Archives for June 2016

The tip of my fishing rod bent as we paddled across Gillis Lake this evening. With over 100 feet of cold, clear, clean water beneath us, I was fairly certain there was a lake trout on the end of my line. Soon Amy spotted the shimmering, twisting body of a lake trout below the canoe.
These pristine lakes are precious and need to be protected for future generations to enjoy. That is why we are spending A Year in the Wilderness. We aim to raise awareness about the threats that sulfide-ore copper mines bring to the region. Lake trout are very sensitive to changes in water chemistry and pollution. A copper mine has never been built anywhere in the world without polluting the surrounding ground or surface water. This is just not the right place for this type of mining.

Please take action to support @savethebwca & @sportsmenbwca to help us protect this national treasure.

Since the trout was the perfect size for eating and our new campsite was only a couple hundred yards away we decided to have lake trout for dinner! Their firm, pink meat is our favorite fish to eat in the Boundary Waters. They are only found in the coldest, deepest, oxygen-rich lakes. We are excited to have entered a section of the Wilderness with some of the finest lake trout lakes.
Tomorrow we will head west to Gabimichigami Lake which is over 200 feet deep. I hope we will be able to catch a couple more lake trout along the way. Trolling deep diving lures can be an effective way to catch lake trout this time of year. Typically they like a fairly slow presentation. You can catch them when paddling at a normal rate, but often having the person in the stern paddle while the person in the bow holds the fishing rod works well.
#wildernessyear #savetheBWCA #BoundaryWaters #BWCA #fishing #fish #trout #laketrout #onlyinMN @MTIAdventurewear #sportsmenbwca

Our campsite looked like a garage sale today with almost every item of clothing we have hung over the long guy lines of our Cooke Custom Sewing Lean 2. Tank spent most of the day napping in the sun, moving every few hours as the sun moved across the sky to a prime sunny spot. After many days of cloudy, rainy weather our batteries were literally and figuratively depleted.
We spent the day writing, capturing photos and videos, answering emails, charging batteries, baking a cake, fixing gear, and taking care of a variety of tasks that had been shoved into the recesses of our packs or our minds. The whole time we enjoyed the white, billowing clouds and glorious warm rays of sunshine.
We don’t have weekends or holidays out here so sometimes we just have to take a day to putter around and tie up all the loose ends. Today turned out to be one of those days.
Rain or sun, sleet or hail, wind or calm, we are out here for a year to bear witness to this quite place and inspire citizen from near and far to protect this national treasure that belongs to all of us and now needs our help. Twin Metals and a series of other sulfide-ore copper mines are being proposed along the southern edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. This type of mining has never been done anywhere in the world without causing water pollution. This pristine maze of lakes and rivers is the lifeblood of our local economy and just too precious to risk. Please sign the petition at http://ift.tt/1x2erSX , follow us, and share our #wildernessyear to @savetheBWCA with your friends.

@patagonia #cookecustomsewing #wintergreennorthernwear #BoundaryWaters #BWCA #savetheBWCA #wilderness #onlyinMN #captureMN #wearethewild #getoutstayout @darntoughvermont

The Boundary Waters is threatened by copper mines in a sulfide-ore body that are being proposed along the southern border of our nation’s most popular Wilderness. We continue to be joined by other people passionate about protecting this national treasure. Together we can @savetheBWCA, but we all must take action. We are so thankful for all the people who are speaking loudly for this quiet place.

Chef Lukas Leaf is an avid fishermen and is actively involved with @sportsmenbwca. He paddled into the Wilderness with Joe Fredricks. Joe is a reporter for WTIP who came in to interview us (we think it will air midday today). Chef Lukas cooked us a gourmet feast with roasted veggies and a whole mess of walleye that he and Joe caught.

They also brought us fresh World’s Best Donuts. World’s Best Donuts is an institution in Grand Marais, MN, that lives up to its name. At first we thought we would save a couple donuts for breakfast, but they tasted so good we ate them all in short order.

We have noticed that we eat a lot more than our visitors. I think our metabolisms are higher because we are living outside.

This morning we said goodbye to Joe and Lukas and then paddled and portaged from Rush Lake to Long Island Lake. We were hoping to meet up with Aaron Klemz from @friendsbwcaw. Aaron and some friends were planning to be on Long Island in the middle of a 5-day canoe trip.
Sure enough we spotted two canoes and it was Aaron and his friends who delivered chocolate bars! Almost as exciting as the chocolate bars themselves was the front page of the Star Tribune they were wrapped in. We happily read the newspaper under our Cooke Custom Sewing tarp in the rain while munching on chocolate this afternoon!

#wildernessyear #walleye #savetheBWCA #spring #wearethewild #wilderness #adventure #BWCA #BoundaryWaters #captureMN #onlyinMN

The Boundary Waters continues to surprise us. Every day we see and hear something new and we are constantly reminded of what a special Wilderness we are immersed in. Please follow @savetheBWCA , sign their petition, and help protect the Boundary Waters from the sulfide-ore copper mines being proposed along the edge of the Wilderness.

We have explored nearly 300 lakes during the first 256 days of our #wildernessyear to protect this national treasure. Sometimes we have plenty of time and energy to bake cakes in our FryBake and make complex meals, but sometimes we need a quick, hot meal that is easy to prepare. This morning was one of those mornings so we grabbed a couple packs of @Trailtopia oatmeal and had a delicious breakfast in minutes.
#wildernessyear #savetheBWCA #adventure #onlyinMN #BoundaryWaters #Wilderness

This week we encountered two strangely related milestones. We spent the 250th day of our #WildernessYear to @SavetheBWCA from proposed sulfide-ore copper mining. Plus, two of the federal mineral leases, which are now owned by a Chilean mining company, were first issued 50 years ago this week. This week, donations to the Campaign, which support their efforts to protect the Boundary Waters, will be tripled. Link in bio.

These leases were issued long before the Clean Water Act and many other modern protections were put in place and have never been subjected to serious environmental review.

We are out here for a year to raise awareness about the serious risks Twin Metals and other mines of this type bring to the Wilderness. It is our mission to protect the Boundary Waters watershed from this extremely toxic industry.

We are working from sun up to sun down to document, share, and protect this national treasure. This is what breakfast at the office looks like for us as we busy ourselves uploading content and responding to emails while we eat breakfast and pack up camp.

We are a part of a large network of staff and volunteers working to stop sulfide-ore mining near the Wilderness through the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters. We appreciate your support and hope you will consider giving. Your gifts, big or small, make a difference.
#savethebwca #BWCA #bwcaw #BoundaryWaters #OnlyinMN #nature

The Superior National Forest contains 20% of the freshwater in all of the national forests in the United States. Twin Metals and other proposed sulfide-ore copper mines along the edge of the Wilderness threaten this precious resource. Today is the 250th day of our #wildernessyear to @savetheBWCA. Please sign the petition at http://ift.tt/1x2erSX and help us protect this national treasure from what the EPA considers our nation’s most polluting industry. This place is just too precious to risk and now is the time to act.

Clean water provides life for so many things. After spending most of its life in a Wilderness lake, this dragonfly crawled from the water and we watched it slowly emerge and fly away. As I type, a flock of cedar wax wing are patrolling the sky overhead and two are eating dragonflies, which seem too big for them to swallow. The circle of life continues.
#savetheBWCA #Wilderness #life #dragonfly #insect #BoundaryWaters #BWCA #nature #captureMN #OnlyinMN

We have been encouraged by a string of rainy days to savor our morning coffee and eat many relaxed breakfasts lately on the “porch” of our Cooke Custom Sewing Lean 2.
There are always things to do regardless of the weather. On rainy days we are often busy editing and organizing images and video, writing, doing interviews, and producing content in order to share our #wildernessyear to @savetheBWCA with as many people as possible, but most days start with a cup of @stonecreekcoffee and rainy days often warrant a second round.

Good coffee starts with good water, and we are ensconced in the heart of some of the cleanest water in the world. Each morning we fill our pot from the lake, fire up our @biolitestove and begin another day.
Sulfide-ore copper mines, like the ones being proposed along the edge of the Wilderness, have a horrible track record of leaving crumbling communities and acid mine drainage in their wake when the market drops or the mine is played out.

Our jobs and our way of life are at risk. This unequalled maze of Wilderness lakes and rivers, sandwiched between Lake Superior and the Canadian border, is like no other place on earth. It is far too precious to risk and it needs your help. Please sign the petition at http://ift.tt/1x2erSX.

#wilderness #camping #coffee #BoundaryWaters #BWCA #onlyinMN #captureMN #WeAreTheWild #getoutstayout #savetheBWCA

Tank greets Tim and Jasper during their resupply trip into the Wilderness by canoe over the weekend. At 10 months old Jasper is the youngest overnight visitor of our #wildernessyear to date.
Help us @savetheBWCA for Jasper’s generation! Now is the time to take action.
Do you have photos or stories from the #BoundaryWaters ? We would love to hear them and use them to help protect this amazing Wilderness. Please email photos and stories to info@savetheboundarywaters.org!

#wilderness #camping #dog #baby #BWCA #onlyinMN #captureMN #WeAreTheWild #getoutstayout #savetheBWCA