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FLEXTAIL Zero Power Bank Review
Over the last five months, I’ve been testing the FLEXTAIL Zero Power Bank. FLEXTAIL sent a sample for review. When looking for a modern power bank for canoeing, kayaking, and all the other outdoor sports I do, I have a few criteria. I want a bank that squeezes the most power out of the battery, has fast charging when needed, has cold resistance, USB-C, pass through charging, water resistance and weighs very little. Some of those criteria conflict with each other. Fast charging, for example, reduces usable battery capacity. Newer power banks like the FLEXTAIL Zero Power Bank offer lower-power efficiency modes that trade charging speed for longer runtime and…
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Xtratuf Hightide First Look
When XTRATUF sent me the Hightides to review, I figured I’d like them. I didn’t expect they’d become the shoe I grab first before walking out the door. What are the XTRATUF Hightides The Hightides are an injection-molded, ankle-high shoe made with an EVA foam called BioLite. If you haven’t seen these before, think of a similar material to what Crocs use. They have a textured footbed to help prevent your foot from sliding around when wet and have slip-resistant outsoles. The Hightides come in full sizes from 7 to 14, and they come in three colors. I tested the Deep Storm color. One size 12 boot weighed 9.2 oz…
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They Sold Out the Boundary Waters
During a recent vote in Congress, Republicans removed protections from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the most used wilderness area in the country with over 1,175 lakes and interconnected waterways spread across 1.1 million acres in northern Minnesota. It’s a top North American destination for canoeing. On April 16, 2026, Republicans sold out the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), one of my favorite places in the world, as a gift to a foreign mining company, and as Senator Martin Heinrich, one of the Senators who fought to keep the protections, said on the Senate floor, “to pad the pockets of the President’s buddy from Chile.” The extracted minerals…
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Why Paddlers Die: Life Vest Use and the Boating Accident Data
The life jacket was in the canoe, but the paddler wasn’t wearing it. After capsizing during what should have been a casual outing, he drowned — one of dozens of paddlesports deaths recorded in the latest U.S. Coast Guard Boating Accident Report Database. The database shows that roughly 80% of fatal incidents share that same detail: the paddler wasn’t wearing a vest. Wear Your Life Vest Last year’s Life Jacket Wear Rate Observation Study using data from 1999 to 2024, showed that 80% of youth wore life vests while paddling, but only 56% of adults were wearing vests. The gap between youth and adults shows up in the fatality data,…
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Do Magnetic Anomalies Affect Your Compass in the Boundary Waters?
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…
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The Best Lightweight Camping Spoon is a DIY Wooden Spoon
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,…
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Forest Service Updates Filming and Photography Rules
Without a press release or public announcement, the U.S. Forest Service quietly updated its filming and photography rules, which are now in effect now, bringing its policies in line with the EXPLORE Act, but leaving a critical question unanswered for anyone who wants to document their time in a Wilderness Area. This update follows a year of delay after the EXPLORE Act passed. Last year, I reported on the EXPLORE Act and how the delay in implementation of the law across U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) lands was impacting small-scale creators, especially on lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), such as on the Superior National Forest in northern…
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Alpacka Raft Caribou: A Small Boat with Big Possibilities
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.
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Take Action Now: Defend Protections for the Boundary Waters
The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, one million acres of wilderness, is one of the premier destinations for canoeing in North America and, in my opinion, the best place in the United States. The Donald Trump administration and Republicans in Congress want to remove protections from it. Legislation to do so has already passed the House and will be voted on in the Senate soon. Unfortunately, they are attempting to use a legal loophole that has never been used in this way before to avoid the filibuster. This means they would need only 51 votes instead of the normal 60 required for most legislation. We need your help. You can…
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What if the Great Lakes were the Great Islands?
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…
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Bikerafting: My new adventure
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…
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How to Bear Hang Your Food When the Trees Suck: A Guide to the New BWCAW Bear Aware Order
Superior National Forest reissued its BWCAW Bear Aware Food Storage Order effective February 1, 2026. The order requires visitors to either hang all food, food containers, and scented items or store them in an Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee–certified bear-resistant container. The reissued order remains in effect for an additional five years. The requirement runs from April 1 to November 30 of each year, which is one fewer month than the previous order. The last order required food storage from March 1 to November 30. New FAQ Questions with the New Order The Superior National Forest also published an updated FAQ that answers questions. The USFS won’t install bear storage lockers…
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Canoe Your Own Canoe
When apps show us a nonstop stream of adventure, such as sea kayaks in the surf, pristine wilderness canoeing, or winter whitewater, it can feel like that's the norm. It isn't. We define our own norm, and we don't have to be influenced by the paddling clips that the algorithm shows us.
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Using the Deeper MAX Depth Finder For Mapping
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…
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Rocky Talkie Expedition Radio Review Update
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…
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