Paddle and Portage Podcast

The core Paddle & Portage team spent a combined 24 nights in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in January. 

Many miles were covered over the course of multiple trips. Lake trout were sought after and caught. Camps were made, refined, rebuilt, and torn down again. 

In this episode, we hear about one of the numerous P&P trips to start the winter of 2026. During this adventure, nearly a foot of snow made an exit from t...

Sarah Kremer is a music teacher and musician who lives in Minnesota. She's also a paddler. Her first trip was a 30-day epic to Woodland Caribou. She was a teenager on that first trip. The next summer, she paddled to Hudson's Bay. 

Sarah is 31 years old now and working as a music teacher for multiple schools near St. Cloud. On top of her work as a music teacher, Sarah’s also been busy writing music. In fact, she wrote a symphony. An...

Erin Walker is a frequent contributor to Paddle and Portage media. She also appears regularly on The Lost Lakes YouTube channel. In this interview, Erin talks with Jon, the founder Lost Lakes about how the channel came to be, what trips are on the books for 2026, and what industry trends mean for the channel.

It's worth noting that Erin and Jon are married and share some of their adventures on YouTube. Take a look behind the scenes...

Buck Benson is 74 years old. Born and raised in Grand Marais, he still lives near his hometown on Minnesota's North Shore of Lake Superior.

Buck doesn't think much about his age. He certainly doesn't let it slow him down. On a recent winter day near Lake Superior, Buck and a friend skied on the frozen Cascade River, covering many miles on their journey.

More recently, Buck told the crew from the Paddle & Portage Podcast that h...

Canoecopia is the largest paddling expo in North America. The annual event takes place March 13-15 in Madison, Wisc. Paddle and Portage Podcast host Joe Friedrichs spoke with Darren Bush of Canoecopia to discuss the possible sale of Rutabaga Paddlesports in Madison, the future of Canoecopia, as well as what to expect in 2026. 

Also shared in this episode of the podcast, M Baxley and Joe discuss the continuation of the food storage ...

Ginny Nelson is a co-owner and manager for Spirit of the Wilderness outfitters in Ely, Minnesota. In this video podcast, Ginny talks with Joe Friedrichs from the Paddle and Portage Podcast about the "go live" day for BWCA permits in 2026. The annual day to start obtaining permits for the upcoming quota season is Jan. 28. The permits become available at 9 a.m. (Central Time) this year in 2026. 

Go live day is both celebrated and jar...

Aaron Kania recently retired from his post as the district ranger for the Kawishiwi Ranger District on Superior National Forest. The district is headquartered out of Ely. Kania arrived to Ely to the lead the district in May 2020. He spoke with Joe Friedrichs about why he is retiring now, what he's proud of during his tenure here, and what comes next for him personally and professionally. 

Also discussed in the news track are possib...

The Greenwood Fire in 2021 led, in part, to the complete closure of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness during the peak of the paddling season. Some of the burn area, about 12,000 acres located outside the BWCA Wilderness, was purchased in 2025 by the Nature Conservancy.

Fire is an essential component of a healthy forest, both inside and outside the BWCA Wilderness. If fire is not allowed to burn, some form of timber manageme...

Tanya Piatz says she comes to the Boundary Waters for birding and to develop a deeper understanding of the connection between wildlife and the land. She also does this to reconnect with nature and get away from the hustle of everyday life.  

For the first time in her birding adventures, Tanya participated in an official bird count this year. The event she chose was in Grand Marais on Dec. 14. The 2025 Grand Marais Audubon Christmas...

The future of the Remote Area Border Crossing Program (RABC) remains unknown, with Canadian officials telling Paddle and Portage this week, once again, they don’t have any new information to share. The permits all expire Dec. 31, 2025.   We spoke with Ginny Nelson from Spirit of the Wilderness outfitters in Ely about what this continued uncertainty means for people and operations near the Boundary Waters.   Also in the episode, ...

Search and recovery expert Michael Neiger spent the end of November and first few days of December looking for two people who are missing near the Boundary Waters.   We sat down with him near Grand Marais to discuss the search. Find a video option of the interview on our YouTube channel, in addition to the full audio report shared here on the podcast.    This episode is supported by Ely Outfitting Company and Drury Lane Books. 

Snow. Freezing temps. This was a theme across Minnesota during the final week of November. And with it, came the first ice to the Boundary Waters. 

The first ice of the season can mean a lot of things. In this episode, we learn what it means for the Paddle & Portage Podcast duo as they venture onto the frozen water. Joining them on the first outing of the season was their old pal, "Omaha" Erik Dickes. 

This episode is sponsored...

Minnesota has more wolves than any other state, outside of Alaska.

In fall 2025, researchers with the Voyageurs Wolf Project released an updated study on wolf activity and the population of wolves in an area located about 10 miles southwest of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which is found in the far reaches of northeastern Minnesota. The report tallied about 100 wolves in the study area near the BWCA and Voyageurs Natio...

Constance Simes circumnavigated Lake Superior solo in 2022. When the trip was complete, she'd paddled approximately 1,200 miles around Lake Superior in 57 days. She encountered high waves, of course. She also found deafening silence that moved her to tears. 

Simes, who grew up in Iowa and now resides in Wisconsin, spoke with M Baxley about paddling Lake Superior at Canoecopia in Madison, Wisc. 

This episode is supported by Loons Ne...

Erin Soderberg Downing grew up exploring the forests, lakes, and trails near Lake Superior and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Now an accomplished writer, Erin says her best ideas for stories often come to her deep in the woods, where she can find plenty of creative space to explore and imagine. 

Erin is the daughter of Barb Soderberg. Barb Soderberg’s career with the Forest Service started in 1967 on Superior National F...

Shannon McGrath got her start paddling when she was 12 years old. By the time she was 16, Shannon had completed the Grand Portage from Lake Superior to the inland border lakes of the Boundary Waters. Then came a multi-month canoe trip to the Arctic Circle via the Coppermine and Hood rivers, including a week on the Arctic Ocean.

Now in her late 30s, Shannon continues to be a prolific paddler. She makes frequent trips to the Boundary...

The Paddle and Portage Podcast have been on the move in October. The Winter Camping Symposium was a highlight of the month, as was a recent trip to the far west end of the Boundary Waters to meet with one of the nation's top wolf researchers. 

In this update from the road, we hear from the podcast duo about who they've been talking with for video podcasts and what brought them to the western edge of the Boundary Waters in search of...

Stephanie Hansen’s first cookbook took readers to her family outpost on an island on Burntside Lake near Ely, on the edge of the BWCA. Now, True North Cabin Cookbook Volume Two, released this year, focuses on “the cozy months” of October through April. 

We hear from Stephanie in this episode of the podcast. We also cook some smoked trout and wild rice chowder that was inspired by the cookbook. We caught the fish. We smoked the fish...

Peta Barrett is preparing to retire from Women’s Wilderness Discovery, the company she started in 2014 in Ely, the gateway community to the Boundary Waters.

Barrett moved to Ely more than 10 years ago to start up the guiding and outfitting company. She wanted to focus on offering a safe and comfortable place for women to have a means to access the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

In this episode, we hear about Peta's journey ...