Man I'm with you Suncatcher,
I'm actually starting NOW to get ready for my August trip and have been doing fine. My wife was saying something or other about "big strong arms" the other day in church ;D ::). That comment got her a free dinner ;) (yea I know I'm getting played like a fiddle).  Now if I can just stop shoveling the groceries in and stuffing my face I should be fine.

I too have been thinking of going lighter. I have evaluated almost every piece of gear I own. Of course one has to decide durability as well as weight. One big change on this trip will be freeze dried food for dinner. I have 4 #10 tins of Mountain house. I will eat them one at a time and will HOPEFULLY add fish with each dinner meal. Two of the selections I can boil chunks of fish and mix them right into the meal. Each Tin weighs about 1lb. Thats good right? 21 day trip and dinners are coming in at 4lbs plus maybe some oil and a little breading. The other advantage is I don't have to worry about some bruin sneaking off with my grub. I have had them hit the freeze dried stuff before and they don't like it......they love snickers bars and oatmeal w/brown sugar and raisins though :D. Anyway, it might be an option for you to consider.

Your advice to ease up a tad is probably one I should take to heart. I have noticed on long trips there is a certain amount of drive to get a good portion of the route behind you. Plus I like to paddle near shore so that adds to my distance. I get bored way out on the water and instead like the feeling of the land slipping past plus there is so much more to see both on land and in the water. The plan is to get up very early and be on the water right as the sun is coming up and ease around until a couple of hours before dark. Rinse and repeat [smiley=thumbup.gif].

Have you tried Alleve? Stuff works wonders for me. Amazing really. If I've had a tough day I'll take one before bed. A couple of times I've taken two and have awoke in the night both times with unbelievable pain in my injured knee. Not sure what that's about.

Al