We may need to rent a canoe from company in ely. Any suggestion and what is normal cost for 5 days?
We may be taking old time aluminum canoe. Worth it to rent one of the newer, lighter canoes instead?
Thanks.

$40 a day is about average for a 2 man kevlar canoe rental. You have all sorts of options around Ely, you could find one close to your EP or get one right in town. Ive only used Echo Trail Outfitters and was extremely happy with them, Scott and Robin are some of the nicest people you will ever meet.
The aluminum vs kevlar all comes down to what you are comfortable with and the length and difficulty of the portages you will take, a Souris River 17' kevlar weighs in at about 42lbs while most light weight aluminum's come in at 65lbs or so. That 20+ lbs could be the difference between comfortably crossing a long rough portage and struggling with it.

I've used Voyageur North several times and Red Rocks once. Both were fine. Besides the weight advantage, most of the Kevlar tripping canoes are more efficient than aluminum.

Spirit of the Wilderness has a deal if you rent for 5 days, you get one day free. $42 per day for a 2 person kevlar. Definitely worth the cost.

I've personally never had a bad outfitter out of Ely. Be sure to check with our sponsors and tell 'em BWCA.com sent you!

Beemer's advice is best. Check 'em out right here on the board.

It should be easy to find a canoe in Ely. The entire town seems to be one big BW outfitter.

I have had great service from Jordan's Canoe Outfitters (also a BWCA.com sponsor).

I highly recommend going Kevlar. The Souris River is a very nice canoe and only weighs 42 lbs. On our first trip, we use aluminum because we were afraid of hurting the kevlar canoe. That was a mistake. The aluminum canoe was very heavy. I have used kevlar on all subsequent trips. The kevlar is a much nicer BW canoe...

Short, not too many portages, base camp kinda trip, bring the alum. one, save the money. Or if you have some jocky high school/college portage monkey around for the trip, lol. Otherwise, get the kev.

I second using Voyageur North. We have used them several times when our trips have been out of the Ely area. John & Lynn are great & their entire crew has been very helpful. Have also stayed at one of there bunkhouses on a pretrip. Before we bought our own canoe, we used to rent the Souris River Kevlar and really liked it. Nice & light on those portages! As other people have said there are several outfitters to choose from in the Ely area. You probably won't go wrong.