Nathaniel Gueltzau (AKA The Penguin Viking) is a long-distance paddler and military veteran. After returning from Afghanistan, paddling became more than just a sport-it became a way to process emotions, navigate personal experiences, and find new purpose. The pursuit of pushing physical limits, overcoming mental hurdles, and feeling a sense of accomplishment led Nate to seek out even greater challenges. At the heart of Nate's paddling journey is a philosophy of survival and resilience. Whether w...
Jun 22, 2025•36 min•Ep. 54
The Border Route Trail on the eastern side of the BWCA continues to grow in popularity and use. The trail is 65-miles long and follows the international border between Minnesota and Ontario. It is the first long-distance, wilderness backpacking and hiking trail in Minnesota planned and constructed by volunteers. In the spring of 2025, just as the ice was leaving many of the lakes across the Boundary Waters, the P&P team met up with a group of volunteers to learn more about the history, curre...
Jun 11, 2025•30 min•Ep. 53
Mark Zimmer, more commonly referred to as the ‘Barefoot Paddler,’ spoke with the Paddle and Portage Podcast before the start of his 2025 paddling season. Zimmer is starting his 13th year exploring the BWCA. Mark typically spends late April or early May through October in the Boundary Waters. He catches walleye, lake trout, and pike. He forages wild edibles, including mushrooms, roots, and various fruits and vegetables that grow in the woods here. Zimmer paddles a solo canoe and sleeps in a hammo...
Jun 01, 2025•44 min•Ep. 52
Old Man Ed is a fixture in the Boundary Waters. He's been following, in the literal sense, the Paddle and Portage Podcast team for years. Often, he crawls from the water's edge and provides wisdom and perspective to the folks who make this whole thing go. In this episode, Ed arrives on the great fishing opener weekend, which includes Mother's Day. Music on this episode is shared, with permission, from the album Crooked Step, Open Gate , by Upstream Drifters . The duo features P&P writer and ...
May 23, 2025•28 min•Ep. 51
Rick Slatten is the captain of the St. Louis County Rescue Squad. He recently spoke with Joe on the Paddle and Portage Podcast about the highly publicized incident from Curtain Falls in the BWCA in 2024, and other events associated with search and rescue in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. This episode is supported by Drury Lane Books , Cooke Custom Sewing , Northern Goods , and Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness ....
May 15, 2025•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 50
Resignations. Terminations. Confusion. Reductions. Limitations. These are all themes the U.S. Forest Service is seeing and facing on a routine basis as the 2025 paddling season arrives to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. In this episode, we hear from Barb Soderberg. Soderberg's career with the Forest Service started in 1967 on Superior National Forest, and she was intricately involved with crafting the 1978 BWCA Wilderness Act. She retired from the Forest Service in 2007. Soderberg is ...
May 10, 2025•27 min•Ep. 49
The Hudson Bay Girls is an all-female canoe team paddling a historic Voyageur Fur Trading Route in 2025. The expedition will take them on a 1,200-mile journey from Lake Superior to Hudson Bay, Canada. Along the way, they will share their story to raise awareness about the importance of environmental stewardship, outdoor education, and gender equality in outdoor spaces. This video episode of the podcast was recorded at Canoecopia in Madison, Wisc. This episode is supported by Northstar Canoes and...
May 06, 2025•42 min•Ep. 48
Most people come to the Boundary Waters to engage with wilderness. Solitude. Peace. Escape. These are sentiments commonly shared by the more than 125,000 people who come to the BWCA each year. And while some people come to fish, not everyone does. Regardless of one's interest in angling, this episode gets into the science (and ethics) of why it's good to release the larger fish one catches in the Boundary Waters and beyond. Support for this episode comes from Cascade Vacation Rentals , North Cou...
May 01, 2025•32 min•Ep. 47
The Hungry Hunter YouTube channel features outdoor adventure from the Boundary Waters and other places in the Upper Midwest. In this episode of the podcast, we learn what makes the channel's founder and content creator, Tom, click. Hint: He worked as a fishmonger for most of his life. This episode is supported by Voyageur Canoe Outfitters and Cooke Custom Sewing . Watch the full interview on the P&P YouTube Channel....
Apr 22, 2025•29 min•Ep. 46
Pete Marshall and Dave Meier are friends of the Boundary Waters, and they happen to work for an organization named Friends of the Boundary Waters . In this interview, which was recorded at Canoecopia in Madison, Wisc., in spring 2025, Pete and Dave talk with Joe from the Paddle and Portage Podcast about paddling the BWCA, the political climate as it relates to wilderness recreation, and what trips are on the books for the paddling season ahead. This episode of the podcast is sponsored by: Loons ...
Apr 15, 2025•41 min•Ep. 45
Whitewater is a powerful force. It's often destructive, drastically changing entire landscapes. It can also be a place of both play and healing. For Jordan Taylor, a 30-year whitewater paddling instructor, it has been both destructive and healing. Join the Paddle and Portage Podcast team as they travel to Wisconsin's Wolf River and beyond to tell the story. This episode is sponsored by: Borderland Lodge on the Gunflint Trail Friends of the Boundary Waters Tuscarora Lodge and Canoe Outfitters...
Apr 09, 2025•42 min•Ep. 44
The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is highlighted on a map of possible places for “increasing timber production” that was shared by federal officials in Washington D.C. last week. The order, signed April 3 by U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, declares an emergency on more than 176,000 miles of national forest. The order calls for logging in order to increase timber production and reduce the risks associated with wildfires. The map accompanying the announcement clear...
Apr 08, 2025•17 min•Ep. 43
Canadian helicopters and drones are flying over the lakes of the Boundary Waters with greater frequency as the 2025 paddling season nears. From Lake Superior to the far western edge of the Boundary Waters near Ely, reports of sightings of drones and helicopters flying just above the tree line continue to reach the Paddle and Portage Podcast team. Part of the podcast team traveled to Saganaga Lake at the end of the Gunflint Trail in late March to check out the situation. We traveled to Quetico Pr...
Apr 01, 2025•46 min•Ep. 42
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 headquarters in Grand Marais to discuss Trail life, living and working at the end of the Gunflint, and why she is moving on to her next chapter. This epis...
Mar 21, 2025•48 min•Ep. 41
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, and Natalya Egon. This episode sponsored by: North Country Canoe Outfitters Ely Outfitting Company Tuscarora Lodge & Canoe Outfitters...
Mar 16, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 40
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 during the event. Rising above any tension was unity. And that unity comes from paddling, as event organizers share in the podcast. Also featured in th...
Mar 10, 2025•35 min•Ep. 39
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 of the best paddling destinations across the nation, including multiple trips down the Grand Canyon. Kelcy moved back to Minnesota recently to be clos...
Mar 01, 2025•35 min•Ep. 38
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 for federal employees. The offer, commonly referred to as “Fork in the Road,” has now expired. Following its expiration, multiple Forest Service employe...
Feb 20, 2025•27 min•Ep. 37
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 and around Ely. Known locally as “Iron Mike,” he wrote and published many stories about the Boundary Waters region. One of the stories he wrote was tit...
Feb 17, 2025•24 min•Ep. 36
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 podcast, we talk about what ice thickness means for anglers and winter campers for the remainder of the season. One consideration is that auger extensio...
Feb 14, 2025•19 min•Ep. 35
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 with Dan to talk about his trip reports, videos, and travels in the Boundary Waters. Joining the conversation is Scottie Baldwin. Scottie is a sound ...
Feb 07, 2025•40 min•Ep. 34
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, to ongoing efforts by the Trump administration to shrink various parts of the federal government, including the U.S. Forest Service. In this episode o...
Feb 04, 2025•35 min•Ep. 33
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 this episode of the podcast, Erin talks about her upcoming Canoecopia presentation with the Paddle and Portage Podcast team, her love of winter, and he...
Jan 30, 2025•43 min•Ep. 32
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 Canoe Outfitters Loons Nest Coffee Ely Outfitting Company...
Jan 19, 2025•59 min•Ep. 31
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 the process the Forest Service uses for people to book permits is to blame, at least in part, for the record number of cancellations. The quota permit ...
Jan 12, 2025•31 min•Ep. 30
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 their proximity, why not rename one of the lakes to honor Carter? It was Carter, after all, who signed the 1978 BWCA Wilderness Act into law. Barrett ha...
Jan 06, 2025•27 min•Ep. 29
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 anchored, in part, in the Boundary Waters. This episode is sponsored by: Cascade Vacation Rentals Canoecopia Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters...
Jan 04, 2025•31 min•Ep. 28
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. With the change in state law, that gap between the two openers is fluid, and could grow in length over time depending on what day of the week the wilder...
Dec 28, 2024•25 min•Ep. 27
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 and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Among other things, the bill would remove some of the permits required for filmmakers and photographers w...
Dec 28, 2024•32 min•Ep. 26
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, though he claimed the act was justified. We set out to visit the Kugler homestead to learn more about the tremendous saga of his life and times in and a...
Dec 17, 2024•28 min•Ep. 25
