Ely Bunkhouses - Voyageur North

08/28/2021

Want to come to Ely? Want to take day trips to fish, hike and enjoy our area? But you need a place to stay? We have the VNO bunkhouse Loft unit open!

03/03/2021

We offer wilderness canoe trip outfitting for Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) and Ontario's Quetico Provincial Park.

05/04/2020

04/26/2020

Toronto — Today, Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, and Jeff Yurek, Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, issued the following statement on Ontario Parks operations in response to COVID-19:

12/12/2019

The Wolf Track Classic will be held on February 22nd and 23rd, it is the 12th running of the race and 50 years since the first Sled Dog Race the All American was held in Ely.

They have a lot of exciting events planned for the week before the race, Saturday February 22nd and of course the day of the race is February 23rd.

11/22/2019

Hi Everyone!

Just wanted to let you know that the 2020 Gazette will be going out in the mail in a couple weeks.

If you have a new address or would rather get an email copy please let us know.

Have a safe & Happy Holiday Season,

Amber & the Vno Crew

10/22/2019

10/09/2019

Fall hours are currently 7 am to 4 pm. You can try calling later, you may get a answer.

09/25/2019

""You can add a touch of extra insulation to your sleeping bag thanks to the soft Alps Mountaineering Fleece Bag. The rectangular shape fits inside mummy- or rectangle-shaped bags, and the polyester fleece provides warmth without adding a ton of bulk to your backpack. During the warmer summer mon...

08/30/2019

Northern Lights on their way!

08/01/2019

Happy Birthday Tabita Ionescu!

07/05/2019

Voyageur North Outfitters of Ely, Minnesota

Ely Minnesota - 4th of July Parade - 2019

02/24/2019

ForAmerica

Don't know who actually designed/created this signing, but it is very distubingly descriptive.

Abortion is vile.

02/21/2019

Voyageur North Outfitters of Ely, Minnesota

Voyageur North Outfitters of Ely, Minnesota

Another Delay! No reservations until March!
**********************

Boundary Waters Permit Reservations Available March 4, 2019

DULUTH, Minn. (February 21, 2019) Beginning Monday, March 4, 2019 at 9 am CST, the USDA Forest Service will reopen the process to reserve Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness quota permits on Recreation.gov.

“Between now and March 4 we will continue website testing and conducting training with cooperators to ensure the website meets Forest Service and public needs,” said Superior National Forest Supervisor Connie Cummins.

As a result of unforeseen technical issues, many people were unable to access the BWCAW reservation process when it opened on Wednesday, January 30. With only a small number of people being able to reserve a permit, the Forest Service halted the process for applying for BWCAW permits, then directed Recreation.gov to cancel and refund any reservations that were processed.

The technical issues with the BWCAW permit sale software have been addressed and additional testing has been completed by reservation system programmers. The USDA Forest Service is confident that the reservation system will function correctly and that visitors will have equitable access to make permit reservations beginning March 4, 2019. Quota permits for the BWCAW may be reserved through the season to September 30.

02/19/2019

Voyageur North Outfitters of Ely, Minnesota

Voyageur North Outfitters of Ely, Minnesota

Today is the first testing day of the permit site/system. So far there are lots of things that need to be changed that are either confusing, redundant or ??? Feeling aggravated.

Quite a few changes, mostly the pages of the reservation form wanting more info and what some of the outfitters think is sort of unnecessary or redundant. We have been told that they will try to have the FS and the rec.gov programmer/contractor make some changes to the site by Friday when we will try to test again.

Once we get through the testing/practice on Friday (from 1 pm to 4 pm CT) I'll post again with updates and hopefully some good updates. :-)

02/16/2019

Voyageur North Outfitters of Ely, Minnesota

Voyageur North Outfitters of Ely, Minnesota

Next Tuesday & Wednesday outfitters will be testing out how to fill out the new permit website. Wish us luck?
****************************
Thank you for your assistance in helping to test and/or train in the Recreation.gov reservation system. In preparation for Go-Live, Recreation.gov will offer a two-part preparatory test and training series for BWCAW Cooperators the week of February 18th, 2019.

TESTING Session
• Tuesday, February 19, 1:00 pm - 4:30 pm Central Time
• This session is intended for those who have familiarity with technology and can navigate the system with minimal guidance. If you are not computer savvy, then you may not gain as much from the day of testing and we recommend that you join Day 2 only – Training, on February 22.

TRAINING Session
• Friday, February 22, 1:00 pm - 4:30 pm Central Time
• This session is intended for all cooperators.

Accounts for the testing platform are being created:
• For USFS employees
• For Cooperators,

CREATE A NEW PASSWORD to use just for the Test Environment:
You will need to respond to the email coming to you from [email protected] on Tuesday, Feb 19th to set up a NEW password to use only for accessing the test/training environment. This will be a different password from the one that you used to make reservations.

02/11/2019

Voyageur North Outfitters of Ely, Minnesota

Voyageur North Outfitters of Ely, Minnesota

Got this message yesterday. Looks like we are going to visit with the FS and talk more about the steps. Not sure if any actual site pages will be viewable but maybe we can see just what info is actually going to be needed for reservations and what will not.:-)
*******************************************
Good morning all – we hope we can gather as many of you as possible on Tuesday, February 12th at 1000 to discuss the new Go Live on 2/27. We will talk about the steps I sent out yesterday to get us to the new Go Live and other questions or concerns you have.

Sorry for the late notice. I hope you can make it.

Gus

02/08/2019

Voyageur North Outfitters of Ely, Minnesota

Voyageur North Outfitters of Ely, Minnesota

Hey Hey, permits will finally be able to be reserved... in about 20 days! (edited just in case, the title does say "Tentative", remember that! If anything changes, will post as soon as I know. Lynn

Forest Service announces tentative date for reopening Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness permit process

DULUTH, Minn. (February 8, 2019) The USDA Forest Service anticipates reopening the process to reserve Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness quota permits on February 27, 2019. Prior to the tentative reopening date for the reservation system the Forest Service is working on the following actions:
• fixing a technical problem in the BWCAW sale software;
• additional planned training for permit cooperators who rely on the system;
• and additional testing to ensure a smooth launch of the updated system.
Once the above schedule of actions is successfully completed the Forest Service will confirm the reopening date and move forward with broad public outreach to notify the public of the new reservation period.

“We deeply regret the difficulty this has caused, and I want to thank the members of the community who are working with us to make this transition to an online reservation system successful,” said Superior National Forest Supervisor Connie Cummins. “Our goal is to ensure the reservation system provides a fair and open means for the public to visit the Boundary Waters and support the local businesses that depend on this special place.”

02/05/2019

Voyageur North Used Canoes & Gear

Voyageur North Used Canoes & Gear

New email received this evening:

Good evening all – Today a handful of cooperators met at the Kawishiwi Ranger District to talk with several of us from the Superior, several from the New Email this evening:

Washington Office of the Forest Service that supervise the contract for the Recreation.gov permit system, and some of the developers from the Contractor. Additionally we had staffers from Rep Stauber’s office and Senator Klobuchar’s office. Forest reps and cooperators and staffers were in the room, the others were on a Zoom video conference.

We had a good meeting and wrote down all the issues many of you experienced when you were trying to reserve permits. We talked about a process going forward and communication on that process. The small group will meet again to experience how the other permits (overnight Motor and overnight Paddle) are reserved. Following that meeting, we will have more information about what fixes you should expect to the system, and (roughly) when they will be completed.

The contractor also described what went wrong on Wednesday and how they will fix it, and test it to make sure it doesn’t happen again. The contractor and the FS are confident that we will not Go Live again before February 19. This will allow them to put the system through all levels of load testing. So please pass along that Recreation.gov will not Go Live until sometime after 2/19. We will keep you posted.

We will offer training on the Recreation.gov site to cooperators before we go live.

The group today helping us to understand the issues all of you have been experiencing included Kathleen Floberg from Camp Widjiwagan, Betsy and W***y Vosburgh of Custom Cabins, Jason Jabokrsky of Ely Outfitting Company and Boundary Waters Guide Service, Dave Sabesta from Williams and Hall, Bob LaTourell, Ginny Nelson of Spirit of the Wilderness, Ida Rukavina from Klobuchar’s office, and John Eloranta from Pete Stauber’s office. From the Superior, I was there, Connie Cummins our Forest Supervisor, and Dawn Labolt our Staff Officer for Recreation, Wilderness, Minerals, and Lands.

I apologize that I could not include you all. I did my best to gather a group of diverse cooperators that could represent the rest of you.

We will keep you posted as soon as we have more to share. Gus

02/04/2019

Ely Minnow & Tackle - Voyageur North

Ely Minnow & Tackle - Voyageur North

So far no new news about when they think the permit site will be fixed and live.

I did get a call from Representative Pete Stauber's office today. They are calling/contacting outfitters (& maybe others) about the site crash debacle and how it impacts us and our customers.

The caller mentioned something about a meeting with the Forest Service but since they just got notified this morning, I think the meeting is between government officials & the FS, because we did not get any notice. (& I checked my spam and "auto" trash folder).

This is one case where no news is definitely not good news.

02/02/2019

Voyageur North Outfitters of Ely, Minnesota

Voyageur North Outfitters of Ely, Minnesota

New message just received from Forest Service:

“Alert: Due to technical difficulties, reservations for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness are closed. We are diligently working to correct the problem. Please check back for status updates. We will give advanced notification of at least 48 hours or more prior to the system going live.”

01/31/2019

Voyageur North Outfitters of Ely, Minnesota

Voyageur North Outfitters of Ely, Minnesota

BWCA Wilderness permits on hold due to malfunction in national recreation reservation system
DULUTH, MN (January 30, 2019) This morning, permits for Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) went on sale to the public through the national recreation reservation system (Recreation.gov). Soon after the permit reservation process opened, many users were not able to access the reservation system. The Recreation.gov team, both agency and contractor staff, soon discovered a problem with how the national system servers were distributing the traffic to the web site, which resulted in the inability of many visitors to make reservations. Several people were successful in making reservations for permits while others could not access the system at all. Once the Forest Service became aware of the situation, the decision was made to interrupt the sale of BWCAW permits.
Superior National Forest staff worked closely with the contractor over the past year, including time during the recent government furlough, to ensure the system was ready and provided everything necessary to assure success.
Currently, the contractor and agency staff are diagnosing the exact cause of the technical difficulties, carefully identifying how to fix the problems, and developing a detailed strategy to reopen the permit process in the near future. As soon as possible, we will identify a new date for BWCAW quota permits to become available for reservation, but only after we feel confident the malfunction experienced today has been corrected.

01/30/2019

Due to the Recreation.gov website issues we will have to make permits at another date…unknown date at this time.

We spoke with the Forest Supervisor. They will reverse all internal and external transactions of course for fairness and close BWCAW reservations until further notice. A banner will show up shortly on the site. Their public affairs is speaking with media.

01/03/2019

Tower Mn

Tower Mn

A new song called "I'm from Minnesota" (Minnesota Anthem)
Lake Vermilion Chamber of Commerce
www.lakevermilionchamber.com
Song by Alex Frecon ~ http://hyperurl.co/3b484a

12/24/2018

We currently have both the upstairs & lower "loft" bunkhouse rooms open for New Year's! Large parking area, east end of town. Good place for snowmobilers!

11/24/2017

Ely Winter Festival

Our Loft building will be open for lodging from now & through the winter. Coming up & need a place for our Voyageur Winter Festival? Stay 3 nights, mention this ad and get 25% off! https://www.facebook.com/elywinterfestival/

One week, two weekends, of winter fun and art. February 7 through 17, 2019!

10/03/2017

Ely Bunkhouse Photo Gallery

http://elybunkhouse.com/photos.htm

Take an online tour of our lodging at Ely Bunkhouses in Ely, MN

07/29/2017

Voyageur North Outfitters of Ely, Minnesota

Voyageur North Outfitters of Ely, Minnesota

We have 12 rental Spot Tracker units. I'm going to try to provide a link to the shared page for each here. Wish me luck! :-) If you happen to know someone who has one of these units, you can click here & see their route as they travel. Once they are back, the route is wiped clean and starts again with another traveler.