Celebrate Your Independence

     I can’t think of a better way to spend the 4th of July than camping out in the canoe country wilderness.  Why not make a new tradition this 4th of July and celebrate a different kind of independence.

     The first part of July is a great time to paddle the BWCA or Quetico Park.  Most people have other traditions around the 4th of July that involve fireworks, reunions and parades.  This leaves the canoe country even more quiet than it normally is.  The water is usually warm enough for swimming, the fish tend to be biting and the bugs have generally tapered off.  You can celebrate independence from the social norm by taking a canoe trip over the 4th of July. 

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   A guest of ours recently told us about his family discovering their independence during their family canoe camping trip.  The kids didn’t have their Game Boys or iPods to entertain them and there wasn’t a television or a computer to distract anyone in the family.  They all realized they were an important part of a team and they had to work together as a family unit in order to eat, sleep and travel.  They were dependent on themselves while celebrating their independence from everyone else. 

     The kids would have preferred a "normal" vacation like the Mall of America or Valleyfair.  But in the end their wilderness canoe trip proved much more rewarding than any purchase could ever have been.    The 4th of July may be a fun time to be a part of the crowd enjoying fireworks or other celebrations but I’ll bet you would feel more pride and joy sitting on a rock underneath a star-filled sky listening to the nightly chorus of the wilderness than you could ever experience standing on asphalt with hundreds of other people watching the same firework filled sky.