Laketrails Base Camp
By Alissa Johnson When Laketrails campers arrive at base camp, costumed counselors greet them, singing and dancing, hooting and hollering, and banging on drums. “We’re famous for our welcomes of campers,” …
Projects & Organizations
Paddle to D.C. Ely Adventurers’ Latest Expedition Carries Concerns About Mining
This epic expedition was inspired by what the Freemans see as an existential threat to a national treasure: mining. “The Boundary Waters is our nation’s most popular wilderness area, it receives a quarter million visitors per year. Every year I guide people in the Boundary Waters from Texas and California and all across the country. We need to make sure people all across the country understand how special the Boundary Waters is and understand the threats it faces.
Fostering Growth and Sparking Curiosity in Youth
By Adam Maxwell During the summer of 2013, I spent my time leading wilderness trips for Camp Lincoln in Brainerd, Minnesota. Camp Lincoln is one of the oldest traditional summer camps …
High Water Wreaks Havoc on Rainy Lake
Heavy rainfall has raised lake levels by at least five inches, inundating homes, National Park facilities, and the beloved islands of Ernest Oberholtzer.
Profile: Wilderness Canoe Base
Wilderness Canoe Base on Seagull Lake is a formative canoe camp program with a long, storied, and challenging history.
Nominate Special Places for National Geographic Guide to the Heart of the Continent Region
The Heart of the Continent Partnership is collaborating on a new website and mobile app project to promote geotourism.
Dyke Williams Awarded for Stewardship Efforts
Longtime Quetico-Superior Foundation board member recognized for contributions to white pine recovery and youth education efforts.
YMCA Camp Widjiwagan: Generations of Exploration
On the pine-covered shores of Burntside Lake’s North Arm twenty miles northeast of Ely, Camp Widjiwagan has been a launching point for teenagers to explore wilderness since 1929. Today, some families …
North House Folk School’s Instructor-in-Residence Program
The North House Folk School is a school of traditional craft—students can learn everything from knitting or making soap to boat building or timber framing. Located on the edge of Lake …
Meet Erik Simula, Birch Bark Canoe Builder
By Alissa Johnson For twenty years, Erik Simula has lived almost exclusively off the grid near the Minnesota and Canadian border. He hasn’t had a refrigerator or a freezer, and …
Meet Erik Simula, Spotlight on YMCA Camp Widjiwagan, and Reconstructing the Past in the Quetico-Superior
Check out the Cover Story: Meet Erik Simula Birch Bark Canoe Builder, North House Folk School’s Instructor-in-Residence Program, YMCA Camp Widjiwagan and Archaeologists Reconstruct the Past in the Quetico-Superior region…
Eye to the Skies – the Raptor Migration is On
The Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory in Duluth held their annual Hawk Weekend Festival last weekend, and the results of their daily bird counts are coming in. The migration begins in mid-August …
Camp Manito-wish—Where Kids Try it, Change it, and Try Again
By Alissa Johnson When a group of campers from Camp Manito-wish YMCA approaches its first campsite in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness or Quetico Provincial Park, the counselors ask the …
Sustainable Ely
Envisioning a mining-free future for the Boundary Waters By Alissa Johnson On the first day of June, thirty canoes and some sixty paddlers made their way down the Kawishiwi River. …
Northern Tier High Adventure Program
Steeped in 90 years of canoeing tradition By Alissa Johnson During the summer of 2012, the Northern Tier High Adventure Program helped 755 crews, most of them Boy Scouts, explore the …
Northern Tier: More Than Just a Canoeing Trip
By Greg Stringfellow Every summer since I turned 14 my Dad and I have gone on a High Adventure trip. These trips have taken us across the United States and Europe, …
Warming Water and Invasive Species Changing the Character of Quetico-Superior Lakes
The Lake Superior summer water temperatures are increasing more rapidly than regional air temperatures. According to an article in the Ely Timberjay, the surface water temperatures of Lake Superior increased approximately …
The Heart Of the Continent Partnership Meets February 8-9 in Duluth
The next quarterly meeting of the Heart Of the Continent Partnership will be held February 7-8, 2013 at the Clyde Iron Works in Duluth, MN. The Heart of the Continent Partnership …
Boundary Waters Advisory Commission Meets with Forest Service to Discuss Restoration of Pow Wow Hiking Trail
When most people think of summer recreation in the Boundary Waters Wilderness, images of canoes, blue lakes and fishing come to mind. To a cadre of backpacking enthusiasts the BWCAW is …
Tim Heinle
Camp Kooch-i-ching Director and Alumnus Tim Heinle is in his early 70s, but he still has vivid memories of his first trip to Camp Kooch-i-ching on Rainy Lake. He spent eight …