UpNorthica

It took a few weeks, but we’re back and very happy to be so!
When our hosting service’s grid server suffered a security breach, we found some malicious code was causing our site to redirect users to random web sites. Many thanks go to our friend Matt for his troubleshooting expertise in eradicating the problem!
Now that [...]

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 [...]

Did you know that the peaty soils of boreal regions can store carbon for 8,000 years? And twice as much of it as you’ll find in tropical rainforests? Neither did we.
But before this starts sounding like a Total Cereal commercial (“It would take 4 Amazon basins to equal the carbon output,”) we’ll point you to [...]

Yes, we’re alive, and back within Internet access! Trip reports from our adventure in the Allegheny Mountains will post this evening. Thanks for waiting!

I need someone to high-five this girl —STAT!
Big time props go to UpNorthica staffer Pam, who spent a long, hard weekend earning her Wilderness First Aid certification through NOLS.
The National Outdoor Leadership School taught the course on the grounds of Macalester College, where passersby got to observe Pam and classmates in numerous training scenarios. [...]

Citing Ely’s “1.3 million acres of untouched wilderness is beyond compare, so there’s plenty of room for Ely to host thousands of athletes and more than a million visitors, and we have lots of space for the facilities.” Ely says they may me a couple of years late for the deadline for a first bid, [...]

With the passing of the Clean Water, Land & Legacy Amendment on Tuesday [insert spirited “Woo hoo” here], you may now be wondering what the next steps are. The vote means a lot of money, but the needs across the state are great, so who gets how much?
This article gives a good idea of [...]

Whoa, how did we miss this?
Thirty years ago this Tuesday, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act was signed into law. Thus becoming, in the estimation of myself and all my buds, The Official Best Place on the Earth, Like, Ever. The tranquil, motorboat-free lakes, roadless forests and miles of undeveloped shoreline we enjoy today [...]

A Washington, D.C. resident was indicted Wednesday for having started the Ham Lake Fire of 2007. Upon cracking the report on this, I had expected to read about an outdoors newbie or perhaps a young-ish camper lacking judgment. Sadly, the truth was quite the opposite.
It wasn’t some kid, but in fact a 63-year old retired [...]

Hey greasy, yeah you, the guy who has been using the same bottle of Campsuds for his hair and dirty dishes for the past week. You no longer have the excuse of excess weight for bad hygiene on the trail. The new Dissolving Paper Shampoo is a pack of sheets of paper that magically dissolve into mint scented shampoo suds. While their size [...]

We love every half inch of this 388-square foot getaway. With a loft perched above, bunks nestled away for guests, one huge picture window to take in the view, and absolutely zero space for entertainment centers or computer desks, what more do you need? Just plop it down anywhere within a 50-mile radius of Ely [...]

Say it isn’t so!

An historical map shows how a committee, chaired by Thomas Jefferson, proposed to split up the lands of the Northwest Territory. Much of what is now Minnesota would have shared statehood with parts of Northern Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. But more curious than the divisions themselves, are the peculiar hybrid Latin-Indian names Jefferson proposed. [...]

I heart cool cabins, particularly the pre-fab, retro modern cabins that are showcased in architecture mags like Dwell. You know, the ones you could fit four Timber Lodge Steakhouses into. But much as I love ‘em, posting them on a site about living in the outdoors just doesn’t feel right to me.
Here’s something that does. [...]

While state economic woes seem to wither any hopes for a new state park on Lake Vermilion, perhaps we Minnesotans should count our blessings. At least our Forest Service isn’t auctioning off public land on Ebay. It sounds so laughably cheap that it couldn’t be true, but a certain parcel is under serious consideration in [...]