Welcome to camp

Visiting the shores of the North Arm without the bugs

"Widji" is YMCA Camp Widjiwagan, a canoe and backpacking camp outside Ely, MN. This site collects 70 years of its trips: routes, photos and stories. More about the site

Voyageur plaques in the Trail Building

Trips by the numbers

trips
368
miles traveled (approx.)
60,455
days on trail (approx.)
6,968
raisins consumed (72 per person per trail lunch)
1,069,114,176
More…
  • Voyageur trips: 241
  • Mountaineer trips: 120
  • Voyaneer trips: 3
  • Hudson Bay trips: 4
  • Boys trips: 170
  • Girls trips: 191
  • All Gender trips: 7
  • Staff: 390
  • Campers: 1,741 (approx.)

Trips with

  • Routes mapped: 81
  • Group pictures: 47
  • Swag pictures: 60
  • Slideshows: 53

The Trail Building

How many times at camp have you looked over the trip plaques in the TB to remind yourself of when and where your friends and family traveled across the Far North? Here are the walls for anyone who can't make the journey to camp.

Browse all 368 trips

Families

Where more than one family member has been on a post high school trip.

86 families

Canoe History

The canoes behind the trips, transcribed from the camp log books.

Explore the canoes

A Season for Wilderness

The chapter "The Widji Way" from Michael Furtman's excellent book "A Season for Wilderness" is available here to read.

Bookcover: A Season for Wilderness

BRRRIDGE!

Your help is requested.

As you can imagine, this is a large undertaking. If you, or someone you know, could provide routes, pictures, corrections, and/or slideshows for any trip you find here, please reach out to me via the various contact options.

Instructions for creating and sharing Google maps are now available in the About page.