For those of you who made it this year, what were the highlights? Favorite speakers? New products? Best gatherings? etc. WHAT DID I MISS?

I was there nearly all of Saturday.
I counted 3 stripper canoe/kayaks under construction in various stages. Interesting.
The Bell canoes looked beautiful and were attracting attention away from the Wenonahs.
I was able to talk to Stu Osthoff and Cliff Jacobson by waiting in line. Never did get to talk to Lynn at Voyager North as she was too busy (good for her). Overall seemed very busy (crowded :( ) Saturday.
My wife and I proudly wore our QJ shirts and were asked about them by a couple of vendors. Surprisingly, I did not see any other QJ shirts.

I was there and had a great time.

I drooled over Jeani Bourquin's canoe she had there. Talked to many others I knew and met.

Thoroughly enjoyed Hap Wilson's talk and saw more stuff than I could ever buy. Came home with nothing except alot of brochures.

Had a great time and plan on going again next year for the 5th straight year.

My name is Beaver and I have a Copia problem...

Bought a new MinnII Kev UL...but they were sold out by 9am Saturday morning...so I couldn't give it a ride home to the lodge >:(

Also picked up some sweet merino wool shirts, new yoke pads, and a MSR BlackLite cookset (on sale with a free fry pan).

Saw Cliff and he was as entertaining as always. Talked to Stu. Saw a demo on a new water purifier that uses salt and electronic waves..pretty weird.

The wooden canoes were beautiful. Seems like everyone was sitting in a kayak.  Spent all day and had a blast.

The Beav

wrote on Mar 15^th, 2005 at 11:16am:

My wife and I proudly wore our QJ shirts and were asked about them by a couple of vendors. Surprisingly, I did not see any other QJ shirts.

LOL, I wore mine and didn't draw any attention from anyone!  I will say, though, that I spent most of my time watching speakers.

I was a little disappointed with Cliff Jacobsens afternoon session Saturday, it was billed as 'Travelling the BWCA with Style' and it turned out to be 'Travelling the BWCA with Youth Groups'.  Still some interesting info, but for the most part, not what I thought I was going to see.  Probably would have enjoyed it more if I had kids or ran a youth group.

Kevin Callan's 'How to be a 'Happy Camper' ' was better than I expected.  He's an entertaining speaker, and I got some good info from him too.

Bill Rogers' Photo Tips were very good.

Don Easley's fishing session had some good info, but turned into a slide show of fish he's caught without a lot of insight about how he caught them.  Still, a good speaker and I took a few things from it.

Annie Aggens 'Beyond the BWCA' was informative and inspiring, perhaps the subject too broad for a 1 hour presentation.  She lost about 10 minutes at the beginning to a technology meltdown, which may have caused her to shorten up some stuff.

I thought the show was much more crowded than last year.  I did a little browsing between sessions, and was turned off by the crowds.  I hoped to talk to some canoe reps and look at more gear, but found it was frustrating and kinda bailed out.

The Saturday crowds were a bit overwhelming.  Fortunately, we were there Friday evening also.  If possible, I suggest getting there then. The crowds are much smaller and it was easier to talk to the reps.  We also found some great deals on the Rutabaga clearance table before it was picked over.

After reading the threads on the Big Agnes sleeping bag, I tried one out and ma now the proud owner of a new sleeping bag and air matress.  

I also saw the water filter that zaps the water.  A nice idea in theory, but it seemed impractical.  The MSR reps said that the zapped water needed 30 min to kill most of the "bugs" and 4 hours to get everything.  I may pump slow, but not 30 min slow.  

I will definitely go back next year.