I'll give another vote for year-round exercising.

I was a runner 20 years ago when I made my first trip to the Q. No problem. Then after a few injuries and a bad bout of plantar fasciitis, and I stopped running. And pretty much everything else. Hence, I got very large, which isn't a very good thing for wilderness canoeing. It's damn hard to trim a canoe with a bow man who's pushing 300 lbs.

To make a short story long, I decided to make a change at the start of 2009. In about 16 months, I'm down 90 pounds and feeling great. And, I ran an 8K race  over the weekend, so I'm back at that, too. And I'm only 50!!

The secret: eat less, exercise more! It's deceptively difficult. And my wife and I switched to a low-carb diet, which now that we're into it, it's pretty east to maintain.

For the last 10 years, I used to dread the last couple of months before a trip, certain I would drop on the first portage. Now I can't wait to get up there this July!

Bottom line for me is a complete agreement with Jimbo--keep working out all year and you should be able to do any trip that comes up--even the last-minute ones!!