Search results

The older I get, the more I appreciate a chair, soft bed, and flat surfaces at a convenient working height. My luxury items these days are either a hammock or full-sized and well insulated Thermarest mattress, an air pillow (you can adjust it 'just right' to prevent sleep-induced injuries), a...

I have a couple of these. The big ones (Klymit Static V insulated, Thermarest insulated, and thermarest normal neoair) all require 16-20 breathes to inflate. The smallest, a Klymit Inertia(?) weighs only 8oz, and inflates in about 10 breathes, but it's thinner and only designed to support...

After years of thinking through this, I've pretty much got my solo gear dialed in to what I actually need and use, no more, no less. On tandem trips, I still bring too much, mostly because I'm responsible for the other person and they're maybe not comfortable with something I'd do alone (e.g...

When I first moved to LA in 2002, I was terrified of the gators, water mocs, coyotes, feral dogs, and hogs, but refused to stay inside. After a few years, a friend suggested a pistol (revolver for reliability, chest holster for access), and I was cured. Seldom had to use it, entirely on water...

I used to be able to sleep anywhere, anyhow, with a pack or helmet for a pillow... no more. I'm well past the age where I can go to bed fine and wake up injured... it's happened! And then it takes a week to get that kink out of your neck and back. A good pillow is no longer a luxury item...

Most beautiful I've seen is probably the entire portage between Turtle Pond and Clamshell Pond in the St Regis Canoe Wilderness... from the initial entry into a moss-filled evergreen forest at Turtle, to the sudden transition to hardwoods to the beaver meadow to the hillside paths and glacially...

I don't catch or eat a lot of fish, but one of my favorite ways to cook a trout is in foil. You need a trout, a lemon, an onion, an apple, and some seasoned salt, and a piece of foil. (I prefer the thickest kind, because you can burn it in the fire without it falling to bits, all the stuck...

I'm down to two canoes... a Robin-refurbished Chestnut Pal and a Hemlock Nessmuk II. (I sold my OT Yankee to a cousin, but can still use it if I want to.) The Pal was/is a roughly 15' tandem, weighs about 50-55 lbs, and I've refitted it as a solo by making a seat for the center position. I...

I was a big fan of HawkVittles dehydrated meals for a long time, when Hawk had the company, but no longer buy them. New owner has apparently done some recipe tweaking for the 'spicy' American palette, which conflicts with my German upbringing. I've also had issues with portion size/quality and...

Most of my trips are in a 22lb ultralight pack canoe that sits very lightly on my shoulders/packstraps when the dis-assembled double paddle is used as a yoke. But if I portaged a traditional tandem canoe, yeah maybe... the KnuPack was the former solution. But the pack must solve both problems...

When I lived in LA (16 years total), I never went out without a firearm. I could hunt something year round, though the heat of summer was the equivalent of January in Alaska, and I didn't go out much between June and August. In the canoe, where water mocs were an issue, and if not actively...

I look like Robin... In the warmer times, I like a tan-colored nylon fishing shirt... doesn't really matter what brand... current one might be Columbia or PFG? I've also used CampMor and many others over the years. The main point is that I like a gusseted shoulder joint, a ventilated...

I'm still trying to find a cheap Cold Handle at a local antique store... In the meantime, I use two other sheet steel pans. One is a modern Paderno 6" pan with almost vertical sides, to which I've added the folding handle from a 'non-stick' Coleman pan that started sticking (grind off the...

Sorry this took so long Glenn... have been out of country for a few weeks, since late October, and am just now getting un-jet-lagged and caught up on forums and such. Seem to have missed it a few days ago.

This past summer, my wife and I spent some time at the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake... there, I ran into a book called "An Adirondack Passage: the Cruise of the Canoe Sairy Gamp" by Christine Jerome... she basically re-enacted one of Nessmuk's cruises and then wrote about it. I...

Pretty sure it's just 4... a home made stitch and glue, two wood-canvas, and a carbon fiber. Still have 2 of them.

I spend my time on the Chesapeake, Little Tupper/Low's/Lila/Long outside Long Lake, NY, or the St Regis Canoe Wilderness (and Floodwood). I have filled my entire canoe with garbage during a spring cleanup (just me, tired of it, not sponsored) of my little estuary of the Chesapeake... The result...

I don't do whitewater, and am not required to carry a throw bag. I have about 6-8' of painter on each end of my canoes, just enough to get out and keep it on a leash while fording or landing. It's mostly 3/16" nylon braided line.

I'm lucky to live in MD these days... water never freezes, and I just bought a pair of nice neoprene boots... I try to get out all winter, either camping or canoeing. It's just different than in Spring/Summer/Fall. Growing up in central NY, I did other stuff... snow-shoeing was probably my...

I do not build them. I don't like when people build them add something foreign to the perceived beauty of an area in the US. Where there's a pile of rocks to mark a trail or turnoff, I'm all for it. As mentioned, they can be lifesavers. Piled next to a stream for whatever 'aesthetic' reason...