I am planning on going on a outfitted trip what is a quality outfitter?

What city are you planning to start from? I really only have experience in the Ely Area. I've use Mark and Bob at Canoe Country for years. Also the people at Voyageur North are very nice, and saved us last year when we couldn't find a place to stay. I would say either one is a worthy choice.

Outfitters-

Ely-Voyager North John and Lynn O'Kane are great
Gunflint-I have used Tuscarora-Kerry and the gang are excellant
Sawbill Trail-Sawbill canoe outfitters Bill Hansen and his team do a nice job.

Try them or most any outfitter up there. It seems like most of them do a great job helping.

No affiliation-just my experience.

I enter at Tofte and we always use Sawtooth Outitters. They're great.

Chad

Ditto on Voyager North out of Ely & Sawtooth Outfitters out of Tofte. I've used both of these a few times & they have both been great!

I've used three outfitters over the years for either full or partial outfitting. Two I highly recommend and the third was a disappointment, especially since others have praised them on this board and others.

The ones I'd use again and recommend are Hungry Jack Outfitter (www.hjo.com), midway up the Gunflint Trail. Dave and Nancy Seaton are great people, have a wealth of knowledge about the area, have quality equipment and their bunkhouses and showers are immaculate.

I've partially outfitted with Piragis (www.piragis.com)in Ely. Also great to work with and high quality equipment.

The disappointment was an Ely outfitter. Some of our equipment was marginal or missing, we were rushed through trip planning and going over the equipment, chastised for arriving in Ely 40 minutes later than we thought we'd arrive on the day before our entry and again when we arrived 15 minutes early the next morning for the shuttle to the entry point. Seems the other (larger, more $$$) party they were transporting to the same entry point had arrived 30 minutes early and were complaining about having to wait for us.

Ditto on Hungry Jack, I'd use them again if the need should arise.

Hex

I'd second Tuscarora and Sawbill, both great places... coming from the cities for shorter weekend trips, even if you don't need to rent anything, the bunkhouse and breakfast at Tusc can be great if you are going to arrive late at night...

if you don't mind me asking who was the bad outfitter?

I feel a need to suggest caution here. I would not want an outfitter or any business to be disparaged on the board. I expect every outfitter over the years has had a bad trip or two and the experience of the one group may not be indicative of their overall service.

If people want to share bad experiences through private e-mail that is fine, but lets be careful here and not outfitter bash on the board.

If one has had a bad experience they should discuss it with the outfitter so they can learn from the experience. I am sure MNJim shared his experience back and that outfitter hopefully listened and changed. If not then I feel bad for them not to take such valuable information and put it to good use, and I expect they will not be in business for too much longer.

It's not my intent to bash an outfitter. I only want to warn others that things may not always be what they appear to be. A customer can purchase minimal services from an outfitter such as a bunkhouse, tow or one or two pieces of equipment and feel they've received great service. However when it comes to providing complete outfitting, the service that same outfitter provides can leave a lot to be desired.

It's interesting to note that the outfitter's employee who transported us back to town after our trip told us that that their complete outfits were mostly first timers from out of state and they had little repeat business for completely outfitted trips. I told him about the equipment issues we had on our trip on our ride back to town. He disappeared inside upon our arrival back at the outfitter and lo and behold when I asked to speak to the owners they weren't around and no one knew when they'd be back. Maybe it was a coincidence or maybe not. And maybe the stars were aligned against us that caused us to have so many problems. But like anything else it's buyer beware.

MNJim-I was not directing my post at you. I appreciated your warning about poor outfitter service and felt that anyone interested in finding out who it was could e-mail you directly. I made the post after mudroman asked who the bad outfitter was. I felt it would be best to keep that between interested individuals and not on a public forum. You handled your initial post very well.

We all have had poor service at some point from some business. As someone in management in the retail furniture business, I appreciate all comments we get from customers. It helps us improve as a business and keeps us growing so we can support more customers and support our employees and their families (and to support my trips to the BWCAW).

MNJim, Thanks for your honesty and for the manner in which you made your post. I especially appreciate your attempt to share your experience with the outfitter. I know at least one customer that the outfitter in question lost by their inability to listen. I imagine their were many more.

I suppose that was the first and only time you used that one outfitter? Why did you choose them in the first place?

I outfit myself, so just take care of my own needs except for bait.

Yep, first and only time. I chose them because of favorable comments made about them on another BB. They offered what appeared to be a good package when viewing their brochure and website. They responded to my pre-booking Emails. I even talked to them at a sports show. The change came when we arrived in Ely for our trip. It was like night and day. It was like we've got your money and there's no more customer service. And really what do you do. I'm in Ely with my daughter for her first canoe trip. The outfitter has my permit for entry the next day. They kind of got ya. I guess I could have told my daughter we wouldn't be making that canoe trip we'd been planning for six months. But I decided to make the best of a not so great situation. I'd taken canoe trips before and other than renting a canoe and a few odds, self out-fitted. And "made do" with not the best in equipment. Something I will not do with my kids.

In all fairness, if posters are allowed to name specific outfitters who provided great service, it is fair to provide the name of outfitters who perhaps fell short. IMHO statements of fact are not necessarily "bashing", just statements regarding service level. If names should be emailed when service was poor then perhaps names should be emailed when service was good. Fair all around.

I mention this because I too had a poor experience with an Ely outfitter and felt the higher dollar clients and bigger groups received better service than I did just renting minimal equipment. I was the only one to arrive just before 5:00 am, the time they were supposed to open. Someone finally arrived to open at approximately 5:45. Other people who arrived after me were serviced before me and I was finally on my way after 7:00 am having to repeatedly wait and remind them I still needed a paddle, a liner, etc. while they serviced other people/groups to get them underway ahead of me.

They had lost my permit and gotten 2 files mixed up for two different trips. This also happened when calling earlier in the week. Also, I would have appreciated it if they had advised me that another outfitter would be much closer for my second trip saving me a 3 hour round trip drive to get my canoe. That's just good business, good service and they would have won my loyalty for the next trip. Will I use them again? Possibly, but they would not get a third chance to treat me like my business was important to them.

With that said, I will be happy to exchange emails with specifics out of respect for the moderator of the board. Thank you for the opportunity to express my perspective.

If you do the Gunflint Trail, the only one to use is Seagull Outfitters.