At the beginning of this summer I called my brother and asked him if he wanted to take a trip with me. I said “you choose, anywhere, you pick I’ll plan and book it, lets go!” With almost zero hesitation he responded with “THE BOUNDARY WATERS IN MINNESOTA”. Now, I consider myself to be a decently knowledgeable travel savvy gal but I truly had zero real knowledge of the Boundary Waters or what the trip would entail. But with also no hesitation I agreed and got to work. It took about one short minute of research to discover why this was on the top of his bucket-list. The Boundary Waters looked like a serene nature experience with a portal out of our chaotic lives and into a world of smooth quiet lakes, gorgeous camping sites, warm fires, cotton candy skies and in summary the perfect wilderness experience. Within 15 minutes I was infatuated and already planning how to make this trip happen, and you should too!

WHAT IS THE BWCA?

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) is pure wilderness region located in the Northern Minnesota and along the border of Canada. In 1964 The Wilderness Act was passed marking BWCA as a National Wilderness Preservation. This has solidified and allowed for the area to continue to thrive and prosper in terms of abundant wildlife, clean waters, fresh air, luscious greenery and no noise pollution. The BWCA is a must visit for all outdoor lovers, fisherman and camping fanatics BUT I also believe that regardless of what type of travel or destinations you crave the BWCA can be a place you find calmness, clarity and gratitude for the simple things in life. I do not think we as humans need to choose and “aesthetic”. There is no wrong demographic for this trip. The BWCA will leave you speechless and here’s how to make it happen.

HOW TO PLAN A SUCCESSFUL TRIP TO BWCA

The very first step in any BWCA trip is to secure a permit. Now, the BWCA is becoming more and more popular meaning you should try and secure a permit early! We personally went early September but if I could recommend the perfect time it would be the second week of September. Summer is in the rear view mirror by then, the crowds are thinner, the mosquitos are sparse and the temps are perfect! If you can brave the chill I am sure late September and early October is also so beautiful as the leaves change. No matter when you go though the BWCA is sure to leave you wanting to go back.

Get your BWCA permits HERE.

The next step (and the most important IMO) is securing a quality outfitting company. Now, if you are not familiar with this style of travel a outfitting company is essentially a company that helps create a trip catered toward you by assisting with everything from providing equipment, supplies, maps, routes, and education to help you feel prepared and confident before embarking on your trip! I would normally suggest for you to do your research and choose an outfitting company BUT no need as I can personally attest that Voyageur Canoe Outfitters is your one stop shop for ALL things BWCA. From the gorgeous grounds, clean comfortable bunkers, the highest quality gear and equipment, and most importantly extremely knowledgeable, friendly and organized staff. The Voyageur crew is most definitely a well oiled machine in the sense that there was not one single hiccup, complaint or negative thing I could possibly think of. Voyageur’s is a well established outfitting company that will happily answer allllllll of your questions with ease (which for me was ALOOTTT lol), cater the trip and route to your individualized physical capabilities, views you would like to encounter, fishing environments and overall help establish a route that ensures a BWCA experience you’ll never forget.

HOW TO BOOK THE TRIP

Once you secure a permit and solidify a date Voyageur Canoe Outfitters will quite literally handle the rest! You can book a variety of different packages including

Complete Outfitting
Partial Outfitting
Bunkers and tows
Individual equipment
Food
Group trips

The site also offers maps, route planning tool, packing lists and common questions!

Once you book you will receive an email and a point of contact. They will send you a menu to fill out food preferences, dietary restrictions, ask you questions to assist in planning a route, provide a list of things to bring vs. what is supplied, and more. An entire packet with all thing BWCA is provided which we found so so helpful as we were newbies! And even so if you have more questions they were so quick to get back to me. As a general rule of thumb less is more in terms of items on this trip. Highlight the essentials and the must brings.

BWCA PACKING LIST

clothing:

-underwear, socks, wool/ thick socks

-swimsuit to “shower” in

-mosquito net or hat, beanie, baseball hat

-rain jacket with hood

-warm hoodie or flannel

-sweatpants

-dry fit pants (there are pairs that also zip off into shorts!)

-dry fit shorts

-dry fit long sleeve

-gloves

toilet trees:

-toothbrush &toothpaste

-sunscreen/ bug spray

-hand sanitizer

-bath towel

- lotion

-bar of soap

-chapstick

-vitamins or medications

-mini mirror

-aloe

-back wraps

-headbands, pony tails, tampons

supplies:

-water purifying system (you can boil water as well but i LOVED having a filter) *linked below*

-portable charger

-camera (we brought a waterproof disposable film camera)

-dry bag (helpful in keeping all the super important items dry all the time)

-flashlight

-duct tape

-zip ties

-pocket knife

-hanging hammock (not needed but they make for a great napping area on camp) Voyageurs does sell these on site!

Lastly, if I could suggest ONE item to rent from Voyageurs it would be the canoe chairs. These were GAME CHANGING. I know the entire point of the trip is to fully embrace yourself into the wilderness but it’s very hard to enjoy those moments with a aching back. A large portion of the trip is in a canoe, rowing… ensuring you are comfortable is the least you can do for yourself. The canoe chairs clipped on the canoe seats easily and were able to stay attached while portaging so it was not an extra hassle in any regard. Also, they make for decent camp chairs as well to sit by the fire :)

ARRIVAL TO VOYAGEUR’S

We arrived on a Thursday afternoon the first week of September. We stopped in Grand Marais at the Grand Marais Tavern and ordered lunch (warm wild rice soups all around haha). Grand Marais is the last area that feels like you are in society before you enter the Gunflint trail that is the long beautiful winding road that leads you to Voyageur’s and the start of your BWCA adventure. I would recommend putting down your phone for this ride, rolling down the windows and enjoying the ride as the Gunflint Trail is so so beautiful. Once we arrived we headed up to the front desk to check in. We were greeted and obtained fishing licenses and watched a short required video on the safety / environmentally respectful practices that should be followed in the BWCA. The office sells any essentials you may have forgotten such as toothbrushes, sunscreen, bug spray etc. for the trip so need to sweat! You can also purchase fishing gear, merch ( we snagged hoodies, tee’s and more!)

EQUIPMENT AND ROUTE INFORMATION SESSION

After this we had the route planning / equipment information session! For weeks prior to this trip my Dad was CONSTANTLY asking me about routes, equipment etc. etc. and I had to keep telling him that there would be someone who gave us all the information we needed to know, and I was right! I truly believe that anyone with any level of travel or outdoor experience should be able to experience and immerse themselves in the beauty of the BWCA, and so does Voyageurs! This was clear during the info session. Matthew was beyond knowledgeable and began the session by asking us our personal levels of experience in the camping/ outdoors/ canoeing environment. This was extremely helpful as he was able to gauge just how much information we needed on each topic. For us specifically the planning of the route was the most important topic as my brother and dad wanted fishing information, I wanted picture-esc views and content opportunists! Matthew walked us through a route that worked out wonderfully for our group! It involved intermediate level rowing abilities, easy to moderate portages, many campsite opportunities (he even circled popular favorite campsites for us to check out as well as a waterfall to explore)! After marking up the route on the waterproof map we were given the map to bring with us on the trip to guide us. Matthew went over all of the equipment from cooking, cleaning, food, tent, sleeping bags, sleeping pads and more. He answered all questions such as how to properly hang the food bag at night to avoid animals at the campsite, explained that drift food was a great fire starter due to a lot of the good fire wood being picked over. After that session we were all feeling so excited and most importantly prepared for our trip.

The ultimate outfitting package includes a night stay in the onsite bunkers so you can get a comfortable nights rest before the trip which I appreciated immensely despite my restful REM sleep being interrupted by my lovely father’s snoring. My Dad has stayed in numerous bunkers during his travels over the years and mentioned that Voyageur’s was by far the cleanest he had stayed in and they had outlets as well which is not always common! We were given the bunker information and walked around the corner to find ours. We spend the next hour or so packing up our personal belongings for the trip (clothes, fishing gear, toilet trees etc.) before working up an appetite and ordering a pizza. Voyageur’s provides pizza to buy and we sat by the lake watching sunset and scarfing down pizza. We all took showers in the outhouses and headed to bed early. The outhouses were exceptionally clean, showers were hot and did the trick. At about 2 AM I got up to use the bathroom and when I walked outside I audibly gasped. The stars in the BWCA were unlike anything I have ever experienced. There are very few sights that leave me so speechless I forgot to reach for my phone but this was for sure one of them.

OUR ROUTE

We awoke at sunrise at were beyond excited! We got ready and headed to Voyageur’s pancake breakfast which included and I kid you not (sorry to my Mom) but the best pancakes I have ever had. Their website does advertise the pancakes as famous but I genuinely had doubt because like…. It’s a pancake but OMG so yummy. There was water, coffee, fresh juice as well as the pancakes and sausages.

After a delicious breakfast we headed down to the dock for our canoe shuttle to our entry point / start of our route! Voyageur’s offers an amazing service of shuttling you, your equipment and canoes to the entry point called American Point which is the start of the “no motor” regulations! Although you canoe through the entire Sag lake if you wish due to time limitations and such we decided to start at American Point! From American Point we were faced with some rough waters for the first hour of our journey but after a hour of ROUGH rowing the skies cleared and we basically spent the morning into early afternoon rowing and fishing, taking in the gorgeous smooth lakes, horizons of trees and sunshine across my face. We ended up finding camp and spent the afternoon setting up camp, grabbing some snacks and taking a little rest. After spending the evening fishing and exploring the lake we had set up camp which was Ester lake. I will insert a image of our exact route and the camps we stayed at for reference. Our route focused in on fishing (specifically small mouth and Northern Pike) beautiful views, campsites, a waterfall and orange rocky cliffs. My personal favorite moments of the trip included slow mornings waking up to foggy orange skies, crisp air, steaming coffee and warm fires.

We traveled from American Point through Saganaga Lake, portaged Monument Portage which is a really cool portage as there’s marking indicating the border of America and Canada so technically you are walking on two counties at once! After this portage we rowed along Ester Lake and set up camp here! After some well deserved rest and PB & J’s we ventured back out to do some fishing and ended up back at camp before sunset and spent the evening cooking, chatting and watching the sunset flow into clear skies with incredible stars.

Everyday that followed was just as special. We spent our mornings frying eggs, sipping warm drinks and planning out our days. After packing up camp and hitting the water we did a good mix of rowing and fishing lazily until reaching our destination for the day. We fried fresh fish for almost every dinner and gawked at the sunsets reflecting off the water.

SUMMARY

I travel a lot. I have ventured to some really magical places thousands of miles away from the states and I can truthfully say that the BWCA was one of my favorite trips. It was not lavish. I smelled strongly of bug spray the entire trip, washed my face with a beauty gurus approved regime of dial bar soap and lake water, the last day of the trip Logan asked me to hand him his toothbrush, so I handed him his green toothbrush which he so kindly informed me was not his toothbrush in which I responded with a yes it is and was met back with the so comforting information that he had been using my toothbrush the entire trip, I casted into the trees, weeds and logs more times than a fishes mouth, I woke up one morning to my fathers wet lake water socks about 2 inches from my face… the list could go on. The BWCA is the wilderness not a all inclusive beach resort and I can say with complete honestly it was 10x better. Why? because aside from the beautiful views, fresh air, sparking stars, vibrant northern lights, abundant wildlife and clear waters which are all obvious reasons to visit the BWCA but for me personally it’s the clarity, the calmness and the undivided attention on the people I love most. Life is so busy, and at all moments of the day we all so easily have access to our phones, social media, Netflix and basically all forms of stimulation.. in the BWCA you don’t have that. You have long chats about childhoods and teasing moments deciding who does camp dishes. You makes memories, lots and lots of memories with people you love and I don’t think there’s many environments that allow for that type of quality time and for that I’ll be forever grateful to the BWCA.

I hope this post gives you a little insight, recommendations and planning advice to help you take the leap and head into the serenity that is the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Book your BWCA trip HERE !

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