This year is my 40th year of paddling in the BW/Q. My first trip was a flyin to the old ranger station on Irving Is on LLC. We crossed the Blackrobe enroute to Minn, where we spent a week. The fishing was lights out and I was hooked for life. I knew that when the time came I would hook my brother (Snowdog, who was 5 at that time) also. If Mom only knew...

How many years since your first visit to BW/Q? and what do you remember most about your first trip?

Congrats on 40 years, OS! Hope you can have 40 more  

I made my first trip to the Q only 17 years ago (I was much older than you when I got started ) We did a loop from Prairie Portage up through North Bay, up the S Chain, over to Agnes, to Kawnipi, then back down through Kewatin, back through Agnes and out again.

The thing I remember most about that trip was the very first portage I ever did in the Q. It was the lovely cadillac portage from Bailey Bay to Burke--sand landings at both ends, nice wide portage trail, etc. Anyway, we single carried back in those days, so I'm hauling two packs over a portage for the first time, and about half way through, I was thinking that it was not the most pleasant thing I'd ever done. I got to the end and finally dropped my packs and thought that was truly a pain the arse. Our group leader told us that was the best portage we'd ever do, and I thought he was joking!! He most definitely was not. But I sucked it up and actually took to the challenges of all of the portages on that trip. By the time we tackled the Meadows portages toward then end of the trip, I was a portaging machine  

The other thing about that trip I'll never forget was that we weren't 30 minutes out of Prairie Portage, and an eagle plunged into the lake, almost in the middle of our canoes, and pulled an awesome northern out of the lake. I've never seen that again in all my trips back up there.

All in all, a great trip and I'd love to do that loop again some day.

This year will be 33 years for my wife and me. She introduced me to the Boundary Waters area after doing trips there as a teenager. I'll always be thankful to her for that because it has provided us with a lifetime of great vacations, a bunch of new canoeing friends and many great memories.
I remember the first night in we endured a hellacious thunderstorm followed by hordes of mosquitoes in the still humid air that followed. Our rented canvas tent had so many leaks and rips it could hardly be called a shelter from either the rain or bugs and it had no floor! But we endured the first awful night to wake up to the same swarm of mosquitoes that we fled before having breakfast. We paddled till the sun was well above the horizon and then stopped on a breezy bug free point to have brunch. I was eager to break out the fishing gear and while Dede prepared our food I assembled a fishing rod rigged with a #5 Mepps spinner. I remember making 4 casts in a row from that point and catching a fish each time. I was hooked for life.
The following year we spent (invested) all of our savings at that time on brand new gear including a canvas Eureka Timberline tent, an Old Town canoe and the first bent shaft paddles I had ever seen. It's been a good and adventurous three decades. Congrats Old Salt on 4 decades.

43 years. I had been a counselor for two years at Camp Easton  on Little Long lake and had heard canoe trip stories during that time.  After camp the second year six of us from camp went on a six day trip and I experienced what the stories were about.  The others were experienced so I was able to learn the correct methods from them.

Thanks to all for posting! I am very thankful to have made this milestone. As some know, I have had some health & fitness issues over the past several years. The knee replacement last year woke me up to realize how hard I would have to work if I wanted to return to Q. Our upcoming trip will let me know if I have what it takes to keep returning...(I think the answer will be affirmative).

I think my best learning is to take each day as it comes, and enjoy it, because health is a precious commodity that can be lost with little or no advance warning...

Oh, the other thing I remember about that first trip, (prompted by KF's post) is the woefully inadequate equipment we had, a cheap Kame Apart tent, drenching downpours, mosquitos, trying to sleep in a wet sleeping bag, trying to build a fire with wet wood (what stove?), ...those were the days, my friend...