I ABJURE fish locators and boom boxes, but there is room in my pack for a weather radio:

“At 209 PM CDT, severe thunderstorms were located along a line extending from 7 miles north of Lake Vermilion to Birch Lake to Brimson, moving east at 60 mph. THOSE IN THE BOUNDARY WATERS CANOE AREA SHOULD PREPARE IMMEDIATELY FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH DAMAGING WINDS AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and half dollar size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. Locations impacted include... Ely, White Iron Lake, Birch Lake, Burntside Lake, Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Near Trout Lake, Winton, Fall Lake, Whyte, Forest Center, Isabella, Basswood Lake, Finland, Snowbank Lake, Dumbbell Lake, Tettegouche State Park, Clear Lake, Little Marais, George Manitou State Park, Temperance River State Park, Taconite Harbor, Little Saganaga Lake, Sugar Loaf Cove, Tofte, Lutsen, Alpine Lake, Saganaga Lake and Sea Gull Lake.

Remain alert for a possible tornado! Tornadoes can develop quickly from severe thunderstorms. If you spot a tornado, go at once into the basement or small central room in a sturdy structure. For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building.
Issued by Duluth MN”

EDIT: P.s. Somehow my original use of “abjure” was switched to “abhor.” I have no idea how that happened, but this unwanted change “shall not stand.”

I always take a weather radio. On solo trips it's even nice to hear a voice after a few days, albeit one generated by a robot ;)

Which radio do you take?

gravelroad: "I abhor fish locators and boom boxes, but there is room in my pack for a weather radio:

At 209 PM CDT, severe thunderstorms were located along a line extending from 7 miles north of Lake Vermilion to Birch Lake to Brimson, moving east at 60 mph. THOSE IN THE BOUNDARY WATERS CANOE AREA SHOULD PREPARE IMMEDIATELY FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH DAMAGING WINDS AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and half dollar size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. Locations impacted include... Ely, White Iron Lake, Birch Lake, Burntside Lake, Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Near Trout Lake, Winton, Fall Lake, Whyte, Forest Center, Isabella, Basswood Lake, Finland, Snowbank Lake, Dumbbell Lake, Tettegouche State Park, Clear Lake, Little Marais, George Manitou State Park, Temperance River State Park, Taconite Harbor, Little Saganaga Lake, Sugar Loaf Cove, Tofte, Lutsen, Alpine Lake, Saganaga Lake and Sea Gull Lake.

Remain alert for a possible tornado! Tornadoes can develop quickly from severe thunderstorms. If you spot a tornado, go at once into the basement or small central room in a sturdy structure. For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building.
Issued by NWS Duluth MN

Fish locators and boom boxes? I understand boom boxes as they destroy the solitude. . . .but how are they even remotely the same as a fish finder?


"

Traveler: "Which radio do you take?"

Old Sony Walkman, believe it or not.

ockycamper: "

gravelroad: "I abhor fish locators and boom boxes, but there is room in my pack for a weather radio:


At 209 PM CDT, severe thunderstorms were located along a line extending from 7 miles north of Lake Vermilion to Birch Lake to Brimson, moving east at 60 mph. THOSE IN THE BOUNDARY WATERS CANOE AREA SHOULD PREPARE IMMEDIATELY FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH DAMAGING WINDS AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and half dollar size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. Locations impacted include... Ely, White Iron Lake, Birch Lake, Burntside Lake, Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Near Trout Lake, Winton, Fall Lake, Whyte, Forest Center, Isabella, Basswood Lake, Finland, Snowbank Lake, Dumbbell Lake, Tettegouche State Park, Clear Lake, Little Marais, George Manitou State Park, Temperance River State Park, Taconite Harbor, Little Saganaga Lake, Sugar Loaf Cove, Tofte, Lutsen, Alpine Lake, Saganaga Lake and Sea Gull Lake.


Remain alert for a possible tornado! Tornadoes can develop quickly from severe thunderstorms. If you spot a tornado, go at once into the basement or small central room in a sturdy structure. For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building.
Issued by NWS Duluth MN


Fish locators and boom boxes? I understand boom boxes as they destroy the solitude. . . .but how are they even remotely the same as a fish finder?



"

"

YDY.

Traveler: "Which radio do you take?"

I take a Midland ER10. Has worked very well for me. Affordable and effective.

Have any of you noticed weather alert reception lacking on the Canadian side of the border before? On my last couple of Q trips - one from Nym to Sturgeon and the other Quetico down to Poobah - I was unable to get enough reception to understand a single word.

On the south side of the border in BWCA I can usually get pretty good reception although I will admit there have been a few interior lakes where I had to move the radio around a bit to make it clear enough to understand.

I take a midland ER50 for reference.

LazyLefty: "Have any of you noticed weather alert reception lacking on the Canadian side of the border before? On my last couple of Q trips - one from Nym to Sturgeon and the other Quetico down to Poobah - I was unable to get enough reception to understand a single word.


On the south side of the border in BWCA I can usually get pretty good reception although I will admit there have been a few interior lakes where I had to move the radio around a bit to make it clear enough to understand.


I take a midland ER50 for reference."

With the Gunflint Lake transmitter down, coverage in its vicinity is fairly limited:







National Weather Radio Propagation - Minnesota

I abjure fish locators too and I don't even know what abjure means. I know I do not appreciate their use.
I get a rudimentary forecast on my zoleo when off the grid. And I use weather gov. When near cell service.
I know I'm getting old because there was a time when I would have used profanity towards the suggestion of a weather radio, or even a zoleo for that matter.

I awoke one morning not long ago and realized I have fewer days in front of me than behind.
Tom

We also take Zoleo units. Two years ago we used the medical assist to walk one of our camp leaders through setting another guys finger so he could finish out the trip. Two of our camps now has Zoleo's. The other has a Garmin In Reach.

As to the weather, we use the weather feature on Zoleo as well. We bring Baofeng ham radios with us. Each camp has a couple. They will log on to the weather service.

Most of our guys are late 60's into 70's. We don't leave home without Zoleos and full med/trauma kits.

I, too, abjure electronics in the BW, but started bringing a little (size of deck of cards) weather radio in recent years. One year we base camped and did day trips. The weather radio really helped: we were going to set off but the weather forecast was for storms, so we stayed put. Another day it was cloudy and looked like we could get some weather, but the radio indicated we would not, so we took off and got to enjoy some good day tripping. Sometimes I have to find the right spot and stand holding the wire antenna up in the air, but mostly it works!

I find a weather radio a very valuable piece of gear. I take a Midland ER10 on my travels. I'm actually listening to it right now as I abuse one bar of cell service on Gabro Lake during a solo trip. This radio was very useful this last week as I rode out an afternoon and evening of storms on Clear lake. The morning set of storms was noted at one point to be 7 miles NE of Clear Lake. I happily celebrated the storm missing me while at the same time saying a prayer for the paddlers in it's path. I hope to test it's range this fall in the Q....and yes gasp....I use a cell phone, sparingly, when in the BWCA. (Reading this forum is most certainly a justifiable use on a hot afternoon.)

gravelroad: "I ABJURE fish locators and boom boxes, but there is room in my pack for a weather radio:

“At 209 PM CDT, severe thunderstorms were located along a line extending from 7 miles north of Lake Vermilion to Birch Lake to Brimson, moving east at 60 mph. THOSE IN THE BOUNDARY WATERS CANOE AREA SHOULD PREPARE IMMEDIATELY FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH DAMAGING WINDS AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and half dollar size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. Locations impacted include... Ely, White Iron Lake, Birch Lake, Burntside Lake, Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Near Trout Lake, Winton, Fall Lake, Whyte, Forest Center, Isabella, Basswood Lake, Finland, Snowbank Lake, Dumbbell Lake, Tettegouche State Park, Clear Lake, Little Marais, George Manitou State Park, Temperance River State Park, Taconite Harbor, Little Saganaga Lake, Sugar Loaf Cove, Tofte, Lutsen, Alpine Lake, Saganaga Lake and Sea Gull Lake.

Remain alert for a possible tornado! Tornadoes can develop quickly from severe thunderstorms. If you spot a tornado, go at once into the basement or small central room in a sturdy structure. For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building.
Issued by Duluth MN”

EDIT: P.s. Somehow my original use of “abjure” was switched to “abhor.” I have no idea how that happened, but this unwanted change “shall not stand.”


"

Yup.....we had just got to camp on Swan and listened to that report. Made me a little nervous. We did get wind and rain but not bad. I was curious as to where the bad line went.

Thanks Gravelroad that makes total sense now. I will keep an eye out for when they get the Gunflint station up and going and just leave the radio at home until its fixed if I am on a Q trip.

We bring these. Waterproof and can pick up NOAA. I felt the original post big time.

We were on Crooked at the nice peninsula site on the east a few years back and had just finished dinner on a perfect evening. We were about to start a fire but decided to ‘throw on the news’ first.

“PERSONS OF THE BOUNDARY WATERS, TAKE COVER IMMEDIATELY. 80 MPH WIND AND POSSIBLE TORNADOES EXPECTED NEAR”…us.

Long story made short, we survived because we had the extra 20 minutes to prepare. I don’t mean there was less damage to our gear. I mean we survived.

Bourbon around a campfire never tasted so good as that night.

gravelroad: "

Traveler: "Which radio do you take?"

Old Sony Walkman, believe it or not."

I bring one of these also, specifically a SRF-M85V. I haven't found any weather band reception in Quetico however using this device. I listen to one of the handful of FM stations that come in depending on weather in the evening. I like the radios small size and the fact that it runs on a single AAA battery, and it's also "retro". The antenna is the headphone/earbud cable, so I often suspend the radio above my head in the tent for better reception. For an actual weather forecast I use a printout of the 10 day weather forecast from weather underground the day before we leave and then I get updates with Zoleo.

I can understand the distain for boom boxes in canoe country as they can have an impact on others nearby, but what's the gripe with fish finders? I do use a small fish finder in my canoe and would highly recommend it, depending on your tripping style. I use it more for knowing my depth while trolling and finding structure that may hold fish. It does sometimes show me fish too, but that doesn't mean I will catch them.

arnesr: "

gravelroad: "

Traveler: "Which radio do you take?"

Old Sony Walkman, believe it or not."

I bring one of these also, specifically a SRF-M85V. I haven't found any weather band reception in Quetico however using this device. I listen to one of the handful of FM stations that come in depending on weather in the evening. I like the radios small size and the fact that it runs on a single AAA battery, and it's also "retro". The antenna is the headphone/earbud cable, so I often suspend the radio above my head in the tent for better reception. For an actual weather forecast I use a printout of the 10 day weather forecast from weather underground the day before we leave and then I get updates with Zoleo.


I can understand the distain for boom boxes in canoe country as they can have an impact on others nearby, but what's the gripe with fish finders? I do use a small fish finder in my canoe and would highly recommend it, depending on your tripping style. I use it more for knowing my depth while trolling and finding structure that may hold fish. It does sometimes show me fish too, but that doesn't mean I will catch them.


"

+1 Never understood the disdain for tech. A cell phone running Gaia allows you to paddle even in the dark and get back to camp. A Zoleo will get you weather forcasts and interactive medical help. We bring Baofeng radios to stay in touch with canoes that are looking for sites or are out fishing. If they need help we cn get to them quickly. We use a small self contained fish finder which makes all the difference when fishing is slow. And a couple of brick chargers keeps everything running.

There seems to be the idea that people that like wilderness want to enjoy it like the settlers or voyagers did. Part of the reason we bring guys up in our church ministry every year is to teach them preparation and survival. That includes evaluating the gear you need to bring to cover any possible emergencies.