Hello everyone,
I am planning a 30 day canoe trip throughout the BWCA this August. I will be entering at the Sawbill entry point at the end of July and running through the end of August. I know there is another recent post on here about a 30 day trip but I have some questions that have not been answered on that post. I am not concerned about the food situation. I dehydrate and prep all of my own meals so my weight is not too extreme and I have all resupplies set up. A big part of this trip is documentation. I am an amateur photographer, cinematographer, and artist and I plan on documenting the entire trip process. Everything from the planning process of food preparation, gear overview and selection, route selection to all the things that come with portaging through the BWCA and thoughts after the trip. Its mainly just for personal documentation but I am hoping it will also be helpful to someone in the future when planning a 30 canoe trip.

I have paddled the eastern portion of the BWCA many times and am quite familiar with the area. I still plan on staying in the eastern portion for most of the trip but I would like to venture westward.
My questions:
1. Are there any sights, camps, lakes, hidden spots, pictographs, etc. that anyone would recommend I see? My itinerary is pretty loose as of now so I am open for suggestions.

2. I do not plan on leaving the Boundary Waters at any point and one of the biggest issues I am trying to figure out is battery life for my cameras. I have to try and figure out how to have enough battery life/ power to last for the whole month. I don't really feel like carrying 15+ batteries for each of my cameras and I'm not certain if it is okay to leave batteries charged for that long. Does anyone have any experience with solar chargers for GoPro and DSLR chargers? Is it okay to leave batteries charged for a month at a time? Hopefully I explained this well enough.

3. I am interested in traveling down the Frost River, suggestions on this?

4. Recommendations for affordable and dependent weather radios?

5. Any secluded campsites that are recommended?

6. Does anyone have any personal recipes they have for dehydrated meals? I'm always looking for new meals to try!

I really appreciate anyone's input and thank you to everyone who contributes to these forums. I have found them to be very helpful when planning past trips.

Can't help you with much, but just wanted to share a link from Andrew Skurka's website regarding dehydrated meals that he likes. He's eaten them all like a million times each, so he clearly likes them!

/ Andrew Skurka's Dehydrated Meal List

Conner -

First off, welcome to the site. Glad you've converted from lurker to poster. =)
Check out the Recipes forum for inspiration, especially the Freezer Bag Cooking pinned thread.

Your batteries will be fine if left fully charged for days & weeks. A solar charger might be useful, but instead of charging devices directly from the solar I'd recommend using the solar to charge one or more battery banks and then charge your devices off the banks. You'd need a decently sized panel to output enough juice for it to be worth your while, plus bright sun.

If you make it to the West side along the border there are pictographs just after Lower Basswood Falls and again on Lac La Croix. I believe the pictographs on Fishdance Lake in the center of the BWCA are also nice.

There was just recently a thread about weather radios, seems like folks carry a variety of devices but many like the C Crane pocket radio or the Sangean DT-400. Both are battery operated but a set of batteries lasts a long time in these especially if you're only using it to get a forecast and not for listening to FM/AM.

I have not done the Frost River, but from what I remember of trip reports August might be tough going if its been a dry summer.

Good luck & I look forward to the trip report!

Are you planning to carry a gps? I do NOT wish to launch a "maps and compass only" debate. I ask only because you are attempting to collect accurate documentation. I have found a gps to be a very helpful tool in matching my photos to their exact locations. If you make sure that your camera's time and date are set accurately, matching a photo's timestamp with a point along your gps' track can resolve some issues with recalling what rapids or rock formation or beaver dam is in your photo.

Of course, that is another item for which you'll need to carry batteries... :-)