The Boundary Waters Border Route starts on the western side of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) at Crane Lake in Voyageurs National Park. It follows the Minnesota/Ontario border for about 200 miles until the Grand Portage, a 8.5-mile portage to Lake Superior. Most paddlers can complete the trip in two to three weeks. This [...]
As cheesy as it sounds, you don’t have to go far from home to have an adventure. Despite the allure and romance of exploring the long expanses of wilderness in, let’s say, the South Island of New Zealand, Iceland, Patagonia, Kamchatka, or the Himalayas, there are many things worth seeing close to home. I have [...]
Two large lakes dominate the terrain at the end of the Gunflint Trail. To the north at Trail’s End, Saganaga Lake stretches through the Boundary Waters and into Canada. To the west, Sea Gull Lake runs for miles. A Boundary Waters Canoe Area entry point serves each lake and both are connected through a set [...]
I’ve spent the last few summers working as a sea kayak guide for Woods and Water Ecotours in Hessel, Michigan and loved every minute of it. The long days, working with clients, teaching lessons and kayak surf sessions with the guides all added to the mystique. In the fall, reluctant to let go of my [...]
The word ‘ninja’ brings to mind silent assassins running through the forests of medieval Japan and cheesy B action movies with terrible plots and even worse special effects. The word itself has become heavily overused in modern society. People are obsessed with ninjas. Movies, cartoons, anime, and even paddling equipment makers like NRS have used [...]
The eastern side of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area has many great day trips, but one of the best starts at the Bower Trout Lake BWCA entry point. This route is an out and back paddle, so you decide how long of a trip you want. The fishing is good on several of the lakes, [...]
The Old Presque Isle Lighthouse was built in 1840 and operated until 1871. It’s one of the oldest surviving lighthouses on the Great Lakes. The park preserves both the old keepers house and the light. When originally restored, the owner used wood from a nearby shipwreck, so the interior features knotted wood with lots of [...]
About the midway through my 45-day Port Huron to Home Expedition, my brother Eric started pulling together all my tweets for a blog post about my trip. Here are the remainder of the tweets. The oldest is the lowest on the page. Also, you may want to read a few articles that were written about [...]
Yesterday, I finished a 800-mile, 45-day, solo, kayaking expedition. The trip started at Port Huron, Michigan, which is at the southern most point of Lake Huron, and ended in Grand Marais, Minnesota. At Houghton, Michigan, I linked up with my 2009 Grand Marais to Houghton trip, which means that I’ve now paddled the entire American [...]
My Brother Bryan, the main author of this website has been out on a paddling trip for the last 26 days. I wanted to take some time and offer an update to the site and share with you some of his adventure. He’s been using both Twitter and Facebook to keep people updated to his [...]
This is a guest post from sea kayaker Tim Gallway. It was a cold August morning, and I was heading for Wawa, Ontario to teach at the Greenland Symposium put on by Naturally Superior Adventures (NSA). Or at least I would have if the event hadn’t been cancelled. Due to many last minute cancellations instructors [...]
I did it! On Saturday, I closed the circle and paddled year round for the third or fourth year in a row. I set a goal for the last few years to paddle at least once a month, even in winter when it’s cold. Most years in my area, Lake Superior remains completely open, but [...]
It’s winter and even though the winter paddling on Lake Superior is still great, I do like to explore the snowy aspects of Minnesota. I’ve never hiked up Eagle Mountain, Minnesota’s highest point, in winter before, so I decided it was about time. Eagle Mountain is part of the Misquah Hills in the Boundary Waters [...]
The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota protects 1.09 million acres of Boreal forest and lakes under the Wilderness Act of 1964 and the 1978 BWCA Act. The U.S. set aside the area to provide a place “where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” It is one of two protected [...]
Kayaking Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast (Skeleton Coast)
Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast, in the southeast corner of the lake, runs approximately 50 miles from the sand spit of Whitefish Point to the first safe harbor at Grand Marais, Michigan. As part of my Port Huron to Home trip in the spring and summer of 2011, I kayaked past this mainly undeveloped area. At [...]