Photos from this unnamed island from over the years.

How careful planning put the moon between the lighthouse legs, and what happened next

The 1865 St. Francis 2-Fathom Canoe appears as Figure 80 in The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America, but until now I haven't seen any replicas or semi-replicas built. Recently, Evan B. built a cedar strip canoe replica of the 1865 canoe. It turned out great and it's fun to see these lines become a real canoe. Evan is sharing these, because he couldn't find any photos online of this canoe. I couldn't either back when I drafted the free canoe plans. You can see my drawing below.

In Where the Green Light Shines: A Fifty-Year Odyssey from the Boundary Waters to the Far North (available here), Ryan Rodgers sets out to tell the tale of the recreational canoe exploration of the Far North through the lens of Bob O'Hara. Bob O'Hara, a well-known figure among passionate Minnesota paddlers, has spent a lifetime of summers in the far north canoeing remote rivers and returning home to inspire a generation of paddlers who followed. The book follows his story. Using journals from O'Hara and other tripping companions, Rodgers recreates the pivotal expeditions from O'Hara's life while trying to find formative lessons within each.

Back in July I posted my Wildfires of Canoe Country wildfire maps. It showed the overall extent of the fires running from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to Wabakimi, but it failed to show the specifics of each fire. I got many requests to show which campsites and portages were impacted by the BWCAW wildfires. To help you visualize what is within the fire perimeters, I made several BWCAW wildfire maps. Something to keep in mind while looking at these maps is that while they show what is within the perimeter of the fire, they can't show the exact impact.

Back in 2001, while planning my first trip into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, I spread McKenzie maps across the kitchen table alongside a compass, a length of string, and several guidebooks. I'd only ever heard stories from friends visiting the area and didn't know exactly what to expect. One book quickly became indispensable: Robert Beymer's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness The Essential Guide to Minnesota's Paddling Country (4th Edition). After reading through the route descriptions, I settled on Route 70-1, the Lily Lakes Loop. The guidebook's vivid descriptions of the Arrowhead region captured my attention with tales of "high ridges, sheer cliffs, and crystal-clear lakes." I got a permit for September, and when 9/11 happened we decided to do the trip anyway.

Sometimes the most important decision a photographer makes is not pressing the shutter.

Canoe country in both Canada and the United States is on fire with major fires burning in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Quetico Provincial Park, and Wabakimi Provincial Park. Together, these three areas cover over 4,460,000 acres of land and lakes devoted to canoeing, and the current wildfires are burning over 1,000,000 acres between the three. The biggest is in Wabakimi and the smallest in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. It's hard to get a grip on the massive scale of these fires, and the complicated maps online weren't helping me to visualize them.

I thought that a little humor would be in order due to the large wildfires burning in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Wabakimi Provincial Park, and Quetico Provincial Park, which are some of North America's premiere paddling destinations. I live in Grand Marais, which is one of the gateway communities for the Boundary Waters, and I end up seeing lots of interesting roof racks. Here are a few roof racks that make you wonder. I think the opening photo of the log roof rack on the white car has to be one of my favorites that I've seen.

Protections have been rescinded for 90% of the land protected within Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments...

I recently did a bikerafting trip on the Namekagon River in Wisconsin. The Namekagon is part of the Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway, which is managed by the National Park Service. The total distance of the trip was 86 miles of riding, 97 miles of rafting. I finished most of the Namekagon. I started at river mile 91.9 instead of at the Namekagon Lake dam at 99.5 miles due to low water. I had wanted to run the upper section of the St. Croix to the confluence as well, but I cracked my rim where the spoke nipples come out in multiple places.

The EXPLORE Act, signed into law on January 4, 2025, contained a provision called the FILM Act, which aimed to standardize rules around filming, photography, and audio recording on public lands. But it also carried language that could have undermined creatives' free speech rights in congressionally designated wilderness areas. I called this The Wilderness Loophole. Now, we have final clarification from the USFS about this loophole, and it's effectively closed. What Was the Wilderness Loophole? Since 2025, the implementation of the FILM provision of the EXPLORE Act has rolled out across the various public agencies (see: …

I'm putting together my gear list for the summer, and much of the list is the same as last year's list. But, I changed up some big items, such as my tent and sleeping bag and stove. The goal for this year's gear was to simplify and lighten up. This year has been a struggle with getting outside. Being self-employed, I have some flexibility in my schedule and biased my workload to the spring. Then the spring filled in with 1:1 photo workshops and a few unexpected projects. That meant that there was a lot of time working and very little time in the outdoors.