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How to Use a VHF Radio
When paddling, you might need to communicate to other vessels. One tool that a kayaker or canoeist can use to communicate is a handheld VHF radio. A VHF radio broadcasts your message out to other boaters in the area listening to their radios. You can use VHF radios in emergencies or just to relay information. Knowing how to use one allows you to get your message out quickly, so you can concentrate on paddling. VHF Etiquette Think of a VHF radio as a direct connection to every other vessel in your line-of-sight and within your radio’s range. When you talk on it, every other vessel in the area hears what…
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Top Paddling Gear of 2010
This year, I’ve seen lots of water time and used lots of new gear and plenty of old classics, too. Some gear stands out as the best of the year and even as a lifetime pick — I couldn’t see ever changing back. Out of all the gear I use, these are my top 10 picks. 1. Trails Illustrated BWCA Maps — These two maps show the entire Boundary Waters Canoe Area in a compact package. They do have their faults, like the border is covered with a dark line that makes navigation slightly difficult there, a winter sled dog trail shown as a portage and a few missing campsites,…
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Lightweight Canister Stoves
Recently, I’ve been preparing for a seven-day two-person canoe trip by reorganizing my cooking gear. I’ve settled on taking a Penny Stove, made from beer cans, but what if I wanted to use a canister stove? There are lots of reasons to bring a canister stove, but I find the most compelling reason is its ability to easily control the flame. Least compelling for me is having to use a non-renewable energy source. Still, from a weight perspective a canister stove makes good sense. Subscribe to Blog via Email Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address Subscribe My…
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Lightweight Cooking Gear
A great lightweight cooking system should quickly and efficiently boil water, set up easily, and pack up into the system’s largest pot. Lately, because I’m preparing for a seven-day two-person canoe trip, I’ve been looking for cooking gear that meets this criteria. I’ve looked into lightweight commercial cooking gear, like the Caldera Cone and the Jetboil (which I love for solo travel), but everything I’ve looked at seems lacking in some aspect. For example, the Cone doesn’t pack into a pot, and once you add all the accessories to make a Jetboil convenient for two, it ends up weighing significantly more than other options. I also wanted something that used…
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How to Take Advantage of Gear Warranties
Subscribe to Blog via Email Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address Subscribe When an expensive piece of equipment breaks during an expedition, you fix it, swallow your losses and then get home. Once home, it sucks having to buy a new piece of gear, especially if you loved the broken one, and it was expensive. Luckily, most outdoor equipment offers some type of warranty and many brands offer lifetime warranties. Before you buy a new piece of gear to replace your old make sure you try and take advantage of the warranty. Recently, I had a small…
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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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Outfitting Your Canoe’s Thwarts
Subscribe to Blog via Email Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address Subscribe 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…
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A Paddling Emergency Ditch Kit
A common fear among paddlers is losing the boat or getting into a situation where the boat must be abandoned. Usually, along with the boat, the gear is lost too. It happens. An example of it happing comes from Canoe Trip: Alone in the Maine Wilderness Subscribe to Blog via Email Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address Subscribe . The author David Curran finds himself on the wrong side of a flooded river upstream of a rapid that would likely mean his death. After getting to shore, he abandons his canoe in an attempt to walk back…
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How to Decorate a Canoe Paddle
Subscribe to Blog via Email Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address Subscribe Since I built a Northwoods canoe paddle in a North House Folk School class, it has decorated the corner of my living room. Serving as decoration, I always thought that it needed a design painted onto it–if I’m only using it for decoration, why not. For awhile now, I’ve been following Murat’s Paddle Making (and other canoe stuff) blog, and I’ve been inspired by both his paddle building skill and his decorating skills. When he posted a picture of Steve Pyne’s Māori decorated paddle, I…
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Great Gift Ideas for Paddlers
The end of the year approaches and the holidays are almost upon us. This means it’s time to start thinking about holiday gift ideas for the canoeist and kayakers in the family. This year, I’ve used and fell in love with a bunch of gear. Some of the gear I’ve fallen in love with appears on this year’s list. I think most paddlers would enjoy seeing these items under their Christmas or holiday tree, and I expect they’d fall in love with the gifts too. Sea Kayak With Gordon Brown DVD: Two years ago I got Gordon Brown’s book, Sea Kayak: A Manual for Intermediate and Advanced Sea Kayakers, as…
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IKEA Tote Bags for Kayakers
IKEA tote bags revolutionized (if revolution is simply change) the way I carry gear to and from my kayak. In the past, I’d grab a couple or three dry bags, carry them up the beach to the tent, drop, and repeat, but since my trip to Norway last year, where I discovered IKEA tote bags being used by the folks we kayaked with, I’ve been using these lightweight and compact bags to store my gear, carry my gear from the car to the beach, and to carry from the kayak to camp. At IKEA stores, they cost $0.59, but without a nearby IKEA, Amazon Subscribe to Blog via Email Enter…
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Throw Bags for Sea Kayaking
Most sea kayakers who’ve passed a safety and rescue class are aware of the importance of carrying a tow rope. A similar safety device that could be of equal importance and prove more handy in some rescue situations is a whitewater throw bag Subscribe to Blog via Email Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address Subscribe . These bags are inexpensive and lightweight, so there is no excuse not to carry one in some situations. Throw Bags Basics A whitewater throw bag is a rescue tool typically with 50 to 70 feet or floating rope loosely packed into…
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Three Easy Tarp Setups
An easy way to drop weight out of your boat is to switch from a tent to a tarp. Even using a tarp with a bug bivy will save over 2 pounds for the lightest tents and over 4 pounds for average weight tents. Besides saving weight, tarps provide more usable space, less parts to break, they’re easier to pack up, keep your sleeping area drier both in the morning when packing up and during the night with less condensation, and they take up considerably less space in your portage pack or hatches. With a little practice, tarps are easy and quick to set up, and depending on the setup,…
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An Example Lightweight First Aid Kit
The knowledge of wilderness medicine is a primary skill for wilderness travel and once trained in wilderness medicine, you can start to put together a First Aid kit that will meet your needs. Below is the list that I’ve come up with for my needs when out on trips with 2 to 4 people and up to 10 days. Training Anyone traveling into the outdoors on day trips or multiple day trips should at a minimum have first aid training. Most basic first aid training is designed to keep a person alive until an ambulance arrives or until a hospital is reached. In the wilderness, an ambulance or hospital may…
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Cape Falcon Kayak Lightweight Gear List
Talk about going light, Brian Schulz of Cape Falcon Kayaks lists his standard kayak camping list in a thread at the Qajaq USA. His basic camping list: Clothing 1 set of quick dry clothes, no underwear, a warm sweater a hat Shelter System foam pad sleeping bag tarp Cooking System 1 qt pot a spoon knife 3 bic lighters msr 10L water bladder nalgene bottle Emergency Gear and First Aid roll of duct tape bottle of cipro benadryl Extra Gear book headlamp Other hat He writes as far as camping goes, when I look at most peoples kit’s I just shake my head and ask “What IS all this shit?”…