Why the late start?

Jimbo   

I’m doing all the same stuff in my head now. I’m waiting for warmer weather to spread out the gear in my garage, although I’ll probably set up my new tent in the living room soon. It looks like my trip in the 1st week of June will be a solo, so I’m trying to decide:  kayak or canoe. One day I’m sure it will be the canoe and then the next I’m thinking I should take the kayak.

The kayak is a lot faster on the water but slower on the portage due to unpacking and repacking the hatch, which BTW I do in my head every day. It is fun to paddle and will handle rough water and wind much better. The canoe will carry a lot more gear so I don’t have to make the tough decisions about what to leave behind…and it is easier to fish from.

I usually start preparing by mapping routes and campsites then making a list of food and gear. I accumulate a big pile of gear on a table in my garage. Then I cull the gear by deciding what I can do without and what gear can do double duty, and what I need to replace. Sorting and replacing fishing tackle is a whole separate task. If am going with my wife or sons then I need to add some gear I know they will forget.  I will pack it all up once I have purchased food and any new gear I think I NEED, to make sure I can still carry everything on a double portage, or to make sure it will fit in the hatch of my kayak.

For me, the preparation and planning is a large part of the enjoyment and satisfaction.

I've been going through my stuff all winter. Come spring I think I'll be like a Sled Dog taking off in a race. The summer is going to be too short. I have a new grandchild coming in May so I'll have to burn up paddling time out in Montana. But I was able to get my son to put off the trip to the Phillipines til Oct... I can deal with that. Hope I come out of the woods in time!

Puckster wrote on Feb 15^th, 2010 at 10:06pm:

New tent has been step in the living room (twice) and washing/cleaning stored gear, a few extra stitches to re-enforce a pack straps that are showing a little wear.  Oh ... and I've been looking at MAPS!  Soon, I'll start adding a pack to my back for my exiting walk routine (15-20 miles per week).

Looks like I'm flip-floppying your schedule ... 1st trip (mid-July solo) is slated for WCPP (going in about the time Jimbo is coming out) with a fall trip to Quetico.

dd

I have a Quetico map permanently mounted on the bedroom wall. Every time I go out, I pass it by and often hesitate to consider routes past and future. Maps are a constant distraction.

Tim

I have 2 "happy places" that I touch base with just before nodding off for the night. One is located about 60 miles off Key West and I go there if I have been bad and need to be punished (yea, the fish there don't take prisoners). But it's just as likely I'll be thinking about dipping my paddle in that clear, cool water. Can't wait!

db -- I like the blueprint analogy with this website.  I've picked up so many ideas here.  Most recently, this year I'll be packing a hard rubber ball, with a hole drilled through the middle and parachute cord tied to it, to help hang bear rope.   No more goofy rocks. 

prouboy

Puckster wrote on Feb 18^th, 2010 at 2:49am:

Make it a hollow core ball (like a tennis ball) and cut a slit on the other side.  Then after you've used it to toss your bear rope, you can squeeze the ball to open the slit and put it on top of a ridge pole to keep from poking a hole in your tarp.

dd

solotripper wrote on Feb 18^th, 2010 at 4:23pm:


So, how many balls do you recommend carrying? I'll look forward to seeing hanging tennis balls in camp.

There's an old Waylon Jennings song I recall at times like this: "I've Always Been Crazy, but It Keeps Me Fron Going Insane."

Tim

The thing that I think is crazy is stopping actually using stuff just because the water gets hard. If you just keep using your gear all winter long you never have to look overly crazy for pulling it out in Febuary. Just take a peak at the paddle when you're grabbing the snowshoes.
Allthough I have to admit, this was a bad winter for me as far as using gear goes. I'm in the middle of moving and everything seems to have found it's way into boxes that mysteriously ended up behind the things my wife finds imprtant. Somehow she seems to think our kitchen plates and my kid's dressers are more important and thus should be more accesible than my winter sleeping bag and headlamp. Eight years and I still can't figure out her prioritys.

grizzlylarso wrote on Feb 18^th, 2010 at 11:44pm:


Sounds like a great idea but I have 4 boys; which is why it stays in a pack all winter.  Otherwise I need to buy it again in the summer.  Somewhere in my yard are several saws, flashlights, rope, etc... that I usually find after the snow melts.

Ancient_Angler wrote on Feb 16^th, 2010 at 1:12am:


I'm a "map guy" (GIS) at work, so I can have D-size plots of Quetico topos spread out on my table and no one seems to know the difference!     --Goose

Puckster wrote on Feb 19^th, 2010 at 9:49pm:

I don't use a ball for getting my line over a limb since I already have caribiners in my rope bag for that purpose.  

I like your style Waterlily.  You're hubby-to-be is a lucky guy!

prouboy

this summer will be my first trip up there...... been trying to plan a trip for 10 years and finally have my reservations!!! 7-day solo trip.

i'm jacked up too. can't stop looking at the maps and websites. kindof wish i were closer so i could bring more gear and food, but i'm gonna dust off the tent and fishing tackle as soon as we have some good weather.

over the next couple of months i'll be asking a few questions about the fishing up there.

july can't get here fast enough.

Puckster wrote on Feb 15^th, 2010 at 2:21am:

YES, YOU ARE & we are too.

kypaddler wrote on Mar 5^th, 2010 at 7:26pm:

How many of us have maps up at work?  I do too - a Q foundation full park map just above my computer monitor here.  At times I've had various topo-mosaics taped together on a whiteboard here too.  When I get more than 2 or 3 together, people start asking questions...  Then there's the 15 or so route options I've planned for this year with the Memory-Map software...
---can't wait for this years trip...  

Where you going? Q or BW?

Welcome aboard bammanmr!

I was getting pretty crazy myself there for a while. Then I was doing better, but now I started reading "canoestories" on the WCPP again and I'm thinking I'm back to crazy. Thanks Jimbo for turning me on to yet another canoe story, it kept me up last night for a while. Mastertangler, is there some tripping possibilities in Florida during the winter months? I think it would help the craziness if these winters got broke up a bit. I used to do more outdoors in the winter here, but now because of a condition I can't do as much in the cold. My doctor even thinks I should concider going south in the winter.

nctry_Ben wrote on Mar 12^th, 2010 at 4:39pm:

Hey Ben,
I have kicked around doing the wilderness waterway which winds it's way through the tangle of the ten thousand islands. They suggest 5 days to do it. Very little in the way of dry ground. They have platforms set up sporadically for you to camp on. Tides really have to be factored in. Go on a full or new moon in the winter and there might be as much as a 5 ft drop. That makes some of the "necked down areas" pretty swift. You better have it together, not much help out that way. Plus you better be good, I mean good, at route finding. It all looks the same. I have been fishing down there in a small flats type boat for over 20 years. Little by little I have gotten to know my way around and still get turned around once in a while. I like taking new people because after taking a 5 mile run you can read their mind........"are you sure you can get us back out of here?" (insert evil laugh as I feign confusion)

There is also the big bend area which is pretty remote and looks interesting to me. One would need an ocean kayak for that trip. (that's all I need is another boat....)

Where are you getting your "canoe stories" about WCPP? I am badly wanting to go there. I like to plan so whatever info I can get my hands on is helpful. I am probably a few years away as it looks like I might of gotten my grade school buddy hooked on trippin and I will need to bring him up to speed with a few trips into the "Q" before taking a bigger bite.

kp, i'm not that hardcore just yet. i'll be flying up. gonna pack my tent, sleeping bag and fishing tackle in a checked suitcase.

i'd love to be able to bring more of my gear and food, but for the first trip, i'm gonna let seagull take care of that.

Never met a man or woman that once under the spell of Canoe Country that didn't become a little crazy... Some how some way.  Believe there have been one or two on this site that claimed they wish to be buried in their canoe?  Now that's crazy.... Why waste a perfectly good canoe?

Some of my more unpleasant experiences in the BWCA involve boy scouts (and their leaders).

These groups seem to routinely ignore the rule about group size.  I hope you or CJ -- or both -- at some point during this session stress the importance of "solitude" as such as it is in the BWCA, and teach leaders and scouts to respect others by being quiet, keeping their distance from others, and keeping their groups small. (at least within the rules).

prouboy

OK. i have sent in my border permit request..... just got in my first order of lures (amazing how small the box with 50$ of lures inside is).... been reading 2 books on Quetico and BWCA fishing... and plan on setting the tent up this weekend.

now if July would hurry and get here.