A Journey on the Northern Forest Canoe Trail Shows Waterway is More than an Historical Route

15 Sep

We enjoyed Paul H. Heinz’s recent story in the Boston Globe about his canoe journey along the 740 mile Northern Forest Canoe Trail. Traveling from Old Forge, NY to Fort Kent, Maine, Heinz bills it as a paddle through time. Yet as we follow him through the communities that line the trail, his story quickly […]

Fire Restrictions Lifted in BWCAW Blowdown

11 Sep

Thanks to cooler temperatures, more precipitation and shorter days the Forest Service has lifted fire restrictions in the blowdown area of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Campers may now use campfires, charcoal, and wood-burning camp stoves, and the Border Route Trail system and the Kekekabic Trail have re-opened for public use. As always, the […]

A Paddle Down the Zambezi

9 Sep

We enjoyed THIS story in the Telegraph of a recent six-person paddle down the Zambezi River in Africa.  The 1,600-mile-long river flows through Angola and along the borders of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe before it empties into the Indian Ocean off Mozambique. Improbably, the river features both deadly crocodiles and meals served on linen tablecloths.

Canoeing.com’s New Recommended Route

5 Sep

We’ve just posted a new “Recommended Route” in the Canoeing.com Destination Guide that we think you might be interested in. Our own Alissa Johnson, who wrote THIS feature on the recent forest fires in Minensota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, traces a route through the BWCAW that will help paddlers better understand a landscape shaped […]

Brothers Finish 740-Mile Beginning

4 Sep

For most people, completing a trip over the 740-mile-long Northern Forest Canoe Trail would call for some well deserved rest and relaxation. For the brothers Boone of Indianola, Iowa, however, the trip from Old Forge, New York to Fort Kent, Maine merely marked the beginning of an epic journey they’re in the midst of undertaking. […]

Paddler Made the Army Wait

2 Sep

Jalena Baumgartner, a specialist in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, is currently waiting to deploy to Iraq. Recently, however, Baumgartner made the Army do the waiting so she could compete in a canoe race. As the Harrisburg Patriot-News reports, HERE, Baumgartner nearly passed on military service when she was […]

Book Review: This Water Goes North

28 Aug

Three days into a 1979 canoe trip intended to take Dennis Weidemann and three companions from western Minnesota to York Factory on Hudson’s Bay, disaster struck. Rounding a bend on the Otter Tail River, Weidemann and his bowman were face-to-face with a fallen tree straining the cold, fast water for three-quarters of the river’s width. […]

Across the Tundra … the Hard Way

27 Aug

With the summer winding down — especially in the far north — it’s the time of year when even the hardiest canoe-trippers are coming off the trail and sharing their stories of adventure. A hardy expedition that caught our attention was one made this summer by the five women known collectively as the Borealis Paddling Expedition.  […]