Recent content by jdeerfoot

When I owned a VW Eurovan I usually provided the trip vehicle carrying two canoes, gear and four paddlers. I would load my canoe without assistance using a step stool. This was necessary due to the height of the van. I kind of viewed the balance required to do this as a form of exercise. I no...

I doubt there is a safe month to paddle on the big lake. I have a friend who worked as a seasonal ranger at Sand Bay in the National Lakeshore. They regularly rescued people who rented kayaks there. The saddest incident in the Lakeshore was when a father and 3 young children perished in an...

With my limited computer skills I was able to find portions of the popular segments of the Kopka River, NW Ontario.

Great report (like your others), on a dream trip. I would bring my wife - who is conversant in French.

When I think of Lake Superior, I go back to my honeymoon trip to Isle Royale NP in June 1974. The bride and I took the Isle Royale Queen passenger ferry from Copper Harbor MI, the most northern point of Upper Michigan, across the lake to Rock Harbor, Isle Royale. The trip over was almost as...

Lake Superior can often be adventurous to paddle at anytime of the year.

In Ignace ON on the TransCanadian Hwy 17 where Hwy 599 goes north there is a great burger stand. I can’t remember the name but it is a mom and pop trailer parked in between two store fronts in a small strip mall right behind the Tesla charging station. They put a deck in front of the trailer...

Sporks - we have a few around here which were given to the grandchildren when they were young. But apparently even they didn’t really want them since they are still here and the grandchildren are long gone. This thread made me realize I am a spoon guy - my day starts with a spoon and cereal and...

Wisconsin, Upper/Lower Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, North Carolina, Washington DC, Hawaii-Big Island (outrigger canoe), Guam No. Mariana Islands (outrigger canoe), Palua (outrigger canoe single), Ontario (40 weeks of trips over 18 years), Manitoba.

I went on a number of BWCA trips with the youth group from my wife's church. They were mostly fun trips, especially with those athletic teenaged boys who made contests of showing off their strength and agility with heavy canoes and packs to impress the girls. This allowed me to saunter across...

PBJ on whole wheat wraps is on all of my trips. Never any spoilage issues and always a group favorite.

Maybe “wrangling.”

When I stored the Grumman outside behind the garage I managed to keep the birds from nesting under it. I placed various items on the likely nesting sites, like the bottoms of the seats, to deny them any flat surfaces. Doing this worked well and allowed me to find a use for all the seemingly...

Medical dog tags might work for some but I think mine would have to be fairly large. I wonder why people aren’t microchipped like pets.

As soon as we added a door hood over the back door, the local birds began to attempt construction of their nest on top of the light under the hood. From a bird’s perspective this was an ideal place for a nest - out of the weather with nighttime warmth from the dusk-to-dawn light and a great view...