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Canoe and Kayak Photography Tips Presentation
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…
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Woman Washed Off Breakwater and Into Lake Superior
In early November 2025, several people were f’ing around on a breakwater during a gales warning on Lake Superior, and they were about to find out. Waves ranged from 10 to 12 feet, and they were breaking over the breakwater. A large enough wave hit and washed one of the group into Lake Superior. The video below shows the wave and the woman getting washed into the big lake. Water temps were around 50°F, which is very cold. Luckily, she survived. While I’ve written about cold water before, this was a good reminder to write about it again. Cold water immersion is an issue that paddlers need to understand. In…
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How to Stay Warm in Your Sleeping Bag
Learning how to stay warm in your sleeping bag can transform your paddling trips, especially those taken in the shoulder seasons. I’ve spent many nights waking up shivering at 3am with my teeth chattering so hard that I thought I’d crack a molar and many more in that half-sleep state knowing that I was too cold but already wearing every piece of clothing I brought. Over the years, I’ve learned a few tricks that changed everything. Now my nights are comfortable, and yours can be too. Understanding Sleeping Bag Ratings Sleeping bag ratings can be confusing, but the ISO 23537 rating system was designed to standardize ratings across all manufacturers. Many…
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ThermoDrop Thermometer Review
While I never thought that I’d be reviewing a thermometer on PaddlingLight, last time I ordered from Garage Grown Gear, I decided to pick one up. I got the ThermoWorks ThermoDrop Thermometer. It’s a simple zipper-pull thermometer. Why? I decided that I wanted to figure out exactly how my sleeping bags were working for me in different temperatures, so that I could more accurately decide which one to bring. What is the ThermoDrop Thermometer? The ThermoDrop is a small thermometer designed for a zipper. It comes in multiple colors. I got orange. It features big digits, a backlight, and is switchable to °C or °F. It’s IP67, which means it…
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Halloween-Inspired Tent Stake Bag
I’ve been looking for a new stake bag to replace my old one when I came across a spooky and fun bag from Hilltop packs. It’s the Vampire Killing Kit Tent Stake Bag. I’ve used Hilltop bags in the past and love their bear bag and rock throw kits, so I knew that I’d be getting good stuff. The tent stake bag comes in several prints, including the Vampire Killing Kit, Groundhog, Steak Stake, and Don’t Lose Me varieties. I laughed out loud at each one, but the Vampire one really struck me in the heart. It comes in two sizes: an 8-inch Stubby Stake Sack and a 10-inch XL…
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New Bill Would Allow Roads, Airports, and Guard Towers in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness
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…
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Western Mountaineering FlyLite Sleeping Bag First Look
Earlier this year, I had purchased a sleeping bag even though I wasn’t planning on getting a new bag. That purchase didn’t work out, and after a multi-month hassle I got a refunded. With the refund and a bit of extra cash, I picked up a Western Mountaineering FlyLite sleeping bag as a replacement. My idea about picking up this bag was that I could get a bag that was slightly lighter than my old quilt and just as warm but with less hassle. I also wanted a new sleeping bag for the summer and the shoulder sessions near summer. My main sleeping bag is too warm for the summer,…
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The Store Behind the World’s Largest Paddlesports Expo to Close
On Sunday, September 21, Darren Bush, owner of Rutabaga Paddlesports in Madison, Wisconsin, announced the closure of his store effective at the end of 2025, but Canoecopia will continue.
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Lightweight Pen Hack for Journaling
I recently saw a lightweight gear manufacturer offer an ultralight titanium pen with two refills for $20. It’s actually kind of cool, but I have a lightweight pen hack that weighs about the same and costs about $1. If you’re into fancy pens, you’d probably like the one that I saw, but if you like functional things that cost very little, then my hack is for you. I’ve been using this hack for decades. The hack is simple. You get yourself a G2 Pen Refill pack and use one of the refills. Then where you normally hold a pen, you add a tab of tape. I used gaffers tape for…
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BioLite Range 400 Headlamp Review
Today, BioLite launched the Range models of headlamps. I was lucky enough to receive a BioLite Range 400 before the launch to review. It’s one of the more exciting headlamps that I’ve been looking forward to reviewing this year, because it offers a new feature that I haven’t seen on a headlamp before: a dimmable light. What Is It? The BioLite Range 400 headlamp is a lightweight headlamp with a dimmable white spot light and red light mode. It features USB-C rapid charging that provides one hour of full brightness runtime from just eight minutes of charging. When fully charged, the runtime is 200 hours on the low setting and…
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Adventures in Learning: Measuring Your Outdoor Skills
This summer, my 10yo took a wilderness skills class offered by the Friends of the Boundary Waters and run locally in Grand Marais by Sarah Bransford, Friends’ Northern Education and Outreach Coordinator. At the beginning and end of the course, Bransford had the kids complete an exercise designed to help the students and the instructor identify how skilled students were in important outdoor wilderness skills. This exercise could be completed by anyone who enjoys spending time outdoors. The exercise used a pie chart representing different wilderness skills, including: At the start of the summer, kids ranked each skill using paper, twigs, or rocks: paper meant paper-thin knowledge, a twig meant…
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How to Fix Empty Down Sleeping Bag Baffles and Prevent Down Migration
Nothing ruins a camping trip faster than discovering your down sleeping bag has lost all its insulation. This can happen after going through the wash. You wonder if something you did during the wash cycle or while hand washing that tore open a baffle wall, causing the down to migrate throughout the bag. The good news? Whether it needs warranty repair or a DIY fix, you have options. Plus, it might not have been something you did at all. It might be the way the bag is constructed. Before you dive into a potential fix, you need to know a bit about down sleeping bag construction. Down Sleeping Bag Construction…
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Wild Lands at the Edge of the Boundary Waters At Risk
On June 23, 2025, the USDA announced plans to dismantle the 2001 Roadless Rule, stripping protections from 58.5 million acres of National Forest roadless areas and opening them to road building and logging. For nearly a quarter of a century, the Roadless Rule has protected these ecologically diverse areas from development and extraction, and over 75% of American support the Roadless Rule, but the current administration wants to rescind it to open up these areas to the lumber barons. Because I live on Superior National Forest in northern Minnesota and use the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and surrounding lakes often, I wanted to see what potential impact this could…
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ZPacks Pivot Solo First Look
I recently got a Zpacks Pivot Solo to review, and I’m excited. The Zpacks Pivot Solo is an ultralight, single-wall, solo tent that with poles, eight stakes, and stuff sacks weighs 1 pound 5.5 ounces (611 grams). It’s surprisingly roomy for this style of tent, and that may mean many nights of great sleeping without carrying an additional pound of weight that carrying a freestanding or semi-freestanding tent would bring. Get it here. What is the ZPacks Pivot Solo tent? This single-wall, solo, ultralight shelter packs packs a surprising number of features for the weight. Using a 52-inch main pole and a 32-inch secondary pole, it creates a near vertical…
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Cumulus X-LITE 200 Sleeping Bag First Look Updated
Herein lies the saga of obtaining a Cumulus X-LITE 200 Sleeping Bag. It is a long and tangled tail of international commerce, and the saga will enthrall you with wonder. Back in days of yore, when scribed my 2025 paddling gear update, I penned that I wasn’t going to buy any new gear this year, but I was on the lookout for a 30°F sleeping bag without a hood. I kept my eyes open for a bag that would meet my criteria, and decided that at 30°F, I’d likely just bring my Sea to Summit 15°F Spark. That meant I was looking for a bag for the summer. I used…
