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GSI Outdoors Infinity Backpackers Mug Review
The GSI Outdoors Infinity Backpackers Mug is a mug. It holds drinks and you drink out of it. What more can you say about a mug? It works. Buy it. Seriously though. We’ve had GSI Outdoors Infinity Backpackers Mug for several years in several variations. They have evolved over time. My first one was plastic with just a thin foam sleeve around it. It worked great of hot chocolate and other warm adult drinks. It was light enough at about 3 ounces that you didn’t feel bad about bringing it along on a trip. The next version, which we bought for my wife was basically the same with a foam…
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Lake Nipigon Kayaking Trip Report
Dates: Sept. 12 – Oct. 2, 2017 by Hannah Fanney & Rodney Claiborne Reason for Travel Lake Nipigon is a large lake directly above Lake Superior. We were familiar with the lake’s location, but information on it was difficult to obtain. It looked to us like a less developed Superior with smaller seas and more protection available from the myriad of islands and peninsulas. Our goal was to spend time exploring an area we were not familiar with while testing out the carrying capacity of food and equipment in our boats. We chose the fall season due to our seasonal employment schedule and to enjoy rougher seas, cooler temperatures, and…
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How to Take a $H!T in the BWCAW
The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) is America’s most used wilderness area. Each year an estimated 250,000 visitors paddle its pristine lakes and over 1,200 miles of canoe routes and camp at one of over 2,000 designated campsites. This many people using the million acres puts a strain on the land. While in other wilderness areas if you need to take a crap you dig a hole and bury your poop (as outlined in the book How to Shit in the Woods), it isn’t like that in the BWCAW. In the BWCAW, you take your shit by sitting your arse down on a thunder box (latrine) and letting it…
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Lightweight Cook Kit
It seems like I’m always tweaking my lightweight cook kit. While preparing for some upcoming bikepacking trips (gasp), I redid my lightweight cook kit yet again. This time it has a new stove and pot. This lightweight cook kit could be used for backpacking, canoeing or kayaking and work out just fine. What I really like about it is that the stove, fuel canister and spoon all fit inside the ultralight mug, which is compact. Overall, I’m in at 15.8 ounces for my kitchen. Leaving behind a stuff sack and elastic band saves me 0.3 ounces, but they also add convenience so I’m going to carry them. Lightweight Cook Kit…
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Circling Shakespeare on Lake Nipigon
Within a minute, the mirror-like surface of Lake Nipigon kicked up as northerly 30-knot winds descended on our island campsite. The calm, silent, evening turned into a rumble. It felt like the air above the entire arctic plains spilled down upon the Boreal forests. We shouted over the breaking waves and the rush of the wind through the trees. “Now!” I heaved the bear bags into the air as Tim ran with the rope. When the slack ran out on the weighty bags the rope stretched and stopped. Then the branch broke sending our supplies to the ground. Trying to race the wind, I threw the rope over the limb…
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Kayakers Dying and Darwin
Natural Selection is a wonderful thing. This was a Facebook response to a news report about a kayaker drowning on the Great Lakes (See: Search for missing kayaker continues). The news report tells us that two men in their 20s went kayaking on Lake Huron. They weren’t wearing lifejackets and both capsized. One of the men couldn’t swim. He presumably drowned. They are still searching for his body. Natural Selection is a wonderful thing. So, instead of expressing empathy with this man’s family, his parents and his friends, the Internet-dude responds that drownings on the Great Lake are a “wonderful thing.” Natural Selection is a wonderful thing. You have to…
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Wooden Boat Show in Grand Marais Trip Report
It’s that time of the year when wood boat builders gather in the northern reach of the state of Minnesota and show off their wood boats. This year wooden canoes, both new and restored, stole the show. Without further ado, here’s the pictures. Seliga Wide Plank, 17′, Restored at the North House Folk School Thompson Brother Indian, 16′, restored by Mike Knuth of Duluth, MN. 20th Anniversary Canoe, 18 ft, Based on E.M. White “Guide” Model, Built at the North House Folk School 1928 Old Town Canoe, model not listed. This was up for auction. The starting bid was $300. Skin-on-frame Canoe, 17′ 6″, Based on the Atkinson Traveler The…
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Siskiwit SOF Kayak Stolen!
In a recent email from Marcelo, who built a Siskiwit SOF back in 2015, he wrote: My wife stole my Siskiwit! LOL Hence, I needed to build another kayak for me, I choose a skin-on-frame baidarka. I added a system of bulkheads and dry hatches for camping gear and a rudder/skeg for trim in winds. Some pics in the Nahuel Huapi Lake: When I asked if I could share the pictures of his new kayak, he sent along some details of the baidarka build. The construction looks just as good as the construction pictures of his Siskiwit SOF (see Siskiwit SOF Detail Page for a few photos). Here are details: I did…
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Jerry Vandiver Plays Northstar Canoes Booth at Canoecopia
Americana, folk-singer Jerry Vandiver, always a favorite at Canoecopia, picked up a new sponsorship with Northstar Canoes. That sponsorship lead to a breakout of music at the Northstar booth at this year’s Canoecopia. Vandiver brought Amberly Rosen and Ashleigh Caudill to play in his band and together they cause a big commotion on the expo floor. Vandiver and crew played several songs including the perennial favorite. Too Many Boats. The crew at Northstar provided a boat for the band to stand in while playing. After song broke out an audience surrounded the booth to watch. Vandiver is well-known in the paddlesport world for his albums and songs about canoeing and canoeing in the…
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Cape Wrath Packrafting and Fat Biking Trip
It’s one of those days when I have a pile of work to do, but just want to watch videos about paddling. And then I stumbled onto this Cape Wrath packrafting and fat biking video. After about two hours of dreaming up trips to do with a fat bike and packraft, I think I better get back to work! This is a fun video.
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The Audacity of Winning Bold Kayaking Arguments on the Internet
If you have been a long time reader of the website, you know that I’m officially out of the kayaking business. After years in the canoe and kayak retail business, years of guiding and then years of owning a kayak guiding business, I got out of it — it is now a hobby of mine. As a hobby and as a business one of my main goals and beliefs is that we are in this sport together and if we work together as partners we can make the sport better. Like everything on the Internet and maybe in the world, discussion is devolving to the point that partnership is no…
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Chestnut Chum Revisioned as the Lynx
The Chestnut Chum canoe is one of the classic canoes when you ask about old canvas and wood canoes. Paddlers respected it for it’s ability to carry lots of gear and still remain stable. The Chum struck a chord with canoeists looking for day tripping boat as well as an extended trips. Several years ago, I worked with a paddler who wanted to build the Omer Stringer version of the canoe. According to Wooden Canoe Issue 25, the differences were this: Omer’s canoe is also unique. He began with a 15-foot Chestnut Chum, built in New Brunswick. When it was under construction, he asked that the cedar plank-and-rib shell be left…
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Ranting about Painters — WITH a Paddle in IT!
Here we go again. It’s that time of the year when paddlers make silly points on the Internet. I never understand the silly need of people to comment about how a photo of a canoe or kayak that they saw on social media doesn’t meet their idea of what a canoe or kayak should be or some other silliness like that. To be completely honest (cliched phrase on purpose, because it’s like a cliche that you going to get someone who thinks they are the know-it-all paddler to comment on a photo that they have no knowledge of), I just don’t even have the energy to continue describing this type…
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A Simple Menu for a 12,000-mile Backcountry Journey
On backcountry kayak camping trips, a varied and robust menu seems a given. There are dozens of camping cookbooks devoted to the topic, and 100s and 100s of recipes and even magazine columns devoted to cooking tasty treats while on the trail. All that food planning and preparation takes time and effort, so you might be tempted to ignore all that advice and just pack mac and cheese. National Geographic Adventurers of the Year Amy and Dave Freeman did just that on their 3-year, 12,000-mile kayak, canoe and dogsled journey from Seattle, Washington to Key West, Florida. They ditched the fancy menus and simplified each of their daily meals to…
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The Canoeist and Kayaker Holiday Gift Guide
Paddlers being the picky, hard-to-please group that they are, are extremely hard to shop for during the holidays. Most paddlers already own everything they want, except for that new boat. While that new NDK Romany or Northstar Magic would look great under the tree spending a couple grand probably isn’t within everyone’s idea of a perfect gift. Here are a few unique gifts for canoeists and kayakers. It’s something to surprise them with and maybe something unexpected as well. Jon Turk’s Crocodiles and Ice A more detail review is coming on this book, but in essence this book details several adventures including Turk’s kayak and ski circumnavigation of Ellesmere Island. The…
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