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Many years ago when I attended Air Force flight crew SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) training in the Washington State wilderness, I heated water over a Dakota Hole fire. The Dakota hole is a very small firepit hole dug in the ground with a short underground channel for the air...

The canoe rack was made by a small Mennonite family owned shop in Lowville NY, Riveside Rustics, who specialize in cedar framed furniture of all kinds. They made every bit of the furniture in my Adirondack camp five years ago. They had a large butternut plank that was an experimental piece as a...

My new Savage River Blackwater on its first trip home, riding on my Subaru Wilderness Forester. And a few older canoes on my new cedar boat rack on the wall of my garage.

My current recent C4 Adirondack 90-mile race paddling partners during the past few years tend to be a good bit younger than my now 73 years. Two fit brothers now in their early 40's have twice paddled the Yukon River 1000-mile race with me, though the years are gaining on each of us since the...

I like Logan Bread, many recipes are available online. I add more of whatever I like to make it high calorie, so It may turn out a little like fruit cake. I bake it so it is drier and firmer than called for what would be best for home eating so it is not likely to spoil easily in the bush...

What I learned from master instructor and freestyler Caleb Davis about teaching newbies how to paddle straight, is to not worry about teaching the J too soon. let them rudder stroke, try holding the paddle with blade vertical close behind, then hold it as far back as they can reach, behind the...

Yup, as mentioned already what you are doing is the goon or rudder stroke, definitely not the J. The skyward pointing thumb is the dead give-away. Old habits and old muscle memory are hard to break without firm concentration on what is to be done at each stroke. Then it becomes automatic. The...

These days, the Forest Ranger wilderness outposts in the Adirondacks are resupplied by helicopter.

For the first ever Yukon River 1000 mile canoe race in 2009, race rules required 20Kg (44pounds!) of food per paddler be carried from the start of the race. Do the math for the 7 paddlers in my 34' carbon voyageur canoe. 95% was dehydrated at home for space savings and ease of on-board...

While seaching for good recipies for meals to home dehydrate, I discovered that some vegetarian recipes can be quite tasty in theiir own right. But they are infinitely improved by the addition of a meat protein.

Years ago, I had small fires for cooking when going solo into the wilderness. For a while I used a Trangia alcohol burner stove that was great. Then I discovered a new crop of very compact propane/butane canister stoves that weigh almost nothing. Amazon twice offered me a super light foldable 3...

Everyone should be aware of a whole series of videos by Dr. Gordon Giesbrecht, a Canadian cold water expert and safety instructor. If you can avoid panicking, you have more time than you may think for rescue. and more if you google for them

I agree and this is my mode also. On the Yukon Y1K we each (all 7 of us voyageur canoe paddlers) carried our own gear and tents, except the two ladies who share their one tent. Women appear to be more comfortable at such sharing than men usually are. Team food was preplanned in mass to be...

Of course this is true, but what I refer to on the flat wide Yukon was common in deep water areas of the river that were a half mile wide or more with no indication of any "big bump on the river bottom" and the effect of faster side currents lasted for many hundreds of yards before we tested...

Not only are there different velocities in different vertical layers, but also in horizontal slices. I learned a lot during the Yukon River races. We could be moving nicely along with current and paddling our hearts out, but there were times and places in that broad massively moving volume of...

Much like Bill, when solo I never bother with a campire, unless sometimes boiling water in a kelly kettle counts as a campfirre. It just seems llike so much unnecesssary work when the time may be much better spent doing other things. When with sccouts it is practically mandatory to have a...

I agree. I love using my hammock in average relatively warm spring and fall nights, as well as all summer conditions. Since most of my campsites are quite primitive bushwhack sites rather than designated sites, I am not restricted to flat ground as I would be with a tent. Open designated sites...

i have three Hornbeck canoes. I acquired them exclusively for backcountry bushwhack travel through the wilderness off trail, pond to pond, where they excel. Which I have done a lot over many years, including on a 185 mile trip diagonally across the Adirondacks in a15 pound 10.5' Lost Pond...

Yup. My deep wilderness far off-trail bushwhacks with a heavy backpack trips that I used often do in my 20s-40s are well behind me. but I can at least now use one of my several accumulated canoes to do those heavier water based trips with relative ease. Sure, getting old sucks, but some will...

Correct, for example to turn left around a sharp river bend, paddle on the right side and lean to the right, the hull will make a left curving banana shape in the water. When I do this while solo, I will hear when the stern "breaks lock" with the surface as the bow spins to the left...