Working in the BWCA: A Summer in Review

This past summer while working at Tuscarora Lodge and Outfitters I cannot tell you the number of times I was talking to clients and had them tell me how lucky I was to spend my summer living on the Gunflint Trail on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Often Clients will admit wishing they had done something similar when they were younger and/or tell their children that they should consider working on the trail when they are old enough.

In response to these types of comments and my desire to simply give a final blog summing up my experience working in the BWCA I have decided to write a type of review of my summer job. I hope it proves to be both interesting to those simply curious what a summer working up north entails and informative for those who might be interested in doing it themselves in the future!

BWCA Location & Employer – The first major decision I (or anyone) had to make before the summer was deciding where to work. As the BWCA is a large Area one can work in a number of different locations ranging from Ely, to the Sawbill Trail, to the Gunflint Trail. I choose the Gunflint Trail as it is more remote and less touristy then the Ely side. This is not to say that Ely would not be a fun place to work, but the culture and experience would be extremely different given the presence of a larger town (at least in comparison to Grand Marias), for example many of the outfitters in Ely expect you to live in Town as opposed to on site. For me the Gunflint Trail provided a more unique and genuine Northwoods experience for the summer.

Beginning of the Gunflint Trail in Grand Marais Minnesota

Another big thing to think about is who you work for? Do you want to work for an outfitter, a camp, the DNR, a resort, or somewhere else? Each place has its own kind of culture and different work that you will be doing. Also as you will be living there all summer, think carefully about the owners and your potential co-workers as you will be with them 24 I worked for an outfitter because it allowed me to work with people speifically interested in doing BWCA trips and because it gave me great access and supplies for doing my own BWCA trips throughout the summer. If you want to be in the BWCA guiding trips most of the summer, a camp (such as wilderness canoe base or one of the YMCA camps) would probably be a better option. The downside to guiding or working at a camp is that you are always doing someone else's trip, as opposed to going on your own trips. Working for the DNR also can get you into the BWCA a decent amount doing campsite and portage maintenance. Resorts have a different sort of feel as you do more cleaning, restaurant service, and other more general summer job tasks.

Tuscarora Lodge and Outfitters Logo

Outfitter Work Duties – There are two major positions at many of the outfitters, housekeeping and outfitting. As one might expect housekeepers tend to spend most of their cleaning bunkhouses, cabins, showers, bathrooms, and other facilities around camp. Outfitters on the other hand spend most of their time scrubbing and cleaning outfitting gear such as canoes, Duluth packs, cook kits, tents, life jackets, sleeping pads, tarps, and much more. Regardless of whether you are a housekeeper or an outfitter the truth of the matter is most of your time at work is spent cleaning or scrubbing something, any allusions of these being easy jobs where one spends most of their time in BWCA canoeing or simply chatting with customers are misplaced.

Raking and cutting down trees as a part of general camp maintenance (also notice the black flies get so bad that it is even necessary to resort to head nets at times!)

All that said while these can be physically tiring jobs, they are more than doable and the staffs are often filled with college and graduate aged students that are a lot of fun to work with. Furthermore Outfitters do have several jobs which are quite enjoyable, specifically shuttling clients to the different entry points along the gunflint trail and tow boat driving on Lake Saganaga. Once again though these jobs make up only a minority of the work we do throughout the summer.

Getting ready to go on a Tow to American Point

A final comment relating to jobs, at most of the outfitters and lodges it tends to be (but is not always the case) that outfitting staffs are made up of men while women make up most of the housekeeping staffs. This is what it is (whether it is sexist or simply occurs due to the nature of the work I will leave for others to decide).

Social Life – When work finishes for the day (for me this was normally at around 3:00 pm) there is always plenty to do. Fishing, swimming, tanning, and afternoon day trips in the BWCA are just some of the things we did after work. In addition every week the majority of the staffs on the gunflint trail meet up for different social events. Every Saturday evening we had bonfires at Seagull Lake’s Blakenburg Landing while Tuesday evenings were normally spent at a local establishment (this past year we normally went to Hungry Jack Lodge) enjoying a few drinks while playing pool, darts, and other games. It was also common for people to meet up to play volleyball and Ultimate Frisbee most weeks throughout the summer.

Staff members from all over the Gunflint Trail at Bearskin Lodge

In addition weekly social activities a number of larger events occur throughout the summer on the Gunflint Trail and in Grand Marais. The 4^th of July and Fisherman’s Picnic (a local festival) provide great chances to go into Grand Marais to enjoy, among other things, good food, games, parades, and fireworks. The other major event of the summer is the Gunflint Canoe Races in which all the different outfitting staffs (and some adventurous tourists) compete in a number of canoeing races ranging from long distance paddling to gunnel pumping.

Gunflint Canoe Races at Gunflint Lodge in mid July

Needless to say a summer on the gunflint trail, while away from civilization is still full of fun social activities.

Days off – Days off if spent right will be the highlight of your summer. This is your chance to explore the BWCA. While many places only give their employees one day off a week it is possible to stretch them and make them count. One option is to “bank” days off and then take several days off in a row for a longer trip. Another option is to ask for a late start the day after your day off in order to increase your trip another night. Otherwise many people choose to simply leave after work the day before their day off and spend one night and the following day in the BWCA. No matter how you want to do it, if you are motivated and able bodied it is possible for you to see a large portion of the BWCA. While clients and guests may only do 5-10 miles a day on trips, it is more than possible to do 20-30 miles of canoeing and portaging in a 24-36 hour period and see large sections of the BWCA.

On top of the Seagull Palisades during a trip on a day off

All that said some prefer to take it easy on their days off in which case there are tons of nice easy day trips in the BWCA, places to go fishing, hiking, swimming, or the possibility to go do to Grand Marais for the day.

Canoeing Seagull Lake

Compensation – From time to time people do ask what you make working in the BWCA. My normal response is that I did not come up here for the summer to get rich but I do not think you do that bad either, especially once you consider the other benefits you get. Specifically free food and lodging are two huge benefits that save you tons of money. Not all employers offer these so make sure to check when talking about compensation. Also it is worth know what the housing situation is as the quality of staff housing also varies from place to place. At some employers you may have a roommate while at others you may have a ton of space to yourself. A final major benefit most outfitters provide their employees is permission to use any of their gear free of charge (canoes, Duluth packs, cook kits, water filters…etc.). Once you consider all these extra benefits that you receive when you work at an outfitter, plus what you are actually getting paid I personally think it is more then a fair deal.

The guys dorm at Tuscarora Lodge and Outfitters

My room (you do not have roommates at Tuscarora), while nothing spectacular it was more then enough for me as I spent most my time outside doing other things (such as swimming, fishing, hiking, canoeing etc...)

From my perspective working on the Gunflint Trail on the edge of the BWCA is a great job and life experience. If you are willing to put up with some hard and sometimes monotonous work and are not focused solely on making tons of money, working in the BWCA provides you a great opportunity to meet some great people and have an amazing experience exploring the BWCA. If you have any questions about working at Tuscarora or at an Outfitter in general please feel free to contact me (carl.hoeg@gmail.com).