Episode 300: Merle Heckman, a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, joined us to talk about the importance of relationships when it comes to leadership & safety. He will be presenting on this topic at the 2025 Ohio Safety Congress in April at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Now available on your favorite podcast app! For more info on OSC25, visit t…

Maddy Frawley is a fixture at the end of the Gunflint Trail. For the past decade, she's worked at Voyageur Canoe Outfitters, including the past three as a manager on site. Maddy, along with her partner, Clay, won't be around this paddling season, as they are moving to the Twin Cities in the months ahead. Maddy stopped by the Paddle and Portage head…

The Paddle and Portage team is constantly taking inspiration and motivation from wilderness. The act of regularly getting out not only inspires the work, but actually is the work itself. It is both the goal and the path to the goal. In this episode, we support this notion through the stories of Oregon Bill Busacker, Cousin Jeff Frawley, Emma Froh, …

Episode 299: Tracy LeMaire, Mobility Safety Program Manager at the National Safety Council, joined us to talk about the importance of transportation safety at work. She will be presenting on this topic at the 2025 Ohio Safety Congress in April at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Now available on your favorite podcast app! For more info on OS…

Canoecopia 2025 found itself in the middle of a news story. As Canadian paddlers and businesses arrived to Madison, Wisc., for the world's largest paddling expo, talks of tariffs and political tension between the U.S. and Canada dominated news headlines across both nations. This simmering unfolded in multiple ways at Canoecopia, both ahead of and d…

Kelcy Huston grew up splashing in the creeks and rivers along Minnesota's North Shore of Lake Superior. She moved out West as a young adult, working a number of outdoor jobs for state and federal agencies. It was a job based near the Lochsa River in Idaho Huston discovered a passion for whitewater paddling. This passion would lead her to some some …

Episode 298: Joe Tantarelli, owner of Trinity Safety Consulting, joined us to share about what he learned from surviving a tragic trench collapse. He will be presenting on this topic at the 2025 Ohio Safety Congress in April at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Now available on your favorite podcast app! For more info on OSC25, visit the webs…

There was a report from the Star Tribune this week that the Gunflint Ranger Station in Grand Marais “has no employees.” The Paddle and Portage Podcast team went to the office Feb. 20 and found it was open and there were people at the front desk. In this news update on the podcast, we talk about Trump administration’s deferred resignation program fo…

Ella Hall is buried in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. A grave on a small island located on a lake bearing her name is not something most BWCA paddlers are aware of, let alone come across. In this episode, we share the story of Ella Hall. We do so with the help of the late Mike Hillman, an iconic storyteller who lived for many years in a…

It's been a cold winter across the Boundary Waters region. Damn cold, in fact. Temperatures hit -30 Fahrenheit from the Gunflint Trail to areas near Ely in the middle of February. Double-digit negative temperatures have become something of the norm this winter, dating back to the Jan. 1 trout opener in the BWCA Wilderness. In this episode of the po…

Episode 297: Nick Zamiska, President & Senior Instructor at Bad Day Training & Consulting, joined us to chat about Lithium-ion battery emergencies. He will be presenting on this topic at the 2025 Ohio Safety Congress in April at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Now available on your favorite podcast app! For more info on OSC25, visit the web…

Sometimes you end up in St. Paul, Minnesota. In this episode of the podcast, the bulk of which was recorded in the Minnesota capital, we hear from Dan Johnson, the founder of BWCA Wild. Dan films the portages in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. As of February 2025, he's about a third of the way done filming all of the portages. We met up …

Episode 296: Dianne Grote Adams, President of Safex, Inc., joined us to provide a preview of her 2025 Ohio Safety Congress presentation entitled, Leading the Charge: It’s more than OSHA knowledge! Now available on your favorite podcast app! For more info on OSC25, visit the website at: https://www.ohiosafetycongress.com/ To learn more about Dianne,…

Episode 295: Gary Fowler, Executive Coach at Orange Diamond Safety, joined us to provide a preview of his 2025 Ohio Safety Congress presentation entitled, Emotionally Healthy Leader. Now available on your favorite podcast app! For more info on OSC25, visit the website at: https://www.ohiosafetycongress.com/ To learn more about Gary, visit his websi…

The U.S. Forest Service planned to host two meetings this week that would have allowed the public to provide feedback and learn more about a largescale project aimed to restore "ecological balance" to an area near Ely and the Boundary Waters. Those meetings, scheduled for Feb. 4 and 5, were cancelled. The cancellations were tied, at least in part, …

Episode 294: Steven Click, Director at the Ohio Office of First Responder Wellness, joined us to provide a preview of his 2025 Ohio Safety Congress presentation. Now available on your favorite podcast app! For more info on OSC25, visit the website at: https://www.ohiosafetycongress.com/ To learn more about Steven and his program, visit its website …

Erin Walker and her husband, Jon, have been hot tent winter camping for the past six winters together, often documenting their adventures on the Lost Lakes YouTube channel. In her most recent article for Paddle and Portage, Erin shares insight on how to select a campsite in the winter months, and what it's like sleeping in an igloo on the ice. In t…

Canoecopia is the largest paddling expo in North America. The annual event takes place March 7-9 in 2025 in Madison, Wisc. Paddle and Portage Podcast host Joe Friedrichs sat down with Darren Bush, the founder of Canoecopia, to discuss the history and future of the event, as well as what to expect in 2025. This episode is sponsored by: Voyageurs Can…

More people canceled a permit to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in 2023 than ever before, according to a recent report from the U.S. Forest Service. “Cancellations have more than doubled in five years, suggesting that BWCAW visitors continue to reserve more permits than they can use,” the report states. Some outfitters and paddlers say t…

The idea came to Robert Barrett after skiing up the Gunflint Trail, just days after the passing of former President Jimmy Carter on Dec. 29. There are two Caribou lakes near the Gunflint Trail. One near Clearwater Lake, another near Poplar Lake. Both are in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and found in the Mid-Gunflint Trail area. Given th…

Amy and Dave Freeman are widely recognized for their dedication and passion for the Boundary Waters, including their book "A Year in the Wilderness." Amy and Dave have a new book, "North American Odyssey." To kick off Season Two of the Paddle and Portage Podcast, we hear from Amy and Dave about how their travels across the continent continue to be …

The trout opener for lakes entirely within the BWCA Wilderness begins Wednesday, Jan. 1. During the 2024 legislative session, state law was changed to move the start date for the ice fishing season to Jan. 1. Lakes outside the wilderness will continue to open on a Saturday later in the month, typically two weeks after the BWCA Wilderness opener. Wi…

Minnesota officials and some Boundary Waters enthusiasts are celebrating the U.S. Senate’s passage of the Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences, or EXPLORE Act. The final package of the EXPLORE Act includes more than a dozen policy measures aimed at supporting outdoor recreation on public lands, including Superior National Forest an…

In this episode we travel with Duluth based writer Ryan Rodgers to Pine Lake in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Rodgers recently wrote an article in the Boundary Waters Journal about the life of Frank Kugler, an Austrian immigrant who was tried in Cook County for murder in 1919. Kugler shot a man named John Doe on Pine Lake that year, th…

In this news track of the podcast, we hear an update on the "pause" of the Remote Area Border Crossing Program. Donny and Lisa Sorlie, owners of Chippewa Inn on the Canadian side of Saganaga Lake, stopped by the P&P headquarters in Grand Marais to share an update. Also stopping by to explain how the RABC situation is impacting him is Cook County re…

Though winter is an amazing time to travel across the (frozen) Boundary Waters, a simple fact needs to be considered at all times: No ice is safe ice. At the very least, ice is extremely unpredictable. In this episode, we hear from Eric Glasson, LynnAnne Vesper, Pete Brautigam, and John Downing. They all have experience being on Boundary Waters ice…

The Minnesota DNR has been using motors inside the federally protected BWCA Wilderness for many decades. The uses of motors range from the stocking of fish by airplane to the studying of fish populations using boats and nets on the many scattered lakes across the Boundary Waters. The DNR is allowed to use motors in the nation’s most visited wildern…

After a week of questioning from members of the press, Congressional staff, business owners, and people who are feeling left in the dark, Canadian officials are still being vague when it comes to the future of the Remote Area Border Crossing (RABC) Program. Luke Reimer, a spokesperson for the Canada Border Services Agency, told Paddle and Portage N…

In this update from the road, we hear about a tour Bear Paulsen and Joe Friedrichs took of the Bending Branches facility in Wisconsin, share audio from an event for Last Entry Point at Fitger's where Rick Slatten and members of Mark Ham's family spoke, and M Baxley brings us an update from Emily Ford. This episode of the podcast is sponsored by: Be…

Not everything about winter camping is pleasant. It can be cold, windy, and basically one giant bundle of brutal. Other parts can be, and often are, magic. Sunsets. Solitude. Adventure. The Winter Camping Symposium is a gathering to celebrate the arrival of winter and the gear that allows us to embrace the cold months in places like the Boundary Wa…

The U.S. Forest Service is facing a budget cut for 2025. Looking ahead to the 2025 paddling season, if some of the seasonal backcountry staff are absent from the BWCA Wilderness it could dramatically impact the visitor experience, Forest Supervisor Tom Hall acknowledged during a recent public meeting in Grand Marais. “How do we make sure that we’re…

The Winter Camping Symposium is a gathering to celebrate the arrival of winter and the gear that allows us to embrace the cold months in places like the Boundary Waters. The Paddle and Portage team attended the 2024 winter camping celebration near Moose Lake. We’ll be sharing stories from and about the event in the next full episode of the podcast.…

Erin Walker and Jon Kelly are the duo behind the Lost Lakes YouTube channel. They live on an inland lake not far from the Canadian shores of Lake Superior. This summer, Erin and Jon embarked on a three-week, 280-mile (450-kilometer) canoe trip into the subarctic barrens. It was a journey of many firsts: their first time in Nunavut, their first enco…

Booze or a dry run? Opinions vary about bringing alcohol on a trip to the Boundary Waters. Many enjoy sipping whiskey or wine around the campfire. Others prefer no alcohol at all. And then there are those who tip back and glug until the bottle is gone. In this episode, we hear from a group of five paddlers who chose to paddle the BWCA Wilderness wi…

Herb Koenig and Jim Crigler loved to paddle in the Boundary Waters. It was the one place where they felt comfortable talking about their experiences serving as helicopter pilots during the Vietnam War. In this episode, we hear about why the Boundary Waters opened the door for reflection, communication, and adventure for these two veterans. And we d…

Episode 293: In this episode, Renee Onesti from Ken Elastomer Products joined us to discuss effective strategies for maintaining a sustainable safety program in the manufacturing industry. Renee shares her extensive experience, spanning over 25 years, and emphasizes the importance of recognizing safety as an ongoing journey rather than a one-time a…

In this episode, Tim and his daughter Sylvie embark on the trip of a lifetime. The crossing of the BWCA from west to east along the voyageur highway is abruptly interrupted by a tragic slip on the Granite River. What unfolds next is a skillful evacuation by fellow paddlers that redeems everyone's belief in the power of human kindness.This episode i…

Episode 292: In this episode, Nick Coia from the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation is joined by Diane Conner, Safety Manager at Miller Transfer and Rigging, and the 2024 Safety Improvement Award winner. Diane shares her journey of transforming the safety culture at Miller Transfer and Rigging over the past two years. Learn about her strategies f…

Episode 291: In this episode, we dive into the concept of "Safety in Action" with Matt Mohler, the EHS Manager at Delta Systems in Streetsboro, OH. Matt shares his extensive experience as a safety manager and the journey of fostering a proactive safety culture in the workplace. Matt discusses the importance of engaging employees, making safety a vi…

Episode 290: In this episode, Mike is joined by Kim and George from Pyrotech in Aurora, Ohio, to discuss their innovative safety program, "Find It, Fix It." Kim Chmelarsky, the safety officer at Pyrotech, and George McSears, the manufacturing manager, share their journey of transforming workplace safety. Discover how they skyrocketed employee parti…

Janice Matichuk first set foot on her island in Quetico Provincial Park in 1985. Located near the end of Minnesota’s iconic Gunflint Trail, this remote park is the heart of North America’s “canoe country.” Decades later, and enduring beyond her untimely passing in the summer of 2020, Matichuk’s legacy includes being the longest serving interior ran…

Dan Cooke was a "mentor's mentor" when it comes to the paddling scene in North America, particularly around the Boundary Waters region. The longtime owner of Cooke Custom Sewing, Dan passed away July 1. A paddle parade was held on Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis August 10 to honor the life of Dan Cooke. Stories were shared about Dan’s love of paddling,…

In life, people tend to get consumed by the concept of how something can be done, without giving thought as to why something should be done. When the Paddle and Portage Podcast first heard about the Boundary Waters paddle known as the Ely Challenge, we were guilty of this notion. We became fixated on the how. The idea for the Ely Challenge is simpl…

Emma Froh is an architect from the Twin Cities. She recently spent a week on Mallard Island, the former home of wilderness advocate and Boundary Waters paddler Ernest Oberholtzer. Emma and two of her colleagues, Mary Springer and Natalya Egon, were staying in what’s known as the Cedarbark House at Mallard Island. The structure used to be a floating…