Boundary Waters Boy Scout camp celebrates a century of wilderness adventure
Program based near Ely has helped young people explore and experience canoe country since 1923.
Camps
YMCA Camp Northern Lights is for families
YMCA Camp Northern Lights gives families time to bond, deepen their appreciation for wild places, and, if they want, gain skills for a wilderness adventure near the Boundary Waters.
Sharing the wilderness with women—of any age
“There is a measurable amount of growth with every trip and every person I take out… And it really is empowering, especially for mature women who think that, physically, they aren’t capable anymore,” wilderness guide Peta Barrett says.
BOLD & GOLD: How a YMCA program brings diversity to wilderness tripping
The YMCA of the Greater Twin Cities Boys & Girls Outdoor Leadership Program uses canoe tripping and wilderness settings, including the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, to teach youth to work together, whatever the differences between them.
Morning Light – A Canoe Built by Campers at Ogiche Daa Kwe
There is something delicate about the look of a skin-on frame canoe. In the sunlight, the wooden frame shows through its skin, as do the shadows of paddlers. Looking down into the boat, the line where water meets air is visible. Yet it is a seaworthy craft, light enough for the youngest and oldest of paddlers to carry, and, at girls’ wilderness camp Ogiche Daa Kwe, a perfect metaphor for community. Last summer, campers and staff at the Rainy Lake camp built a 17.5-foot wilderness traveler skin-on frame canoe.
Boundary Waters Guides Plan to Paddle from Sea Gull Lake to Hudson Bay
A group of former staff members at Wilderness Canoe Base are preparing to embark on a 1,200-mile trip to raise funds for the camp.
YMCA Camp du Nord: The Family That Goes to Camp Together, Stays Together
All summer long, families stream to the North Arm of Burntside Lake, outside Ely, for a week at camp. There, for the past 54 years, YMCA Camp du Nord has provided …
Northern Lakes Canoe Base
Picture the Girl Scouts, and it’s likely that young girls selling cookies come to mind. And while that can be part of the experience, Northern Lakes Canoe Base is offering up …
Laketrails Base Camp
By Alissa Johnson When Laketrails campers arrive at base camp, costumed counselors greet them, singing and dancing, hooting and hollering, and banging on drums. “We’re famous for our welcomes of campers,” …
Fostering Growth and Sparking Curiosity in Youth
By Adam Maxwell During the summer of 2013, I spent my time leading wilderness trips for Camp Lincoln in Brainerd, Minnesota. Camp Lincoln is one of the oldest traditional summer camps …
Profile: Wilderness Canoe Base
Wilderness Canoe Base on Seagull Lake is a formative canoe camp program with a long, storied, and challenging history.
YMCA Camp Widjiwagan: Generations of Exploration
On the pine-covered shores of Burntside Lake’s North Arm twenty miles northeast of Ely, Camp Widjiwagan has been a launching point for teenagers to explore wilderness since 1929. Today, some families …
Camp Manito-wish—Where Kids Try it, Change it, and Try Again
By Alissa Johnson When a group of campers from Camp Manito-wish YMCA approaches its first campsite in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness or Quetico Provincial Park, the counselors ask the …
Northern Tier High Adventure Program
Steeped in 90 years of canoeing tradition By Alissa Johnson During the summer of 2012, the Northern Tier High Adventure Program helped 755 crews, most of them Boy Scouts, explore the …
Tim Heinle
Camp Kooch-i-ching Director and Alumnus Tim Heinle is in his early 70s, but he still has vivid memories of his first trip to Camp Kooch-i-ching on Rainy Lake. He spent eight …
The Camping and Education Foundation: Camp Kooch-i-ching and Ogiche Daa Kwe
The Camping and Education Foundation Home to Camp Kooch-i-ching and Ogiche Daa Kwe by Alissa Johnson In 2005, Camp Ogiche Daa Kwe opened its doors for its first official session: 14 …
YMCA Camp Warren Turns 85
About two hours north of the Twin Cities, YMCA Camp Warren sits on Half Moon Lake near Eveleth, Minnesota. Once a summer home for the Warren Family, the land is now …
The Wilderness Canvas: YMCA Camp Menogyn
By Fred Sproat Wilderness is many different things to many different people; it can be a grocery store or a sanctuary, a playground or a classroom. It can be all of …
Hub’s Place – The Wilderness Research Center
The landscape of northeast Minnesota would look different today if not for the efforts of a Harvard educated, Chicago lawyer by the name of Frank Hubachek. Born in 1894 to parents of means and influence, Hubachek spent his boyhood holidays in northern Minnesota and learned at a young age the need to experience nature in unspoiled, unfenced settings. It may be tempting to assume that rich people don’t get their hands dirty, that Hubachek’s support was purely financial or legal and that the real firebrands of the wilderness preservation effort were the likes of Ernest Oberholtzer and Sigurd Olson, but you would be wrong.