Totally a liability issue. I taught for nearly 30 years, and the litigious growth of US culture over that time span had an incredible impact on what we were allowed to do with students when on field trips. Over the course of my teaching career, I took groups of students on winter BWCA...
You can deal directly with Swift; not the case with Northstar. Too bad about your experience; I believe both Ted and Bear to be pretty stand up guys. I had a Souris River for over 20 years; the thing was bombproof and exactly what I wanted when my girls were young. You can also deal directly...
Most of my trips are into the BWCA and Quetico, and the BW regs tell me to dispose of remains a minimum of 200' from the campsites. Used to be in the water. Unsure what the current regs are in Quetico as I have not been there since pre-pandemic.