Apply sunscreen to kids before baking them. From bottom up: Alec, Jameson and Logan Drieslein.

Tips for whine-free family paddling

As someone who invested his vacation time in the 1990s in backpacking and canoeing across North America, I’d been itching to introduce my young family to the backcountry. My wife maintained one condition: toilet-trained children. So 18 months after our youngest kicked the diaper habit, we reserved our first Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness permit.

Months later, a championship baseball tournament for our 10-year-old caused us to miss our July entry point date, so I frantically searched the BWCA online reservation system for a last-minute, quality permit. Lucked out and scored one during high-demand mid-August: Mudro No. 23.

Several friends warned that Mudro entry point wasn’t the best option for a first trip with youngsters. Reaching our likely base camp lake, Fourtown, would require three fairly long, rocky portages.

Bringing kids miles into a wilderness ranks as the most physically challenging trip of my life, but also the most satisfying.

But every time I convinced myself that a BWCA journey wasn’t worth the time or effort, my middle boy would sidle up, blink his massive blue eyes, and say, “Gee Dad, I just can’t wait for our trip to the Boundary Waters!”

So I gathered all the equipment that I could beg, borrow or steal from family and friends. Pulled it off, too, all except the canoe. I was the only one of us who could steer a canoe, so that restricted us to a single watercraft.

We-no-nah Canoe makes a 23-foot Kevlar craft that several BWCA outfitters rent. My then-10-year-old sat in the bow, my wife in the second seat, and the two younger boys sat side-by-side in the third seat. I manned the stern.

Keep kids busy with camp chores and they’ll forget to complain about the mosquitoes.

My kids are completely capable of whining, but they don’t in the BWCA. Young boys are in their element in a place like the Boundary Waters. They love adventure, and will absorb every moment of wilderness that a parent can dish out. Yet, sadly, in our five days on trail, we saw no other family groups.

After several wonderful days of hiking, paddling, bird-watching and camp-cooking, we paddled away early one morning into a strong south wind. A 60-something couple chatted with us about their trip and how they admired “young” parents for hauling kids into the B-Dub.

“We went by your camp,” they said. “Your kids were scurrying about like little chipmunks. So good to see a family out here.”