Tripper "Hacks"

[Guest]

There is an inter-net meme of Life Hacks, many of which are utter BS and don’t work with a dang*. And there is something similar, but more useful; Tripper Hacks. Many of which I have adopted from Canoe Tripping or the old Solo Tripping board. Or further back, rec.boats.paddle anyone?

I’m trying to pick a favorite, and it may be HOOP’s ridgeline, prussic and clip arrangement with a Tundra Tarp. That is the big one, especially for putting up a tarp solo, but there are dozens of smaller, seemingly inconsequential Tripper Hacks, which taken cumulatively are equally easing.

So, got a favorite Tripper Hack?

*One Life Hack” that really does work. To chill a warm beer just wrap it in a wet paper towel and put it in the freezer for a few minutes. Oh my goodness, there’s 40 years of tepid beers gone by I could have avoided.

 

[yellowcanoe]

To chill a warm beer desert style.. Wrap it in bandana soaked in river water and let the bandana dry in the shade.. No freezer required. Works for fine boxed wine too If you can soak the box and keep it out of the sun and still in one piece so much the better.

Evaporative cooling. Doesn't work worth a hill of beans in a humid climate.

 

[Alan Gage]

So, got a favorite Tripper Hack?

Just because he's out in the bush and not here to defend himself I'll say that Memaquay is my favorite Tripping Hack.

[rimshot]

Alan

 

[Guest]

Evaporative cooling. Doesn't work worth a hill of beans in a humid climate.

The humidity levels here have been, for a week or longer, “Extremely High”. With temps in the 90’s. That is also the long term forecast.

Nothing evaporates here, including sweat. Such is life in the mid-Atlantic, especially near the giant moisture generator Chesapeake Bay.

We don’t air condition our home, but I have a window unit in the shop, otherwise epoxy and varnish would take days (maybe weeks) to cure.

So glad I’m headed 400 miles south to the Carolinas. Dumshitz.

 

[yellowcanoe]

I think Mem would approve.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...ner-space.html
Not sure a mod would. I'll watch for a Tacoma with a w/c canoe on the Golden Rd.

Now fleeing. In fleece which hampers running. 90 degrees is an unfulfilled dream this year. Swimming would be nice hard to do at 55 degrees

 

[red langford]

This guy is a legend. Here are a few tips that canoe trippers could use.
Toilet Paper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WS9fCMh4uk

Mosquitos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNYxl4Mta2Q

 

[riverstrider]

The situation: It is a hot, sunny day. You're pulling your canoe on its cart along a dusty trail. The horsefly and deerfly air defense corps received orders to scramble and they are executing perfect evasive maneuvers around your head and swinging hand and occasionally scoring a hit on the back of your neck.

The solution: walk to the back of the canoe and push. Since their radar systems seem to be tuned into the front portion of any moving object, they will form a revolving cloud around the bow of your canoe as you stay out of radar range at the stern. At least, this has been my experience on multiple summer portages. Maybe horseflies and deerflies are smarter elsewhere than they are in New England.

Note: This technique, like many other techniques, is useless on blackflies.

-rs

 

[Rippy]

Just because he's out in the bush and not here to defend himself I'll say that Memaquay is my favorite Tripping Hack.

[rimshot]

Alan

Good one Alan. He's mine too.

 

[Sturgeon]

1.Those really long rubber coated twist ties are great for tying your paddle to a thwart, when you're portaging.
http://www.mec.ca/product/5026-963/n...ber-twist-tie/

2. Not a hack, just a simplification: One knot to rule them all. Okay, two. You can tie all your tent or tarp lines with a truckers hitch. And tie your canoe to a car with a truckers hitch. And if you can do a bowline (or figure eight), you can put loops on the end of those tarp lines and then girth hitch them together for greater length, and THEN use a truckers to tie them to a tree or a root or a stake. Two knots: easy to teach, remember, undo.

3. If you use a silnylon tarp, use a loop of shock cord first to attach to your tarp corner loops, and then attach your guylines to the shock cord, not directly to the tent grommet/loop. As the tarp sags on a rainy night, the extended shock cord takes up the slack and keeps your tarp taut. You can buy commercial ones, for example, here: http://www.jacksrbetter.com/shop/self-tensioning-lines/ but they're easy to do yourself.

 

[yellowcanoe]

I just found something on Facebook,.. don't apply bugspray and go sit by a campfire. The burns were severe. Wait 5-10 minutes for the spray to dry and don't over apply.

 

[Odyssey]

Yeah, bugspray as a fire starter. I saw that in an episode of Survivorman. http://lesstroud.ca/survivorman
I enjoy watching Les Stroud, mostly for the exotic locations, not so much for the survival tips...but every episode I find myself mumbling "I didn't know that. That's good to know."

 

[memaquay]

Gee, disappear for a week, and get hacked! I'm kind of curmudgedy right now, as many of the expensive tripping things I have acquired in the past couple of years have turned out to be big stinking piles of steaming doggy doo-doo. That aluminium cot thingy that cost my wife almost 300 bucks is one of the stinkiest pieces of feces. The mesh thing you sleep on has deteriorated at all of the stress points, so that for six nights I was sleeping on metal bars instead of mesh, felt like I was a candidate for some Ashram of Deprivation and Pain. Gonna go back to my old canvas air mattress I can still buy at my local hardware store for 29 bucks. Expensive tents have got me on the war path too, as it seems like the thing they do best is hold water in like a bath tub, so that going to bed becomes an adventure in skipping between puddles, and trying to keep the sleeping bag off the floor. Oh ya, and sleeping bags.....-20 rating me arse! That was an expensive bag, and at around 4 degrees celcius I was freezing my keester off.

So I'm going back to the days of 40 dollar Canadian Tire tents. The kind that have blue poly tarp floors. That way you don't have to tarp the inside or the outside. Plus I'm going to hang a big blue poly tarp over my entire tent area, just like I did back in the days before it became fashionable to spend a couple of hundred bucks on some fancy space age nylon thingy that never gets hung because you are afraid of burning a hole in it with a spark from the fire. Throw my old air mattress in and I'm gonna live like a king for under a hundred bucks. heck, I might even start carrying canned beans again.

So my hack is don't buy into gear tyranny. Just because it costs lots doesn't mean it's not a big pile of elephant dung.

Alan, thanks for ruining me forever to ever using a wooden paddle again. That's one piece of gear I can't live without now, that Black Bart or whatever it is called. I pulled out my wooden paddle to push upstream in shallow water, and it felt like I was training for the Russian Women's Weight Lifting Competition. Sheese, it was like when I met my third wife, a French Canadian, and suddenly wondered how I was ever able to stand those english dames. Anyway, got a trip report to write, peace out!

 

[yellowcanoe]

Mem.. stop peeing IN the tent. Then there ought to be no wetness.

 

[Odyssey]

I wonder what Mem's like when he's in a bad mood?
So if I read between the lines, that mean he's going back to being cheap, unfashionable and grumpy. Memaquay, welcome to my world.
So don't keep us in suspense...did you ever make the Russian Women's Weight Lifting Team or what?

 

[Bothwell Voyageur]

Gee, disappear for a week, and get hacked! I'm kind of curmudgedy right now, ...

I love this forum. It is an online version of the old BBC sitcom "Last of The Summer Wine". As someone who is is frequently told that he was born an old grump I really feel like I have found a new home.

 

[yellowcanoe]

I guess I'd be curmudgeonly if I had a pile of dirty camp clothes and an inoperative laundry device too.
Kicking it didn't work

 

[memaquay]

Ha ha, when social media crashed together, there are no secrets. I advertised for a second hand dryer on facebook, and Kim saw it, told me to kick it, I did, it still doesn't work.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Ha ha, when social media crashed together, there are no secrets. I advertised for a second hand dryer on facebook, and Kim saw it, told me to kick it, I did, it still doesn't work.

End of my career as appliance repairperson. Isn't rebooting the same as kick again?

 

[Philtrum]

Mem, with great reluctance I must yield my Old Coot award to you. I thought I was the most curmudgeonly person on the planet but you have me beat. I would never have thought of "the Ashram of Deprivation and Pain." I've been there, but coming up with such a colorful phrase just stops me cold, but with a good laugh.

 

[Guest]

Alan, thanks for ruining me forever to ever using a wooden paddle again. That's one piece of gear I can't live without now, that Black Bart or whatever it is called. I pulled out my wooden paddle to push upstream in shallow water, and it felt like I was training for the Russian Women's Weight Lifting Competition. Sheese, it was like when I met my third wife, a French Canadian, and suddenly wondered how I was ever able to stand those english dames. Anyway, got a trip report to write, peace out!

Mem, best description of going back t a wood blade after using carbon. The old Black Bart was a nice stick.

Which cot fell apart?

Excuse the =typos; in the Cooterville bar for a wi-fi moment.