The Podcast
Paddle and Portage’s monthly podcast is the auditory gateway to the wilds of the BWCA and Quetico. The podcast will be hosted by Matthew Baxley and myself. In 2017, we founded a podcast focused on the Boundary Waters for WTIP, the community radio station in Grand Marais, Minn. Baxley and I are shifting our efforts to the new Paddle and Portage Podcast. Our new platform will allow for expanded storytelling, more voices from our community of paddlers, and the ability to travel deeper and capture more stories in the BWCA and Quetico.
The podcast also has a sibling! Known as the Paddle and Portage Bonus Audio, we will offer our subscribers a variety of additional content in audio form. This will include interviews with DNR, Forest Service, and other agencies and organizations who do work in and around the Boundary Waters. The podcast will also offer audio diaries from guest contributors who paddle the BWCA, Quetico, and other locations. Matthew and I will also share seasonal conditions, fish reports, news and other information from the wilderness in the bonus audio edition of the podcast.
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The Miscalculations of Spring in the Boundary Waters
Bring on April in the Boundary Waters
April. The month that’s been known to send fear up the spine of the Paddle & Portage Podcast team.
Recent revelations about what April can offer for BWCA and Quetico adventures has the podcast duo rejuvenated this year. A surge of outdoor activity in late March played a role in this newfound understanding of late winter in the Boundary Waters, as is shared in this episode, which is sponsored by Tuscarora Lodge & Canoe Outfitters, Loons Nest Coffee, Friends of the Boundary Waters, and Ely Outfitting Company.
Kevin Kinney: Behind the Wool and Canvas
Kevin Kinney: Behind the Wool and Fabric
Kevin Kinney, owner of Empire Wool and Canvas Company, celebrates the natural world. He does so without apologies. A direct, straightforward creator, Kevin is a generous creator of fabric, though he doesn’t need your approval to know his work is being done the right way. He knows it. And most everyone who has some of his product knows it too.
Kevin has built small batches of garments near Lake Superior and the Boundary Waters for more than 20 years. He runs his business the same way he always has: Old school. Customers order direct. No waitlists. Manufacturer to customer. No B.S.
In this episode of the podcast, we learn about the journey of Kevin Kinney.
This episode is sponsored by Bending Branches Canoe & Kayak Paddles and Borderland Lodge.
Duluth Author’s New Book Showcases BWCA and Canadian Barrens
Ryan Rodgers – Where the Green Light Shines
Minnesota author and frequent Paddle & Portage contributor Ryan Rodgers has a new book about paddling canoes. “Where the Green Light Shines” will be available in summer 2026.
The book takes readers from Minnesota’s Boundary Waters into the Canadian barrens, a region rarely seen by most BWCA paddlers. The book tells the pull this area had on one of Minnesota’s most accomplished paddlers, Bob O’Hara.
Rodgers recently met up with Joe Friedrichs on the shore of Lake Superior in Grand Marais to discuss the book and other topics relevant to the Boundary Waters.
This episode is sponsored by Tuscarora Lodge & Canoe Outfitters and Ely Outfitting Company.