Boundary Waters Catalog

Wanted to send a quick note and say thank you to Drew, Ambrose and Tim Barton for making it such a great trip.

The equipment was flawless, and Ambrose was spot on with the route feedback and campsite recommendations.

Always a smooth trip with you all but want to make sure that I share how much appreciative I am for the work you all do!
— Josh Rutowski

Call our crew today for all you Boundary Waters Canoe Trip rental, permit and guide needs. 1-800-223-6565 Canoe Outfitting clients get 10% off all summer in retail store and online. Ask outfitting staff for code.

Photo Josh Rutowski

We’re enjoying the sun as the water and wilderness warm up. Call our Outfitting Department today for permits, gear, canoes, bwca menus and guides. 1-800-223-6565. Here’s a pic of the day from Tab Pasvogel called Lab Tested and a poem of the same title that it inspired. Get outside and have some fun!

Lab Tested

Mist waiting for the sun
to banish it from day.
Trees golden yellow in morning’s new light.
The canoe, as quiet 
as the stretching beams
that only moments ago lifted the grays
like a banked cloud of thunderstorms
off this wild night.
Like when I got up between three and four a.m.
to unclasp and flip off the rainfly
freeing the mesh skylight of the tent —
so the music of the stars could drip down in.

There’s nothing of interest for the dog to look at,
except everything that is
different
from where we call home.

Waiting has become an art 
that we, overnight,
now have time
to enjoy.

©Timothy James Stouffer
05282026 All rights reserved.

Links in Bio for Books and Tools online. In stock at our retail store in Ely, as well. Enjoy something with an edge like: Woodland Whittling
by Peter Benson
When the stresses of modern life get too much, what could be better than gathering a few simple tools, heading into the woods and literally whittling away a few hours? The gentle art of whittling is a relaxing and absorbing hobby that can be enjoyed almost anywhere, where you are sitting around a campfire or in a cozy armchair at home.
All you need is a good pocket knife, a piece of wood, and your imagination. Projects range from the beautifully simple to impressively intricate—it’s up to you.
This delightful book guides you through the basics, explaining what equipment you need, how to hold the knife, and what timber to use.

Flexcut Tool Company, Inc. was founded in 1986, under the name of Falls Run Woodcarving, primarily as a custom carving shop and woodcarving school. In 1992, Flexcut began manufacturing a new breed of woodcarving tools to address the needs of the modern hobbyist and professional.
Photos and carvings

No RABC Permit, No Problem: Telephone Reporting Sites Go Live in Quetico in June - Paddle and Portage No RABC Permit, No Problem: Telephone Reporting Sites Go Live in Quetico in June by Joe Friedrichs | May 21, 2026 | News, The Magazine | 0 comments Quetico entrance at Cache Bay. Photo by Joe Friedrichs No RABC Permit, No Problem: Telephone Reporting Sites Go Live in Quetico in June By Joe Friedrich...

Tuesday trip advice: leave your mouse behind and try your luck with a different mouse.

Why do we tell stories in the forms of newsletters, pictorials and poems about the Boundary Waters? Why don’t we just list the itinerary highlights of a route and mark where we caught fish and where the quote/unquote best campsites and swimming holes were? Why isn’t every portage and campsite and route and sunset rated by our team so that you can cut right to the chase, head for the best and ignore the rest?

Because wilderness, nature, solitude and solace for the soul doesn’t roll like that. It is experiential, palpable, tertiary. It gets under your skin and that’s not something a GPS or satellite mapping system can track. It hits everyone differently at different times, some during a canoe camping trip and some only years later. Thus a poem to describe sensations that time spent in the wild without motors, without refrigeration, without tech and noise and ringing phones and email and social media notifications

Escape into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Call our Outfitting Managers 1-800-223-6565 Drew, Adam, Tim. (Outfitting clients get 10% OFF Trip Gear online and in our Retail Store in Ely, MN) Stop into the Piragis Boathouse over Memorial Day and check out our new Delta Kayaks and New and Used Northstar Canoes and Wenonah Canoes with Tom and Lucy!

Springing

Where does the cold go? I asked.
Grandpa said, for those of us in Minnesota,
that it leaks out and finds its way into our bones.
It stores up in the shadows before the sun has climbed the sky
and it seeps into the old heads first. This
is how he talked about himself,
not in some derogatory decline but in borrowed vernacular
implicit with many winters and no small loss
of pigment up top. It makes the bones brittle, not unlike plastic and hurt feelings
during the first week of February when it sneaks down to forty below.
We never talked about the windchill
when I was a minnow, you know? He said that, more than once.

For a long time, Grandpa still had Spring in his step, well, the right one anyway
and he could sit in the canoe with knees bent all morning
or evening if the bluegills and the trout were biting. He could
hunch over the bucket back home and fillet panfish; two a minute before lunchtime.

I don't need any WD-40 today
he'd tell Grandma. I'm not a rusty crayfish.
He knew where the big humpbacks and hybrids slumbered
away from the edges of the w**d beds and the wild rice.
The kind that were bigger than his palm before their tail was thought of.
He understood how the punkinseeds hid from the hunting pike
as keen as the rays from the sun
knifing down through the tannin-stained shallows
like the teeth of his old pocket comb.

Grandpa was like a grass spider just after dawn.
His webs shown with dew and he scurried everywhere.
He floated.
In the afternoon he slept;
just like he does now
dreaming of a paddle in his hand and the tug on end of the line.

©Timothy James Stouffer
05212026 All rights reserved.
Folk art mouse lure with leather ears, leather tail and a bucktail treble
off of an old Mepps #3 spinner by Tim

Happy Memorial Day. Photo Steve Piragis ******************************************

Ely bound this summer? Need canoes, gear, guides, great menus and BWCAW permits? Call our Canoe Outfitting Managers and you’ll practically be zipping up your tent for your first night’s sleep lakeside. You don’t want to wait, though, permits are here today and gone tomorrow, just like the rat race when you escape into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. 1-800-223-6565 Drew, Adam, Tim. (Outfitting clients get 10% OFF Trip Gear online and in our Retail Store in Ely, MN)

Stop into the Piragis Boathouse over Memorial Day and check out our new Delta Kayaks and New and Used Northstar Canoes and Wenonah Canoes with Tom and Lucy!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend. Photo Tim Barton Ely bound this summer? Need canoes, gear, guides, great menus and BWCAW permits? Call our Canoe Outfitting Managers and you’ll practically be zipping up your tent for your first night’s sleep lakeside. You don’t want to wait, though, permits are here today and gone tomorrow, just like the rat race when you escape into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. 1-800-223-6565 Drew, Adam, Tim. (Outfitting clients get 10% OFF Trip Gear online and in our Retail Store in Ely, MN) Stop into the Piragis Boathouse over Memorial Day and check out our new Delta Kayaks and New and Used Northstar Canoes and Wenonah Canoes with Tom and Lucy!

Good Saturday Morning from the Boundary Waters. This could be your wakeup tomorrow! Happy Memorial Day Weekend. Photo Tim Barton Ely bound this summer? Need canoes, gear, guides, great menus and BWCAW permits? Call our Canoe Outfitting Managers and you’ll practically be zipping up your tent for your first night’s sleep lakeside. You don’t want to wait, though, permits are here today and gone tomorrow, just like the rat race when you escape into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. 1-800-223-6565 Drew, Adam, Tim. (Outfitting clients get 10% OFF Trip Gear online and in our Retail Store in Ely, MN) Stop into the Piragis Boathouse over Memorial Day

Retail fashions on the racks at 105 North Central Avenue Ely Minnesota ************************Call our Canoe Outfitting Managers and you’ll practically be zipping up your tent for your first night’s sleep lakeside. You don’t want to wait, though, permits are here today and gone tomorrow, just like the rat race when you escape into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. 1-800-223-6565 Drew, Adam, Tim. (Outfitting clients get 10% OFF Trip Gear online and in our Retail Store in Ely, MN)

Stop in upon arrival to Ely, Minnesota and check out our fantastic Women's Clothing Department.