By Robert M.
Last August, the Venture Patrol went to Ontario, Canada for the Northern Tier high adventure canoe trip. We flew to International Falls, MN and stayed there a couple of nights in a hotel before crossing the border into Canada. While in Minnesota, we went to Voyageurs National Park where we learned about the French Canadian voyageurs that moved furs and other trade across the region’s lakes via canoes.

At the base we checked our gear and slept in a cabin. We set out the next day after getting some training in lifting canoes and assembling our gear. We also learned about 6-ply moss. (Ask your scout.) Our first experience of the trip was watching motor boats rescue flipped canoes! Because of rough waves and heavy winds, we didn’t leave until after dinner to brave the stormy conditions. Our first campsite was a beach, behind which there was a swamp full of mosquitoes.

The next day we were glad to be out of there; we did a 3 km portage on our first full day that was extremely hard, especially for those of us with canoes. We camped that night on a very cool island campsite. The next day we went through some rivers and had little portages. We also saw some Bald Eagles. Our campsite was small but cozy. On the fourth day we had to do seven portages, including one with waist deep mud. Along the way we saw a small waterfall. We then camped on another beach campsite, it was camouflaged by bushes and trees, but best of all there was no swamp.

On the fifth day, we canoed past our intended campsite and portaged past the next day’s pick up spot, and tried to canoe to an abandoned Boy Scout camp. Unfortunately, the campsites on our map no longer existed so we couldn’t finish that mission. We went back, did the portage again and camped on the coolest of all the campsites. This one was also an island, but it was bigger and more open; there was a huge rock with a flat top that overlooked the lake that four scouts camped on top of, and the adult camped on a plateau sticking out the side of the island, about half the island’s length from the scouts.

On the sixth day we got to the pickup site after adding an extra half mile of canoeing, we got picked up and spent another night in the base cabins. Our original goal was 50 miles, we wound up doing 75! Our longest distance in one day was 21 miles. The next day we packed up and headed home. While we were waiting for our plane in International Falls, we toured the Boise paper mill. We also enjoyed a great lunch after a week of trail food!