Paddle and Portage Podcast

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 Bird Count was a successful event once again this year, with more than a dozen birders seeing a combined 1,400 individual birds across an area from Lake Superior and up toward the Cascade River and inland toward Devil Track Lake, found near the start of the Gunflint Trail.  The next morning, the day after the official count, the Paddle and Portage Podcast crew traveled approximately 40 miles up the Gunflint Trail with Tanya for some additional birding. In this episode, we invite you to join us.  This episode is sponsored by Loons Nest Coffee, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, and Borderland Lodge.

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, we talk with frequent P&P contributor Erin Walker. Erin traveled from Canada to help burn some piles of downed timber near Lake Superior and the BWCA. Erin discusses her 2025 paddling season, plans for the upcoming winter, and the benefits of splitting and burning firewood.    This episode is sponsored by Save the Boundary Waters.   

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 by Sawtooth Outfitters and Loons Nest Coffee. 

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 National Park. Some media reports highlighted that number as a "crash" of the population. Tom Gable, who leads the project, said the region's deer population ebbs and flows, as does the local wolf population. The duo from the Paddle & Portage Podcast met with Gable in late fall to learn more about the wolf population near the Boundary Waters. Together, they paddled and portaged on the trail of a wolf, one suspected of killing a deer near a remote lake not long before they arrived to the scene. In this episode, we invite you to tag along. This video is made possible by our Paddle & Portage member-subscribers, and by our sponsors, including Sawbill Canoe Outfitters, Sven-Saw, and Ely Outfitting Company.