In wilderness settings, there are connections people can make to the land, regardless of their age, race or gender, by walking in the footsteps of those who have come before them.

With this in mind, a group of Minnesota paddlers set out in the fall of 2020 to travel across the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to retrace the steps of a wilderness pioneer named Arthur Carhart.

Their journey took them across abandoned portages, streams plugged by beaver dams and through remote territory inside the nation’s most visited wilderness area.

Carhart made his journey to the Boundary Waters in 1921. Though a century has passed since his expedition, there were generations of people who lived in this landscape that is now defined as a ‘wilderness area.’ The Indigenous communities were here long before white voyageurs and government officials put their canoes on this countless collection of lakes, streams and pathways through the Boundary Waters.

In this episode of the WTIP Boundary Waters Podcast, hosts Matthew Baxley and Joe Friedrichs revisit the notion of ‘what defines wilderness?’

In another follow up to recent podcast coverage, Minnesotan Alex Falconer shares an update with podcast contributor Lindsey Gau about his epic trail run from May 2021. Alex ran the entire Border Route Trail and the Kekekabic Trail in about two days, a distance of nearly 110 miles.

Alex did this run of epic proportions to raise awareness for the Boundary Waters and to protect clean water.

Photo for this episode provided by Mark Morgen. Thanks to KFAI Radio and the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund for making this episode possible.