Doug's Canoe Trip Tips
and Tricks back
to Doug's Canoe Page
(try saying that quickly 10 times!)
Well, actually, these aren't really Doug's. More like tips that our canoeing
consortium has run into along the way. Few are original, although several
we discovered the hard way {grin}.We should probably credit the originators,
but their identity has long since been forgotten. Help yourself!
First night Chile-
The first day on our trips starts around midnight with the last minute packing,
then about 3 hours sleep, 5 to 9 hours of driving, 3 to 6 hours paddling,
and then setting up camp, possibly in the dark. Having an easy and tasty
supper is mandatory, and our traditional chile does the job nicely.
Basically, we make a cauldron of creative chile, containing
every sort of bean, beer, red wine, kernel corn, sloppy joe mix, taco mix,
chile powder, cayenne pepper, tobasco, garlic salt, soya sauce, barbecue
sauce, HP sauce, and/or anything that's red or brown in the fridge. Once
cooked for about 5 hours until it has the consistency of, well, mud, it's
poured into zip lock bags each sitting in the bottom third of a cereal box,
and frozen solid. (Actually, it's a pain to thaw a big frozen mass of chile,
and it seems to burn easily. It might be be better to use a couple of smaller
bags, and start with half an inch of water in your reheating pot.)
Double bagged and wrapped in a towel, it's usually still mostly
frozen come supper time in the woods. It would probably last to the second
or maybe even the third day if we were able to resist devouring it on the
first night. Served with pita bread, (and sometimes home-brew, carried in
a plastic bottle) it is the milestone that confirms the beginning of another
canoeing adventure. I don't know if it's the recipe or the ritual that brings
tears to the eye. [top of page]
Great balls of
fire! Like most experienced campers, I take pride in the fact
that I can start a fire with no paper, no artificial chemical crutches, and
only a couple of matches almost every time. However, sometimes it takes more
time than is convenient, (like after 3 days of solid rain), and after a cold
water capsize, it might be really important to get a fire going quickly.
Thus, I carry a cheap form of insurance - the great balls of
fire. These are simply cotton balls soaked in vaseline and stored in a film
canister. Small, light, and really effective since vaseline is also known
as "petroleum jelly".
You might think of using the GBOF as part of a camp stove -
I tried it while working on a camping oven. Be warned that they burn intensely,
but only for about 4 minutes. They also give off a lot of black smoke, and
leave a thick layer of black soot on any cookware they touch.
Of course, you still have to light them, and if your matches
are all wet, you're out of luck, so check out the next
section...[top of page]
Waterproof
matches- In a nutshell, waterproof matches aren't; wet lighters
don't, but waterproof containers are.
My experience is that commercial "waterproof" matches tend
to not be a good bet when the going gets wet. If the match heads don't
disintegrate, the specially treated surface you have to strike them against
does. If I actually wanted waterproof matches, I'd hand dip wooden matches
in melted paraffin.
However, it's a lot easier just to keep old-fashioned strike
anywhere wooden matches in a really waterproof container. My suggestions
for the container are either a urine specimen vial, or a plastic Rolaids
bottle (the 80 tables size). If you think about it, both of need to be quite
waterproof, and if you're trying our first night chile, you'll probably need
the Rolaids anyway.
You can't rely on a lighter as your failsafe fire source. Once
they get wet, neither the flint nor the piezo-electric style will generate
the spark they require to light. A small disposable lighter and some paper
matches in double ziplock bags isn't a bad idea, but my ultimate backup will
always be bottled matches. [top of page]
Avoiding "beaver
fever". If you've never had this gastro-intestinal affliction,
also known as Giardia, be very grateful and take my word for it, it's worth
avoiding. If you camp with children, the last thing you want in the wilderness
is an epidemic caused by contaminated water. Boiling all your water or using
time-consuming chemical treatments is somewhat impractical, but a filter
pump has worked well for us.
Basically, the filter consists of an input hose, a hand
operated pump with an internal filter, and an output hose. Ours is small,
works quickly without a lot of effort. We've never had a case of beaver fever
since we started using it.
To make it even easier, you can use a collapsible bucket to
bring a supply of "raw" water to a convenient seating place rather than hunching
over at the shoreline - see the next section[top of page]
Collapsible Bucket. A
gift I received from my sister has proved to be an extremely useful device.
It's a vinyl bucket formed around a 9 inch metal ring in the rim, and
another at the bottom. A one inch strap is a functional handle, and it all
folds flat for storage.
To avoid beaver fever, we don't use our cookset pots to hold
untreated water. The bucket is ideal for lugging water to put out the campfire
or to be filtered. You just have to be careful to lean it against something
if it's full when you set it down, otherwise it tends to fall over &
cause a flood .[top of page]
Campstoves and
simmering. Cooking over a wood fire might be romantic, but
it requires a firewood supply, takes extra time, and makes it difficult
to control the heat being applied to your gourmet creation. You end up with
a mess on the outside of your pots, and often ashes and soot on the inside
(what we call "camping spice")
A small one burner campstove solves all these problems at the
cost of needing to carry the stove and a fuel supply. We use one (MSR
Whisperlite) that burns white gas ("naphtha") and collapses to the size of
a coffee mug.
One challenge is that it may be difficult to turn the flame
low enough to do a good simmer. One solution I've heard of, but haven't tried
yet, it to put a metal disk of some sort between the stove and your pot.
The top of a large tin can would be about the right size, but awkward to
carry. Another suspicion I have is that over pumping the fuel tank results
in control problems.
On our 7 person trips with our daughters we take a 2 burner
propane stove. It's more awkward to carry, but that second burner sure comes
in handy some times. [top of page]
Foot condoms for safe
socks, also known as camp boots. This is a defence against the
unpleasantness of having to put on wet running shoes in the morning, or getting
"soakers" when doing semi-aquatic manoeuvers like beaver dam pull-overs.
Before leaving home, pre-inspect plastic grocery bags to find
a pair that are free of any small holes. Purists will insist that the two
match in colour, and advertising content. Fold these a couple of times, tie
them in a loose overhand knot, and store them in whatever pack you keep in
your tent.You might even want to put in a couple of pairs.
After you put on nice clean, dry socks in the morning, you
unknot and pull on your camp boots before putting on your shoes. You can
trim the camp boots as you wish. If you're really keen, you can do what Larry
did once (exactly once), which is duct tape them to your legs for a good
seal. Ouch, it hurts just thinking about it.
Of course, these boots don't breathe at all, and your feet
eventually get wet from trapped perspiration anyway. However, at least it's
a warm and gradual process.[top of page]
What MUST be kept dry.
I claim your sleeping bag is the most important thing to keep dry for a couple
of reasons. One is that sleeping in a wet or even partially wet sleeping
bag is a miserable experience - very uncomfortable, and likely to lead to
fitful sleep and fatigue the next day. Secondly, a sleeping bag can be very
difficult to dry out once it gets wet, unlike most of the rest of your gear.
Lastly, and most important, a wet sleeping bag doesn't keep you warm, and
this can be not only uncomfortable, but possibly dangerous. On Spring and
Fall trips, it's not unusual for the temperature to dip below freezing at
night. In the event of one or more boats capsizing in cold water, having
dry sleeping bags to warm the victims could be a critical defence against
hypothermia.
Personally, I double bag (garbage bag and twist tie, then a
slightly smaller bag and twist tie) my sleeping bag, my therma-rest, and
the warm clothes I sleep in on spring & fall trips (hooded sweatshirt,
sweatpants and wool socks).[top of page]
Our master spreadsheet gets its
own page of description. Oughta call it the Amex
sheet, because we couldn't leave home without it.[top of
page]
Food packing - the victual
ritual Everyone has their own way of organizing the foodpack,
and no one way is necessarily the best. Our approach is to put all
the food for each meal into a single large waterproof zip lock bag. This
often involves repackaging food to minimize weight or bulk - for example,
"KD" macaroni dinners end up in a sandwich sized ziplock bag. (Don't
forget the instructions for anything you're not familiar with) The 3 large
ziplock bags for one day go into a plastic grocery bag which is knotted shut
and labelled with the day of the week. These are inserted into the main
compartment of the foodpack in reverse chronological order.
Another distinctively coloured larger bag called the "generic
bag" holds stuff that is used at multiple meals such as our spice kit, instant
cappuccino, peanut butter (one of our members has an addiction), cooking
oil, and extra tea bags and fruit drink crystals, etc. Anything leftover
from a meal also ends up in the generic bag for future consumption.
This approach presumes you have each meal planned, as compared
to bringing say "about 4 breakfasts worth" of oatmeal in one container. We
find it simpler and safer to have the portions figured out in advance (especially
when there are 7 people on the trip) which is where the spreadsheet described
above comes in handy.
One other thing we've learned is to keep the lunch bag out when
we repack after breakfast, and put it, double bagged, into the top of an
easily accessed pack. We generally have a no-cook lunch that we eat while
travelling, and it's a lot handier if we don't need to dig out, and search
through, the food pack.[top of page]
Dinner sinner -chocolate bars
It probably started out as a bribe to the kids on our early
Dads & Daughters trip, but it's a tradition that endures without fail.
Every supper food bag contains one mini chocolate bar per person, which
can easily be rationalized as dessert, I guess. These
are often pocketed at supper time to be savoured, one small nibble at a time,
around the campfire. Great way to end the day. (Almost as enjoyable is watching
the ensuing brushing of teeth by flashlight, where the kids apply great energy,
with inconsistent success, to spitting toothpaste so that it clears both
their chin and their feet.) [top of page]
The food pack pulley
We're pretty fanatic about hanging
our foodpack from a tree overnight and between meals during the day. When
we're staying at one site for multiple days, there's a lot of raising
and lowering, which has to be hard on the tree,
and gums up the rope, as well. Our solution is to use an extra length
of rope to raise a pulley so it's just below the tree branch, with the pack
rope pre-inserted. Larry went to great expense to procure a clothesline
pulley for this task at a garage sale. This has resulted in a certain amount
of mockery for the bulk, and some campfire debates about whether or not
a larger diameter pulley makes it easier to lift the food pack However,
I must admit it works like a charm. [top of
page]
Hog-Tieing a therma-rest
My nice new therma-rest came in a plastic sleeve that is about as
re-usable as a match. Since I carry
it inside my pack, it needs to be compactly
and securely compressed. What I found to be ideal is the velcro straps
that are used to hold two skis together for storage. Just the right length,
easy to use, and no need to mess with buckles or knots. Once I get home,
I unroll and inflate the Therma-rest, and store it that way - if
you store it rolled up, it loses its ability to
self-inflate. [top of page]
The perfect portable pocket
I am the first to admit that I'm not the
tidiest person in the world, and putting things away in the right place
isn't my strong point. When it's time to light up the campstove, I'd
have to remember what clothes I was wearing last time I used my
lighter, and whether I put it the pocket of my shirt or
shorts. Things got a lot simpler when I discovered a portable
pocket where I could put those little things I need
to be able to locate easily - a fanny pack. It's
now a semi-permanent attachment that contains: lighter, compass (with mirror),
emergency whistle, pocket knife, tooth brush, toothpaste, duplicate van key,
park permit, pen, paper, chewing gum, lip balm, and sometimes insect repellent
and sunscreen.
[top of page]
Lashing paddles and packs
A handy way to lash paddles to the
canoe, and small items to your pack is to use two sided velcro cable ties.
These are essentially 8 inch straps which have the velcro hook material
on one side, and the pile material on the others. It will stick to itself
securely in whatever diameter is handy, and two can be easily joined
if needed. Ask your local network nerd to get you some (from Black Box if
not available locally).
If you want to tie your gear to the boat so you don't risk
losing it in a capsize, you can permanently tie one end of a 5 foot
cord to your pack, preferably near a zippered pocket where it can
be stowed. Put a mini carabiner or a spring closing hook that you trust
on the other end. When you've loaded the boat, thread the cord through the
shoulder straps of your other packs, around a thwart, and then attach it
to itself. [top of page]
Finding the right top map
I'm a strong believer in using
the 1:50,000 scale topographical maps to navigate by,
aided by park maps if available. I rarely use
a compass, and rely on recognizing landforms. However, it
isn't easy
figuring out what top map you need, as the
cryptic map identification "31 L 1" doesn't say much
about the area it covers, or vice versa.
I have two top map shortcuts. Since most of our canoeing is
done in Algonquin park, I sat down one day and made up a grid overlay for
a map of the park that shows the boundaries and numbers of all the relevant
top maps. It includes the access points, so you can usually zero in on
the map(s) you need quickly. Help yourself, and
feel free to copy it and pass it along.
The second method works for anywhere in Canada, and makes
use of a government website with a database of place names which includes
the top map number for each. You can use it to look up the name
of a lake or river on your trip, and it will tell you map number. Best to
pick an obscure name, to avoid searching through a lot of duplicates.
Here's the site,
Geographic
Names Database, the top map name is labelled as "NTS number"
in the right column once you've selected the right occurrence of
the name. (Thanks to Scott Newman for passing
along this tip.) Speaking of maps, note the following section,
too. [top of page]
Easy Custom made maps.
We usually have 2 types of maps, a park map, and a topo map. A nice way to
handle this is to make colour photocopies of the relevant sections of the
map, and laminate them back to back. If you have a computer nerd in
your party (everyone on our trips would qualify) he or she can scan the maps
& produce nicely scaled and annotated colour copies, and files for your
website.)
Here are some suggestions:
-if you can, try and get the two map pieces close to the same scale. Otherwise
it's really confusing when you switch back and forth
-on your master copy, make sure potential campsites, portages, and hazards
are clearly marked on both maps.
-write the date of the trip, and the participants on one edge of the map.
It makes a good durable record of your trip.
-make a copy for everyone on your trip, so everyone can feel comfortable
knowing where you are, if not contribute to the navigation effort. (Kids
love this.)
-if you need two map pieces to cover your trip, laminate the park map for
area A with the top map for area B, and vice versa. This allows more useful
combination views, such as the top map for area A and the park map for area
A side by side, both visible at once without page flips..
-haven't figured out a good map tie down system yet - I just slide it under
one of the straps on my pack which sits ahead of me. I'm contemplating something
with a clipboard clamping mechanism.[top of page]
Car key strategies
It's great to get out in the wilderness, but it's nice
to get home, too. It would be a bad thing to make it back to your vehicle
at the end of the trip, and not be able to find the key to unlock it.
Since access points are remote by definition, you wouldn't have a lot
of good options. Even worse would be the case where where there'd been some
sort of accident, and you weren't able to get an injured person out
to medical help.
So my strategy is to hide the ignition keys for all vehicles
inside one car, and make sure duplicate keys to that vehicle are carried
in secure locations by multiple people in different boats. The hiding is an
attempt to thwart those who might take advantage of the remoteness of access
points to break into vehicles. Having keys in different boats means
that even if a single boat capsizes, and gear containing the key is lost,
you can still get into all your vehicles. [top of
page]
Car clothes - a public
service It's probably not a big surprise that after a wilderness
canoe trip, you may be a little soiled and smelly. Although to us, this
is tolerable if not desirable, the rest of the world may not see it that
way. To ease the transition back to civilization, each person in our
expedition leaves a bag of "car clothers" in the vehicle. As well as
the obvious change of clothes, you can include a comb (or hat, if it's hopeless),
a washcloth and bar of soap, deodorant, razor, chewing gum, and/or a dry
set of shoes. (I prefer long pants, since my legs are usually an ugly enough
combination of dirt, scrapes and insect bites that any small children I encounter
run away screaming.) As we discovered the hard way once, if your vehicle
isn't mouse proof, your car clothes container needs to
be. [top of page]
Avoiding airborne canoes
It may seem somewhat anal retentive to
tie down your canoes every night, even in beautiful weather. However,
if you've seen both your canoes airborn, as we did on a French River trip,
you'd be very motivated to take that safety precaution. Canoes pulled
up on shore have an air foil shape on one side, and a drag-chute shape on
the other. The consequences of liftoff are scary even if you're awake
when it happens. Trying to swim after a boat in the dark is as shaky
as adlibbing a path along shore to intercept a boat before it's smashed on
a distant shore by the same wind.
Taking 30 seconds to tie down the boats is very cheap insurance
against a dangerous outcome. Do it. [top of
page]
Tense tie-down loops.
Darn. Can't remember what I intended to
describe in this section. Could have been bungee cords for rigging tarps,
or the velcro straps in Lashing paddles and
packs Oh, I remember. Say you
need to tie something down under tension. It's a bit of a pain
trying to tie the knot while you maintain the tension. Let's say for example,
you have your canoe on your roof rack, and need to tie the bow to your front
bumper. The trick is to tie a loop about a foot above the bumper, and use
it as a pulley. An ideal loop is the lineman's loop (reference: Ashley
Book of Knots, page 191, knot number 1053) which can be tied without using
either end of the rope. Once the loop's in place, you thread the free
end around the bumper, then back up and through the loop. You can pull
downward on the free end which will tighten everything up until you have
the right tension, then make it fast with a couple of half hitches. Hard
to explain, but nifty once you get the hang of it. [top
of page]
The ELLIOTT camping oven
- OK, no one got food poisoning on the last trip, so I'm publishing
preliminary specifications for the Elliott Lightweight Luggable Improvised
Oven for Trip Treats (The "ELLIOTT"). The Mark II version of my camping oven
is much sturdier that the original one, which we really don't need to talk
about. The latest model collapses (intentionally, this time) to the size
of a partially filled 10 by 14 baking pan, and features a built in dish
pan and room to store a 10 x 14 fish cleaning board.
Here's what it looks like completely
assembled (and cooking) - more pictures below.
At the bottom is an 8 inch square baking pan which has had
one inch square air holes cut into each side. Good idea to leave a substantial
lip at the bottom to hold in ash and possibly BBQ lighter fluid. Be careful
to make burr-free folded back edges on the tin. As you've probably gathered,
this holds the charcoal briquets which provide the heat. I've used 9 of
them in my test runs, which seems to be about right. Oh yeah - you want
this pan to end up on a level surface, especially if whatever you're cooking
has a watery batter.
Sitting on top of this is a 10 X 14 baking pan which forms
the botttom half of the cooking chamber. A six inch square hole is cut in
the center of the bottom (more doubled over burr-free edges) to allow
the heat from the "ash-hole" to enter. The top of the cooking chamber is
another 10 X 14 baking pan turned upside down. When in use, it is attached
to the bottom half by using those little paper clamp thingys where the
pans meet. (You know - when you have a quarter inch of paper, and a paper
clip is too small so you use a little spring steel clamp gizmo with pivoting
wire handles. If that doesn't make sense, check the picture below.)
On the inside we have a trivet or cookie rack to keep the goodies
off the bottom of the oven, and also to span the heat entry hole. In my latest
tests, I've interwoven a few strips of foil through this rack, shiny
side up, to disperse the heat a bit and avoid burning the food in the
center of the bottom of the pan.
Last but not least, another 8 X 8 baking pan sits on the rack,
holding whatever it is you're baking. So far, I've baked stuff that doesn't
require eggs: low fat brownies, and banana muffins, each from a mix. The
muffins were in paper cups supported by 4 sticks (from discarded
marshmallow roasting sticks) arranged in a "#" pattern in the pan. Worked
great (if you don't mind square muffins), although it's tricky while you're
filling them.
You can probably figure out how everything could nest into
the 'top' of the oven for transportation, how it can also be used as a dishpan
or a clean place to spread out your dishes, and how a fish cleaning board
could be included.
OK, here are the release notes: There does seem to be
a tendency for the top of the food to undercook, while the bottom overcooks.
The foil strips I talked about are meant to help this, and a small towel
that just covers the top pan should reduce heat escape. I'm also looking
for a double-walled 10 X 14 baking pan similar to smaller ones I've seen
before. (They seem to have stopped making 10 X 14 pans - wonder if a
pair of 9 X 13's will still hold an 8 X 8 pan? ) Attaching a barbecue thermometer
to the bottom pan would provide useful information. I thought about putting
some sort of window in the top pan, but couldn't bring myself to sacrifice
either the dishpan or the protective outer skin during transportation.
Here are some pictures of the Mark II:
completely assembled (and cooking), showing
a successful pan of brownies, and the
square muffin
configuration. [top
of page]
Camping Mirrors I'm
not sure anyone on any of our canoe trips has ever used a mirror to make
sure their appearance is optimal. However, we do have contact lens wearers
who appreciate a mirror now and then, and having one for emergency signalling
purposes isn't a bad idea. What's even better is to realize you are already
carrying a mirror in a well protected package that's very useful for other
things! I was once given a good quality compass which has two hinged parts,
one containing a mirror for sighting purposes. If you want a mirror, think
about using, or upgrading, your compass. [top of
page]
Roof Rack Antlers
I imagine that most of the people who read this
page have probably had to find a way to get 2 canoes on top of a car. Roof
racks never seem to be quite wide enough, and thus need to be extended
somehow. The practical but inelegant solution is to bolt a longer 2 X 3 or
2 X 4 on top of your rack Quite functional, but heavy to manhandle, and the
extra height further reduces the aerodynamics. My roof rack has a cross beam
with a square cross-section. I stumbled across an ideal entender that fits
perfectly inside the beam - a blank 1 X 1 piece of hardwood meant for
do-it-yourself bannister spindles. It's held in place by a horizontal bolt
through the rack, and has an adjustable "antler width" due to extra holes
drilled every 2 inches in the wood. People still bang their head on it
occasionally, but I've rounded the ends to reduce cranial damage.
[top of page]
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- Here's to flat lakes and portages.