The longer you weight it may be to late.  All 3 of my kids started when they were babies.  Now my oldest is 5 and has done 9 trips, my second is 4 and has done 8 trips and my youngest is 1 and has done 2 trips.  Its not if the kid can handle it, its if the parents can.

I'm definitely not brave enough to take infants to the Quetico.

But when my son was 4-5 weeks old, my brother in law called all distraught. He was in the woods during bow season and had made a bad shot on a  deer (pulled his face away during the follow-thru) and couldn't find the deer. He was calling just to pass the time, give the deer a chance to die before he tracked further (not wanting to jump it and push it on to another farm).

But I said "hold on, I'll be right there." So I put the little man in one of those papoose carriers on my chest, tossed some diapers and formula in a camo hunting pack I used as a diaper bag and drove 40 miles to help track this deer for five hours. At times I was literally crawling on the ground looking for blood splatters, my face about 6 inches from my son's staring eyes.

You haven't lived as a father until you've fed a kid a bottle in the autumn woods.

"Breathe in this air, boy," my brother in law kept telling him.

When my then-wife got home that night with our daughter, she wanted to know how the "stick-tights" had gotten on his waffle weave sleeper.

This story has nothing to do with canoeing, but sheesh -- get outdoors with your children/grandchildren/nieces and nephews. My son doesn't consciously remember that day, but down deep I know his soul does.

-- kypaddler

wally wrote on Dec 2^nd, 2009 at 5:18pm:

Bravery is an interesting concept. I'd have gone with something else as I've always simply drawn the line at the ability to swim - age notwithstanding. They don't necessarily have to swim well, it's just one less thing that could cause panic at the worst possible time. Panic will always make matters worse.

I've toyed with the idea of taking my dad on and off but the man never did learn to swim. As his boats got smaller and smaller toward my target size, it was no surprise to me that his PFDs kept getting bigger and bigger. I've spent enough time in various boats with him to know he'd be a gunnel grabber and therefore I herby publicly declare him to be TOO OLD. Besides, he is really old and wouldn't remember it very long anyway.

Woulda coulda didn't - no regrets. (Yeah, like someone would have volunteered to look after mom for a week while we were out indulging ourselves.)

db wrote on Dec 23^rd, 2009 at 6:43am:


Hehe...oh that's funny. You can always show him pics after the trip. 

I brought my daughter in for the first time when she was four. She had a great time and she was just old enough that it wasn't too hard on us either. I totally agree with however it was that suggested waiting until they are out of diapers. We brought her on a four day Snowbank to Lake One trip via Alice.