UpNorthica

Dude, drop what you’re doing. Cancel all your evening plans (as if you have anything important on a Thursday night.)
There are two great outdoorsy films showing tonight in Minneapolis. Both are at cool venues. Both offer Super Extra Bonus incentives to attend. Your challenge will be picking which one to see. That’s right, they overlap [...]

I was up at 3am the other morning for the Leonid meteorite show. After 45 minutes, my buds and I might have seen eight; far fewer than the expected 2-3 per minute. Even now, well-filmed videos from the night, don’t seem to do justice to the event.
Well, shoot! I should’ve just watched this time-lapse of [...]

As winners of the Choose Your Own Adventure sweepstakes, we’re in the Allegheny Mountains with the Gear Junkie. But our trip is made even more special because you can vote on our itinerary! Your votes had me tracking wild boars today; watch for that report later tonight.
Our plan for tomorrow: Fly-fishing local trout streams, [...]

And if I’d seen this while lost on Gordon Lake during a cold rainstorm at night, I can tell you, I would have filled my bilge with fraidy-pee. I’m tellin’ ya… right off the cover of a Hardy Boys novel — at least from this angle. From the right, it more resembles a [...]

The windstorm that buffeted Minnesota’s Arrowhead region last Monday, is gone. And gone with it are miles of clear hiking trails.
Best to plan carefully if you intend to hit the Superior Hiking Trail or the BW anytime between now and spring, as reportedly the damage is significant in some areas. How significant?
The SHT has [...]

After canoeing last week through parts of the Boundary Waters ravaged by the 2006 Famine Lake fire, I had to smile at this one…
Duluth illustrator Rick Allen’s logo design for a microbrew, offers up sage words. And, as always with Mr. Allen’s work, it’s served with a chaser of mirth and wit. Witnessing how just [...]

SPOILER ALERT: You won’t see Voyageurs National Park in Ken Burns’ new documentary. Or the St. Croix Scenic Riverway. Or any of the other worthy NPS sites in Minnesota. You can, however, be one of the first to catch them all tonight, at a special screening of Minnesota’s National Park Legacy.
Fitting that it’s premiering [...]

They radiate light and warmth, while plunging us into deep, cool shadow. And they’re not even in color.
Jim Brandenburg’s latest infrared photos once again prove his talent in capturing not only moments and places, but also light. These exposures were apparently taken at his home, just outside the sauna. Which is apparently the most beautiful [...]

A single photo of Lac La Croix can’t easily capture its marvelous expanses. Maybe that’s why these panoramics by Bryan Hansel are so successful.
The Grand Marais photographer and avid paddler recently uploaded the stunning views of border lakes in his photostream. Lac La Croix here is only one of the lucky subjects in the [...]

Maybe it’s their close harmony with the boreal landscape, that attracts me. But Finland’s apparently thriving community of environmental artists, like Olavi Lanu, produces some truly beautiful works.
But how would you feel if you saw something like this in the Boundary Waters? Read on and join the conversation…

Every so often, we’ll see a photo on the Boundary Waters Flickr Group Pool that’s worthy of mention.
“Words Can Not Begin to Describe,” (above) left us a little speechless.
Taylor, a photography major at University of Central Missouri, also has several others he’s taken in the Best Place on Earth Ever. Speaking of which, Matthew — [...]

Missing thousands of Kodak moments to shutter delay over the years (thank you Coolpix) will teach you something: To appreciate the pure experience of simply seeing a thing. You learn how to watch actively. And if perchance you are witness to something remarkable, you become exceedingly good at relishing the magic of that moment. The [...]

It’s a honking shame, but the rumors are true: Vandals have cut down the famous “Honking Tree” that stood along Highway 61’s median, just outside Two Harbors.
Back in the early 1960s, while clearing the strip of land to become the Highway 61 Expressway, one road builder insisted that the pine tree shading his favorite lunch [...]

In what amounts to more good conservation related news, the second annual Gunflint GreenUp is going on May 1-3. It kicks off Friday with a Green Living Fair in Grand Marais, MN. Saturday, there’ll be tree planting and brush clearing in the Superior National Forest, specifically the area affected by the Ham Lake Fire.
Wrapping up [...]

We were excited to see that a Sigurd Olson documentary is afoot!
Here’s a short promo for The Singing Wilderness (currently in production,) a film that looks to provide a very intimate study of the legendary conservationist and writer. And by ‘intimate,’ I mean it promises more than mere biography. According to the filmmaker’s blog, [...]