Congratulations on 40, Old Salt.  This will be 39 for us, and we have a permit for the BWCA to go in at Cross Bay on June 22nd.  I hope we will be able to do a decent trip, but my lower back is giving me fits, so it is still up in the air if we will go and if we do, I suspect Spartan1 is going to carry more than his share on the portages.  Much as I hate that, he is willing, so perhaps I'll let him do it.  I had an epidural last Thursday, but so far it isn't helping much.

We are headed to Minnesota on Friday with our granddaughter for a week at HoHo's cabin on the lake near Ely, and a few day trips will give us a chance to test the waters.  

To answer your question though, what I remember most about my first trip:

getting sunburned, hating that canvas tent, learning a lot that I had never known about my husband (all of it good stuff), and completely falling in love with the canoe country!  We did the Namakan River loop and by the time we got to Myrtle Falls I was totally hooked.  As we came back down the Namakan Narrows I was already planning the next trip!  25 trips later I am still doing that.