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Paddlers often worry about magnetic anomalies throwing off their compass in the Boundary Waters. The truth? It almost never happens, and the things most likely to mess up your compass are already in your pack. What Is Magnetic Deviation? When localized magnetic forces influence your compass, they cause what’s called magnetic deviation. These forces pull the needle away from its correct bearing and create an inaccurate reading, i.e. deviate from the reading. What Causes Compass Deviation in the Boundary Waters? Most cases of magnetic deviation come from your own gear. Anything with metal or a magnetic component, especially when kept close to your compass, can throw off the needle. Where…

There’s a kind of joy in using something that you made yourself. On a quiet morning in a remote campsite, when the lake is still and covered with fog, and the stove hisses to life, reaching for a spoon you carved from a birch limb feels more satisfying than reaching for titanium or plastic. While it’s a small thing and a simple tool, it carries the memory of your hands, your time, and the attention it took to bring it into being. The photo above shows a collection of four camping spoons. From left to right: Light My Fire Spork, a birch spoon I carved myself, a standard kitchen spoon,…

A first paddle in the Alpacka Raft Caribou reveals how this lightweight packraft performs on Lake Superior and why it is making me see new potential in places that I've gone before.

I’ve spent a lot of time sea kayaking on the Great Lakes, including a 45-day sea kayaking trip from Port Huron, MI on Lake Huron to Grand Marais, MN. In all of that paddling, I’d never once imagined the Great Lakes as islands within a sea. But that’s exactly the perspective that cartographer Stephen Kennedy created with his The Great Islands map. To produce the effect, the Great Lakes bathymetry was inverted, and by inverting it the depths become mountains. The familiar geography of the region is transformed into a completely new world. Michigan becomes the Michigan Sea. Minnesota becomes the Minnesota Maelstrom. Ontario becomes the Great Ontario Ocean. Other…

To kick off the year, I landed on a plan for a new trip. I’m going to try and combine two of my favorite activities into one adventure with a sport called bikerafting. Bikerafting combines bikepacking or touring with paddling using a lightweight and portable raft. While I haven’t finalized the entire route, it’s looking about 900 miles (if I can squeeze the trip into a slot in my schedule). It could shortened to about 400 miles total if I can’t make it work with my schedule. The goal is to ride gravel and bike paths from my house in northeastern Minnesota to Wisconsin, paddle two rivers (plus a short…

Late this year, I picked up a Deeper MAX Depth Finder (get it here). with the goal of using it for depth-mapping Minnesota lakes from a canoe. I bought it directly from Deeper Sonar right when it launched, but a shipping delay with DHL, who claimed I needed to pay tariffs that Deeper had already covered, meant it took weeks to finally arrive. By the time that Deeper sorted it out with DHL, the paddling season was almost over, and I didn’t get to test it as much as I’d hoped. Still, I managed to get it on the water for a first look. I had originally planned to use…

It has now been two years since I got a set of Rocky Talkie Expedition Radios, and after plenty of real-world use, it felt like time to update my opinion. My original First Look is here: Rocky Talkie Expedition Radio 5 Watt GMRS Radio First Look. In the first look, I also cover VHF versus GMRS, which is worth considering, especially for sea kayakers. If you’re a sea kayaker, I recommend reading the first look for more details. The Expedition radio (originally called the 5-watt radio) is an IP67 waterproof, 5-watt, GMRS radio designed for use in challenging conditions. In the US, a GMRS license is required, but the process…

Back in 2023, I proposed a Triple Crown of Paddling that included the Inside Passage, the Mississippi River, and Lake Superior among other classic North American trips. Later, I was asked to write an article about it specific to sea kayaking for Paddling Magazine, and I was asked to select three routes to propose. I went with a salt water trip, a river trip, and a Great Lakes trip. I thought those choices represented the diversity of paddling routes in North America. That article appeared in issue 74 and is now online here. Today, I decided to make a map showing the routes. I present it to you now. I…

Agency reveals it’s still “reviewing” implementation months after law took effect, despite telling content creator filming was prohibited When Adam Van Tassell planned a solo canoe trip into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA) this fall, he thought the new EXPLORE Act had finally cleared the way for small-scale creators like him to film without a permit. Van Tassell runs the YouTube channel Crazy Good Fishing, where he shares his videos with 1,300 subscribers. Instead, a Superior National Forest official told him his planned video would be illegal. “Really frustrating!” he said. Van Tassell had been wanting to film a trip for a while and was excited after hearing…