Was reading the moderation post as to how the moderators came into that role and I wondered how long people have been here. My profile says I've been here since October, 2007 but I think I lurked about a year before that. My first "find" was ccbb (mostly because of an adopt a highway sign near Cascade Lodge) but when a big kerfuffle broke out over there I started looking for another place to hang out. Landed here.

I think I started lurking in 2004, but mostly for quick access to maps and odds and ends - didn't really pay attention to the "community". I got serious about that in spring of this year, creating a new account that had an anonymous name.

2003, I was invited over here and I stayed

as hard as it might be to believe, i threw a hissy fit on QJ back in the day and that started a kerfuffle. :)

i had tried ccbb but found it difficult to find info and just plain navigate.

i landed here in `06. i made it rough for myself and many others for a long time (for that i do sincerely apologize) but saw the light fairly recently. it feels kinda nice not being an a$$hole anymore...IMO :)

its been home ever since.

I'll leave it to you to ask my folks for the details on the first part but I showed up sometime in the late 70's.

Son went to BWCA canoeing with University Class. He came home and told me about how awesome it was. I started researching and came across this site while at Mayo in Rochester, MN. That was 2-09.
Signed up 3-1-2009 now I to am a BWCA.com junkie. (and love it)
SunCatcher

I must have googled for information and found the CCBB. From there something turned me here. This is a much more respectful crowd. Been here since 2007.

I've been registered since 2003. Was a casual poster until the last few years. This is an excellent board.

Had a buddy that used to do a BW trip with his church when we were kids and always wanted to go. We have taken a smaller canoe camping trip every year since we both grew up and went our separate ways (he to the army, me to college). We felt like we needed to up the stakes a bit and do something more epic which is when I remembered the BWCA. Started my internet search and here I landed around this time last year. Had our first trip through VNO last summer and will be back for many years to come God willing!

I signed on less than a year ago as a way to research a BWCA trip with my three sons and was quickly addicted. A lot of good people with similar interests and a wealth of information.

I just happened upon this site and have remained faithful ever since! Something like 4 or 5 years ago. This site has just what I need and then some, no kerfuffles here!! : )

I first found the CCBB the summer of 2003 while searching the web for Arrowhead region online resources. I had just purchased property in Lake County. Back then there were both kerfuffles and cartoon characters paddling through the site. Shortly thereafter, the company I work for was sold and policies changed. No streaming radio stations or online chatting allowed. Once in a while I would check the site out on breaks. Sometimes it would be months before checking out the site. I did email a few members however.

In 2005 I found this site. I don’t remember if it was from another search or a link from the CCBB. I rarely came here until I saw that many postings over there had negative responses. Then came the blowups and mass exodus. I began reading this board more often. Then this fall my company was sold once again. I was hesitant to make an account, but once I saw that posting about weird lights in the sky, and I knew what had caused it, I had to respond. For some reason no matter how many times I submitted a response I couldn’t post. So I made an account, and then was able to post my response. Now three months later...bulletin board abuse?

lol inspector. bbabuse? not likely.

i lurked here for a while. mid 2005, i think. had buddy who was checking out a PMA/notPMA zone for our trip in 07. signed up in 06, I think, at his behest, lurked quite a bit more. (i had a whole 200 posts maybe my first year, haha) and then i cut loose this past 4 months or so. but i've been here since 2007. I've watched Kanoes go thru the bad and the good, i didn't think it was too bad but i stayed outta the way like i normally do on those kinds of posts. lol he'll say otherwise (in fact, he told me in chat the other day that NO, I WAS AN A$$$!!!") hahaha.

anyway, i'm here now, and i'm a BWCA.com addict.

JOIN THE ADDICTION! muahahahahahaaa

Got here in November of 2007. Lurked around a few months before joining.

I found it when doing a www search for the reservation site.

Stumbled across this place using the Google.

Been sharing my awesome key boarding skills here ever since.

I was looking for BWCA fishing info in 2008 and a Google search bought me to this site. Checked in once in awhile for info and decided to join in August 2009 to ask a few questions. My addiction didn't take hold until this past spring. My wife says I have an unhealthy obsession with BWCA.com. I disagree but keep my lips zipped.

P.S. This is the first message board I joined and the only one I care to post at.

2007 looking for more information and was directed over here for the maps and resources. Still use the ccbb but as others stated it has had rough road in last couple years. Still go there, QJ, solotripping and a couple other infrequently. Each has their own identities and format. This is the most active board by far.

Don't really kno how i got here, but i did and i stayed

vinnie

A friend turned me on to the site in 2006, now I'm hooked. Damned addictive personality.

After years of canoe trips in the Adirondacks and Maine we finally put together a BWCAW trip with our son Jeff and his wife for September of 2006. My son found this site and told me about it. I lurked for some months, realized the site had a lot to offer through knowledgeable people who were willing to share. I joined in July of 2006. I have found countless hours of enjoyment through my embarrassing number of daily visits. Thanks Adam.
Boppa

Only been here for 8 mo's. Last may I wanted to here from anyone who had ever been on Raven Lake. It was my first posting on this or any forum. Hell, I don't even E-mail my own relatives so really , since I've been here, I've chatted, bickered, and B-S with you folk and no one else.

The first response I got was from Mooseplums and I remember scrolling down the other post's and seeing all these pine trees and insignia of nobility by his name and I thought, Holy Cow! Elvis is talking to me!!

I was on this site about five years ago and did not see the message board. My bad. My friend "Pikehunter" told me about this cool site and the rest is history.

I had been a regular member on Quiet Journey for some time (and I still am) and I believe it was Spartan1 who suggested I might try bwca.com as well. I started in slowly here, but seem to have gathered traction in the past four years or so. I lurk on the CCBB but don't post there.

Someone posted something about this site on the CCBB oh, maybe a few years ago now. So I checked it out, especially when things got slow at the CCBB. While the other is easier to keep track of, with more of a "community" feel, this place is easier as far as referencing/searching for specific info.

I was doing research for our first BWCA trip in 2007. I didn't really understand the "community thing" as I had never been a part of any site that had people posting- I justed used the site for the maps etc... It wasn't until this year that I registered and began posting. I never knew how cool it was to have a place to indulge an obsession!

I became interested in The Boundary Waters in the Summer of 2009. I went on the internet and entered "BWCA" in Goggle and this site came up. I thought it was the official .Gov site at first but I found out it had much more great information then the .Gov.

I just read trip reports and studied entry points at first. Later I checked out the messageboard.

I lurked and learned for about a year then joined just prior to my first BWCA overnight trip in August of 2010.

Have enjoyed the site immensely since and also enjoyed meeting some of the members at a wing night.

Member since 3-29-2005...used to also be a contributing member on
the QJ site, but the abrasive personalities over there drove me away....They blocked my password so I can't log in over there anymore....No Loss!

BWCA.com is the best!

fishguts

My profile says March 09, but I was lurking well before that. I think I googled Louisa Falls or something like that while planning a trip in 08. For many months I only read trip reports and did not look at any other part of the site. I looked at QJ and myccr also, but I found this site easier to navigate. Also, the trip reports here are more up my alley. I am not a canoe racer or a water rescue guy or anything like that. I only know 2 strokes, straight and J. I am not smarter than the fish so I have trouble catching them. I just like canoe camping because it’s quiet, calm and peaceful. And I don't have to carry my water.

After my 08 trip I decided to post a trip report. Positive feedback reinforced my visits to the site. Then in 2010, I asked a question about a particular portage and was given a very supportive response. I just like the feel I get from the folks here. I don't pretend to be some great canoeing god and neither do the folks here. Even the folks on this site who are very accomplished canoeists have never been snide or condescending to me. That is very comforting as I was intimidated at first, thinking I didn't really belong here.

I will say that thanks to the people on this site I have decided to pursue canoe camping as my main hobby. I have mentioned before that I revere the northland as some revere their churches. My life was changed significantly for the better on my very first trip into BWCA and now all these years later I am introducing my kids to the great wilderness. I hope they feel the sense of refuge that I do when up there.

Anyway, that’s the how and why of my participation on this site.

I don't remember how I came across this site but it was about 4 years ago, early 2007. I don't post often but I get on and read several times a day almost every day.

Like you and many others, tobiedog, I regularly logged in at ccbb and then sometimes QJ (although I didn't post much at either one), but became disenchanted with both. Many good people left ccbb and nobody seemed interested in answering questions about wilderness canoeing. And I wasn't interested in what they were talking about. Where did those people go? Many ended up right here. People at QJ never seemed too interested in answering questions, except to tell you to use the search function. Besides they were much more oriented to the Q and I've never been there... Yet. I don't remember exactly when I came here - my profile says 2009, but I must surely have lurked here just reading things for a long time before that.

On a trip partner's recommendation. Feb of 2006.

Been here a few years........

Visit the 3 or 4 major Boundary Waters/Quetico boards a few times a week. I think this one is now my favorite, but I've been a member of QJ and CCBB for longer.

Later,

Geo

I believe I found this place in 2007. Literally, the first website I went to upon my entry into the Internet age was Paddling.net in 2001. Still frequent that one. As an avid Boundary Waters paddler I also found the CCBB soon after. But after a few years trying to navigate their website I looked for a better BWCAW website. Tried Quiet Journey for a time and when I came here it just seemed easy to navigate, civil, and comfortable. TW

My profile says 12-27-08, but like many others, I was lurking for some time before joining. I had looked at a couple of other sites and this one seemed the most open to newbies. No question is too simple on this site. Example: Is it better to put your groundcloth under your tent or inside your tent?

I got here about 2 years ago. I found it googling info for a future trip. I also was lurking for a little while before that.

Dec. 2005 was when I became a member but had been around for awhile before that. I was also a contributing member at QJ for about a year. But the attitude toward those of us who had not been to the Q was very condescending. And if you base camped like I do well the welcome mat was just pulled. I did like the photo of the day though.

BWCA.com just feels like a calm day on a great lake (most of the time).
It is so easy to navigate and the info is top notch.

Jay

I was looking for a Chatty Cathy doll for my daughter and ended up here somehow. Anyone know where the toy section is and the checkout?

quote gutmon: "I was looking for a Chatty Cathy doll for my daughter and ended up here somehow. Anyone know where the toy section is and the checkout?"

Wait...doesn't this post belong on the "Have you ever been lost" thread??

Chatty Cathy, wow...I haven't heard that name in years...probably the late 60's sometime...HO HO HO, indeed!
:) :)

I met one of the members from this site Greg or GBUSK and he recommended it to me, I started checking it out not long after that, and then some months later, I believe early 2009, became a member and have enjoyed it ever since .

still curious?

My profile says 3/26/2005. I lurked on all the bwca related boards for several years before I decided on which one to join. I believe I joined the right one.

tony

I've been on here since 06'. I was doing research and planning for my 2nd trip to the BW and came across this site. This is a great little community, and the site has excellent information for planning upcoming trips.

In 2006, while researching my family's Minnesota roots by actually going there, we took time off to visit the Mall of America. Although my wife is crazy about malls, I am almost always bored. As it turned out, I needn't have worried about boredom.
I had positioned myself on a wall bench and I immediately noticed interesting people, wearing shorts during a warm spell (50 degrees), passing in front of me. Those people were an unearthly white, despite summer having ended just a little over a month earlier!!
While the white people were keeping me alert, my wife was undergoing her usual concerns that I might fall asleep and tumble onto the floor. Not knowing that I was wide awake and extremely interested in the local fauna, she rounded up several brochures from the mall wall holders and brought them to me.
Two brochures quickly got my attention. One was about Minnesota fishing and the other was about something called the "Boundary Waters."
When we got back home, I googled "Boundary Waters" and BWCA.com was one of the hits. I lurked for a couple of months and then, on Jan. 7, 2007, I enlisted.

I worked with Adam's sister-talk about a small world. She knew I was a BWCAW addict. She told me about the site Adam had created and I checked it out. I lurked for a while.

A few months later I met Adam for lunch. That was sometime in 2003. The board has come a long way since those early days.

i fondly remember the old chat. you could change your name at will. got kinda crazy at times. :)

quote kanoes: "i fondly remember the old chat. you could change your name at will. got kinda crazy at times. :)"

sounds dangerous to me... lol

I came here in September 2006 while planning my second trip, which I took with my daughter in 2007.
I'm sure it was a web search that brought me here. I found loads of valuable info and hung around and used the help here to plan another father/daughter trip in 2008. I've been missing from the site while marrying both my daughters off in 2009 and paying off wedding bills in 2010 (not done yet, but getting closer!).
My daughter and her husband invited me to join them on their trip in 2011, so I'm back here searching and planning. I found it very hard to visit this place the last two years when there was no trip on the horizon.

its all my husband's fault....now I'm addicted! Thanks babe :)

A friend who is much more computer savvy than I am suggested I take a look here. That was in 2008, and I jumped in with open mouth. I have never even looked for another site for any topic, except a few glances at "Skinny Ski".

My profile says July 2007....that was the year we took our first BWCA trip (after needing to cancel a lodge based fishing trip due to the Ham Lake fire). Fell absolutely in love with the BWCA and wanted to learn everything thing there was to learn. Lurked at a CCBB and QJ and then found a link here.

I am almost compulsively addicted to this site during canoe season and then usually take a break late fall. Once January rolls around, I always come back.....can't wait to start planning for summer trips.

I have learned so much here and am grateful for this awesome site....now I need to spend some time catching up on what I have missed the last couple months!