We just got back on Friday from spending seven days on a houseboat on birch lake by Ely, MN. We left for Ely on Friday the 21st and Andrew was ready to go… to ready, he was up at 4:00 AM ready to board the boat. The drive up was great, the boys were in a great mood for the entire 4 hour drive which is pretty impressive when traveling with a 4 year old and 18 month old.
We arrived at the houseboat dock, settled in to the houseboat and then waited for about 1/2 hour for our dock man to take us through the rules and send us on our way. I was putting new line on the fishing rods when I noticed a guy just standing on the front of the boat with a blank stair, I waited a bit thinking maybe he’s on the wrong boat and he’ll notice and leave, after 5 minutes of this, he was still there so I asked if I could help him. He was our dock man, it was 2:30 pm and he was hammered, stinking of booze he took us through the safe operation of a houseboat slurring each and every word. It was great, except for the repeating himself and such, still a hilarious way to start our vacation.
We set sail and found an awesome campsite nestled away on the north west corner of North bay. Before we knew it, it was time to put the boys to bed. This being Matthew’s first time out of a crib and both boys first night in bunk beds, I joked to Julie that I hope they don’t both fall out of bed. Well, that came true, within an hour of them being in bed, from the campfire 30 yards from the boat, we heard a thud, Andrew had fallen from the top bunk. We calmed him down, and he was sleeping in no time. About the time Julie and I went to bed, we heard another quieter thud, this time Matthew had fallen from the bottom bunk. Julie got him settled down and the rest of the night was quiet and peaceful.
After staying at North bay for two nights we headed to a campsite called ring rock. I spent most of the day, finding firewood and building a nice rock fire pit. After one night at Ring Rock we packed up early and traveled all the way to the norther tip of the lake in hopes of staying at an island located there. Unfortunately it was occupied so we headed back south in search of a nice camp site. This being the only truly windy day, finding a place, out of the wind, in the middle of the day was a bit challenging. We ended up getting lucky and finding a campsite out of the wind on the Kurry Islands, even better, it was fully stocked with firewood as the previous camper apparently had a chainsaw. Since I didn’t have to spend 3 hours finding and chopping firewood, and was already sick of cooking on a gas grill. I decided it was time to do some open fire cooking. I built up the fire pit, cut a 5 foot piece of 2″ diameter basswood and began work on spit to roast chickens over birch coals. I knew from previous experience that this type of design is quite poor once it’s time to rotate the birds, so I whittled two five inch pegs and began the tedious process of drilling two holes through my spit with a pocket knife. After placing the chickens on the spit, I simply ran the begs through the breast and keel bone and through spit. The design worked flawlessly, my only regret is that I didn’t have an extra hour to build up a nice coal base to get a better indirect convection heat so I had to be very careful. None the less, the chicken turned out pretty damn great (honestly not as good as having a Weber kettle, but pretty damn good considered it was built from wood and rocks, and the wood fire gave it a nice smokey flavor.)
After dinner, we gave the boys their first ever bath in a lake. This did not go as well as I envisioned and ended in crying and Andrew stating he never wanted to wash his hair again.
After spending an additional day on the island, we headed to the north most point of snowshoe bay. Another beautiful campsite with some great hiking trails. A bit of advice, if you want to get in shape, try hiking through fallen trees and to the top of a rock point carrying a 30 lb child, it’s good exercise.
After one night at snowshoe bay, we headed back to North bay for our final night as this was definitely our favorite campsite. I decided that the campsite just didn’t have a respectable fire pit so spent a good hour or two lugging large rocks up to the rock cliff to create the perfect outdoor fireplace with a view of the lake off the cliff. So if you stay at said campsite and enjoy the fire pit, you’re welcome.
The next morning we headed back to the marina to return the boat and head back to reality.
Before we left for the trip, I started wondering what were going to do for 7 days on a houseboat with two young children in a 20 x 10 cabin, but it was a blast. Time flew by and everyone had a great time. We’re thinking of making this an annual event.
If your considering such a trip; bellow are some must haves:
1) Bring binoculars (finding campsites can be very difficult due to the cover, and the eagles are fun to watch)
2) Bring good water ( The boat comes with drinking water, but it’s terrible, we brought two 5 G Culligan jugs and it was perfect for 4 people for 7 days)
3) Probably a no-brainer, but bring a camp saw and hatchet (If you don’t have these items, Gerber is the way to go, IMO)
4) Another no-brainer, but bring roper for a clothes line
5) Have all your meals planned out and of the type that generate little waste (as you would in the BWCA) you don’t want to be lugging bags of garbage around with you for a week.
6) Handheld GPS (this is optional, but if you’re a logistics freak like me, it’s great for marking spots and also watching your mph should you want to be at a certain point by a certain time)
So, in the end our first true family vacation was an absolute success and I look forward to future houseboat adventures.
