanatical about teaching my kids no trace camping. I don't mean to rip on motor boat campers (I have a boat too) But I have found that since it is easier to bring in cans, bottles and other various trash you would not think of packing in with a canoe, it seems to be easier for some people to just decorate the camp sites with the trash instead of packing it out. Other than these few annoyances, we had a good time, and it was fun not having to portage., Don D

Posted by Don D. on June 06, 2000 at 21:39