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Simple Plate for Front Country Camping
The 10" Plastic Kids' Square Divided Plate by Pillowfort, sold at Target, costs $1 and is now $0.85 on sale. It’s lightweight, BPA-free, dishwasher safe, and microwave safe for reheating. Available singly or in sets, it effectively separates food. Its limited colors and separate spork purchase are drawbacks. Highly recommended for camping.
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Homer Lake Trip Report
Over the Memorial Day weekend, we took a day trip to Homer Lake. Homer Lake in northern Minnesota is an entry point to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. About half of the lake is in the wilderness and half is outside. The majority of it is outside the wilderness and there’s a short portage into Axe Lake which is just north of Homer. The lake also has offers two campsites. There’s one inside the wilderness and one outside the wilderness. I’ve paddled on Homer a fair number of times and have used it on multiple trips. You can also use it to access the Vern River Loop instead of…
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Sea Kayaking Safety in Photos
Practitioners of SEA KAYAKING are a bunch of safety-conscious hoopy froods. We sass this because sea kayakers always talk about safety. For example, “You just posted that video of the place I paddle. The video only showed calm water, but it gets crazy there. You should have introduced the video with a 15 minute safety talk about the dangers of paddling there when it gets crazy.” Sea kayakers have conversations that stretch out into 100s of comments about how one advertisement showing calm water might lead someone to buy a recreational kayak and go paddling in 10-foot waves. They debate the merits of self-rescues and then they debate them again. Sea kayakers come up with…
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Sea to Summit Frontier Ultralight Two Pot Cook Set First Look
Sea to Summit released an updated collection of cookware earlier this year, and I got my hands on a review copy of the new Sea to Summit Frontier Ultralight Two Pot Cook Set (Get it direct from Sea to Summit). I’ll be using this over the summer on family camping trips. To make that work, they also sent me an extra Passage Bowl and Cup. This is my first look at the system. I’ll follow-up with a full review after using them for the season. Sea to Summit has been making some interesting gear that has peaked my curiosity. For example, last year the new Sea to Summit 50L Big…
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Upper Iowa River Canoe Trip Report
The first weekend of May is the annual Northstar Experience canoe trip. Each year Northstar Canoes invites people who own Northstar canoes or Bell canoes to come paddle a river somewhere in the Midwest. This year was on the Upper Iowa River in northeastern Iowa. I attended two days of the event to take photos, connect with friends and make new ones and enjoy paddling with the Northstar community. The Upper Iowa The Upper Iowa is a river that I paddled several times when I was living in Iowa. It’s one of the best midwestern rivers and used to make Canoe and Kayak Magazine’s top 20 river trip lists. It’s…
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Rocky Talkie 5 Watt GMRS Radio First Look
Rocky Talkie has a new GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) radio that has IP67 waterproofing, which means it’s waterproof to 3 feet (1 meter) for one hour. It also claims a long battery life of five days and offers 5-watts of power, which in theory will give a range of over 35 miles in optimal conditions, but more likely two to eight in the real world. For paddlers, the claimed range on a river is a half to three miles. Rocky Talkie sent over a pair for testing and I’ll be testing these over the paddling season. Here are my initial impressions. Unboxing the Rocky Talkie 5 Watt Radio The…
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NOC’s Grand Canyon Adventure
The NOC recently sent over a deal that I can offer you. It’s $500 off of their Grand Canyon Adventure. It runs August 28th to September 10th. Here’s their description: This classic rafting and kayaking adventure traverses through the entire length of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, 226 river miles, starting at at Lee’s Ferry and ending at Diamond Creek. Designed for active adults and families with children ages 12+ to paddle exciting rapids amongst magnificent cliffs, explore hidden coves, and camp on pristine sandy beaches as we boat throughout the canyon corridor. Each day will be an adventure filled with paddling, hiking to waterfalls and staying in…
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2024 PaddlingLight Update
It’s 2024 and PaddlingLight is still kicking away. It’s been 20 years of blogging about paddling on PaddlingLight and before that Nessmuking and before that on a different website. It’s hard to believe, but this is one of the longest lasting blogs about paddling on the internet. I’m almost a grey beard now, so I should get really good at rolling my sea kayak soon. Anyway, I have thoughts… Blogging over Marketing As I’ve expressed before, I think that social media ended up wrecking the golden age of blogging. There used to be a bunch of different paddling blogs bouncing ideas off of each other. Now, it’s just a few…
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LaCrosse Grange Boots Review: Best Boot for Canoeing?
For the last couple of years, I’ve been using the LaCrosse Grange Boots for canoeing when I want a rubber waterproof boot. If you’re a long-time reader, you may remember that back in 2019 I wrote The Best Boots for Canoeing. I recommend the Xtratufs boots, and I still think that’s a good recommendation. But I found that after a couple of trips that they didn’t fit my feet well. I sold them and then bought a pair of LaCrosse Grange Boots. To make this review short, these are the boots that I’ve been using for canoeing, shoulder seasons around town, when going into wet areas for photography, and for…
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Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL2 Review: Lightweight Tent for Paddlers
My Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL2 review will explore my experience with this tent over the last couple of years and why I always come back to it.
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Yama Mountain Gear Cirriform Tarp Review
The Yama Mountain Gear Cirriform Tarp is a lightweight, shaped tarp designed for lightweight trips when you only need a minimal shelter. Here's my short review.
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Canoe and Kayak Building Resources
Building resources for wooden canoe and kayak homebuilders.
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Telling a Good Canoe and Kayak Adventure Story
Years ago, I took time to analyze the story structure of different types of canoe and kayak adventures that were published in various magazines. I wanted to be able to pitch the types of stories that the editors were buying, and I wanted to be able to do it in the formats they were accepting. I ended up identify three different types of stories: Trip Reports, Autobiographical Trip Reports Focusing on a Global Issue, and a Biography. There were more types of stories, but these three were the most interesting to me. I outlined each of the different scenes that were used to tell the story. I’ve used these outlines…
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Borah Gear Ultralight Bivy Review
The Borah Gear Ultralight Bivy is a lightweight sack to put your sleeping bag, sleeping pad and self into while you sleep. How else do you describe a bivy? It’s designed to shelter you, protect you from splashes and drafts and add a little warmth to your sleeping bag. It also has bug netting above your face to help you breath and keep the bugs out. I bought it to provide a little extra protection when sleeping under a small tarp. I used this in 2023 on a ten-day bikepacking trip, and I would call this a limited review. That said, I probably won’t be using it often due to…
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Paddle and Portage: a New Website for the Boundary Waters
This is a quick bit of interesting news for Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness lovers. Paddle and Portage is a brand new website devoted to telling stories about the Boundary Waters and Quetico. It launched in January 2024. The website is founded by Joe Friedrichs, formerly of the radio station WTIP and WTIP’s Boundary Waters Podcast. Matthew Baxley is also joining Friedrichs’ new adventure as part of the new Paddle and Portage Podcast. Baxley was Friedrichs’ co-host on WTIP’s podcast. He’s also a talented filmmaker and good host. He interviewed me about my Following the Winchell Expedition trip for a past episode of the Boundary Waters Podcast. WTIP’s Boundary Waters…
