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Prior to this early morning photo, I had smoked tobacco (peacepipe) on the water next to some pictographs. I also burned some sage. Still have the same habits.
The morning of Sept 11, 2001 was dead calm on Agnes. After finding this old fireplace, something compelled me to write the 'poem' down,  I tore the page out of the notebook and put it in the fireplace. This was unusual behavior. As I was hiking back to the kanu I saw a bald eagle pluck a fish up and a seagull came charging in to try and take it. I remember thinking "you're f***in with the wrong bird".  
By the time I was back in the kanu and paddling near the picto's again the water was a maelstrom.  

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Last year, while deep in Quetico, we hadn't seen a canoe in three or four days.  We decided to establish a two/three day camp and enjoy some fishing in relative isolation from the rest of the world.  I set up the camp, and my husband set up the extras, such as the Solar Shower.   For the latter, he found a tree on a point right out into the lake.  Lovely view for our evening ablutions.  The next evening, after a very warm day of fishing and paddling, I decided to avail myself of a hot shower.  No sooner was I standing, in all my sixty year old glory, which means (as my son put it, you can't tell the stretch marks from the cellulite) a crew of young American Boy Scouts hove into sight.  What could I do but cheerfully wave as I tried to wrap a towel around my sagging body.
I wasn't impressed, and neither were they, as they obviousl paddled away from our shore.  I no longer assume that even the most isolated lakes are "private" and I now select the site for our shower stall!!

starwatcher wrote on Mar 10^th, 2010 at 5:47pm:


 The weight and rock method has been around for a long time. There's a fine line between a weight heavy enough to go thru some foliage and so light it hangs up and becomes a projectile coming back at the person who is unfortunate enough to be tugging on the rope

I was stationed in Germany 68-70 as a telephone lineman. We were trained to climb poles/trees and string the field phone wires. Slow and in bad weather potentially hazardous to your life.

 A guy who had spent his first year in Vietnam showed me how they did it in the REAL world We stole/borrowed sash weights from the barracks windows. While the other two man teams were climbing trees, we were done with our assignment and looking for the nearest Beer stand
I asked him were he got the idea from? He said in Nam, you climb a tree stringing wire, the Viet Cong snipers get another notch on their butt-stock!
We never told the other guys about are "technique". My Lt. was so impressed with our "work" ethic, he would hold us out of KP/Cleanup duty in case they needed wire strung in a hurry.

When he rotated home, I was a Sgt by then, and broke in my helper the right way. I imagine he did the same?

The beauty of this technique was not only was it fast, when it came time to take down the wire, instead of climbing and cutting ties, we just hooked to electric wire spool and sucked it up like a giant piece of spaghetti

solotripper wrote on Mar 9^th, 2010 at 6:27pm:


I have a forty foot pine tree in my front yard that I installed X-mas lights on this year with this method; light-weight leader and rock method.  All my neighbors wondered how I did it, they thought I brought in a basket-truck to get them up.

Fortunately, I didn't throw any rocks thru anyone's window.

starwatcher

woodstripper wrote on Mar 9^th, 2010 at 3:40am:


Now this is why using a  "leader" of lighter weight line is a good idea when rigging a food line, it breaks before your HEAD does 

Drewfus wrote on Jan 27^th, 2010 at 9:14am:


That reminds me of a family tradition that dates back to our first trip up to the BW:  I was taking a shower where I *thought* I was out of sight.  My adult kids now like to retell the tale of their sighting the great and sacred "Albino Moose" to anyone unfortunate enough to accompany us on a canoe trip.

Lessee.... first trip into the BW/Q.  Had novice family in tow.  Now I've done a fair amount of outdoors trips, but always on my own two feet backpacking.  Never canoeing, and I never needed to put food up in a tree to foil the bears.

So... doing as the outfitter advised, I found a suitable rock, tied it to the parachute cord, and promptly heaved it up into a fork in a tree.  Darned thing got stuck.  Y'know how p'cord stretches pretty good?  Well... you guessed it!  I pulled and pulled, and eventually the rock came loose.  And beaned me on the right temple as I tried to duck.  Had a good sized goose egg for a day and a half!

I use a barrel now

Eat fish pizza.

Guy I know used to like to put on a Groucho-Marx rig -- heavy black glasses, mustach, very large nose -- when paddling towards other parties, then stay just far enough off to keep em wondering...

Hmmm..after 25 years, I'm still the duffer! But I do make sure I have plenty of the old medicinal