Editor’s Note: Whenever possible, Quetico Superior Wilderness News highlights partners committed to protecting or enhancing the wilderness character of the region. The following piece is reposted with permission by the Voyageurs …
There is an outfitter at the end of the Sawbill Trail where customers and staff return year after year, a network of people connected to the place and the family at its center. The Hansens, and now the Shirleys, have been running Sawbill Canoe Outfitters since 1957, where annual traditions, lifelong friendships and marriages have been born.
This summer, Ontario Provincial Park wardens, the Gunflint Ranger District of the Superior National Forest and members of the Northwoods Volunteer Connection came together to work on a water trail that runs from Kenora to Thunder Bay, Ontario. Called the Path of the Paddle, it’s part of a larger effort to connect three oceans…
The YMCA of the Greater Twin Cities Boys & Girls Outdoor Leadership Program uses canoe tripping and wilderness settings, including the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, to teach youth to work together, whatever the differences between them.
In Grand Marais, Minnesota, gateway to the Gunflint Trail and canoe country, there is a place where the traditional crafts of the north are celebrated. From timber framing and boat building, to basketry and knitting, craftsmen and women gather to share their knowledge and skills—often using traditional resources like birch bark.
Anishinaabe people historically worked with the semi-wild horses for winter transportation.
A wide range of opportunities are available to experience the Superior National Forest and perform stewardship.
By Kelly Fuller, Voyageurs National Park Association Maintaining visitor services and the full range of recreational opportunities at Voyageurs National Park can be a challenge in this time of federal budget …
Nature Conservancy acquires 2,500 acres of rugged North Shore landscapes and will protect it from development pressures.
Business operators, organizations, and government staff are invited to attend a series of events centered on promoting the region’s resources to visitors.
There is something delicate about the look of a skin-on frame canoe. In the sunlight, the wooden frame shows through its skin, as do the shadows of paddlers. Looking down into the boat, the line where water meets air is visible. Yet it is a seaworthy craft, light enough for the youngest and oldest of paddlers to carry, and, at girls’ wilderness camp Ogiche Daa Kwe, a perfect metaphor for community. Last summer, campers and staff at the Rainy Lake camp built a 17.5-foot wilderness traveler skin-on frame canoe.
In the last two issues of Wilderness News, we’ve taken a look at climate change in the northwoods. In this final installment, we look at some of the things people are doing to cope with and address climate change. In the Quetico-Superior Region, climate change is not something looming on the horizon.
This summer, thirty years after a pair of trailbuilders first started flagging a hiking route along the ridges overlooking Lake Superior on Minnesota’s North Shore, the Superior Hiking Trail will be finished—mostly. The final section of the trail, connecting it to the Wisconsin border southeast of Duluth, should be completed by Labor Day. Hikers will then be able to travel from that point all the way to the Canadian border on the trail that has been called one of the best in America. But the work is never done. Hundreds of volunteers will continue to put in thousands of hours each year keeping the trail in good condition.
A group of former staff members at Wilderness Canoe Base are preparing to embark on a 1,200-mile trip to raise funds for the camp.
In a recent article for the Star Tribune, writer Tori McCormick sums it up: “What will it take to get you outdoors and into nature? Can you be persuaded, either through …
Rural and small-town initiatives seek to improve livability and promote responsible tourism.
by Greg Seitz Does your brain work better in the Boundary Waters? Paddlers have been pondering the profound psychological shifts that take place in the wilderness for as long as humans …
At the Quetico Superior Foundation (QSF), our mission is to protect the wilderness character of Minnesota’s Border Lakes Canoe Country and Ontario’s Quetico region. We do that through the publication of …
All summer long, families stream to the North Arm of Burntside Lake, outside Ely, for a week at camp. There, for the past 54 years, YMCA Camp du Nord has provided …
By Greg Seitz The soul of Sigurd and Elizabeth Olson lives on at their home in Ely. The soul smells of fresh-baked cookies in the kitchen. In the writing shack on …