WTIP Boundary Waters Podcast

Ten years ago this month, the Pagami Creek Fire burned 93,000 acres in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. A lightning strike approximately 13 miles east of Ely ignited the Pagami Creek Fire. First detected on August 18, 2011, the fire smoldered in a bog for several days before it erupted on a monumental scale. In this special episode of the WTIP Boundary Waters Podcast, we hear the story o...

A continuation of the story started in episode 46, we hear the completion of two trips where two fathers take the oldest son into the wilderness for the very first time. To enhance the story, a three generation trio of ladies share their ongoing legacy of wilderness travel along with some tips to keep the kids happy and safe.

There comes a time when a father decides to take his son into the Boundary Waters for the first time. It could be anyone, really. A mother, aunt, uncle or family friend all face the same challenges. The goal is to make it safe and to make it fun. This episode is a two-part series that follows two different trips with the same goal: taking a child into the wilderness. We hear from one father and so...

Recent encounters between black bears and visitors to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness has the U.S. Forest Service considering a food storage order on certain lakes. If implemented, the order would aim to reduce the likelihood of negative encounters between BWCA visitors and bears, according to Superior National Forest spokesperson Joanna Gilkeson. The Forest Service enacted a food storag...

In wilderness settings, there are connections people can make to the land, regardless of their age, race or gender, by walking in the footsteps of those who have come before them. With this in mind, a group of Minnesota paddlers set out in the fall of 2020 to travel across the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to retrace the steps of a wilderness pioneer named Arthur Carhart. Their journey too...

Join the WTIP Boundary Waters Podcast team for a one-time special from Isle Royale National Park on the biggest boundary waters lake of them all: Lake Superior. Hosts Matthew Baxley and Joe Friedrichs traveled to Isle Royale in June 2021 to share stories from the remote island archipelago. They talked with park staff about wildlife research being conducted on the island, chatted with visiting hike...

It’s back to hammocks on this episode of the WTIP Boundary Waters Podcast. Well, sort of… The featured guest on this episode of the podcast is YouTube sensation and hammock camping extraordinaire Sean 'Shug' Emery. Shug lives in Minnesota and frequents the North Shore and BWCA to enjoy time hiking, exploring and hanging in his hammock. In a previous stage of his life, Shug was a circus performer a...

The combined distance of the Border Route Trail and the Kekekabic Trail in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is approximately 110 miles. In late May 2021, Minnesotan Alex Falconer ran the entire distance. In two days. Basically nonstop. Alex did this run of epic proportions to raise awareness for the Boundary Waters and to protect clean water. Joining Alex for a portion of the run and for...

The WTIP Boundary Waters Podcast team spent the final days of April and start of May 2021 in Ely. Hosts Matthew Baxley and Joe Friedrichs were selected for an 'artist residency' by the Listening Point Foundation. This is property owned by Sigurd Olson that is now managed and owned by an organization in Ely known as the Listening Point Foundation. Olson was an author and a dedicated advocate for wi...

Many of the lakes in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness became ice free during the third full week of April 2021. To investigate the early ice-out situation, the WTIP Boundary Waters Podcast team ventured into the wilderness on a cold but sunny Sunday morning. The plan was to enter the BWCA in the mid-Gunflint Trail area, navigating snowy portages and ice free lakes before floating out of t...

A love of the land is the theme in this milestone episode of the WTIP Boundary Waters Podcast. Up first in episode 40, we hear a feature about remote lakes waiting across the border in Ontario. Canadian trapper Mark Deans tells podcast host Joe Friedrichs about a collection of lakes just east of Quetico Provincial Park and just across the border from the border lakes above the Gunflint Trail. Mark...

Winter camping continues to be a favorite activity for the WTIP Boundary Waters Podcast team. In February 2021, Matthew Baxley and Joe Friedrichs took a TV news team from Duluth for a trip to the BWCA. Alex Laitala and Dan Wolfe from KBJR joined the podcast duo for a trip to the far eastern reaches of the designated wilderness. Temperatures dropped to 10-below zero and Matthew shares a report from...

The depths of winter rolled over the Boundary Waters in February 2021. Temperatures plummeted and overnight lows often measured 30 degrees below zero during the first full week of the month. That being the case, the WTIP Boundary Waters Podcast team embraced the cold snap as an opportunity to share stories from the wilderness. Podcast Host Matthew Baxley opens the episode with a story about the lo...

It’s the start of Season 4 on the WTIP Boundary Waters Podcast! The new season kicks off with a theme specific to winter: blades and ice. Indeed, ice skating on ‘wild ice’ was all the rage in the BWCA to start the winter of 2020-21. Host Matthew Baxley takes us on a journey up Clearwater Lake into the BWCA and over to Mountain Lake on the border looking across to Canada. This specific day trip cap...

It’s the holiday season in the Boundary Waters. What this means, of course, is that it’s quiet in the wilderness. November and most of December are traditionally some of the quietest times of the year in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Looking to embrace that solitude, the podcast team of Joe Friedrichs, Matthew Baxley and Lindsey Gau all traveled into the BWCA to celebrate Thanksgiving...

November in the Boundary Waters is a time of transition. That being the case, here on the podcast we’re not ready to let the canoe season slide away just yet. We hear from four women today about their 2020 paddling experiences in the BWCA. Up first we hear from Aubrey Helmuth Miller and the team at Redbudsuds. Aubrey is the founder of Redbudsuds, a small business in Ohio that specializes in sellin...

Waterfowl hunting is not something most people associate with a trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. It is, however, completely legal to hunt in the BWCA during the annual waterfowl hunting season in northeastern Minnesota. In October 2020, the WTIP Boundary Waters Podcast team accompanied Cook County resident Sven Hoaglund on a duck hunting trip to the wilderness. We hear directly f...

In this short track of the WTIP Boundary Waters Podcast, hosts Matthew Baxley and Joe Friedrichs share a report on an Oct. 8 event held to raise awareness of threats to the wilderness. The Boundary Waters Action Fund sponsored an event hosted by Al Franken and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Featuring a collection of elected officials and political candidates from Minnesota, what the event largely turned int...

Audio diaries continue to be an essential component of the WTIP Boundary Waters Podcast. These ‘diaries’ are segments of audio recorded by the hosts and listeners of the podcast during trips to the wilderness. In this episode, we hear two different audio diaries on two very different types of trips to the BWCA. Up first, podcast host Matthew Baxley takes us on his recent journey with Lindsey Gau a...

A 'business trip' to the Boundary Waters is something many in the paddling community would jump at in an instant. However, finding a boss to support such a notion is likely the biggest obstacle to such a dream becoming reality. Well, apparently Aubrey Helmuth Miller is one cool boss. Aubrey is the founder of Redbudsuds, a small business in Ohio that specializes in selling 4-in-1 soap products. In...

Every summer there are a number of storms that roll through the Boundary Waters that generate campfire conversations for years to come. On occasion, such as the epic 1999 Blowdown Storm, these storms become the stuff of legend. Such is the case with a storm from July 8 this summer where nine people found themselves entangled in a vicious weather event. The heart of the storm was on Trout Lake in t...

Half-in, half-out. That's what many entry lakes to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness are when it comes to the official wilderness designation. And yet, it's the same water. To the lakes and rivers in the BWCA and Quetico, there are no imaginary wilderness or international lines. It's the same water. Podcast hosts Matthew Baxley and Joe Friedrichs explore this notion to open the episode. In...

Janice Matichuk is the longest serving ranger in the history of Quetico Provincial Park. She is on medical leave from Quetico at this time and the Cache Bay Ranger Station is currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and border closures with the U.S. and Canada. During a special program that aired live on WTIP July 11, Boundary Waters Podcast Host Joe Friedrichs spoke with Matichuk about her h...

It’s a mix of news, important discussion and wilderness adventure in this important episode of the WTIP Boundary Waters Podcast. Up first, host Joe Friedrichs travels back to the BWCA with Kevin ‘The K-man’ Kramer. Joe and Kevin travel deep into the wilderness, finding moose, solitude and many walleyes along the way. Also in today’s episode, host Matthew Baxley talks with Miki, aka ‘Tricky Miki' f...

He loved the outdoors. For most of his life, camping, hiking, canoeing and experiencing life in nature were Billy Cameron’s driving forces. Despite years of experience with various and often rugged forms of outdoor recreation, Cameron died May 20 on Tuscarora Lake in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness when the canoe he was in capsized, sending him and two of his dear and lifelong friends in...