On the first day, you’ll come to Amnicon’s base camp to meet your guides and learn everything you need to know to be prepared for a safe and fun experience. We do a big campfire on our sandy beach of Lake Superior that night.

The next morning, we drive you out to the Flambeau and the adventure begins! Each day you’ll paddle down the river, setting up camp each afternoon. There is time to swim, explore, and play before cooking dinner over the fire. You’ll end each evening with a intentional and meaningful community conversation around the fire. After three nights camping along the river, we’ll pick you up and bring you back to Amnicon.

The trip culminates in a campfire and closing ceremony back at our sandy Lake Superior beach. With a sky full of stars above you, the biggest lake in the world beside you, and your new-found-friends in front of you, it is plain to see the wonder of creation and the Grace of God.

You don’t want to miss this!

We’ll start and end every day with a brief devotion we like to call First & Last Words. First Word usually consists of 15-20 minutes of reading a short story or poem, and then discussing it as a a group. Last Word is a little bit longer, as we gather around the campfire in the evening. Everyone in the group will have the opportunity to share a story from their own life, and hear and discuss a story from the Bible.

All spiritual elements of this trip are designed to bring people closer to each other and closer to God. Do you have doubts, struggles, questions? Good! This is a safe place to share those and talk about them openly. Have you walked with God for a long time? Good! Please share that experience too, and be ready to learn from the life experiences of the other people on the trip.

Our wilderness guides are amazing, and you’ll love them. We send two highly trained individuals with each group. They will be at least 19 years old, and have been chosen because they have demonstrated an impressive level of maturity, care of creation, and a desire to connect with and serve our campers. We do our best to hire a diverse staff every year, and often hire staff from overseas! Amnicon does not discriminate in our hiring based on gender identity, sexual orientation, race, country of origin, or religious affiliation. 

Trip participants must be:

• At least 11 years old on the first day of the trip,
• In reasonably good health,
• Able to lift and carry 30 pounds over a short distance,
• Able to swim 25 yards and tread water for 30 seconds while wearing a USCG certified Personal Floatation Device (life jacket)
• Able to walk half a mile over uneven terrain without assistance, AND
• Have a licensed medical practitioner sign a health form certifying that they are healthy enough to engage in the kinds of activities we’ll do on this trip.

Anyone with a chronic medical condition must:

• Be able to manage their own care without assistance,
• Bring all their own medications and supplies,
• Be willing and able to communicate with Amnicon staff if they’re not doing well,
• Have experience managing their condition during prolonged periods of increased stress & activity, AND
• Have not had any medical emergencies within the last year. 

If you have questions about whether this trip will be a good fit for you, don’t hesitate to contact us! Call 715-364-2602 or email info@amnicon.org

That’s TOTALLY FINE! Lots of people who come on Amnicon trips are new to the whole wilderness, canoeing, and camping thing. Your guides will make sure that you have what you need and know what you need to know. You are in good hands. 

The answer…maybe. How many bugs there are depends on a LOT of different factors. We’ll bring bug spray, and you’re welcome to bring your own as well. 

We’ve found that the one thing that makes the biggest difference with the bugs is your attitude. If you decide at the beginning of the trips that the bugs aren’t important enough to ruin your whole experience, then they won’t be that bad! 

Good food is a high priority at Amnicon! We have a trail menu that adapts lots of the foods you are used to at home: pancakes, pasta, brats and lots more. There are plenty of snacks, too! If you have specific dietary needs please let us know so we can be prepared with good food for you, too. 

One of the ways we are going to challenge ourselves this week is by leaving our cell phones behind. Yes, even the adults will leave their phones behind too. Cell phones will only distract from the experience we’re trying to have together, and are highly prone to getting lost & damaged. Every year, we have campers (and adults!) tell us how freeing it was to not have a phone for the week, and how valuable it was to take a break from technology. This is a unique experience that’s hard to do in everyday life, but we get to do it together at camp. 

That said…we REALLY value getting good photos from the trips. Amnicon will send along one (or two) cameras with each group. Campers ARE allowed to bring their own cameras as well if they’d like. We’ll share the photos from the week in a Google Photos album, and on social media after you get back home. 

There are sturdy outhouses at boat landings every few miles along the river. At each campsite you’ll find a kind of toilet that we affectionately call a “Ranger Box”, which is essentially an outhouse toilet without any walls around it.

The toilets are short walk away from the campsite, far enough that no one can see you while you’re using it. To ensure that everyone has privacy, we’ll leave the toilet and hand sanitizer at the beginning of the path that goes back to the toilet. Everyone in the group will know that if the bag of toilte paper missing then someone is down there, and to not walk down the trail until that person gets back.

It might feel a little weird using a toilet without any walls the first couple times. But after a bit you’ll get used to it, and you may even come to appreciate that no walls means they don’t smell as bad as enclosed outhouses.