We only took our kids on a trip only once, as we usually kept canoeing as a "just for the two of us" activity.  But when they were 16 and 19 we did a family trip.  Our daughter and son shared a rented aluminum canoe, and it was most interesting to watch them learn to cooperate--at first to get that canoe to just go in a straight line, and then to decide to take off without us!   

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We had a very good time.  It was lots of fun and laughter, lots of learning for all of us, and making memories that we still talk of today.  (trip was in 1988.)

That year our son was seriously training for high school cross country, so at the portages and the campsites he ran and ran.  Our daughter read books and searched the water for crayfish and other treasures.  I love this photo of us doing our "things" in the campsite.

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They are grown up now, our "baby"  (that would be our son) is turning 40 in April.  Our daughter and her husband took one BWCA trip themselves, and it is their daughter who goes to the north every year with us for a cabin week.  So far our son hasn't showed much interest.

But we have never been sorry that we did do one family trip.  It was fun.

I sure am grateful for the adults in my scout troop who took me on my first Quetico canoe trip and gave me the fever for Up North.  I’m also glad that I had the opportunity to guide many teens through the Boy Scout Base.  Some of the keys to success that I’ve learned:
1. No electronics, other than an emergency radio or sat phone and a camera.  Possibly a watch, but I’d go cold turkey on that too.  Get them unplugged.
2. Have some group games, fire talks, and a deck of cards for a rainy day.  You can always cram 6 or 7 kids in a 4 person tent to play cards.  Just know a few good card games that they may not have even heard of.  (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)
3. Scavenger hunts – bring a few flora and fauna nature books and see who can identify such and such.
4. If they are urban dwellers, they may have never seen the milky way.  If skies are clear, get them out on a rock checking out the sky.  Also, look for meteor showers, northern lights, or even just satellites crossing the sky.
5. Challenge the heck out of them – Don’t underestimate the power of reverse psychology and also praise for a job well done.  Kids often have more physical energy and ability than they know, so push them hard. 
6. Teach them how to set up camp and do the chores, then let them do it.  You can sleep while they collect firewood, hang bear bags, and burn off their extra energy.
7. Cook over an open fire.  Most haven’t experienced it, and you have the manpower to collect plenty of firewood.
8. Bring extra food, snacks to help get over the mid-day blahs or when that bowl of oatmeal was burned up before you tackle a strong headwind or hard portage.  Teen boys eat way more than adults, so much so that we call them locusts.  They come in to camp, and suddenly all the food is gone.
9. Explain to them what you’re doing and why.  It’s far easier to get them out of bed for an early morning paddle if they know it’s to allow for an early camp and more time fishing/reading/exploring.
10. I recommend early starts in the morning and camping for the day around lunch whenever possible.  Also, be sure to plan for a couple of layover days on a trip with more than 7 nights.

Take them because if they go with you once, sooner or later, they will want to go with you again

Our oldest, who is now a junior in college, started with me when he was 11. He took a couple of those late teen years off because he was "busy".

Last year, he invited a college roomie from the east coast & a couple of highschool buddies to tag along.

This summer, he has a waiting list of guys wanting in!

The things you can teach & show your children on a trip are so easily transferable then they can take others.

I am enjoying the pics..........thanks!

Quote:


Save your aching back, let the kids carry it!!!

I was brought on a trip as a teenager in Boy Scouts. I'm so thankful I went. I learned a lot on that trip both about me and the outdoors. It also hooked me and I've been going almost annually ever since.
Now a days I'd bring a teenager to show them what the wildnerness is and what its all about. Show them why it needs to be protected. Show them the stars at night, the smell of bacon on a campfire and the sound of a loon. ALL of those things can change a person for life (usually for the better).
They usually wont realize how nice it is to get away from their computer, phone, video games etc. However they will learn that they can get by with out them and have an awesome time.

For some of them it will be their first chance to pee in the woods (exciting I know  ) It is the experiences like that that can have a profound impact on them.

Make carrying gear a challenge and they will rise to the occassion.
Bring LOTS of food though

All of this BTW coming from someone who isn't too far past his teenage years.

This doesn't add to the thread much, but I was cleaning out a cabinet today and found this photo which had been taken out of my 1988 album and needs to be put back. 

It was taken on Day 6 of our only family trip.  It had rained all morning and we had been cold and wet (notice the bottoms of my cotton pants are wet and our daughter is still wearing her poncho because she was cold.  The sun came out as we made made the portage at Pipestone Dam and then we stopped at the northern campsite on Newton Lake for lunch. 

The kids are eating "Space Food Sticks".  Does anyone remember those?  They came in chocolate and peanut butter.  I bought some from a retro place online this summer to take on our September trip, just for old times' sake, but they aren't as good as I remember!   

There were arguments and little tiffs on this trip.  There were many laughs and a few coughs, like when we all took refuge in OUR tent during a really bad thunderstorm on Wind Lake and we discovered that the 15-year-old teenage boy had feet that smelled so bad it would have been preferable to just be struck by lightning!    There were challenges, and there were times when their canoe got out of my sight that I worried.  It wasn't relaxing like a tandem trip.

But looking at this now, when they are grownups, with families of their own, living hundreds of miles away. . . .it does make me glad that I have this moment frozen in time and can remember sitting there in the sunshine at the end of our trip smiling at Dad, who had picked up the camera (a rare occurrence.)

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I don't feel a lot of nostalgia for blue jeans and plaid cotton flannel shirts, though.     Or those enormous eyeglass frames!

Wow. You can still get space food sticks? Tang is still around I think. Shake a pudding anyone?

I'd take a flannel shirt and even jeans over what looks like that green rubberized raingear any day.

Shaky puddin was Burt's ( Gator) favorite I do believe