Recent content by wjmc

For my "big" pack - food, cooking, tent, tarp, tools - I have an Ostrom Wabakini. Inside it I use an Ostrom pack liner (similar to RBW). Inside the Ostrom liner, I use a contractor trash bag (3 mil) twisted shut and secured with a velcro strap. This serves both as a second layer of...

I agree, a great trip and wonderful photography (cinematography?) I was really keen to watch this as it enabled me to really appreciate the country my late friend, Herb Pohl, travelled through on his 1982 trip from Lake Attikamagen to Nain. It was nice to see that Kevin acknowledged his...

Consider the type of roof rails on your new vehicle. I have a Subaru Crosstrek with raised roof rails. I got a rack set - mounts, bars, and locks - by Malone for $219 (Cdn). That's about what Thule or Yakima would charge you for a plastic knob. Roof racks and roof boxes (i.e. large...

In many areas, "Logan Earth" - a northern developed program - also provides superior imagery to Google Earth. It might be worth a look. One issue I have found in using satellite imagery to evaluate rapids is trying to extrapolate from the water level visible in the sat image to the water level...

I agree with Tryin that gunwale width is probably the most important - unless you plan on a really, really high angle stroke. As he mentioned, seat height and your torso length will also affect your choice. At 5'8" and 170, I find my Bending Branches 260 cm paddle just right when paddling my...

I agree with Mason (I'm also a PakCanoe owner). Having the boat's weight sitting on the yoke, rather than hanging from it, makes a great deal of sense to me. Many decades ago, at summer camp, the yokes on tandem tripping canoes were mounted on top of the gunnels. I wonder why I don't see this...

I found silicone helped. In the field, so does spit - just lick your finger and run it along the seal.

That is sad to hear. "Canoe Trails and Shop Tales" was a great read. And everyone with an interest in northern Canadian travel writing is indebted to him, and the McGaherns, for the re-publishing of P.G. Downes "Sleeping Island": and even more so for the publishing of Downes' diaries of his...

After a couple of successful trips to the tundra, it suffered a broken pole when my spouse and her friend tried to set it up in a campground. (Pole not completely inserted before flexion.) replaced by a Moss Stardome 2, since I couldn't get a replacement pole from Eureka.

I had a small Camping Gaz butane lantern which was an important part of my fall tripping outfit. It was useful for area lighting around camp, but its principal function was to get me out of bed on cold, damp, gloomy September mornings in northern Saskatchewan. Wake, reach into the vestibule...

I believe that "Expedition" was not the name of an individual Eureka tent, but of a "line" of tents. I think that tent is a Eureka "Sentinel" 2 person. I had one years ago, purchased to replace my Timberline 2 after I took the Timberline beyond the "timber line" once and realized it wasn't the...

Outside the box - How about some gymnastics high bar / rings grips? The roll in them forms a pocket so the fingers bear almost no weight - you could paddle without much, if any, finger flexion or grip force required.

Hoping to continue with the "same old, same old" - 3 weeks in the NWT in late June/July, and a week in northern Saskatchewan in September. With the same caveat as last year - enough connective tissue surviving ski season. This will be a bit of a milestone for me, if it works out. If I am...

I was drawn back to this old post by a news story: the Manitoba government is closing its "paper map" store this coming spring. A sign of the times, perhaps, now that many seem to prefer looking at their routes on tiny screens rather than real maps...

Thought this might be of interest to Quetico/BWCAW paddlers. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/cbsa-reporting-9.7026474