October 31: Adventures in the Hills: The 2006 Custer State Park Buffalo Roundup: The Custer State Park Buffalo Round was the destination of Bryan Hansel and Steve Hauptli in the Fall of 2006. This trip report has nothing to do with paddling, but sometimes a trip that doesn't include paddling can be a good thing. This travel story includes beautiful photography.

October 24: Update:Igdlorssuit Plans: The FREE!ship Igdlorssuit file has been updated. This is Ken Taylor's 1959 kayak that the Anas Acuta was based on. The file has been faired and is now completely developable for plywood building.

BREAKING NEWS: - October 09 -: ORC industries out of La Crosse, Wis. has acquired Bell Canoe Works. ORC is a nonprofit producer of military apparel and has recently acquired Red Feather Snowshoes. ORC's mission statement from their website: "To advance the independence, productivity, and self-sufficiency of people with disabilities through employment opportunities." Sportonesource.com is reporting that Ted Bell will stay on with the company and develop the racing division. The Bell factory will move to WI. Dave Kruger of Wenonah Canoe will take over as Production Manager. An interesting note is that the Lacrosse Tribune (06-21-2006 Lacrosse Tribune article) reports that ORC President Barbara Barnard makes a salary of over $375,000 (as high as $625,000 in 2002), but "pays some of its disabled employees a sub-minimum wage, which is allowed under federal law." Is this something that we're going to accept in the canoe industry? ORC's website is: ORC Industries. Bell's Press Release: Press Release. More: CanoeKayak.com. Note that Bell was looking into poly kayaks and needed the capital. Nessmuking's take: ORC must raise the wages of their disabled employees! ORCs mission statement sounds admirable, but the wage issue seems to undermine their goals. The size of this company better bring down the prices of Bell's canoes. Hopefully, production quality doesn't sink as low as the quality in Wenonah's Current Design kayaks, because that would be a shame. Bell kayak? Hopefully, not designs similar to Current Design's boats. We hope Ted Bell the best. Now, we don't feel too bad about starting our own canoe company in MN. The world needs a great canoe company run by a bunch of down to earth people. ;)

September 11: Up a Lazy River: This is an account of Shipp Webb's solo six-day trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, a trip that covered 13 lakes, 4 rivers and 28 portages totaling about 72 miles. Thirty-one hours quickly passed paddling and portaging. It was a trip with varied weather and an abundance of wildlife sightings including eagles, moose, deer, and most importantly a wolf.

August 23: An Electric Paddle Down Buffalo Creek: Join the crew in this classic electrifying canoe adventure down the Buffalo Creek. Originally published in The Iowa Paddler.

July 18: Easy Aluminum Fittings For a Sailing Canoe: Canoe sailing enthusiast Charles E. Campbell describes an easy method of making aluminum fittings for a sailing canoe. These specialized fittings are hard to find, but even harder to find is any information on how to make the fittings yourself. Learn how in this article.

July 7: Day Trip To Stairway Portage: The 8.5 mile day trip from Bearskin Lake to the Stairway portage is a classic day trip in the Boundary Waters. The reward at the portage is a beautiful waterfall and one of the best views in the Wilderness Area.

June 15: How to Make Rope Kayak Handles: Pedro Almeida describes how to make rope handles for your kayak. These work well as carry handles for singles and especially doubles for those who don't want or need a typical end toggle on their kayak.

May 22: Building a Perfect Kayak: The Final Cost: As the Siskiwit Bay is finally wrapped up, the cost has been tallied and the results posted online. This will serve as a guide for first time builders who want to wrap their brain and budget around what this type of project will run.

May 16: Great Lake's Weather Conditions: The weather and wave forecast for the Great Lakes and more detailed reports for Lake Superior.

May 14: Building a Nikumi - Update: The Nikumi a clear vinyl skinned kayak is finished. It'll be launched soon.

May 10: Review: System Three Metlweld: When Charles E. Campbell built his Wigeon sailing canoe he found out that many of the small metal parts he needed for the rig weren't available, so he had to make his own. In the process he tried System Three's Metlweld.

May 4: Neil Young's new album is streaming live online and if you want to hear his great new album this will open up a pop-up window that will play it. This album is sweet! Neil Young's New Disk

April 30: Vern River Loop:A challenging overnight route through parts of the Boundary Waters that never get paddled but are only a few steps away from the most popular parts of the BWCA.

April 30: Sample 35 Day Challenge List: Bryan used this exact gear list recently on the Vern River Route in the Boundary Waters. It all fit inside a Sealline waterproof Boundary 35 HD Day Pack. Check out the pictures. It's hard to believe you can travel for five days with such a small pack and be completely comfortable.

April 30: Update: 35 Day Challenge: Check out the 35 Day Challenge. The page had been updated, and don't you think it's time you take the challenge.

April 23: Vacuum Bagging a Canoe: Aaron Miller writes about techniques to use for vacuum bagging a canoe. Vacuum bagging is a technique that can be used to produce a lighter canoe or kayak than can be produced in typical hand layups.

April 10: Two Notes: Building a Nikumi has been updated. I'm just waiting for some HH-66 to finish the project. And check out this OFF SITE: pdf by Tim Smith: Bush Lore. This is like the check-list to outdoor coolness. Check out his quide service site at Jack Mountain Bushcraft and Guide Service.

April 1: Building a Nikumi:With an early spring falling on northern Minnesota, it seemed like a good time to build a baidarka, so Nessmuking's Publisher and Primary author, Bryan Hansel, started a new project. This one: Building a Nikumi, a Tom Yost style baidarka.

March 29: Tarp Shelter Set-Up: A lightweight weather-proof tarp set-up to use when you want to stay dry. This article was hidden for the last three or four years on a climbing website, so it's about time it migrates to Nessmuking. This is one of the best ways to set-up a tarp for camping under.

March 13: Canoecopia 2006: Trip Report:A trip report on the 2006 Canoecopia expo in Madison, WI.

March 9: Building a Perfect Kayak: Part Twelve: In this episode, Bryan discuses how long it took him to build his kayak, and he lists the hours spent on which items.

February 27: Review: Build Your Own Sea Kayak by Bob Boucher: A review of Bob Boucher's video Build Your Own Sea Kayak. If you're interested in building a skin-on-frame, this video is for you.

February 10: Update: Big Agnes Seedhouse SL 2 Review: Looks like Big Agnes has addressed many of the problems that I found in the tent, including the fatal zipper problem. I've updated the review to reflect this.

January 24: OFF SITE: benkrieg: I found out last night, that Ben Krieg, who I've known since grade school and who was my neighbor when we were kids, passed away . Ben was one of three brothers that my brother, cousin, and I were friends with, and he was the one that I ran into most often after we grew up, went to college, and got jobs. He was full of energy, never stopping for mediocrity in his endeavors, and he always had a story of a recent adventures where he went for it all and won. Please, visit the site linked to above. His younger brother, Sam, has built a place for memories, and a testament to the lives Ben touched. He will be remembered. I've added a page to this site that will be up as long as I continue to publish this online magazine: In Remembrance of Ben Krieg.

January 24: Wigeon: A Sailing Canoe: In this letter, Charles Campbell sums it up best when he writes: We need more recreational sailing canoes around. They seem to have gotten lost by the wayside when racing took over the scene back in the 19th century. And from what I can see, the current racing classes are too restrictive in their class rules to be of general interest for someone who wants a recreational canoe dedicated to sailing. If we could just open the door a bit...

January 23: An Acorn Whistle: In this fun haibun-article learn how to make a whistle from an acorn. Might be handy someday.

January 6: Review: Moleskine Notebooks and Cahiers: These lightweight high quality notebooks and cahiers are about the best that money can buy and perfect for keeping a journal on while on a trip.

January 1: The Lightweight Secret: Most paddlers would sit up and listen when told they could actually travel the same distance without working any harder in less time. They'd lean in much closer when told that there was a secret that could allow them to travel an additional 24 miles in a ten day trip without any additional hours on the water, and most would be surprised to learn the secret is actually simple. Learn the secret in this article.

December 26: Light but Strong - Building Cedar Strip Canoes for Wilderness Tripping: Take care of the ounces and the pounds will take care of themselves, is Jay Morrison's motto. Learn how Jay utilized this moto and developed new techniques to build a wilderness-tripping-tough cedar strip canoe weighing 35 pounds.

December 22: OFF-SITE: Snowmobile Trail in BWCA: Three years ago the Forest Service closed an illegal snowmobile trail in the BWCAW, and now they are attempting to come up with an alternative route. The St. Paul Pioneer Prees has posted this article that explains the situation. Last winter, I hiked the trail and found that snowmobilers were still illegally using the trail, even though there is a temporary reroute. I feel that it's important to get the new trail as far away from the BWCAW as possible. If you have an opinion be sure to voice it to the Forest Service.

December 15: How to Choose a Canoe: In the Canoe & Kayak Magazine 2006 Buyer's Guide, over 90 canoe manufacturers were listed, and this doesn't include many of the smaller companies that build only a few canoes a year. Quickly scanning the listings, it easy to conclude that the magazine lists over 900 models of canoes. That's a lot of canoes and that makes choosing a canoe one of the most complicated buying decisions out of any outdoor sport. Combing the number of models with the average canoe cost of around $1000 US, this can make the first-time canoe buyer nervous about their canoe purchase. It doesn't have to be that way though.

December 10: Along the Banks of the Saskatchewan: Robert N Pruden returns to the pages of Nessmuking with a tale of adventure. For this installment, he paddled his homemade kayak from from Edmonton to North Battleford on the North Saskatchewan River. Along the way, he discovered a connection with the wilderness as well as a corpse...

December 10: Building a Perfect Kayak: Part Eleven: In this episode, the final touches are finished up, these include foot pegs, a back band, a seat, the deck lines, and the varnish.

November 30: Boundary Waters VR Tour: During a 9 day, 200-mile solo canoe trip, solo canoeist, Bryan Hansel, carried VR Tour producing equipment and produced this 11 node panoramic tour. Each tour image is around 250 KB, so on dail-up connections, they will take some time to load.

November 29: : Two site changes:

1. The What's New items from November 2004 to October 2005 have been archived.
2. The Freebee page has been renamed to Merchandise for two reasons:
1. A home needed to be found for the Good Shit Canoe Works T-Shirt.
2. I never got around to drawing a bee for the page.

November 28: Igdlorssuit: The Anas Acuta's lines were originally developed from a kayak built in Igdlorssuit for Kenneth Taylor in 1959. This kayak was measured in 1964 and those measurements have appeared in several places on the Internet. I had originally provided the lines of this Igdlorssuit kayak in a HULLS file, but now that FREE!ship is available, I've reentered the lines of this kayak.

November 16: How to Getting Started with Rss: This link will take you off site, but if you were wondering what the XML button was next to the What's New, this will tell you how to use it. Basically, using a RSS feed saves you time and keeps you up-to-date with the websites you visit. Check out this link. It's worth the read.

November 8: Building a Perfect Kayak: Test Two: A second and third test of the Siskiwit Bay backs up my feelings that this is a very nice kayak - one of the best.

November 7: Free Kayak Plans: Glen Smith often contributor to the Kayak Forum and moderator at the Bear Mountian Canoe Forum has provided the following two kayak designs for free.

November 7: Building a Perfect Kayak: Update: In part 10 of Building a Perfect Kayak the wrong KAPER numbers were given. The calculations should have been based on long tons instead of a ton, so the page is now updated to reflect this correction. The new KAPER numbers reflect more closely the performance I've been getting on the water. By the way, this kayak rocks!