Will there be more or less pilgrims in the back country when things open up this year? I'm betting a flood of paddlers competing for campsites in canoe country. People tired of winter, quarantine anxious to decompress in nature.
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Post Apocalypse Tripping World
- Thread starter Black_Fly
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I would think the opposite, hard core trippers will go but those that do it occasionally or the bucket list crowd won't be there. Gonna be a tough year for outfitters would be my guess.
Less I would think. Supporting services will still be curtailed is my guess and some of them will never re open. Those that have jobs that have been furloughed won't have vacation time coming nor the money to galavant.
I have only encountered campsite competition three times in 55 years. Once in the BWCA, once at Quetico at one place ( Quetico Lake) and once when the Allagash opened and that was smooted over by rangers assigning campsites. Allagash has in these later years been a lower visitaion area though some kids camps do trips on it and there can be knots of kid canoers. I expect I can trip there with no hassle.
I don't know if kids camps will even open this summer
I have only encountered campsite competition three times in 55 years. Once in the BWCA, once at Quetico at one place ( Quetico Lake) and once when the Allagash opened and that was smooted over by rangers assigning campsites. Allagash has in these later years been a lower visitaion area though some kids camps do trips on it and there can be knots of kid canoers. I expect I can trip there with no hassle.
I don't know if kids camps will even open this summer
Flags unfurled, crowds gatherin' round, kids lining the sidewalks three deep all waiting for the first float of the day. Soon clowns bounce up tossing candy to the crowd and up rolls a coloured crepe papered float festooned with balloons, the flat bed trailer pulled by the shiniest tractor in the fleet. Even the shopkeepers step outside and sidle up under the awning for the town parade, but wait. What's that? Over above the rooftops a dark sinister cloud grows more purply bluer blacker boiling in the sky. What is it? It's Brad ready to rain on your parade. Lol.
I'm anticipating canoe tripping no sooner than next year. Even if we do soon witness the flattening of the Covid19 curve it'll still be awhile before anyone can safely relax the measures we're still struggling with putting in place. Social distancing, relative isolation, testing, treatment...I think we need patience. I hope I'm wrong, and goodness knows that's been known to happen so many times, and we all get back to some kind of new normal again soon. That would be nice. I'm just anticipating a longer wait for normal. Don't get me wrong. I love a good parade.
ps And in my positive frame of mind I don't consider this apocalyptic. Bad? Yes for everyone. Scary? Certainly for some. But the end of the world? No. We can get through this if we keep our heads, stay smart and think community.
pps In answer to the question of how folks will respond to campsites finally opening up, I'd guess there'll be an unusually larger horde of people trying to book frontcountry sites in parks etc. It'll probably be mayhem. Backcountry will probably see the usual summer surge of numbers all vying for the limited park sites. I hope I'm wrong. I hope most everyone else gives up on this canoe camping thing and takes up mini putting. Or frisbee golf. Or macramé?
That would make me very happy.
I'm anticipating canoe tripping no sooner than next year. Even if we do soon witness the flattening of the Covid19 curve it'll still be awhile before anyone can safely relax the measures we're still struggling with putting in place. Social distancing, relative isolation, testing, treatment...I think we need patience. I hope I'm wrong, and goodness knows that's been known to happen so many times, and we all get back to some kind of new normal again soon. That would be nice. I'm just anticipating a longer wait for normal. Don't get me wrong. I love a good parade.
ps And in my positive frame of mind I don't consider this apocalyptic. Bad? Yes for everyone. Scary? Certainly for some. But the end of the world? No. We can get through this if we keep our heads, stay smart and think community.
pps In answer to the question of how folks will respond to campsites finally opening up, I'd guess there'll be an unusually larger horde of people trying to book frontcountry sites in parks etc. It'll probably be mayhem. Backcountry will probably see the usual summer surge of numbers all vying for the limited park sites. I hope I'm wrong. I hope most everyone else gives up on this canoe camping thing and takes up mini putting. Or frisbee golf. Or macramé?
That would make me very happy.
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Odyssey, I liked you post, not because its cool, but I must unfortunately agree with you. I'm afraid that until there is a vaccine (12 to 18 months from now) we will not be back to "normal"
I hope that when we do get out this summer, we find access points nearly vacant, and those that are out be patient and practice proper distancing - PPE.
I'm afraid that this will have to be practiced as much and as strictly as LNT while in the woods.
who wants to be on a Portage and hear coughing and sneezing as you come over the hill to pick up your second load? Does that person have it? Do I need to wash my kit that he was coughing over? Who knows?!
so yup, I'm in the Brad rain cloud camp. Next year.
Jason
I hope that when we do get out this summer, we find access points nearly vacant, and those that are out be patient and practice proper distancing - PPE.
I'm afraid that this will have to be practiced as much and as strictly as LNT while in the woods.
who wants to be on a Portage and hear coughing and sneezing as you come over the hill to pick up your second load? Does that person have it? Do I need to wash my kit that he was coughing over? Who knows?!
so yup, I'm in the Brad rain cloud camp. Next year.
Jason
That's an interesting but sad scenario Jason, tripping with PPE as part of our kits. Just yesterday evening I went in search of a mask in the toolshed. I had two respirator types I've used for spraying paints, varnishes etc. but I wasn't intending to bring those scary looking things out of retirement. I knew I had cheap dust masks around somewhere for drywall sanding etc. Um no, no I haven't. I've given all those away to needy DIYers. But I did find three disposable NIOSH N-95 masks good as new. How about that? I do keep good stuff around sometimes. They'll go in the vehicle along with a squirt bottle of hand sanitizer we've had for ages and gloves, to be employed on the seldom shopping excursions we take to quiet stores. It would be weird to take these along camping. I'm only just getting used to bringing bear bangers for protection. Face masks? Rubber gloves?
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Wife made me an ad hoc mask from a bandanna. It's just folded so I didn't sacrifice a good bandanna. Told her I can now blow my nose hands free. She wasn't amused. 
that's the nice thing about being a paddler and DIY'er, lots of PPE laying around- regular old dustmasks for sanding wood, surgical masks for messy stuff you definitely want to block like fiberglass, and N95's for those lovely things like hardener, acetone, and solvent fumes! Not to mention safety glasses, goggles, and face shields, and a nice supply of latex and nitrile gloves (who likes spending a week picking hardened epoxy or gorrilla glue from their fingers)
As for the paddling season, I think it's a wash for this year, even if restrictions were lifted today, there'll still need to be a couple of months of rehab required, buildings and trails don't take kindly to being abandoned for 1/2 of a year, not to mention the time it'll take to restart the factories that make the gear, and lead time to produce and ship that stuff. only then can the outfitters stock and re-open the stores
As for the paddling season, I think it's a wash for this year, even if restrictions were lifted today, there'll still need to be a couple of months of rehab required, buildings and trails don't take kindly to being abandoned for 1/2 of a year, not to mention the time it'll take to restart the factories that make the gear, and lead time to produce and ship that stuff. only then can the outfitters stock and re-open the stores
Only thing holding me up is three feet of ice and gub-er-ment restrictions.
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If things keep at keeping the way it keeps keeping, we won't be done with this pandemic for a while yet!! I'm thinking this summer might be a write-off, at least to travel to established camp site and inside parks boundaries! Hope I'm wrong! But as long as I can try to fill up my freezer starting august first then I'll be happy!!
Come on now. What would pioneers say about such things? Real wilderness don't need no souvenir stores or trails cleared. All I need is a fair day and a place to park, as long as the bureaucracy doesn't get in my way.
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I am looking forward to getting out. I imagine the easy to get to places might be crowded, but the hard to reach spots will be like usual- just you and whomever you wish to bring or not bring. When this is over, everything will feel incredible. Can’t wait!
Bob
Bob
I hate to be a nay sayer but in my neck of the woods the trailheads are packed with cars and people and those people are milling together like a bunch of cattle shoulder to shoulder yakking it up like it was a casual get together. As long as that stuff happens this is going to be a long road to recovery. I will be doing only solo upstream paddles as long as the boat ramps are open, here in NH they haven't shut those down yet and the few that have gates those are not shut.
G
Guest
Guest
I’m beginning to feel kinda stuck.
Most of the places I day paddle are closed to visitation. Or if (questionably) open, the parking areas are do-not taped off. Pretty much anywhere I might trip in the mid-Atlantic, especially the permit stuff, is crap-sure closed, and any paid downriver outfitter shuttles, even distant, are shut down for the duration. For example:
https://texsriverways.com/
Despite interpretations of Maryland restrictions allowing paddling (with appropriate social distancing) for exercise the few local venues I am questionable about are simply not worth a DRN or John Law confrontation, even if I went out paddling legal-as-a-beagle with just a water bottle as beverage and tobacco as smokeables.
I may need to live vicariously through trip reports from those of you who live in less populated areas, near less restrictive waters. A whole freaking spring, shot to heck.
Outfitters and guides who do a lot of their business with foreign visitors, German adventurer trippers, Asian daytrippers or vacationing eco-tourists, are gonna get hammered this spring and summer.
Who is going to book a flight and lay a reservation down payment on a trip so fraught with cancellation possibilities?
Those folks, the owners and guides, and summer gig-job shuttle drivers and boat monkeys, are going to get hurt.
Most of the places I day paddle are closed to visitation. Or if (questionably) open, the parking areas are do-not taped off. Pretty much anywhere I might trip in the mid-Atlantic, especially the permit stuff, is crap-sure closed, and any paid downriver outfitter shuttles, even distant, are shut down for the duration. For example:
https://texsriverways.com/
Despite interpretations of Maryland restrictions allowing paddling (with appropriate social distancing) for exercise the few local venues I am questionable about are simply not worth a DRN or John Law confrontation, even if I went out paddling legal-as-a-beagle with just a water bottle as beverage and tobacco as smokeables.
I may need to live vicariously through trip reports from those of you who live in less populated areas, near less restrictive waters. A whole freaking spring, shot to heck.
Outfitters and guides who do a lot of their business with foreign visitors, German adventurer trippers, Asian daytrippers or vacationing eco-tourists, are gonna get hammered this spring and summer.
Who is going to book a flight and lay a reservation down payment on a trip so fraught with cancellation possibilities?
Those folks, the owners and guides, and summer gig-job shuttle drivers and boat monkeys, are going to get hurt.
If I get to canoe in the Yukon Territory this year, I would think I may see fewer Europeans [usually Germans]. We'll see if the direct flight from Germany to Whitehorse happens this summer.
The way I see it the return to normal will be slow until we are all vaccinated. Borders will probably remained closed to the general public until then. It will probably be difficult for us Canadians to use our parks and canoeing areas this calendar year. The older we are the longer it will take for us to be allowed to get out and about. I really feel bad for nature lovers who live in cities and suburbs. It's like a year of our lives has been stolen from us. Everything eventually comes to an end and most of us will again, someday, hear the call of the loon and the smell of a campfire. Take care canoetrippers.
G.
G.
Gosh Gerald, that sure was uplifting. Makes me want to play the Vietnamese revolver challenge.
Hey BF, Trying to be realistic. So far the virus is still scoring points on our D-fence and we are already mid-April. As The Prophet says: "The more you do without, the more you'll appreciate". It's going to be great to get out there again. Happy trails man.
G.
G.
Well, I'm moving forward with plans for a June solo trip. May is certainly less certain. Gonna dehydrate some food, continue to lighten my gear, scrutinize maps. I once saw a study that concluded that people get as much or more satisfaction from planning a leisure trip as actually going on the trip. I believe that. I've spent weeks planning a great trip in theory, only to suffer bad wind, weather, horrendous bugs, and poor fishing once I get there. Still better than no trip at all.
so... can't handle reality?
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