Recent content by Mason

That'll go over well with this crowd!

As a wildlife biologist (especially in Alaska), I spent a lot of time in both fixed wings and rotaries. Airplanes: Super Cubs, Maule M-5, Cessna 185s, Aviat Husky, Arctic Tern, Beaver, Otter. Rotaries: Bell 47, Hughes/MD 500, Bell Long Ranger, Robinson R-44, Hiller 12-E, Blackhawks (SAR)...

I love the look, sound, and history of radial Beavers. However they're a bit small for most of my uses (30-42 day trips w/4-6 people), but flying with PakCanoes. Turbine Otters are staples up north, followed by Twin Otters (getting really big and expensive here, but are good for rigid boats)...

If you're talking about the snaps on the cover, then the tool needed is the size of a CO2 cartridge (e.g. rivet tool For field repair, I only use the cylindrical part). I carry one when I'm using the deck and have replaced rivets in the field. The tool and a couple of rocks and you're good to...

Yep, that's when I started. Payson Kennedy's "Carolina Whitewater" was the bible. Blue Hole canoes, Romer helmets, and Seda vests (replaced my second Seda just last year after another 30 years of use--I'm pregnant now). Risks are still the same.

Yes, fly in and out (we use PakCanoes). We didn't see any polar bears, but we did see 8 grizzlies. We spend a very leisurely 32 days on the river--some weather days but mostly for hiking.

Yeah, big trips are good for the miles. 365 this summer on the Horton. I had planned a weeklong Quetico trip following, but had to cancel. In the process of planning another month-long trip next summer. If you can fit them in, those long trips are good for the soul (not that I have one).

Electric fence on Icy Bay, Alaska--weeklong kayak trip. Electric fence on 11 day raft trip, Alsek-Tatshenshini rivers, AK/YK/BC. This is why.

They'll put out 5000 volts. Although I haven't used the UDAP one, battery operated fences are commonly used in grizzly country around food and around game meat, and they're tested and accepted by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC) as effective deterrents (they represent the industry...

UDAP has one that weighs less than 4 pounds (electric fence). One BearVault weighs 2 1/4 pounds.

I guess our wolves aren't so bad.

I paddled the Nantahala a fair bit in the mid-late 70s, and remember it mostly as a gas station and restaurant. It quickly changed! By 1985, it was a far cry from its beginnings. In college, I'd leave from Durham after work on Friday, get there about 11pm, paddle (kayak, in a homemade Lettman...

I have a friend that has mentioned doing it next year, but he has other trips in mind, too (which I hope to do with him). I'll throw your name in the hat if the Horton trip forms.

It's interesting this thread popped back up. Adam Shoalts has a new book out about Hubert Darrell, who disappeared on the Anderson River in 1910: Vanished Beyond the Map, The Mystery of Lost Explorer Hubert Darrell, now available on Amazon.

When my daughter and I were going through the papyrus waterways of the Okavango via makoro a few years ago, all of a sudden the boats ahead of us were backing up swiftly, having come across an unexpected hippo. Although nothing happened, things were pretty exciting, as there's not much room to...