This article is dedicated to the daytrips taken by our canoe expert, Tyler Suter, who also manages our Redfeather Outdoors store in Ely, MN. He is an avid paddler and takes daytrips into the Boundary Waters and surrounding area regularly. Follow along for great day trip route ideas and to see what he’s up to! We’ll keep all the day trip journals up right here, so check back again and again for new content.
Fall Lake to Pipestone Bay (10+ mile day)
This past weekend I had some decent conditions and enough time to do a day trip. One of the day trips I do quite often at this time of year is to Pipestone Bay and back, through Fall and Newton lakes. I like this route because the portages are easy and when the falls are pumping like they do in May, there is good fishing below Newton and Pipestone Falls.
I decided to take my Redfeather Ursa Major, which I have set up for expedition paddling, and it doubles nicely as a fishing solo, especially on early season, cold weather trips where staying out of the water is especially critical – when the water temps are just above freezing and the air temps are in the 50s, a capsize can be life threatening.
Before I start on my trip, I want to say a few things about the Redfeather Ursa Minor. This is one of Redfeather’s performance tandems, suited to average and smaller paddlers tripping on multi-day camping trips in the canoe, or average to larger paddlers day tripping in the canoe. This hull is the original Bell Northstar, which is of course the namesake for Ted Bell’s new canoe company, and for good reason – it’s a kick-ass hull. The Bell Northstar, now the Redfeather Ursa Minor, is an impressive achievement in hull design, somehow providing the performance of much longer canoes, which employ classic racing lines, into a 16’6” hull that maintains a high degree of stability and maneuverability without losing top-shelf efficiency. To the initiated, such an achievement is seemingly impossible, but I’ve seen with my own eyes how it performs. This is the canoe that I took with me on many tips with my youngest son when we first moved up to Ely, because when I paddled the canoe from the stern seat with my five year old son in the bow (five year olds do not provide much propulsion) it felt like I was paddling a solo canoe. That alone is an impressive achievement. Fast forward to 2025, and my wife and oldest son, then thirteen years old, took the Ursa Minor canoe up Moose River North to Lac La Croix. On Lac La Croix, my wife and older son kept up with me and my younger son paddling a Wenonah Minnesota II. Now, in all fairness, not everyone in the saddle was a professional paddler, but I can say with certainty, based on years of experience, that there are not many canoes that would achieve this, and none under eighteen feet long.
Getting back to my day trip. I hit the water at 10 am, in no rush to make miles as my day was only going to cover ten miles and I didn’t have to be back in Ely to intercept my son until 5 pm. There was a moderate 10-12 mph wind out of the south that gently pushed me across Fall Lake to the portage above Newton Falls. I basked in the glory of the Ursa Minor’s secondary stability, leaning heavily to the right to counter my right-hand stroke, mixing in a J-stroke every 5 paddles to hold my line, which had me effortlessly tracking across the lake to my destination. As someone who has paddled thousands of miles in a Wenonah Minnesota II or Prism canoe, obsessed over every ounce of efficiency, I have since learned that saving myself a bit of time is a terrible trade-off for the poetry of a David Yost hull design, allowing me to feel the passing water, lean into the counter balance and find my next stroke as if it were delivered to me by the canoe gods. I find that paddling a Redfeather Canoe puts me in tune with my natural surroundings unlike anything else I have done. I’m now losing myself in the memory of a paddle I’ve done 50 times, from the fall lake put-in to the portage above Newton falls, and it’s because of how much I enjoy paddling my Ursa Minor, but I digress.
A quick empty of my ballast – I fill dry bags with water to make up for the lack of gear, which counterbalances my weight, set to the back for an ideal solo paddling position when fully loaded – and am up and over the portage in 10 minutes with a single trip. When I load the canoe back up on the other end I’m greeted by a group of first-timers who marvel at the deep red canoe I portage and effortlessly set in the water below. They are paddling a Wenonah, straw yellow, and ask why all the canoes are yellow up here. “That’s the natural color of aramid fibers. We use red and black fibers in Redfeather canoes.” I’m proud to be the subject of such admiration and invite them to visit the store, located next to the Ely Surplus store on Central Avenue in downtown Ely, when they come back through town.
Before you know it, I’m on the water, crossing the heavy flow of Fall Lake pouring over Newton Falls into Newton Lake. In my Wenonah Prism I never would consider crossing a heavy stream directly, with its zero-rockered hull and tenuous stability, but in my Ursa Minor I don’t think a second time about crossing, and I’m even able to fish while in the current. My crossing brings me to a perfectly calm eddy beneath the falls, and I stay there for an hour fishing the rapids. I pull several fish, chief among them a monster of a largemouth bass that gave me one hell of a good fight. If not for the heavy current I would have staged a photo, but on this day, I decided not to risk it and throw it right back. What a beautiful fish.
Counting my blessings I decide to leave the eddy, playing all the way through the rippling current as I continue down Newton Lake. I pass a couple of solo paddlers in Wenonah’s using double-bladed paddles; I prefer a classic single bladed paddle, call me a romantic. They are struggling with a quartering tailwind that gives me no trouble at all, not because I’m some kind of expert, but because my canoe is much more forgiving in the wind and waves. My relaxing paddle continues all the way to the Pipestone portage. Again, I single portage, effortlessly carrying my ultralight canoe and light daypack, and I’m back on the water in no time.
The wind that gave the Wenonah paddlers fits on Newton was non-existent below Pipestone Falls, so I opted to again do some fishing below the rapids. The conditions were delightful for some play in the rapids and eddy fishing. I found a spot where the current came ripping around a point, below the falls, and hugged the eastern shore enroute to Pipestone Bay. Anyone familiar with the area knows that there is a nice little bay to the west of these narrows, below the point, that is calm. The strong current created a kind of giant whirlpool or vortex, so that if I started at the point and drifted, I could fish all along the current’s path while my canoe drifted along the vortex and carried me southwest to the bottom of the bay, not out to Pipestone bay where the strong current pushed. I must say again, in a different canoe I would not have felt comfortable enough to perform this drift and fish maneuver in cold water. When David Yost and Ted Bell designed these canoes, now sold exclusively by Redfeather, the intention was to provide a tool that was efficient in all conditions, allowing paddlers to enjoy their surroundings without concern for capsizing or being carried off by conditions. I would say they achieved that with flying colors.
With the sun high in the sky (spring high, but enough to cool off the fishing) I caught nothing but a couple of Shnakes (what the locals call the Northern Pike) and decided it was time to turn around and return home. On the return trip I faced a headwind, and while my progress may have been slower than when the wind was at my back, I barely noticed while relaxing and accepting the paddle strokes as they came.
About the Author
Tyler is the store manager at Redfeather Outdoors in Ely. He moved to Ely in 2020 and has been exploring the surrounding wilderness with his wife and kids ever since. He is an avid canoe paddler, nordic skier, and hiker. He maintained a rental fleet of over 200 canoes at a prominent canoe outfitter in Ely for 5 years before signing on to help Redfeather Outdoors open its first retail store. His knowledge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Quetico Provincial Park is extensive. When he is not in the shop at Redfeather he is either out in the woods, paddling a canoe, or coaching his son’s baseball team. Visit the store anytime and say hi to Tyler. He loves nothing more than a good canoe story and will offer anyone tips on a good daytrip or how to fix your canoe,
About Redfeather
Redfeather Outdoors has built its reputation around gear shaped by real time outdoors, with a strong emphasis on durability and performance in the conditions people actually face. Our canoes and snowshoes are handcrafted at our facility in La Crosse, Wisconsin, reinforcing a commitment to American craftsmanship and consistent quality. That hands-on approach shows up in the details, giving paddlers and winter explorers confidence as they head into the Boundary Waters and beyond. To explore our full lineup and learn more, visit https://redfeatheroutdoors.com/
That same mindset carries into our flagship store in Ely, Minnesota, a location that fits naturally with the brand’s connection to the outdoors. The Ely store serves as a hub for trip preparation and practical guidance, offering insight shaped by experience along with access to gear built for northern Minnesota conditions. It’s a place
