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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...

Amen. I love the ability to cotrol my canoe with a variety of linked strokes to get my boat to obey my will. I like to practice this exercise that a highly experienced canoe instructor taught and tested me: Find a square or rectangular floating dock. Position your canoe perpendicular to a...

I have 13 canoes in my fleet including a couple of Hornbecks, which unfortunately due to their seating configuation require use of a double blade paddle. But I put up with it because a 10.5' Hornbeck gets me into dense wood bushwhack places where a 16- 17' solo cannot go. IMO a canoe is to be...

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