Fallguy,

Go to (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) and look for the CANPASS Remote Area Boader Crossing (RABC) and it will list the requirements.  You will need one primary form of ID (passport, passport card, birth cert.) and one secondary (driver's lic.) to get your RABC permit.  You don't necessarily need a passport according to the list to get the RABC or to enter Canada (just the permit - you should take ID as well....).  It is really pretty simple - just fill out the form and mail it in. 

You will need to stop at the Prairie Portage Ranger Station (or LacLaCroix or Cache Bay) to pay your camping fees, etc.  Any other point of entry would be via Ontario and you would have to go through Canadian customs and no RABC is required for land crossings - whole 'nother ball o' wax.

You do NEED either a passport or a passport card to re-enter the US, however.  Check the state department website.  You are required (by law...) to check in at Customs just outside of Ely w/in 24 hours upon returning.  Probably not a good idea to skip that part. 

pd

If you have a passport you do not need another form of ID for a RABC.

The enhanced license is sufficient to clear US customs.

Since all these types of questions seem to congeal into one big blob anyway...

How 'bout minor children by land? Passport? Just my smiling face? My kid keeps mentioning it and I'm honestly not sure how serious she is.

Fallguy wrote on Mar 3^rd, 2014 at 3:32am:


Where did you find the 24 hours?  I've called several offices - Washington, Chicago, International Falls, and Ely - and not one person in that part of government would commit to anything other than what the law says - immediately.  I got some to sort of suggest they might ordinarily overlook any time between when you entered the US and when you "left the wilderness" is long as you reported soon after that.  I figured if I took several days to paddle to an EP after a trip through the Q, it was fine.

You can get an I68 as well and never have to report.  Figured if I ever did my fantasy Lake of the Woods to Grand Portage trip I'd do that and a sat phone and be 100% legal.  (I hope that isn't politically incorrect to say - since it suggest there are people that cross the border illegally.)

And the Rangers don't care about RABCs.  I've never needed mine, but always had them.  And based on posts on another board, I'd estimate half the people never check in with the US Customs.

I'm taking a Wilderness First Aid class in a few weeks and the teacher is a US Border Patrol agent and Scouter and I plan to try to get him to help get me a more definitive answer on reporting.  We'll see.

Well, I did do it just a year ago for Philmont, but while I earned a three year cert, I felt I did not have as good of understanding as I probably should so when the troop sponsored this one, I decided to go again. We have just one Scout, and I will work harder next time to recruit Scouts because its much more likely an adult will require first aid than a Scout.

At the CPR/AED class,  this past week, I confirmed what I thought that car accidents to and from an event are the biggest cause of Scout injuries and deaths but for the adults, its heart attacks.  Now were thinking about carrying an AED on weekend campouts.