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-14F both weekend nights at my western Adirondack Lake. I walked out on the ice for the first time this season with only a couple of inches of snow cover on the surface. Most times there is a foot or more of snow on top of water overflow on top of the ice. Overflow will instantly freeze to...

Five years ago, I built a nice new 3 bedroom cottage (plus a sleeping loft) on five dry wooded acres on a small private association owned no-motors allowed lake in the western Adirondacks. I have a good 40 year combined civilian government pension, a 22 year military pension, and social security...

Apart from the obvious meaning of the original lyrics about failure to communicate with one another, even in the age long before cell phones, after viewing the Disturbed version and the many sometimes emotional reaction and analysis videos, I have come to believe that the lyrics could well be...

In my part of the world (Adirondacks), there are several outfitters who have C3 and C4 canoes for rent. I do not own either of those myself, but I do rent a C4 for the 90-miler each year, or paddle in one or another that one of my Yukon partners actually own. most of my fleet consists of either...

When I started canoe racing in 1997, at age 46, I paddled bow seat with colleagues from work in a 34' custom built cedar strip voyageur canoe (war canoe at the time). I paddled that boat for seven years with a few wins, in the Adirondack 90-mile race until my then much younger team mates moved...

3 seater canoes have been around for a while. Wenonah makes a "C3" (20-foot Minnesota-3) that I have often seen in the Adirondack 90 mile canoe race. I think they were first really meant for families who put a youth in the middle seat for tripping. Similarly solos are C1, tandem canoes are...

I can't help but to compare that thought to most people who walk on city streets or even on paths in the woods and see others go into the backcountry but they do not for whatever reason desire to spend time with a backpack on to bother camping, setting up a tent, or learning to build a...

Acorn whimsy, acornwhimsy.com A guy and his wife produce art using tiny acorn people he makes from tiny sticks and acorns in various outdoor settings and poses. I found them at a large village festival vending their art. This canoeist is paddling on a lake in Glacier National Park. I also have...

At a lake management conference I recently attended, it was reported that studies show that a critical threshold is, if the land watershed for a lake includes more than 26% agricultural land coverage, then there is, or likely will be problems with excessive algae growth, possibly including...

When I first started canoe racing nearly 30 years ago, I quickly developed tendonitis in my wrists. So did one or two of my voyageur paddle partners. Watching other experienced racers, I noted that they did not flex their wrists at all during the stroke. After I adopted this style, I never had...

Studies of lake associations where Canada geese like to congregate say that whatever goose poop you find on the land where they walk and feed, multiply that by at least a factor of five for what they leave in the water.

Watch the Canadian historical period movie "Black Robe" and you will see a priest hanging out over the gunwale of a Voyageur canoe taking a dump. We did not do that during the Yukon River races, but we stopped for such serious necessary bio stops for no more than an agreed allowed 7 minutes to...

Don't forget to include a slug of Yukon Jack with the "toe"

Right, as is currently advised by LNT

During the Yukon River races, i several times paddled bow position in voyageur canoes with 3-4 ladies on my team. A first mandatory rest stop on the YRQ occurs after about 20 hours of continuous paddling. The next stop after that is even farther down river. We don't land or stop paddling just...

During the Yukon 1000 mile canoe race (twice) in a 7 paddler voyageur canoe, we ate hot rehydrated home dehydrated meals twice a day. We boiled water over a securely mounted burner screwed into one tall large isobutane canister. I also had a couple of spare regular size canisters with us that...

I know a lot of people like to use methanol (Heet, in the yellow bottle), but from day one I have always used denatured ethanol (lacquer thinner) in my Trangia stoves. Never use rubbing alcohol (isopropyl) because it makes a very sooty flame that will deposit a black mess on your pots. Ethanol...

The kid who touches a hot kitchen stove burner for the first time will likely learn enough to never do that again. :( I have used Trangia stoves for many years and loved the simplicity of safely cooking with them. Knowing how to operate the burner flame which is nearly invisible is an acquired...

Why don't you just try it? I have used a small soft sided but firm cooler stuffed with stiff foam as a saddle in some canoes, along with a thin foam pad with a larger pool noodle cut in half taped to it to go under my ankles as a kneeling configuration. It works ok, but I just don't like...

I suppose it could be if you remove the foam "seat". Probably has been done, although the resulting high gunwale might impede efficient single blade strokes. I can't comfortably and thus don't kneel very long periods, so I dont have any of my canoes set up to regularly kneel. As a flat water...