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Lightweight Stoves: Rated for Ease of Use and Weight
Over the years, I’ve used all kinds of backpacking stoves for my kayaking and canoe trips. Those stoves have burned a variety of fuels, including white gas, alcohol, wood, propane, isobutane and esbit — I’m probably missing a few. I’ve used different configurations of stoves from systems designed specifically to work with one stove and one pot, such as Jetboil’s stove to systems that I pieced together to systems that I built myself. After spending a weekend using a stove that just wouldn’t work, I decided it was time to stop messing around with my stove systems and just pick one variety and stick with it. Life is too short to…
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It’s All in the Knot
Earlier this year, I was guiding a trip in Pigeon Bay, which is on the border of Minnesota and Ontario on Lake Superior. It was a windy day, but the wind was from the southwest, which, because the bay runs east northeast, usually means that it’s going to be calm in the bay. The bay itself is about 4 miles deep from Pigeon Point to the furthest west point of the bay, so it escapes the fury of the lake on any winds except from the northeast. The bay is formed by the Canadian mainland and Pigeon Point, a slender peninsula with a maximum width of about half a mile and…
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Grand Portage National Monument Rendezvous Days and Powwow
Every year during the second weekend of August, Grand Portage and the Grand Portage National Monument hosts Rendezvous Days and a Powwow. During the event, 1000s of people and 100s of reenactors show up at Grand Portage to experience what life was like for fur traders, who used canoes. The event celebrates the cultural heritage of the Anishinaabe and the history of fur trading in the area. The Rendezvous Days celebration harkens back to a different time, when beaver pelt was one of the most important trade items in the world. All across North America, the canoe held a central role in the trading of beaver pelts. It was easier to…
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National Hammock Day Giveaway
Did you know that there’s a national hammock day? I didn’t either, but, whether or not this is a made up holdiay, it’s one that I’d like to celebrate. You can easily celebrate it by kicking back on July 22nd in a hammock. If the bugs in northern Minnesota aren’t too bad that day, I’m going to. To help you celebrate Grand Trunk Goods is giving away $3000 in prizes — that’s a lot of hammocks. To win you need to upload a photo of your Grand Trunk gear or a photo of where you want to go with your Grand Trunk gear and then you get your friends to…
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Kayak Deck Slates
Over the past few years, I’ve run into many kayakers who see my sticker deck slates and ask where they can buy them. Unfortunately, they were only made in England and were was hard to get them and then they stopped making them. Over the last few years, I’ve toyed with getting some manufactured and offering them for sale on PaddlingLight. I even went so far as to have a graphic designer draw slates up, but then sat on it. This year, I took the plunge and had it done. I did an initial run of 100 slates to see how well they sell. Before I put the offer up…
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Paddle Float Rescue with Heel Hook
In the comments of my The Paddle Float Rescue: Why is Everyone Down on It? Jeremy Vore of The Art of Paddling wrote about using the heel hook during the paddle float rescue. I’ve tried the paddle float rescue with heel hook before using Sea Kayaker’s Magazine’s version, which has an awkward start that involves stretching your arms across the paddle shaft. It also locks the paddle under two decklines which makes it hard to get out. Jeremy’s version of the heel hook paddle float rescue is much simpler, uses fewer moves and doesn’t put your arms in an awkward position (and what looks to me, puts your shoulders at risk), although…
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The Paddle Float Rescue: Why is Everyone Down on It?
One of the first self-rescues that many kayakers learn is the paddle float rescue. The paddle float rescue (reentry) uses an inflatable bag, called a paddle float, on the end of a paddle to act as an outrigger that helps stabilize the kayak as the swimmer gets into it. The paddle float itself is simple and is easily stored bungee-corded to the back of a sea kayak’s backband. With practice the technique can be fast and effective even in rough water. In the Midwest, where I live, it’s becoming increasingly popular to claim that the paddle float rescue is a relic of an older era of sea kayaking and something that…
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Canoe & Kayak Magazine People’s Choice Award
I need some help to try and win a Canoe & Kayak People’s Choice Photo Contest. Please visit Canoe & Kayak People’s Choice Photo Contest. And then click “Vote” on my photo. Thanks! Here’s the image again. A sea kayak on Two Island Lake in Cook County, Minnesota. The clouds reflect in the calm water at sunset.
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How to Pick the Perfect Campsite
At the end of a long, hard day of kayaking or canoeing finding the perfect campsite can boost your morale and make the day’s effort feel more rewarding. With limited daylight and no desire to paddle further, and a just okay campsite at your bow, it’s tempting to paddle on just to see what’s around the corner. Follow the advice on this How to Pick the Perfect Campsite flow chart, you’ll find the perfect campsite every time you start to look. Click the image to view it larger.
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Spring(?) Kayaking on Brule Lake in the BWCA
This spring has been slow in coming. In northern Minnesota, we’re between 14 and 20 days behind median ice out, and it’s wearing a little thin on the nerves. This week some of the bigger lakes in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness finally started to go out, so with that in mind, Jeffrey and Michelle Forseth of Sea Kayak Safety and I went to paddle on Brule Lake. The put-in was completely ice free and it was 50°F, so we figured that we were golden, but as we paddled east along the shore, we started to run into ice and soon ice coated as far as we could see,…
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Kayak Outfitting Idea: Non-Skid Tape to Prevent Jammed Fingers
Last December, I read a blog post on Rouge Wave Adventures about how to performance tune a new sea kayak (the post contained many great tips, so I suggest you check it out). What I really liked about the post is that it suggested a new technique that solved an actual problem that I’ve experienced and you may have also. The technique was installing non-skid tape, such as Land N Sea Vinyl Traction Tape on a sea kayak to prevent jammed fingers. When getting out of the kayak’s cockpit, you often put your hands behind you and push on the rear deck to lift your rear. Now and then, when the deck…
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Why didn’t the kayaker cross the road? Ferry angles in kayaking
The Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys connects the Middle Keys to the Lower Keys. Under the bridge, the water is shallow, and it seems like the 1,000 square miles of the Florida Bay flows through the opening on the tide generating up to 4 knot currents. In a kayak, the current is swift enough to push you out to sea on an ebb tide or into the bay on flood. The common practice in a situation such as this is to find a ferry angle that prevents you from drifting out to sea and this is also a common practice with preventing leeway in cross winds. This is…
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Touring Sanborn Canoe Company’s Wood Shop
When I think of Sanborn Canoe Company, I think of handcrafted paddles steeped in the heritage of Minnesota’s canoe country. Their paddles take the names of some of the most scenic lakes in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, America’s most used and loved wilderness area. And the owners are the same guys breaking their backs making the paddles. They’re the real deal that love paddling so much that they were willing to sacrifice steady 9-5 jobs to build paddles that can be trusted on long canoe trips. As far as the paddles that they make, they do both bent shaft paddles with modern shapes and traditional paddles. They also offer…
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Kayak Camping: A lesson in leaving no trace and how to poop in the woods
See that island in the distance? The one surrounded by mangroves. Unlike other mangrove islands, the center of this one was all sand instead of clay. It also had a sandy beach that faced north with a view to the distant Seven-Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys and a view towards the setting sun. With the tide out, the beach extended about 100 feet. For sunrise, tidal pools formed in old coral reefs or limestone bedrock. The center of the island raised far above the tide. The open nature of the island meant that the breeze would help keep the no-see-ums away after the sun went down. It seemed like…
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Press Release: Attempt to Circumnavigate the World Suspended
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Unattempt to Circumnavigate the World by Kayak Suspended Grand Marais, Minnesota (April 1, 2013) — Today expedition paddler Bryan Hansel indefinately suspended his attempt to attempt a never before attempted kayaking route in the pursuit of becoming the first person in the world to circumnavigate the world by kayak. He was attempting the solo expedition to bring attention to the slowest growing religion in the world, The Church of the Latter-Day Dude. The expedition was set to start on the Great Lakes, travel to England via Greenland and Iceland. Then journey to the Mediterranean Sea to the Suez Channel and around India, with a short jaunt below…
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