Troop 55 started a venture patrol in the last year. The patrol was formed, the by laws for the patrol were worked out by the advisors and the scouts in the patrol. The scouts talked about what trip they wanted to do for this year. The overwhelming winner was a 50 mile canoe trip on the Flambeau river.
While the water was higher than I have ever seen it, the trip was awesome! I think it lived up to the hopes and expectations of the scouts. Beautiful scenery, great river, and really fun rapids.
It took us about 6 1/2 hours with stops to get to the Flambeau Lodge.
Once there, we setup camp. The scouts had time to do some canoeing in the Flambeau lake.
One scout needed to finish up the canoeing badge.
By the lodge, they have hummingbird feeders. I’ve never seen so many in one area.
We camped there for the night.
That night, drove into Ladysmith for pizza at Grandpas Pizza. Very good.
The mosquitos were really bad, even with bug spray. Once the sun went down, they got much better and the evening was enjoyable, even had a fire and smores. It rained that night, so wet tents to put away.
The next morning, we packed up camp, had breakfast and loaded up. It is about a 40 minute ride to 9 mile drop off.
The lodge provided our canoes and kayak and drove us to the drop off site. Unloaded, packed up the canoes and off we went.
The river was up at least 18 inches from normal. This is apparently down 1 1/2 to 2 feet from 2 weeks ago. Can’t imagine it that high. A much faster current than usual.
It was overcast and spitting rain for the first 3 hours. Even in the middle of a 30 foot wide river, the mosquitos were terrible! 
I don’t recall needing bug spray while in a canoe before, but you did that day! We stopped for lunch about half way. We had freeze dried Mountain House meals for lunch and supper. The mosquitos were bad enough that it was a very fast stop to eat.
Spent the next 3 hours paddling. Stopped at Boy Scout camp (what better name for a camp) to end a 22 mile day. The water was so high, that the normal beach to pull into was under water. Had to pull the canoes up onto the muddy shore. Not easy with more current and a smaller area to land. We finished getting camp set up and tents dried out. 
Started to rain again.
Waited for the rain to stop and cooked supper. The mosquitos were out in force again, even with high concentration DEET. We opted to walk down to Big Bearlodge about 1 1/2 miles down the road from where we camped. Had some rootbeer, popcorn, watched the Stanley Cup finals and waited for the mosquitos to go away for the night. Rained again that night and had wet tents in the morning.
Sunday morning, set the tents in the sun to partially dry, had breakfast and packed up.
It was a beautiful sunny day, warm with a slight breeze. Even better, no mosquitos! Today would be an easy paddle, about 14 miles. We stopped at Camp 41 for a short break and then continued to Cedar Rapids camp.
Again the water was so high, that the beach was gone and had to maneuver onto a muddy bank and pull the canoes out. Dried out the tents, set up camp and had lunch. The camp sits in front of a really great set of rapids. The boys spent the next several hours canoeing down the rapids and portaging back up the trail and repeat.
All was going well until the last run when the kayak wiped out on a rock and the kayak paddle floated away. Never to be seen again.
Being prepared, we had extra canoe paddles but forgot and extra kayak paddle. Using 2 extra canoe paddles and rope, Ben lashed them together to make a very usable kayak paddle. Great job!
We cooked supper that night. We found some dry wood to start a fire.
Under the picnic tables was enough dry, split wood for us to have a really good fire all night! Once again it rained during the night.
The next morning was beautiful weather. Sunny, warm and no breeze. We had breakfast, packed up camp, loaded up the canoes and headed for the last 9 miles back to camp. Our last challenge was Beaver Dam. This has always been fun. Shoot the middle, have a 4 foot drop. This year the water was too high to safely go over the middle. We chose the right side. Still fun and challenging, but safe. We arrived at the lodge before 11 am. Unloaded the canoes and packed up. A warm shower felt great!
We were leaving by noon.
Arrived home around 6:30pm.
It was a great trip. Lots of fun, great scenery and a great group to travel with. It was a great success for our first trip as a Venture Patrol.
