What's your morning routine on canoe trips?

I suspect I'm on the quick and Spartan end of the scale, as I mostly have tripped alone, don't fish, don't cook, and don't particularly enjoy campsite chores.

It takes me a couple of days to get used to going to bed early and waking up early. But once I calibrate, I basically want to get on the water as soon and early as possible. I like paddling a lot more than camping.

So, after I drag myself out of the sack, I boil water for a freeze-dried breakfast and some tea. Never been much one for coffee at home, so never on a canoe trip. Take my pills and vitamins. I like to wash my face and hair every morning if possible. I also used to shave with my battery travel shaver, a discipline I developed as a whitewater paddler. ("If you lose discipline on land, you're more likely to lose discipline in hard rapids.") Now barbate, I wouldn't shave anymore.

Break camp and get on the water. That was about it. 45 minutes max.

Not having overnight tripped in a few years, I would probably now do some exercises and stretches in the morning to get the old gears and levers and pulleys moving.

I'm sure others of you do more of a variety of things, and perhaps more languorously, in your morning routine between waking and shoving off.

I have used hammocks but I prefer tent camping.

Upon waking up while inside my tent I get dressed, I place my pillow, sleeping bag and sleeping pad into a roll top water resistant storage bag, I gather all the loose equipment from inside and place it into my backpack then I exit the tent.

Once outside the tent I do a few stretching exercises, brush my teeth, wipe my head, face and neck with a wet cloth and shave with an electric razor. Weather permitting, I un-stake my tent, shake it out and relocate it into an area to allow it to dry out while I eat breakfast. I then retrieve my food canister, water, chair and food prep kit for breakfast. After breakfast I brush my teeth again then place my tent into my backpack and I am ready to hit the water.

I usually pack up the quilt and sleeping pad before I exit the tent and pack away any maps, books, or clothes I have laying around the tent. If the tent is dry with no condensation I'll pack it up before worrying about food. If the tent is wet I'll leave it up while I finish packing, cooking, and eating in hopes it will dry out a bit more.

Sometimes, if it's been really damp, I'll lay the quilt on bushes in the sun to dry it out before packing it up.

I make a quick fire in the twig stove to boil water for oatmeal. Or, if I'm in a hurry, I'll just eat some dried fruit and nuts.

If it's especially cold, wet, or I'm feeling a bit lazy I'll make a cup of tea after the oatmeal and drink it before hitting the water.

The last thing I do is grit my teeth and put on my wet socks and boots.

Like Glenn I usually prefer being in the canoe to being on land.

Alan

I haven't been tripping for a while. Having worked through some physical problems over the last few years I'm hoping to go on a couple next year. Was going to go this September but something else came up. That said, when I do trip I look at food as fuel and I don't enjoy cooking. Breakfast looks like 2 cups of coffee and 2 granola bars. I break down camp (hammock and sleep gear) while the coffee water boils. I get an early start as I hate wind. My trips are shoulder seasons so sometimes I have left in the dark. I munch on trail mix as I paddle and skip lunch. I do cook a one pot meal for supper. Dave

I like to get up and go when I’m on my own.
I prep my get away the evening before, taking down tarps and clotheslines if weather allows and organize all other gear. In the morning the inside tent stuff gets packed and put into a sealine as soon as I get up . Then, get out of the tent and get water boiling. While that’s happening the tent comes down and any thing not organized the night before goes away. Breakfast is served, and quickly inhaled, coffee included. The cook kit is packed away, canoe loaded, maybe a number 2, and away we go. Usually it takes 45 minutes.

My morning routine has changed a bit now that I'm older and doing more base camp/fishing trips. In the old days I'd have my sleeping bag stuffed before I left the tent and my gear organized. From there I'd start my stove, put the water, get my food bag from wherever it was hanging and begin breakfast. At some point I'd gather up my tent and pack it away. Once breakfast was over I'd start packing my canoe and get on the water. I would try to do all of this before 7 AM so I could get out before the wind blew up.

Today, I'll hang out, drink some coffee and might even make a real breakfast (i.e. eggs w/ cheese along with a bagel) before heading out. I do enjoy fishing and exploring both new & old haunts so day tripping is now more of what I do then actually point to point trips. The new routine may not be exciting for some people but I'm still getting out occasionally so that's fine by me.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper

It always starts with coffee. While that is brewing the rest gets attended to.

I can't really explain why but it takes me 3 - 4 hours to wake up, get up, pack up and get moving. Getting on the water before Noon is a rare event.

I usually sneak out of the tent before the sun rises and get a fire going, hardly do overnights when it’s too hot for a fire. I’ll get up, make a fire, get some coffee going and write in a journal of what’s happened up to that point. I’ll check the weather on the gps, and look over the map of whatever’s on my mind right then. Could be route change, hiking, travel distance, etc. All while enjoying the slow morning rise up.

If I’m traveling on, I’ll start to pack most things up leaving the food bag/barrel still available so I can get some breakfast going. I’m a big breakfast fan but usually not right away. Once everything is packed up, I’ll move it all down near the canoe and fill up the water bottles. Then I’ll enjoy some breakfast and maybe another cup of coffee or tea before packing the canoe to move on.

I’m not entirely organized and there’s no true sequence to any routines of mine but I do like to enjoy the morning on the days I’m not driving to work. There’s something special about them. It’s also the best time for me to read, good luck getting me to pay attention to a book after noon.

Whether it's a move day or not I'm usually the first up and I start the coffee before pretty much anything else. I enjoy a quiet cup of early morning brew to get my day going.

Like Benjamin Franklin's "Rise, wash, and address Powerful Goodness," I rise, splash water on my face, make coffee, and address Powerful Goodness while squatting in the bushes.

Then, it's another cup of coffee, recording in the journal, and packing up the campsite. Sometimes I'm on the water at 8 AM, sometimes much later in the morning. That depends on if I'm fishing or birdwatching or what have you. Usually, I'll eat an apple and a Cliff bar or something similar while paddling the first half mile. The last morning of every overnight trip is a big cooked breakfast to celebrate the journey, the complexity of which is dependent on the distance until the take out.

I never shave on a trip. I like to bring the wildness home with me.

I (usually) like mornings around camp as I'm often awake in time to see the sunrise and it's the quietest part of day regardless of where you are.
Ideally, I'll start coffee then slowly begin breaking down camp, starting breakfast at an appropriate time so it's ready for the second cup of coffee. I typically drink a full pot in the mornings so I'm usually in no hurry to pack up and move.

I try to remain flexible, however, and (as evidenced in my latest TR) I've been known to skip all of that, scramble out of camp & get on the water if conditions make that advisable. (they need to be pretty adverse conditions but I've done it for days in a row sometimes).

I've never been a very organized person, so for a while my morning routine was a blur of breakfast, breaking camp, and feeding the pup. After a break from a good long wilderness trip for a couple years, I started to refine it a bit, most notably by breaking camp relatively quickly and getting on the water before the beautiful morning fog disappears, and then breaking for breakfast after an hour or so of paddling. This way I get to take advantage of the smooth morning waters and still get to take some time to enjoy my breakfast and coffee and let it digest before hitting the water again. I've found that it's far easier to get moving the second time.

Coffee.........some more coffee and a nice breakfast. Quick clean up and hit the water.
Unless the forecast is for wind. Then I break camp right away (maybe after one quick cup of coffee) and hit the water before it comes up.

I generally wake up around dawn, make my 1st cup and go sit down by the water to drink it, make a second cup and start prepping breakfast, and have a third while I start breaking camp. This means on a day with incoming bad weather i'm on the water within the hour, but on a good paddling day I might hit the water in 2 or 3 hours depending on how much time to the next site, this still allows me to cover 20 miles in a day without a headwind or knarly portage

Coffee. Watch the river for awhile. My favorite memory in the early morning, was sitting in a lawn chair drinking coffee and watching a large herd of elk swim across the river in Oregon right below camp. That is why we go out there.

On travel days simple breakfast, like granola, fruit, instant oatmeal. Pack up and go. Once we had a nice fellow a friend of a friend that suffers from OC/DC. We had to sit and watch him unpack his outfit, organize it and repack it every morning. not good.

We have lay over days on river trips. People sleep in, take naps and we have a big group breakfast like bacon and eggs.

I'm an early riser, and the first thing that I do on every trip, even before I have my coffee, is blow my bugle. When I'm satisfied that everyone on the lake is awake I have my coffee, usually with a blueberry muffin. Then I try to take advantage of the morning calm and paddle and fish for about an hour. When I return to the campsite it is time for my second cup of coffee and a full breakfast. After breakfast I pack up and take off. From the time I start my second cup of coffee to the time I shove off is about two hours. I can shave an hour off that if I skip the full breakfast.

Unfortunately, I was recently soloing a class three rapid in flood stage standing with my six foot paddle while blowing my bugle with one hand with my paddle in the other. I hit an unseen below the surface rock which spun me around and soon after I hit my head on a low branch which knocked the bugle into the drink. I'm on the fence about replacing the bugle so my morning routine may change.

Being an honest guy I have to say that everything in the above two paragraphs is true, except anything having to do with a bugle.

I hate mornings... especially in 'civilization', but even when camping... it gets far better the longer i'm out, but that's seldom long enough... I want something warm in my belly first thing in the morning... the shortest distance between hungry/cold me and a reasonable me is what I look for. my engine runs cold for a long time...

I typically set my breakfast up the night before... my oatmeal mix (w/raisins, powdered milk, brown sugar, and cinnamon) goes in my Kool-aid jar rehydrator. Water in the pot, alcohol stove, fuel, and lighter handy, all set up just on the edge of my tarp, just within reach of my bed, everything ready. If I'm hanging a food bag, the jar goes in the bag, and it comes down the minute I finish my first 'leak' upon rising... otherwise, i light it straight off, then go do my business. Then i get back in the sack and work from there... all this is done from the warmth of my bag... start the stove, put on the water, tea bag in cup, tablespoon plus of sugar (that burst of sugar is really what gets me going), lay back and let it boil while i wake up a bit more... when it boils, I'll pour the tea, pour the oatmeal, and then start to get dressed. this also seems to help me wake up. and by the time i'm dressed, the tea's cool enough to start drinking, and the oatmeal is cooked as well. I'll sit there, dressed, wrapped in my bag, while i eat.

I also like bacon... as I am very lazy, this merely requires pre-cooking it and then bringing it along. While the water is boiling, you can put 2x half-strips on the lid and they heat up very nicely.

All of this takes about 15 minutes. I had a friend one time, on a trip, nudge his buddy when I came stumbling toward the fire first thing in the morning with my jar, pot, breakfast, and cup, half asleep (they'd started the fire, bless them), and say "ok... you need to watch this... i've never seen anyone get breakfast done faster than what you're about to see."

The oatmeal mix goes in a ziplock with the air squeezed out of it. I wrap the bacon in wax paper (one slice, cut in half, nuked, and stacked, roughly 1.5x 4"). I shake everything to the bottom of the bag and lay it flat. the bacon packet lays on top of the mix, about in the middle. I set a half paper towel on that, with the teabag inside, and then roll it all up and put a rubber band around it. Every pack is a breakfast, complete except for the sugar, which lives in a container in my cook pot with the alcohol stove, lighter, etc.

As far as getting on the water, there is no hurry, and no routine... if i'm in one spot for a few days, fishing, I pull a lunch out of my food bag (again, all in one ziplock... bagel, landjaeger, cheese stick, M&Ms, Gummi Bears, dried apricots, drink mix, half a paper towel). That goes in a small day pack (3oz nylon thing from Sea to Summit) with water treatment, water bottle, rain poncho, and sometimes a hat or puffy layer, though i'm usually wearing it already. I grab my canoe seat and rod, my fishing tackle is all already strapped into my canoe, and that's it... off we go.

If I'm moving camp, it takes a bit longer... after breakfast, I pull lunch as above, but repack the food bag. Sleeping bag gets packed up first, as it's in the way, and everything else then goes into it's bag except the tarp... that comes down last if it's raining. Everything has a place in the pack: sit pad, then waterproof drysack, clothing and bedding. Kitchen set and food bag go on top. Tools and water bottles are the last to go in place, and finally the tarp in either the outside pocket if too wet, or on top next to the kitchen and food bags if not. Final look around, and down to the canoe. it goes in the water, then the big bag, then my little day pack with lunch and rain gear, seat, fishing rod, paddle, step off into deeper water, mount, and I'm off.

In trying to keep track of everything, I have a small piece of orange tape or a hot pink dummy cord on almost everything small. My stuff sacks for things other than sleeping bags/quilts are either yellow, blue, or red, for visibility, and my pack itself is usually either black or green. This prevents a lot of mistakes.

Seeker said:

landjaeger, . . . Gummi Bears

Click to expand...

Nice! Where do you get your Landjäger? Our lunches are Landjäger from Karl's—sometimes their Smoked Bratwurst as a special treat—mighty fine cheese from the Concord Cheese Shop, and homemade GORPMM™ (Good ole raisins, (honey-roasted) peanuts, and dark-chocolate M&Ms) supplemented with items such as Haribo Goldbären, Katjes Salzige Heringe, Good'n'Plenty, et cetera.

I am usually a slow starter. After rising relatively late, 7-8 a.m., I will roll up my bag and pad inside the tent, get dressed, gather miscellaneous items such as glasses, book, and water bottle, step out of the tent, and greet the world. Sometimes if the tent is dry, I might break it down before breakfast, and put what I can in my bag. Otherwise I will have some oatmeal with raisins and Vermont Maple syrup and a cup of strong coffee, which I take my time enjoying. After breakfast, it's time to finish taking down the tent and packing up.

Wake up with my head pounding from the liquor the night before, curse this general mess known as existence, crawl out of the tent with various parts of my body cramping up, hope that someone else has water boiling for my instant coffee, light up my first dart for the day, develop bowel movement anxiety as I gauge the relative thickness of the blood sucking terrorists that will shred my man parts upon fecal evacuation, avoid any meaningful conversation with fellow trippers, then hop in the canoe and try to reach the next destination as soon as possible.