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GearPods Shelter Kit Review
GearPods, a company based out of Polson, Montana, manufactures “modular, lightweight adventure and survival gear to help the outdoor enthusiast to prepare for the unexpected.” Their gear systems combine interconnecting, waterproof containers with pre-built survival kits. Users combine any number of containers and gear to arrive at a customized kit, something like my emergency ditch kit. I’m currently testing out GearPods Wilderness system, which includes first-aid, survival gear, a lightweight stove, and the GearPods Shelter. Because the system is modular, I’m reviewing each component separately. I’ll wrap-up the reviews in a final overview and opinion of the products with a separate post. Because, I travel in lightweight style, I prefer…
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New National Geographic Maps Cover the Boundary Waters Canoe Area
There’s a new player in town for Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness maps, and it’s National Geographic’s excellent Trails Illustrated Maps. The current players in the BWCA map field include McKenzie Maps, Fisher Maps, and Voyageur Maps. Each of the current vendors follows the philosophy that more detail is better. To cover the entire BWCA, they require 25, 32, or 10 maps, respectively. Trails Illustrated does it with 2! Trails Illustrated Boundary Waters maps are printed on double-sided waterproof and tear resistant 27″ x 39″ paper. When folded, the maps reduce down in size to approximately 4 1/4″ x 9 1/4″. They weigh 3.3 ounces each. The scale of 1:70,000…
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Increase Your Paddling Glove’s Grip with Sex Wax
When wearing paddling gloves, it seems like I always have to suffer a trade-off: warmth vs. good grip. On those cold and wavy days when Lake Superior’s 40°F water threatens to turn my hands into a solid popsicles, the lake leaves me no choice except to don the gloves. Just the other day when wearing glove–I forgot my secret formula from making a paddle shaft grippy–I almost missed a brace when my glove slipped right off the paddle shaft. To compensate for the lack of grip, I notice I tend to tighten my hold onto the paddle’s shaft, which locks my wrist into an angle that flares up my tendonitis.…
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When did you start kayaking?
A guest post by Lee Gilbert of A Whole Bunch of Ing’s. Lee is the expedition leader for the Paddle to Retirement Expedition. “When did you start kayaking?” is a icebreaker, an epilogue of our paddling to that very moment. Whether it be sitting on a beach next to a roaring fire, in a pub being introduced to new paddling partners, or socializing at a symposium; this is the simple nexus that drawls so many different people together. And here’s mine. I grew up in a modest house in rural Newfoundland with salt stained windows, which my mother would feverishly clean after every storm. Kelp was a common site in…
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Kayaking Lake Superior’s Tettegouche State Park
For one of the best day-long kayaking trips on Minnesota’s north shore of Lake Superior, North America’s largest inland sea, visit Tettegouche State Park. The trip begins on the Baptism River, heads out along the open coast of Superior, and brings you up against 200-foot tall palisades and through sea caves. Because of the limited landings, rebounding waves, and cold water, I recommend this trip for experienced sea kayakers only. If you lack experience consider hiring a guide or booking a trip through an experienced sea kayaking company, such as North Shore Expedition’s Tettegouche Kayaking Trip. The Kayaking Route Enter Tettegouche State Park and park near the bridge. You’ll need…
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Outfitting Your Canoe’s Thwarts
As a canoeist, I’m always looking for a place to stash a map, water bottle, or my compass. On days with scattered showers, I want a place to store my rain jacket that I can quickly get to it. In the past, I’ve just stored stuff in the bilge of the canoe, which isn’t ideal–items get soaked or roll around. Years ago, I decided to make my canoes more like my kayaks by adding bungee cords. In a kayak, bungee cords crisscross the deck in front of the paddler. It’s easy to stash maps, bottles, and miscellaneous gear under the bungee cords, and it’s easy to get to that gear…
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How Much Faster is the Longer Kayak?
Recently, Silbs asks, Meanwhile, I have been driving myself nuts while mulling over an issue around boat size and speed. For starters, we all agree that a longer boat (all else being equal) can go faster than a shorter one. So far so good. In addition, we know that that longer boat will need more horsepower (muscle) to hit those higher speeds. Correct? Here’s where the waters get muddy. Say a paddler is capable of putting out, oh say, 5 units of power. If we put this paddler into a long boat that needs 6 units of power to hit top speed, he will fall short. Okay? Now, let’s put…
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Review: Jetboil Stove
Jetboil’s Personal Cooking System, now called the Flash Cooking System, includes a compact stove, windscreen, bowl and pot. When combined with a 100-gram fuel canister, the components create a small cooking system for one person. Jetboil designed the stove and fuel canister to perfectly nest into the pot. This creates a system that when packed is about the size of a Nalgene bottle. The compact nature of the stove drew me to it, and about a year ago, I received one from Jetboil to use on an expedition. Over the course of a year, I’ve used the stove for over 50 days, and feel confident in reviewing it. Using a…
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Quick Emergency Fix for a Broken Zipper
The most common failure of a zipper in the outdoors is when the zipper parts after closed. If your zipper is a coil zipper–most zippers used for outdoor gear are–then the problem probably lies with the zipper pull. Often the zipper pull becomes deformed and that deformity prevents the coils from meshing, which causes the zipper to split open after you closed it. You can imagine the desire to fix a broken zipper on your tents canopy during bug season in a boreal forest, and you can imagine a run to the boat to grab your emergency duct tape. Before you apply tape, try a quick emergency fix for your…
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Why I Canoe
A guest post by Amy Funk of Campgirlz.com To talk about why I canoe, I have to first address my passion for the natural world. Sometimes tragedy can push you to find comfort. The year I turned six, my brother was killed in a car accident in July. A few months later, one of my Mom’s best friends died of a brain tumor, and the following month, my cousin was killed in a fire started by a Christmas tree. I remember this time as very confusing and scary. I also remember this time as my first glimpse of the healing solitude of the outdoors. Trying to deal with all the…
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How I Got Started Paddling
Over at Kayakquixotica.com, Derrik asks, “I know there are lots of very experienced paddlers out there. Help me out and share how you got into paddling in the first place…” Taking up his challenge, I posted a comment on his blog. Many more comments followed mine, and I found each comment interesting and enlightening. From the comments, it’s easy to see how appealing the sport is to all types of people. The more I thought about this, the clearer it became to me that doing a post on Nessmuking about how I got into paddling would be a perfect way for me to expand the topic. How I Got into…
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The View from the Canoe Project
A guest post by Scott Schuldt of canoepost.blogspot.com. Tuesday, September 22, 2009 – You Can Tell I woke up early this morning. It was dark and I was in bed, but I was already in my canoe. Fall is here. It will be unusually warm today, maybe 15 or 20 degrees above normal. The thermometer will say summer. The simplest and easiest measurement will lead one astray, as simple and easy information often does, in all things. It is fall and while at the scientific level there are dozens of measurements that say so, it is the qualitative that tells me so. The light has changed. Gone is the harsh…
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Lightweight Camping Cups
I was walking through an REI store, and I noticed that they offer a plethora of different camping cups. They caught my eye, because when I’m traveling lightweight, I tend to just carry along lightweight platypus bottles, but I like to drink a cup of hot chocolate spiked with a little Baileys Irish Cream and in the morning, I like to start the day with instant coffee. I hate using my platys for this type of drink, because the bottles end up tasting like whatever you put in it, so I considered buying a lightweight titanium camping cup. I just couldn’t stomach the titanium options, because they were so expensive–they…
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Winter Kayaking
“There is no bad weather, only the wrong gear.” -Minnesota Proverb Winter shorelines feature ice formations, ice caves, and the air is crystal clear which allows you to see for miles. On a blue-sky winter day, I feel there’s no other place I’d rather be than on the water paddling. With the proper gear and precautions, winter needn’t be a reason to stay off the water. Luckily, for me I live on the north shore of Lake Superior, and its shores remain ice-free for most of the winter. Some winters, we have only a few weeks of ice, and during some, we have months of ice. If you have open…
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How Far Away is the Horizon
APPARENT HORIZON: Where the sky appears to meet the Earth. (Also sea horizon.) Because of perspective effects, different observers generally have different apparent horizons. Because of refraction, even the sea horizon usually lies above the geometric horizon. -From the Atmospheric Optics Glossary. Knowing the distance to the horizon is handy when estimating how long it will take you to travel to a distant point. To accurately estimate to distance, understand that the apparent horizon changes based on the height of your eyes; the higher your eyes, the further you can see. That’s why it seems you can see forever when standing atop a mountain. Estimating the Distance to the Apparent…
