A paddler's evacuation from the Boundary Waters

As wildfires continue to rage in northern Minnesota, evacuations are in place and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area has closed, which means forest rangers are out in canoes in pairs of two, letting campers know that they need to get out immediately. Mark Zimmer, better known as the Barefoot Paddler, was one of those campers who was notified of the closure and had to leave on a moment's notice. Mark joins me now. Mark, thanks for coming on the show. Thank you for having me. So you were camping like you always do. You spend the entire summer in the Boundary Waters. You've now visited every single campground in the Boundary Waters. When you got notified, can you just tell me how it how it all happened? Yes, we started paddling from our campsite early in the morning. We ended up we were going to stay at another lake closer to the entry point and leave on Wednesday. We passed a group of paddlers who were headed in and they had found out from a group of scouts who had gotten a call on a satellite phone that the evacuation order was put in place. So then they paddled past us. And when they were going past, they let us know. And then we ended up all just kind of getting together and all heading out. So what did it look like around you? I mean, could you see smoke? Could you smell the smoke? Did you know that the fires were nearby? Yeah, yeah, we knew the fires were nearby. It was very, very smoky. And you could you could tell it was coming from, you know, from the West. And you don't know exactly which direction. You know, I mean, you can see the way the smoke's going, but, you know, that can change pretty fast, too. So also where we were was at the end of the snow was by Snowbank Lake, which is end of the Fernberg Road, which is a dead end road. And the fire is kind of going through the Fernberg Road or more west of that area. So it's kind of a trapped area right now. So you would just want to get out of there as soon as possible. And when you left, I mean, were you able to pack up all your stuff or did you leave in a hurry? Did you have to leave things behind? No, we got all of our stuff out of there. We weren't it wasn't we weren't in an emergency area where it was critical to to exit, you know, like as soon as we could. But I was more worried about having to get through the road to get back towards Ely. But that was still good. So now it's closed. So you had to paddle and it sounds like portage a little bit paddle another lake to get out. And you had family visiting you. So you had your mother visiting you, who is in her 60s, who had to paddle by herself. I mean, walk me through the exit. OK, yeah, so we ended up the paddlers that let us know we met up with them and then we packed our stuff up and my mom, she was pretty tired by then. She was in a solo canoe by herself. She did a fantastic job. It was it was the wind that made everything tough. And it wasn't just the wind, but the heat, you know, the heat was I think it was like 100 degrees that day. And, you know, I've been up here for 14 years all summer. I can't remember a day that was that hot. And, you know, so you just had to you had to maintain a good enough speed because you needed to get out of there. But at the same time, you had to take care of your body first, you know. But, you know, and then when we got to the portages, everybody kind of took breaks and I tried to handle as much as I could, you know, because I do it all the time. But I was I was pretty, pretty tired at the end of the day. So I'm sure everyone else was was pretty exhausted. I can imagine. And the wind was pretty fierce that day as well, which always makes paddling tough. Talk to me about the conditions the last month, because you're out there consistently. And we heard from the National Weather Service just a short while ago that they have been experiencing those hot temperatures like you talked about, but that they haven't received precipitation in the last month. So can you talk to me about the conditions that came before this? Yeah, well, this spring was really good. You know, it looked like we were going to have a good berry season and everything and everything. We just haven't had a sufficient amount of rain, a good soaking in a long time. So so even the rain that we have, it hasn't saturated the ground or anything very much. And it's just it's just a cause for everything to ignite. And then the storm that we did have didn't produce a lot of rain. It just produced lightning and and started a lot of fire. So it's just a bad combination of everything. Have you ever been evacuated like this before? I think in 2021, I think it was they closed the boundary waters. But again, I carry a pocket radio with me, so I just I try to keep up to, you know, up to date on the news that way. And then, you know, they're really good with letting us know about the evacuation notice and everything. So, you know, you always want to take that seriously. So once I hear about them, I head out. Do you have you ever seen wildfires this bad, this up close? Not not this big, not not not this fast, no, the way that these exploding. I mean, it's it's it's been a while, I think, since they've exploded this way, probably since, you know, 2014 or 13 when we had them. And then in 2011, you know, we had the bad one, too. So it's it's been a while. But yeah, not like this. It's it's a scary situation out there. Now, you're currently in Grand Marais, where, you know, business is operating as usual. Yes, it looks hazy. But can you talk to me about the current situation there in Grand Marais? So everything seems to be operating normally over here. We do have the other fire on the end of the gun trail coming from Canada, which is over by Otter Track Lake, which is it's probably like 10, 10 or so miles, maybe maybe a little more than that west of the end of the gunflint trail. So they're they're in a set warning as well. So we have that concern over here. And then even part of the mid trail now is in the ready stage for the three stages or whatever. So that's it's a concern over here as well, which, you know, which really makes it a concern over the entire forest. I mean, that's. I know that you, you know, you're very you're very keyed in with the Northwoods community within the Arrowhead region because you spend so much time up there. What are you hearing as far as rescue operations? Because it sounds like they are still going campsite to campsite. Like, do you believe there are still campers out there? I 100 percent believe there's still people out there. Yeah. You know, there's there's people who aren't going to have radios, though, people that have been out there for a week who won't know. I don't know. I don't assume that there's many people left in the high danger areas anymore at this point. I would assume that the people that are still out there would be more on the southeastern side where where the concern is less because, you know, just as people, you know, we you know, we see smoke. I mean, we know not to go towards it. And I do want to talk to you about your work a little bit, because you have been hiking and tracking every official canoe campsite portage and hiking trail and and logging it and creating a database for other outdoor enthusiasts to use. Talk to me about that. Yeah, so over the last four years, I've hiked every portage hiking trail. I've been to all the campsites, paddled past them, located where they're officially at and everything, and then I've been taking a picture from the campsite and then from the lake. So you got a couple of different perspectives. I'm trying to put how many campsites or like how many spots are there. If you can do the hammocks, there's poison ivy on the campsites. I try to involve that because even though I'm not necessarily too allergic to it, some people are. So I'm trying to key all them aspects into it. So it's really I'm just trying to create one huge, complete database. I'm trying to include some historical references so that there's, you know, tie in some history and everything. So I've got, you know, I've got all the data complete. I'm just in the process now of trying to figure out a way to present it to the public in a good way. I know you've witnessed fires, you know, ripped through the area before. How much do you think this will change the landscape for people who are visiting the boundary waters, you know, maybe next summer? Yeah, I mean, it's you know, it's going to take 20 years before, you know, most of these areas recover to the point that they're, you know, back to, you know, the point where the trees are, you know, getting bigger again. And, you know, I mean, they get really, really thick where the burn areas are. I usually over the course of the summer, I go to the areas that have been, you know, burnt in the prior years because the plants are different in them areas and the berries are usually more abundant. And, you know, I do a lot of foraging. So so the burn areas are a place that I go to, but it's also a place that is great to study and just to see how the forest grows. I know that you'll be back in the boundary waters as soon as they let you back in. Is there any message that you have to people who are looking to camp maybe later this summer or, you know, in the future for the first time in the boundary waters? Just be aware if you're there's a lot of hammock campers out there, you know, be aware if you want to do that, that there is a lot of places that have burned in the past. So you make sure that, you know, it's a possibility to camp there for the hammock. A lot of the burnt sites are are not as nice, so just, you know, study studying a fire map is kind of a good measure. You know, don't don't let the fires deter your your trip. You know, this is still a beautiful place all over the place. And, you know, new growth is still beautiful growth. So still come and enjoy it. But in the meantime, you know, we have to we have to let the firefighters do what they're experts at and make sure that we're safe and they don't have to worry about us and they can do their jobs. Well, we're so happy you're safe, Mark, and we appreciate you sharing your story with us. I appreciate you guys letting me. That was Mark Zimmer, the barefoot paddler. You can find his website at the barefoot paddler dot com.