db wrote on Jan 20^th, 2020 at 10:29pm:


Good recommendation! It's a trilogy and they're on youtube as well. Great life story as well about this favorite son from Winnipeg.

Kinda obvious, but the Sigurd Olsen books are quite inspirational. Get the set.

Thanks everyone, last year we got a full set of BWJ at least to 2018 or so. I've got plenty of reading to do there yet. I just figured I'd see what else to look into.

To that I'd add song/path of the Paddle. Bill Mason?

All good advice.

I bought this book when I first started going to the Q and highly recommend it.
I've NEVER done one of his routes EXACTLY as he laid them out but used them as a foundation for trips I did do.

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  I would lay out his routes on a paper map, then mark places I wanted to deviate too.

  Then I would look in the QJ trip report archives to find info about those places. Between that and asking on the forums, I got a lot of info that would have taken years to learn on my own.

  I think it would be fair to say you could spend the average tripper's lifetime of paddling in the Q and still learn something new every trip.  Just the time of year/weather can change the course of your whole trip.

  That's why most of us have Plan B's, maybe more.
I used the FUBAR plan last trip. 

The BWJs are another great resource. I’m planning to bring a couple of boxes of back issues to Copia to sell $5 each. If anyone wants to buy a bunch, we can probably come up with a quantity discount. Let me know if you’re looking for something specific.

TomT wrote on Jan 18^th, 2020 at 3:03pm:


That's basically what Tim Mead did with his book.  He's also a frequent BWJ contributor.  He pulled together those pieces, added a few new ones and there was his book.

Tim really knows his stuff.  He still posts to QJ every once in a while.  He's known around here as "Ancient Angler."  Quetico is only one of several outdoor topics he writes about.  Tim's a great guy and former University English professor.  He's traveled all over the place and has published re: numerous subjects in his retirement.  In that respect (& others), he is one of my heroes.  See his website at: (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) .

Way back when, I used to live in NC and I flew up to Quetico every year for many years.  I didn't discover that Tim was practically a neighbor of mine (NC has long been his home state) until long after I relocated to MN to get closer to Quetico. That was too bad as I could've used another paddling party partner a time or two back then.

Tim was the target of one of my very best practical jokes, ever.  I'd like to say he had a good sense of humor about my prank but - to this day - he still has no idea he was even duped by what must have seemed like a "weird Jimbo mental telepathy" at the time.  The episode is now long-since forgotten by him, I'm sure.  Nevertheless, it remains a favorite campfire story of mine... a "gotcha trick" of the highest order.

Later,

Jimbo      

Over the years I have bought every book I could find that had anything to do with canoe travel and especially the Quetico.  More recently I built bookshelves and had my Father's old reading chair re-upholstered.  Early in that endeavor the idea was to have ample material to re-read when I was older and no longer making trips. 

Now I wish I had spend more time in a canoe than reading about it.  Damned employment always gets in the way of more interesting life events.

MB

Old Salt wrote on Jan 18^th, 2020 at 1:51am:


That's funny because the two books I recommended are basically trip reports.     I should gather all of my trip reports since 2007 and publish a book.  "Quetico Misadventures!" by TomT

Some of the best and more current information is on this site. It’s called ‘trip reports’.