Going to BWCA with 4 adults with experience, 3 kids 1 who could paddle. Here is the question, can we get by with 2 canoes? With adults paddling, 1 canoe will have 2 kids age 10 & 8, first timers , plus gear. Other canoe will have a 13 year old and most of the gear. We are going mid august for 5 days, EP sag lake.

You should be able to rent a 3 seater and a 4 seater. Sounds like that's probably warranted in your situation.

Hi Conniego,

If that is your goal, yep, you should be able to do it just fine. We used a Q-18.5 and a 3-seater Northwind canoe for 3 adults, 2 teens, and 2 kids (ages 10 and 8). The two youngest shared a seat just fine. The previous suggestion about a 4 seater is an option too if sharing a seat isn't your preference.

I will note we did a basecamp and took day trips. If we had done more tripping, I probably would have opted for 3 canoes. I did appreciate only needing to portage two canoes for our group. We had plenty of capacity for our week-long trip.

Hopefully you hear plenty of advice and can consider that with the additional details of your trip - how far are you traveling, how much portaging is expected, the route you might take, etc.

Have a great trip!

On our family trips (2 adults, 2 kids, 70 lb dog) we would rent a 4 seater until the youngest was old enough to paddle. It's a bit of a beast to carry, but we had plenty of room for all our base camp gear.
Another benefit was the canoe was very stable and tracked well. Nice in waves on bigger water like Sag. I think they key is how much gear you plan on bringing. I prefer to not pile gear too high and like to keep the center of gravity lower which could be an issue if your canoes are too small.
I've used 3 seaters with adults and felt the middle seat was a little close to me when fishing from the back seat. With kids I think it would be different.

Thanks for your inputs. I liked the idea of the 4 seater tracking and more stable. We use the Duluth type paks and they tend to sit lower in the canoe
Portaging a 4 seater will be a new challenge as it quite long. I am only 5’2’” so I will give that one to my 6’ son. ;)

We liked the Wenonah Champlain for the smaller kids. We would put two kids side by side in the middle of the canoe with small kid sized chairs and two adults to paddle. Certainly a load plan that you want to check before the morning of the trip but it worked for us.