Family Fly in Hunt

[srupp]

Pm sent.
Steven

[eric]

You asked about a crapper.
what we have done when the kids were smaller was get a 5 gallon pail,Attache a toilet seat, cut out the bottom and set it over a hole in the ground, works good,and set up a tarp around it for privacy.
Good luck on your trip.

[bloody bellies]

take a plastic chair, cut a hole in it, take baby wipes, they are life savers

Ya I'm interested to see how they do with less. Try not to spoil them but .......

This may seem like a stupid question however I am going to ask anyway. What do you do for crappers on fly in trips when your base camp is beside a lake? Dig a hole? bring some plywood and build a box? bring a seat? go for a walk? I'm sure some of these lakes must get a lot of groups each year. This isn't normally an issue for me but we have a sign at our house that says "Welcome to the house of pee and poo" for a reason.

[nature girl]

Maybe on your trip have the kids pack a camera each and a journal then they can document the trip.

[Ride Red]

Maybe on your trip have the kids pack a camera each and a journal then they can document the trip.

Great idea. When my sons were small, I bought them sling shots which provided hours of entertainment over the years. Any trip with your family is priceless, just make sure you take advantage of every opportunity as they grow up fast. Hope you have an excellent trip with memories to last a lifetime.

[wolfpack]

This is the best thread I’ve read on here in a while. I have a flight booked up north this fall with my dad and my 6 year old son. Can’t wait. Some of my most fondest childhood memories were hunting up north with my dad as a kid. Trips like these create a lifetime desire to pursue the outdoor lifestyle and preserve the hunting tradition. Hoping to bring my wife and daughter the year after. Can’t wait to hear about your trip!

[RJHunter]

Thanks to all who shared information and ideas for this hunt. It turned out to be one of the best trips I have experienced and a trip I hope my family will remember forever.
Family introduction: Ryan and Andrea, Natalie (11), Cade (10), Carly (7), Reese (6)
We started planning this trip early in the year however I ended up being extremely busy at work for a few months leading up to the trip and packing was a bit more rushed than I would have liked. We were told we could have 1200lbs of weight and it seemed like we should have no issues being under that so we weren’t really concerned. The day before leaving we packed and weighed all the gear and ourselves and found we were definitely overweight…..now what don’t we need?

We also started to consider the size of the containers etc. We had never been on a Beaver float plane and were starting to question how we were packing gear. Nothing like leaving details to the last minute. The plan was to camp on the way up to Watson Lake so we packed some gear specifically for truck camping and the rest for the fly in camp. Looking back it would have been smart to pack all of the fly in gear in the back of the truck box and pack the other camp gear in the front. That’s not how we packed so it was fun digging through all the gear to find anything.

In the end we dropped a few minor items and the main weight decision came down to dropping the Nu-Way propane stove and propane bottle or ditch the boat? We knew we wouldn’t find any trees near our camp however it looked like we could perhaps travel for wood using the boat if needed. The weather was looking nice and I really wanted the boat there to give us better access to other side of the lake and to give us more fishing opportunity. We decided to ditch the propane stove and bring the lightweight Seek Outside wood stove. We also ditched our toilet shelter which made for a nice view while going to the bathroom.
We stuffed the gear under the canopy and headed for Summit Lake. The drive was uneventful but we got a good start listening to Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. Not really a great book to listen to before getting on a float plane….but it added to the adventure. We drove past Summit Lake to look for sheep at the rock cut and turned back to pick a camp spot. We pulled enough gear out of the truck to fit the three oldest kids in the back and Andrea and I slept in a tent with our youngest daughter.


The next morning, we cooked some breakfast, packed up and headed for Watson Lake. The drive was nice but the smoke was thick for most of the drive. The kids loved watching the many caribou and buffalo along the highway. We ran short of time for checking rifles before we left so we turned off the highway and found a spot to do some shooting. The kids got some good practice in and had a bite to eat. The smoke cleared near Watson Lake and we finished Hatched just before pulling into town.
We pulled a bunch of gear out at the hotel in Watson Lake and fine-tuned some of our packing. Definitely a bit of gear to organize when going with 4 kids. I called the pilot and confirmed at 7:30 flight the next morning…..now it’s feeling real! We were up at 5:30 the next morning. Kids up, dressed, packed, breakfast, make sure we have socks on, find socks, repack and move the herd from the hotel to the truck.

[RJHunter]

We arrived at the Northern Rockies Air Charter dock just after 7am. As we pulled up and had our first look at the plane we all started to wonder how in the world we were going to fit our heap of gear into that plane?? We unloaded all the gear at the dock and the more we looked at the pile the more I thought the pilot would tell us we were crazy for thinking we could pack that much gear. The pilot, Bill, showed up at 7:30 and we introduced ourselves as he started looking at our gear. Might fit he said. Well that was a relief to hear. He fueled the plane and we loaded as much gear as we could into the pontoons. We then loaded the area behind the seats and ended up with just enough room for sitting! It all fit!


The flight it was great. The kids were all wide eyed and looking at all there was to see.

The skies were clear until 5 minutes before our camp location. The smoke thickened and it became difficult to see as we approached the lake.

We circled the lake several times to drop elevation and get the wind right for landing. This was a bit terrifying for my oldest daughter as she thought we were going to crash for sure (Hatchet). The landing was perfect and all were relieved when the plane settled onto the lake. I started talking with Bill about our camp location. There looked to be a camp over on the west end where we had planned to camp so we decided to camp on the east side to give all some room. Bill said the beach was much nicer at the other location and suggested that we should consider using the boat to move our gear down if the other group leaves early. We unloaded the family and all the gear on the shore and pushed the plane off the beach. It was a strange feeling watching it lift off the lake and disappear into the smoky sky. The shore was marshy and the black flies were on us immediately. Bug spray was out quickly and we began looking for a camp location. Just then we heard a plane coming in to land at the lake. We walked up to a high point and saw our plane landing back on the lake. The plane floated up and shut down in front of our gear. Bill got out and said he had a better look at the other end of the lake and there wasn’t a camp there, just some old plywood etc. He offered to load all our gear back in the plane and move us down the lake! He figured the kids would have a better trip if we were camped at the other end. We gladly took him up on the offer and loaded the plane with the gear. I jumped in with him and we burned down to the other camp location. There was no doubt that it was a much better location and I am extremely thankful that he came back to move us, very awesome service! We quickly unloaded the gear and he took off back to the other end to pickup the rest of the family. It wasn’t long before we were all at the new location watching the plane leave us for the second time.

[RJHunter]

We didn’t waste much time finding a good location for the tipi, there was a great spot a few meters higher than the lake which looked like it’s been used many times before. We got the tipi setup, moved the gear inside and set the kids loose to explore. The kids were quick to break out boat and fishing rods and began fishing from the beach as soon as they had the lures on. It wasn’t long before we could hear the excited yell “I got a fish!” I couldn’t believe they had one that fast. Andrea and I headed down to check it out and it was quickly decided that we were having this trout for supper. The fishing was turning out to be excellent and we were constantly heading to the water to release fish for the kids. They caught some nice fish during the trip and had some on that couldn’t be slowed down with the gear they were using. You could tell when they had a big one on because they would be sitting on their buts trying not to be pulled into the water.
Cade with a beauty trout he caught from the beach

Carly with a good size trout for dinner

Kids all hanging out cleaning a fish

The tipi worked out great for us on this trip. Kept us warm and dry and managed to withstand some very strong winds.

[RJHunter]

We were planning to head out for a hunt the next morning however we checked the weather on the InReach and the update showed that we were about to get some bad weather. The forecast showed rain and wind for the next week straight. We decided that we had better start preparing for the stormy weather rather than hunting. The morning was spent searching for anything we could burn in the woodstove and making sure the guy lines and stakes were secure with large rocks holding all the stakes from pulling out. Cade and I took the boat across the lake and found some dead trees to cut and haul back to the tipi. We also found some old wood from a cabin that we cut into pieces to fit in the stove. Cade cut all the branches into small stove size pieces and we managed to stockpile a weeks worth of wood in the tipi corners. I was a little nervous about what we were getting into. I was expecting rainy periods with sun but it looked like we were heading into rain and cloud. Once work was done we packed up and headed up the hill onto the plateau to see if we could find a caribou.

We found one small bull that evening and enjoyed dinner on the hill


The wind picked up and we decided to head back down to the lake for an evening fish.

Finding a patch of snow was exciting for the kids. Even cooler later when they watched a bull caribou lay down on it, right where they had been standing.