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Life Vest Knives: the Great Debate
Knives are basic outdoor tools that every outdoors person should know how to safely use. You should probably have one with you. They are handy and helpful. While paddling and when working with tow ropes, painters or otherwise, you should have a paddling knife handy. The knife is the fall back if something fails in your rope handling skills, and you end up with an entanglement issue that you need to cut someone out of. Rope handling skills should be your priority, and you should learn them from a qualified instructor. The more rope handing skills that you have the less of a chance of needing a knife. Also, if…
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Kelso River Dolmen: A Boundary Waters Adventure
Paddling from Sawbill Lake to the Kelso River Dolmen is one of the best BWCA day trips that you can take. The route features big lakes, crooked shorelines, narrow rivers, swamps, easy portages, and carnivorous plants. With the Kelso River Dolmen as the goal of the trip, it offers a set destination. That’s something that other day trips in the area don’t offer. The story behind the dolmen is that Vikings explored North America and found copper nearby. To mark the mine, they built the dolmen. Legend has it that there’s a second smaller dolmen nearby that when used as a navigation range points to the mine. Some paddlers claim…
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Get your new life vest (and gear) early this year
Usually I’m writing a review or a how to or something like that, but instead I’m writing about the state of things right now. With the pandemic supply issues still affecting the outdoor industry, you’re going to want to get your purchases done early this year. All the new gear is starting to hit the stores right now, and if you want to get a specific product you should buy now. I’ve needed a new life jacket for a couple of years and when I went looking last year for the vest that I wanted, it was sold out. I figured that it would come back in stock at some…
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BWCAW Closer to Full Protection from Sulfide Mines! Great News
Today the US Department of Interior announced that after analyzing the Twin Metals permits, a proposed sulfide mine on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, they found that the permits had been illegally issued by the Trump administration. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota is America’s most-visited wilderness area. It offers paddlers 1,200 miles of canoe routes and 2,000 designated campsites. It has a million-acres of lakes and forests. The proposed sulfide mine would have been built within the watershed of the Boundary Waters and any pollution from the project would have flowed into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Sulfide mines create sulfuric…
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Best Deck Bag for Kayaking
The best deck bag for kayaking is no deck bag. Seriously, don’t buy one. They all are a terrible idea. Instead get an underdeck bag. See below for why you don’t want a deck bag, and for a recommendation if — and only if — you ignore everything in this article and decided you need a deck bag. The best underdeck bag for kayaking is the North Water Underdeck Bag (read our review: North Water Underdeck Bag Review). The primary reason is that they make your deck higher, which interferes with paddling. This is especially true on kayaks with high decks already. While I think that you should have a…
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2021 Paddling Recap
Looking back at the spring and summer and early fall of 2021, leaves me wanting for more paddling. While I did do a few trips, including a big one, the Boundary Waters and surrounding areas were closed for much of the summer. Wildfires in the BWCAW closed the wilderness while I had time off and had planned on doing a lot of canoe camping with my kid. We’re hoping to get one more paddling trip in, but it’s looking like snow might come. Here’s a quick recap of my paddling in 2021. The year started off with a trip I’m calling Following Winchell. In 1879, Minnesota State Geologist Newton Horace…
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New Siskiwit SOF Kayak Hits the Water
Tibor Berki from Sweden, the person behind RUGD clothing, completed an unique build of a Siskiwit SOF kayak. He used fiberglass-reinforced foam for the frames, added sealed bulkheads, used an ocean cockpit instead of a whitewater-style cockpit, and he added hatches. His builder’s log is detailed and fun to read. His build ended up at 13kg (28.6 pounds) with all the extras. He is debating on adding a skeg. In his building log, he mentions that he had problems with the dye he used, but I think it looks fantastic! I don’t own a SOF kayak anymore, but now I want one again because his looks so good. Check out…
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How to Stay Clean While Camping
On day five, I crawled in the tent with my canoeing partner. We were halfway through our trip, and he smelled bad. I mean he smelled like a bucket of ripe clams left out in the sun on a beach in 100-degree weather for five days. I looked over at him and said, “Dude, you stink. Don’t you know how to stay clean while camping?” He shrugged his shoulders and said, “We’re in the woods, of course, I stink.” And from that moment forward, I’ve made it a point to try and stay clean while camping when on adventures, and you can too by following these easy steps. Take a…
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Tent, Sleeping Bag and Portage Pack for the Boundary Waters
Here are my choices for a tent, sleeping bag and portage pack for the Boundary Waters trip, specifically my last Boundary Waters trip. The trip followed a ~160 mile, ~30 miles of portages route from 1879. You can read my previous articles: Lightweight Camping Cook Set for Canoeing and Kayaking and Clothing for the Boundary Waters 2021 about those two topics. This is perhaps the easiest category for me to write about. My pack and bedroom gear is the most refined gear that I own. I’ve been using pretty much the same for years. On this trip, I did change it up just a bit. Portage Pack for the Boundary…
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Jerry Vandiver Releases The Middle of Somewhere
If you have followed alone for awhile, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of Jerry Vandiver. I also consider him a friend. We paddled the Rio Grande together several years ago and have been on several other paddling trips together. He recently put out a new album of paddling-related songs called The Middle of Somewhere. In the past, I’ve interviewed Jerry and you can read that interview here. I’ve also reviewed his Every Scratch Tells A Story album. When you consider all things, I’m not really a music reviewer. I know what I like when it comes to music, and sometimes I can tell you why, but I’m not…
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The Best Boots for Canoeing
My go-to boot for shoulder season day tripping has always been the NRS Boundary Shoe. But, on longer trips, especially those without a dry suit, I’ve found the shoes to be too flexible for portages and not waterproof enough for long days. They weren’t the best boots for canoeing, especially during the shoulder season. I polled my friends and fellow paddlers, some of who have spent years guiding canoe trips and have paddled on expeditions all around the world, about what boots they typically used for this. They recommended the following most often: Xtratufs Legacy, Kamik Bushman and Muck Wetlands. The criteria for the best boots for canoeing was as…
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Best Gifts for Kayakers and Canoeists
It’s almost Black Friday again (or just the middle of summer and your favorite paddler’s birthday if somehow you googled this up and it wasn’t in November), and it’s time to come up with the latest and greatest and best gifts for kayakers and canoeists. This year has been a good one for paddlers and here are a few ideas AeroPress Go: If you’ve never used an AeroPress to make coffee, you are missing out. The AeroPress uses a pressurized tube to extract an espresso-like shot of java within about a minute of time. You add hot water to your cup and have a smooth cup of Americano. When I…
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PaddlingLight News Update
Just a quick news update about the PaddlingLight website. Over the last year, I’ve been meaning to update the website to increase the speed and load times. I finally had a few days to do that, so before the craziness of my fall schedule kicked in I sat myself down into my office and worked on the website. This is step one of getting things updated around here. While doing that, I also made a few changes to the look of the website. It’s basically the same-ish look but with a slightly more compact design with a simpier color scheme. Hopefully, I also increased readability. Let me know if you…
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Sag to Seagull Route Trip Report
The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Sag to Seagull route is a short trip that can be broken into an easy multi-day trip or a long day trip. It consists of paddling across two large lakes, through many islands and across three small lakes. There are three easy portages. At higher water levels, you can skip one and maybe two of the portages. The route passes through areas of the BWCA that burned at least once in recent years. We recently paddled the Sag to Seagull route over four days and three nights. Most of the days consisted of short paddles between campsites and then lazy days in the campsite…
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How to Replace Kayak Deck Lines
This topic may seem like a nobrainer, but over and over I’ve seen this done incorrectly. So, while it may seem like a topic that doesn’t need explaining — after all, how hard is it to cut off the old deck line and put in new line — I’m going to tell you how to replace kayak deck lines the correct way. How often do I replace the deck lines? Part of your preventive maintenance schedule should be replacing your kayak’s deck line. When you notice that the line looks faded, it’s time to replace it. Also watch for fraying along the line, especially at each of the fittings. Or,…
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