Big Red Canoe - Friends of the Boundary Waters podcast

39 Episodes

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Alone on the Water: Miguel Garcia-Gosalvez on Solo Canoe Camping

2026-08-0301:07:49

Solo camping in the Boundary Waters is its own thing. No partner, no safety net — just the lakes, the sky, and your own company. In this episode, we sit down with Miguel Garcia-Gosalvez, a solo canoeist who was born in Spain, fell in love with wild places as a boy in Europe, and found his deepest connection to wilderness in the Boundary Waters. Miguel has spent years paddling alone, and he's recently begun writing about it at mycanoelife.com — putting language to the feelings solo campe...

The Trail Finds You - Crystal Gail Welcome

2026-06-1148:49

The Superior Hiking Trail turns 40 this year. Three hundred miles of North Shore ridgeline, from the Wisconsin border to the edge of the Boundary Waters region, the SHT has shaped the lives of everyone who’s walked it. Crystal Gail Welcome is one of those people — and on this podcast, she shares the story of her final through-hike: a solo back-to-back of the Kekekabic and Border Route Trails, deep in the Boundary Waters wilderness. After years of pushing through a rare brain disease to walk s...

What's Next for the Boundary Waters after H.J.R. 140

2026-05-0101:01:56

H.J. Res. 140 was signed into law this week, stripping federal protections from 225,000 acres surrounding the Boundary Waters. What happens now? Experts from Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and Friends of the Boundary Waters break down the state-level legal tools that can still protect this wilderness — and the path forward from here. Guests: Kathryn Hoffman, Executive Officer, MCEA Joy Anderson, Supervising Attorney, MCEA Aaron Klemz, Strategy Officer, MCEA Chris Kno...

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Wilderness: Author Jeff Krogstad

2026-02-1045:59

Winter in the Boundary Waters is unforgiving—and that's exactly why Minnesota author Jeff Krogstad set his thriller Disappointment Mountain there. Jeff joins us to talk about writing wilderness fiction, the creative parallels between surviving in the backcountry and navigating life's challenges, and what the frozen north reveals about human resilience. Plus: real bear encounters, the art of making fiction believable, and why the Boundary Waters transforms everyone who enters it.&n...

A Wilderness Beyond Sight: Navigating the Boundary Waters with a Vision Loss

2025-12-1056:39

How do you navigate a challenging wilderness when you can't even see it? In this fascinating and deeply moving episode, we sit down with Kelly Carver, who has been paddling the Boundary Waters for over 40 years—including the past three decades since he became legally blind. After being diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease following his first BWCA trip in 1982, Kelly refused to let vision loss stop him from experiencing the place where he says "part of his soul" resides. Kelly takes us in...

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Big Red Canoe - Friends of the Boundary Waters podcast