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For the first 35 years of its running, the Adirondack 90 mile canoe race required a PFD to be on board as a legal requirement, but actually wearing it was optional unless the race director required it be worn due to weather conditions. Now that the NFCT has taken over running the event...

A dear late friend of mine who shared with me 30 years as instructors of BSA guide trek leader training, we often bantered together about strange and humorous training scenarios. When I would discuss with the students about how to wet foot properly and safely load and get in and out of their...

I find that may be difficult for the gut to accept nutrition in infrequent waves, particularly during high energy requirement long distance paddling race events. As I have said, I provided main meal (breakfast and dinner) high calorie dehydrated meals for my team during marathon Yukon River...

If you are going with cans anyway, Dinty Moore, or any other hearty soup, or evn a pouch soup mix cn be made much more hearty and filling with a handfull of couscous during a boil.

I know nothing of commercial trip planner. I do my own route planning. So I went old school and made my own process. For the Yukon River Canoe races, I use Google Earth as relatively accurate, within a couple of years, since the river tends to change its exact route to some extent every year...

When I was paddling on the Yukon River, my pit crew chatted for a while with local First Nation folks from the Tlingit tribe. They said, that unless a sow and cub felt threatened, a bear is most likely only interested in taking your food. But when a moose shows interest in you, it most likely...

I have used SPOT gen1 and gen2 devices. We were required to have and correctly operate them during the Yukon Canoe races. I dscovered an important fact about their operation. If you press the "I am OK" button to send a location signal out, it may take a couple of minutes tor it to actually...

So many many years ago, my dad took me into the woods on a with him on a favored loop hike where he likes to hunt. i was way too young and small to hunt and could barely follow him, but it was the beginning of my love of traveling in the Adirondack back country. At the edge of a freely flowing...

I've been known to encouter similar log jams. I guided a Boy Scout troop with their leaders on the Adirondacks Oswegatchie River, this was a year or two after the destructive derrecho of 1995. Maybe more like the Doors "This is the End".

Good demo on the video. Which leads me to my standard lecture to my BSA guide student leaders in training after they have seen an instructor demo of canoe over canoe that they each will have to later perform. I ask what would have led them to get in such a situation in the first place? As a...

I have seen two strong paddlers empty and right a canoe with what is called the "Capistrano Flip", very difficult to do in deep water even for srtrong swimmers, but not too difficult if able to reach and stand on firm bottom.

Thanks for the very interesting historic and instructive link. Regarding the canoe over canoe rescue, it has long been taught as part of the curriculum for BSA high adventure guide trek leader certification training in the Adirondacks. Each student trainee has to demonstrate capability with the...

Maybe, but I think the advantage of using coated lead shot beads is that they almost act as a squishy liquid in the bag and are less likely to get it stuck like larger gravel particles miight do, if you can even find gravel in some places.

Now almost 20 years ago, I took a trek on a /road/trail/bushwhack carry paddle canoe on a diagonal route crossing the entire adirondacks. I carried an Olympus "Tough" camera, kept ready in my piocket. But the best thing I did was to also have a small digital audio recorder in my breast pocket...

i have used one, or more accurately seen one used, by a more experienced user than I, to throw a rope for clearing dangerous trees during a Lean2Rescue volunteer work job in the Adirondacks. You have to go to Youtube to see the most efficient throw methods. So since I need to take down a number...

You will enjoy the trip very much. I have completed the 3-day Adirondack 90 mile canoe race 28 times (Old Forge to Saranac Lake), not including a dozen cannonball-90s (=the entire route completed within a single 24 hour day). I have paddled a Hornbeck from my home just outside the western...

The .38 was the standard issue Air Force weapon of the day, meant for air crew cabin protection only. The .380 from my father was not meant as a weapon, it was to be a noise maker (3 shots at intervals) for rescue purposes. I have since acquired his S&W .44 magnum and Colt .45, which are WAY...

When I started doing significant solo off-trail backpacking in the Adirondacks, my dad was concerned, not about me being attacked, but rather my ability to signal distress or injury. GPS and personal beacons did not yet exist. He was well practiced with firearms, and so was I. I soon earned my...

The integral rainfly/tarp that came with my first generation Hennesssy has been adequate for most non-stormy conditions, even when it rains without much if any wind. Sometimes if I experience wind and some rain, I will tie it down lower than normal, which of course restricts the external...

What everyone says above is fine, especially Gamma and others with regard to "goon" as rudder VS J stroke. For beginners first learning to go forward with some modicum of control to where they want to go in a straight line, the thumb up goon is a rudder that will get them there. Teaching that...