Learning to be an Adult in the Boundary Waters

Adventures in nature formed a lot of my strongest memories of growing up. This is one of the reasons that it is important to me to try to foster similar opportunities for my own children and believe that it is important for all children to have opportunities to experience nature.

The transition from child to an adult is a difficult one, but when that transition can occur across different environments, I think that lessons can be learned that can translate into other other areas. In my specific example, I think that the skills of planning, leadership, and confidence that I built up on adventures during these adolescent years, came in useful when navigating high school and college. Continue reading “Learning to be an Adult in the Boundary Waters”

My First Wilderness Canoe Trip

In the summer of 1994 at the age of 13, I took my first trip to the Boundary Waters (and Quetico) with my father, younger brother, and the aforementioned Uncle Bruce. Uncle Bruce, who is actually my mom’s uncle, was an experienced canoe tripper and my father had gone with him on a trip to the Quetico once in the 80’s. The three of us relied very much on him to help us plan the trip. While my brother and I had been canoeing with our father since as long as we could remember, this was the first time that we had ever combined it with camping and over the course of multiple days.

Continue reading “My First Wilderness Canoe Trip”