PaddlingLight.com

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…

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…

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…

Starting this Friday, November 14th, there’s an online Landscape Photography Summit that I’m part of. I’ll be sharing my Canoe and Kayak Photography Tips at the 2025 Landscape Photography Summit, a free two-week online event featuring a new speaker each day. I attended one earlier this year and watched every session. It was an excellent experience and full of ideas worth revisiting. I’m not 100% certain on which day that my presentation will air, but you’ll get notice if you sign up for the summit. Presentation: Canoe and Kayak Photography Tips Whether you’re paddling deep into the wilderness or exploring a nearby lake, chances are you’ll encounter breathtaking sunsets and sweeping landscapes you’ll…

Roads and airports in the Boundary Waters? If Senator Lee has his way that could be the reality. Daily, it seems that there’s a new attack on America’s public lands. This is occurring even though over 74% of Americans support public lands, the public lands are seeing record visitation showing a strong desire of the American people to experience what the lands have to offer, and a $1.2 trillion outdoor economy that supports over five million jobs. The anti-public land politicians continue to try and chip away at protections and sell off our lands. Republican Senator Mike Lee (Utah), the guy that tried to sell of your and my public…

This is a quick bit of interesting news for Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness lovers. Paddle and Portage is a brand new website devoted to telling stories about the Boundary Waters and Quetico. It launched in January 2024. The website is founded by Joe Friedrichs, formerly of the radio station WTIP and WTIP’s Boundary Waters Podcast. Matthew Baxley is also joining Friedrichs’ new adventure as part of the new Paddle and Portage Podcast. Baxley was Friedrichs’ co-host on WTIP’s podcast. He’s also a talented filmmaker and good host. He interviewed me about my Following the Winchell Expedition trip for a past episode of the Boundary Waters Podcast. WTIP’s Boundary Waters…

I recently received an email from Amazon saying that they found that one of the sellers using their platform had used it to sell counterfeit Thermacell Refills. It’s scary that they didn’t list the chemicals found in the counterfeit product and scary to hear that a chemical pad that’s burned to create a vapor that wards off mosquitoes could be counterfeit. If you ordered replacement Thermacell Refills from Amazon, make sure the check your order to see if it was sold by this company. Here’s the email I received. Dear Customer, We’re contacting you about order #xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx for the following item(s): Thermacell Mosquito Repellent Mat Only Refills; Compatible with Thermacell…

We received good news today about the fight to protect the Boundary Waters from toxic sulfide mining pollution. They completed the two-year study about this type of mining and how it could affect the BWCA. They found that due to the potential harm that there was justification for a twenty-year moratorium on federal lands within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area’s watershed. Maybe 20 years will be long enough for the mining companies to develop technology that would prevent this type of pollution. They haven’t been able to do it, yet. It’s the most toxic industry in the country, and there’s never been a sulfide mine around the world that hasn’t…

This is a bit of a site update. It has three parts: Feedburner Subscriptions (aka my email newsletter provider) are being discontinued by Google. That means if you got this post via email that you will not get them anymore unless you take action. See below I’m heading out on a canoe trip that is mainly following a route from 1879. It’s 160 miles and will take around 10-12 days. I’m leaving later in the month and hope to have something to write about when I’m back. The longest portage is about 7 miles. Basically, I’m going from Grand Marais, MN to Lutsen, MN via historic canoe routes through the…

Just a quick news update about the PaddlingLight website. Over the last year, I’ve been meaning to update the website to increase the speed and load times. I finally had a few days to do that, so before the craziness of my fall schedule kicked in I sat myself down into my office and worked on the website. This is step one of getting things updated around here. While doing that, I also made a few changes to the look of the website. It’s basically the same-ish look but with a slightly more compact design with a simpier color scheme. Hopefully, I also increased readability. Let me know if you…

According to a study published in APS journal Psychological Science, after receiving an unappealing prize for hard work, a six-year-old kid will hold on to it. Whereas a four-year-old kid who works hard for an unappealing reward will detach themselves from that reward by giving it away. The six-year-old, says the study, “tend to employ a cognitive strategy to accommodate the knowledge that they worked hard to earn an unattractive reward.” They revalue the reward based on how difficult it was to earn it. The four-year-old doesn’t perform that mental jump and sees the prize as it is: not worth it. In this way, six-year-old kids function more like adults,…