Adventure Story
Every year, Immanuel Lutheran church in Eden Prairie sends its youth group backpacking.  This year, we had 6 groups of 8-10 out on separate treks.
I led a group of 4 boy scouts and 3 girls from the Spear-O Wigwam resort in the north, across the wilderness area to the Battle Park trailhead in the southwest.  We exchanged car keys with a 2nd group halfway through the trek.

The first day was fine, all uphill on an ATV track so it was not very pretty or interesting.  We stopped for lunch at Coffen Park camp and then continued up to Duncan Lake for the first night.  Not much room to camp there, but it was nicely secluded and below the 9200ft fire barrier so we had a small campfire.

Second day was more uphill past Lake Geneva and over Geneva Pass - our only snow hiking of the trip.  Stopped for lunch on top of the pass.  Then continued on to Lake Eunice where we found a great spot on an opening away from the trail and lake.
There was a crazy deer here that was completely habituated to humans and was worse than a chipmunk nosing around for scraps.  Pretty sad.

Third day was a lay-over and the guys fished (all catch and release) much of the day.  My son and I climbed to an upper lake in the morning.  I flyfished all afternoon.
Then the rain and hail blew in.  13 hours in a tent is more than long enough!

Fourth day was our longest, but not very difficult.  We hiked mostly downhill with 4 deep water crossings to Totem Pole Flats for lunch.  Then, uphill through wind-blown timber to Poacher Lake and down to the Paint Rock Creek crossroads.  We did a waist-deep crossing and set up camp.
At this site, we cleaned up the campfire ring.  People gradually pile on more and more rocks and the ash gets deeper and deeper until its a big mess.  We hauled 8 buckets of ash far off into the woods and scattered it, then rebuilt the rock ring and removed lots of rocks.
Fifth day was a lay-over with a side hike to Lake Solitude and watching the boys fish took most of my day. 

Sixth day started with 28 degrees and frost everywhere, but the sun warms everything up quickly.  I just need to learn how to sleep in.
We hiked less than a mile to Grace Lake and had most of the day to relax, fish, and clean out another over-used fire ring.  Weather was beautiful and we finally kept two fish for dinner.

Last day, we hiked 5 miles to the trailhead - nearly all downhill after a steep climb up from Grace Lake.  Another sunny day, perfect for hiking with packs much lighter being empty of meals.