Paddle and Portage: A Media Company Anchored by the Boundary Waters
8-minute read
Paddle and Portage is a media company with offices in Grand Marais and Ely, Minnesota—Boundary Waters country. And while the company is new (founded in January 2024), its owners bring decades of media experience and canoeing love to its audience.
The Paddle and Portage team: Bear Paulson, Ann Possis and Joe Friedrichs
Grand Marais and Ely are both small, northern Minnesota towns with populations of just 1,300 and 3,200. But they’re important gateway towns to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness that attracts 250,000 visitors every year.
And thanks to the world of digital, it isn’t necessary for a media company to be in a metropolitan area anymore—especially one that’s focused on wilderness canoeing.
After founding Paddle and Portage, owner Joe Friedrichs invited two friends to join him and help take it to a wider audience. Ann Possis comes out of the media world and lives in Grand Marais, as does Joe. Bear Paulson is the general manager of Minnesota-based Northstar Canoes and a prolific writer for publications like The Boundary Waters Journal and Minnesota Conservation Volunteer. All three of the owners have paddled actively for decades.
Bending Branches has joined Paddle and Portage as a sponsor for 2025 to help support the good work they’re doing with their growing audience. We sat down for a chat with Bear recently to learn more about the company and find out where they’re headed.
Here’s our interview with Bear Paulson:
BENDING BRANCHES: What are your goals with Paddle and Portage?
BEAR: Our goal is to grow a media company that’s anchored by the Boundary Waters but not limited to it. We’re a “new media” company in the sense that we’re exclusively digital and audio. There may be a print portion at some point down the road, but no promises yet!
There are three legs of the stool right now. The first is what I call “hard news.” We’re the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today all rolled together for the BWCA. Paddlers look to our website for the latest updates on what’s happening in and around canoe country. Examples of that:
- We covered the tragedy at Curtain Falls as it unfolded and had exclusive interviews with the Captain of St Louis County Rescue Squad…
- We were the first to report on the high number of permit cancellations this year…
- We reported when floods destroyed portages and roads in June.
The second leg of the stool is the podcast. Joe and his co-host, M Baxley, started a Boundary Waters podcast on another platform almost a decade ago. At the beginning of 2024 they brought it over to Paddle and Portage. It is storytelling—soft news.
So far, they’ve hosted everything from Vietnam Vets coming to terms with their experiences in the war to a piece on sex in the wilderness. There’s always a human touch, and starting in January 2025, there will also be an interview-style show, like the kind you find on YouTube.
The third leg is the digital magazine. This just turned a corner in the sense that it’s been a flip book for the first ten months, but that didn’t get good engagement. A flip book doesn’t work on mobile, so we’ve shifted to scrollable articles.
We’re working with established creators like Erin Walker, Chad Gillis, and Ryan Rodgers, as well as writers who are just getting started. My first piece recently appeared and another should be out soon.
Bear Paulson is the general manager of Northstar Canoes and a 30-year veteran of wilderness canoeing
BRANCHES: Tell us more about your content.
BEAR: The BWCA is our primary content. Joe likes to say every trip has a story and we curate the most compelling stories. A recent ‘warms your heart’ story was when a canoe capsized in June the paddlers lost a pack. A solo paddler found the pack in early November, then tracked down the owner and returned it.
We cover other compelling places to paddle too. We tilt heavily toward human interest, though sometimes there can be a little how-to included like trip logistics or instruction. A great example is a recent article by Ryan Rodgers about a canoe trip through canyons on Lake Powell where he included a bit of how he got there, but mostly focused on his experience interwoven with the human and environmental history of the area.
The last thing about content is personal to me. Many of the stories I write focus on my family’s trips. My dad passed when I was 22. I’m an older parent too, and I’ll likely pass before my son reaches midlife. When I’m not around anymore I want Dashwa to have a trove of stories to help him recall his childhood exploits, which is a great motivation to write.
BRANCHES: What does it mean to be a member?
BEAR: Both the podcast and hard news are free. The digital magazine requires a membership of nine bucks a month or $90 a year (2024 prices).
The bulk of our members appreciate all the content. They don’t look at it as just a transaction. Instead, they understand they’re supporting the whole platform. One of my goals is to offer even more value for our members. We’re still very new!
BRANCHES: How do you see this company helping support the paddling industry in general?
BEAR: Paddlesports gained a lot of new participants during Covid. I want to inspire all those new paddlers to continue. I’ve taken high school kids canoeing, backpacking and winter camping for almost 30 years. If you get new participants excited—whether it’s a trip or reading about one—they’ll get hooked.
Our media platforms, audio and digital, are dynamic and appeal to a younger audience. All of our content can be accessed from a phone. I don’t know any creative content about the BWCA that can be accessed that way. We embrace people where they consume media.
Also, in terms of growing the sport, canoeing is unique. Canoes allow sharing, unlike most other outdoor sports.
Kayaking, paddleboarding, backpacking, skiing, etc., are all individual sports. All of them require tripmates to be at roughly the same level of experience to travel together. It’s impossible for an experienced kayaker to take an exciting trip with a beginner. They’re just not on the same ability plane. Canoes do not have that limitation, though. In a tandem canoe, beginners and experts can share the same trip. That’s amazing. Families, including mine, can paddle together.
There’s no better support of the paddling industry than getting kids and beginners to experience the magic of travel on the water. My evangelism about this idea is reflected in Northstar’s tagline: Share Wonder.
BRANCHES: Tell us more about the Paddle and Portage team.
BEAR: There are three owners. Joe Friedrichs is the full-time employee. He was a northeastern Minnesota news director for 10 years and has been a journalist for two decades. He’s very tied into the local community. He’s written a couple of books including Her Island, about a Quetico ranger and Last Entry Point, about accidents in the Boundary Waters.
Ann Possis has worked in various media over her career, including stints in both radio and print. She’s a great sounding board and does our copy editing.
I’m the GM at Northstar Canoes. Paddle and Portage is a side hustle for me. I’ve been in both the Outdoor Industry and Boundary Waters ecosystems for 30 years. Paddle and Portage is a way to connect me more tightly with both. Also, I love taking long canoe trips to wild places all over the continent. P & P gives me a way to share more of those.
Joe Friedrichs brings two decades of media experience with him into Paddle and Portage
Ann Possis adds her wealth of media and paddling experience into the mix
BRANCHES: What’s your connection with Bending Branches?
BEAR: My initial connection was just like everybody—I bought paddles! That goes back 30 years or more. In terms of a more personal connection, it stems from spending time with Ed Vater [owner of Branches from 2002-2022] at shows, just hanging out and chatting with him, and really liking him as a person. Lately, I’ve been getting to know more of the Branches team.
And My wife, son, and I are taking a long canoe trip on the Elk-Thelon River system in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut next summer. I just bought some breakdown Aquabound Edges and [Bending Branches] Sunbursts for that trip and am excited to use them.
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We’re excited to partner with Paddle and Portage as they grow their digital media company to reach a wider audience!
You can learn more about them, access their content and find membership details on their website: PaddleAndPortage.com.
What paddling questions can our friendly Customer Service team help you with? Contact us at 715-755-3405 or [email protected]
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