-
Public Domain Canoe and Kayak Images
I always enjoy looking through old canoeing and kayaking images. They remind me that people have been paddling for a long time–what we do isn’t new, because it’s been around for thousands of years. It reminds me that our recreational activity links us to all those back through time that have enjoyed it. They enjoyed adventure as much as we do. It also reminds me how much better we look doing it now; look at some of the goofy outfits worn by paddlers of the past. My two favorite locations are on Flickr’s The Commons, which has a small but interesting collection, and Minnesota Historical Society’s Visual Resource Database. Every…
-
Taking Great Canoe and Sunset Pictures
A canoe, glassy water, and a sunset go together like bananas, ice cream, and whipped cream. But unlike the quickly fading delight of savoring a banana split, capturing a sunset in a picture allows for sharing and enjoyment for years. Sunset pictures are tricky. Typically, like in the pictures below, you can capture either the detail and color in the sky and have the canoe go dark and black or your can make the canoe light and visible, but lose the color in the sky. Using a Graduated Neutral Density filter, you can capture both a colorful sky and a detailed foreground and end up with a picture like the…
-
How to Replace Your Kayak’s End Toggle
A couple of years ago, I watched a friend of mine carrying his wife’s boat down to the shore. A new kayaker taking a lesson from us carried the bow. Unfortunately, the worn-out rope attaching the kayak’s end toggle to the boat broke sending the bow of the $3200 fiberglass Valley Pintail to the asphalt. It hit with a crunch. He’s divorced now. I don’t know if it had anything to do with the kayak. Kayakers use end toggles (handles) for lots of things, but, arguably, the most important function is as a handle that allows the boat to spin freely if you have to swim your boat through the…
-
How to Recognize Drowning
gCaptian published two articles that every paddler should read: Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning and The Truth About Cold Water. Below is an excerpt from the Drowning article. The Instinctive Drowning Response – so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. And it does not look like most people expect. There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind. To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15…
-
The Eight Rules of Paddle Club
Paddler: Why? I don’t know why; I don’t know. Never been in a kayak. You?Narrator: No, but that’s a good thing.Paddler: No, it is not. How much can you know about yourself, you’ve never been in a kayak? I don’t wanna die without any swims. The eight rules of paddle club1: This spring our local paddle club debated rules, insurance and liability. In the end, we decided that we’re just a group of friends who paddle together and that each paddler is responsible for himself. We also decided that we’d only paddle with people who know how to perform self and assisted reentries. And paddlers must have the right gear…
-
GearPods Health Kit Review
This second review of components in the GearPods Wilderness system looks at the included GearPods Health kit. GearPods offer “modular, lightweight adventure and survival gear to help the outdoor enthusiast to prepare for the unexpected.” In all their systems, they combine interconnecting, “waterproof” containers with survival kits. 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 a first aid kit is only used when an injury occurs, I’m looking at the parts of this kit without having to use them. The kit is contained in a small nylon pouch inside of…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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.…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
