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Some New Year’s Resolutions
Every year it seems that people are making their newest New Year’s resolutions within a day or two after the big year ending celebration of December 31st. And, of course, it seems that if someone has made a New Year’s resolution, then they want you to share yours, and every year, when asked, I say I don’t have any, because I often wait for a while to see if I want to make any. It turns January into a month of reflection on the last year, and lets it sink in. I often ask myself the question: What did I accomplish? What did I want to do and didn’t? And…
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Getting By: Learning Life’s Little Lessons
At the holidays, I find myself, like most Americans back home with my family, and usually just after we finish our holiday ham and while still leaning back with full stomachs, the subject of my life comes up. Often this leads to the discussion of my job or lack of job as they see it – a full-time adventurer. (They read Slacker) On a recent trip, I sat and listened to the normal chatter of, “I don’t know why you ever quit your last job. It was so good. You made good money there,” until I couldn’t’t take it anymore. “I’ll tell you why,” I said. “Because I’ve learned everything…
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Multi-Tool Envy
Its that time of year again when the Mississippi thaws and sends giant chunks of ice spinning down to New Orleans or to their eventually return to fluid. Its also that time of year again when we paddlers tend to venture out to the retail outlets and send large chunks of change to the bottom lines of cash hunger business owners. This year, Ive found myself longing for an unusual long list of items, and expect my top line to become intimately involved with my bottom line. On a recent visit to a local retailer to help check items off of the list, I found myself gawking over the wide…
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Where the Road Ends
Life is not separate from death. It only looks that way. -Blackfoot proverb Yesterday, I took my new West Greenland skin-on-frame kayak to the flooded Hawkeye Wildlife Management Area in the middle of Iowa – little did the Inuit know that their type of watercraft would be used so far from Artic waters. This WMA is made up of pools and wetland created by the back up of water behind the Coralville Reservoir and usually is only a couple of feet deep, but with the flood water the WMA had gained six to ten feet of water. It has become a real sized lake with real sized water. Just the…
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The Lomo and Canoes
One hand holding the 4 pounds of my fully auto focus frame advancing Nikon SLR camera with attached 35-70 mm lens and the other using a paddle thrust into the mud of the rivers bottom to hold the canoe steady, I eased myself into position to shoot a bow in the center of the frame shot that I love. The morning light glowed. I snapped. Snapped again, and once again. I put the camera into a dry bag and pulled the paddle out of the mud. I love photography, but sometimes wish for an easier method of capturing those great moments in time. In this age of mega-pixels, digital, 5…
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A Thousand Words For One Image
“Lastingly successful art triggers audience responses that are ready to happen in the culture as a whole. Regardless of how perfectly a photographer’s work rends a subject, it is bound to fail unless it strikes that chord that elicits a common emotional and visual response.” From Galen Rowell’s Inner Game of Outdoor Photography, Galen Rowell, 2001 The sunrise broke over the distant mountains. It broke across hilltops that swam in a deep white fog on a fall morning in the Smoky Mountains. The morning was cold and I stood with my small hand-me-down 35mm camera and shot a few pictures while shivering and try to hold my camera steady. Next…
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Lake Superior Waves
Waves are soothing for a wary soul. It’s much better to go lightweight and simple, than it is to become wary.
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Boundary Water Canoe Area Wilderness VR Tour
This page is down until further notice. [ptviewer parameters imagewidth=”1700″ imageheight=”850″ horizon=”425″ hfov=”360″ href=”https://www.paddlinglight.com/pl/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/bwca5.jpg” /] Click and move the mouse to pan and tilt. The “˜< >“˜ keys zoom. About the BWCA The Boundary Waters Canoe Area preserves as wilderness almost 200 miles of lakes and forestland running along the border of the U.S. and Canada. It reaches from Crane Lake in the Voyageurs National Park to the Pigeon River, which empties to Lake Superior. With over one million acres, over 1000 lakes, 2000 campsites it ranks as the second largest area within the United States’ National Wilderness Preservation system. It is one of two nationally designated canoe wilderness areas…
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How to Choose A Canoe
In the Canoe & Kayak Magazine 2006 Buyer's Guide, over 90 canoe manufacturers were listed, and this doesn't include many of the smaller companies that build only a few canoes a year. Quickly scanning the listings, it easy to conclude that the magazine lists over 900 models of canoes. That's a lot of canoes and that makes choosing a canoe one of the most complicated buying decisions out of any outdoor sport. Combing the number of models with the average canoe cost of around $1000 US, this can make the first-time canoe buyer nervous about their canoe purchase. It doesn't have to be that way though.
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How to Choose a Tent
A tent is your home away from home. It needs to be waterproof, durable, but most of all it has to be easy to set up. There are many types of tents and which one is right for you depend on many factors. Will you be backpacking, bike touring, or family camping? How many people will be using it? Do you need to use it in winter or will you camp in windy and exposed conditions? By considering a few factors you pick select the perfect tent for your needs.
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How to Choose a Sleeping Bag
With the multitudes of sleeping bags hanging off of the racks, the many choices of insulation, prices ranging from $17.99 on up, and different shapes and sizes, it is difficult to make a choice. By considering just a few factors you will have the perfect sleeping bags for your needs. Temperature Range The perfect temperature for your bag depends on where and when you will be using it. If you plan on taking a trip to Alaska in winter, you will need a different bag than one you would take on the RAGRAI bike ride in Iowa in summer. One bag can’t do it all. Also, you need to determine…
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Avoid the Beaver and Save the Weight: How to Choose a Water Filter
It hit me about halfway up the mountain. It hit with that instant urge. It was coming and now, so I ran into the woods, didn’t have time to dig a hole, dropped my pants around my ankles, and that was the start of a six month bout of beaver fever. About halfway up the mountain, she started to have the runs. It just so happened that there was a road and visitor center at the top of the mountain, so she kept on walking. About every ten minutes, she had to go. We feed her all our water, but by the top of the mountain, she was completely dehydrated.…
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How Much Food Should I Pack
Dear PaddlingLight, As I canoe more, leaving the river of home and enter the BWCA, I must portage. I do not want to carry needless weight. So, I am planning a 6 day trip with lots of portaging, some are 340 rods, some only 8. However, as a soloist, I have determined to double portage, thus a 340-rod portage is really 1020 rods. So it is like this, I get by on minimal food on a timber trek. Although I climb serious hills, I am not carrying a 60-pound pack or a canoe. I am assuming the physical exertion even on a small mile trip is demanding. I am wondering…
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Dear Nessmuking: Your Questions, Our Answers
Dear Nessmuking, I am in the process of choosing an ultra-light canoe and becoming a little frustrated by the whole thing. There seems to be a lot of b.s. out there, especially from those trying to sell me a boat. I’ve narrowed my choices to the Bluewater Tripper and the Quetico 17′. A few dealers have been telling the Souris River oilcans badly and that it is a problem that will worsen with age. The others have told me the Freedom Tripper is too small for the occasional 3rd paddler (in my case all 3 people are a little over 51/2 ft. tall with a total weight of about 400…
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Free Aleutian Baidarka Kayak Plans
Free plans for building an Aleutian Baidarka Kayak using the Hulls boat design program.
