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I'm with ya there on both counts. If they did that here in Idaho, there wouldn't be any forest left. Come to think of it, at the current rate, I wouldn't bet against that eventually anyway.

I guess you would call Craters of the Moon extreme desert. There was no way we were going to cook over an open fire at -10f and with 30 mph wind. Even the charcoal grill was a no-go. :D Lacking a windbreak, I even had a hard time lighting the Whisperlite. Maxed out, it did get the water boiling...

I've never had an isobutane stove fail me. But when temps are going to be much below freezing and especially at high altitude, I bring the white gas and MSR Whisperlite stove. That thing always always works. It does take some maintenance though.

On my trip in BWCA last year, we had a lot of rain. All of the available wood was soaked 2-3" blowdown. I used the same process for feeding our campfire for cooking, but in longer pieces. I've carried a Pocket Bellows in my fire kit for a few years but that was the first time I really needed it...

Yeah.... that's my other reason. ;)

What if it was fitted with a foam saddle?

Nice! Another benefit of those shelves is the elimination of a couple of potential foot entrapments.

@yknpdlr - can one set up that little Hornbeck for kneeling? Asking for a friend. ;)

Not a bad place to start. Also a good platform for poling. Do you have some potential solo canoe choices?

You can practice that art safely in deep snowpack. ;)

Sparks from target shooting are a real thing. Bullets hitting rocks after passing through the target (and for some people, maybe the rock is the target) can cause sparks. I know of at least a couple of fires that were started that way.

Yeah, that's one reason I never warmed up to the alcohol stove idea. But in spite of what we often think of the wisdom of government agencies, I think they recognize the small odds of a little alcohol stove accident starting a wildfire. At least in my area that is mostly pitchy softwoods, flying...

I rarely have a fire for any reason when solo, and I'm never the one to suggest it with a group. I have been driven out of the forest by smoke and fire too many times, so I am very sympathetic about fire bans. And IMO, they are almost always imposed later than they should be. Around here, they...

In the national forests in Idaho, stick stoves are not allowed during a fire ban. I asked. Petro fuel stoves are okay. I didn't ask about alcohol stoves, but it looks to me like they wouldn't be any different in status than a white gas stove.

When SUP first started showing up here in Idaho, I dismissed it as a passing fad. The few that I saw trying it on the local river kept falling off on features I was going through standing in my canoe with the pole. But some of those I know kept at it and are now running class 3 regularly and...

That's a good price!

That wasn't very clear. What I was getting at is that experience will teach you what kind of canoe(s) you will ultimately find most useful. You might get lucky with the first solo canoe you buy, but spending time in a variety of "wrong" canoes - enough time to get to know them - is enlightening...

I really think this is the best approach. If you aren't already very experienced in solo canoes it's hard to know what you'd like best once you have had a lot of solo time on the water and refined your skills. Then paying the price for new won't be a gamble.

Quite often, it's easier to get a canoe pointed back downstream by edging the boat to the downstream side and doing a back sweep on that lower side. That's because the current helps in carving an upstream turn. To turn downstream with a forward sweep, you have to outrun the current.

To be clear, I have not paddled a Phoenix. I had the Guide for years and now I have the Wildfire. Both of those are almost as long as the Phoenix, but with symmetrical rocker. They are both easily class 2+ capable. The Phoenix is said to be similar in river worthiness to the Wildfire but easier...