Canoe Camp 2025

If you’ve ever paddled a solo canoe, you know what it’s like to have a boat so responsive that it feels like a second skin. You can turn on a dime, and it responds immediately when your paddle touches the water. Its small size, shallow draft, and light weight let you explore the small streams and backwaters that are inaccessible for large craft.

Beginners start the weekend by quickly learning basic paddling and handling skills, and veterans get advanced training in maneuvering, along with instruction in how to teach beginners.

We spend Saturday on quiet Woodbury Lake, which is adjacent to the Chequamegon-Nicollet National Forest’s Headwaters Wilderness. After spending Saturday night sleeping in traditional birchbark and thatch wigwams at the Teaching Drum School’s primitive camp on the shore of Woodbury Lake, we pack up our boats and head out for a day of paddling on the Pine River, which is a state designated Wild River that runs through the heart of the Headwaters Wilderness.

As an extra feature, you learn about Northwoods flora and fauna, and how the indigenous hunter-gatherers of the area once lived. Along with being canoe instructors with decades of experience, your guides are naturalists with extensive experience in Northwoods ecology, edible and medicinal plants, and wilderness survival.

Dancing on the Waters, Solo Canoe Style

Solo canoes are so responsive and maneuverable that it feels like you’re wearing a second skin. That makes paddling a solo canoe quite different from handling a tandem boat. New strokes need to be learned, and a certain finesse is developed in order to get the most out of the experience. This instructional video was filmed during an 80-day Wilderness survival skills course deep in Wisconsin’s Headwaters Wilderness.

Your Guides

Michael J Fox (a.k.a. “Fox”) has become proficient at a range of outdoor skills, including primitive firemaking and cooking, orienteering, fishing, and of course solo canoeing. He has been on the Teaching Drum staff for eight years.

Tamarack Song, founder of the Teaching Drum Outdoor School, brought the small solo canoe to the Northwoods in 1980. He has authored numerous books on wilderness living and survival skills, and just above you can view a solo canoe instruction video of his.

Course Information

Location: Nishinajida, the Teaching Drum’s primitive camp near Three Lakes Wisconsin, and the wild Pine River in Wisconsin’s Headwaters Wilderness.

Date: July 10–11, 2025

Tuition: $400 ($325 with your own boat). Includes in-course transportation, lodging, and all meals.

Canoe Camp 2025 is open to 10 participants.