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Looks wonderful... I have a lot of fond memories of my daughter and me south of there on Hoel, Long, Slang, and Turtle Ponds... we never got into St Regis or Fish Pond... she still likes to canoe camp with me, just still hates portaging (at almost 30yo now). But the St Regis (especially Fish...

This applies more to non-camping, but my wife will pack weeks in advance. I travel 1-2 weeks a month for work, and typically pack the night before a business trip (if for the week), sometimes even the morning of, if I leave late-morning. For camping, I'm about the same way; pack all at once, no...

The sound of mice chewing is probably the worst... you come awake, knowing that the little buggers have damaged something somewhere, but you don't know what, and probably can't kill them.... kinda like when you can hear your wife's cat getting sick somewhere nearby the bedroom at home. I've...

Wow... that's a tough one... "top 3". What was once luxury is now necessary. I'm 60 now, and a bit creaky in the morning, but I usually limber enough after a hot beverage, getting dressed, and walking down to the water. A couple days of good fresh air, exercise, and fewer sugary snacks (and...

That's also a nice one. I have seen mergansers surfing that stream, seeming to enjoy themselves as they navigated the run. Funny to watch. There is also an amazingly heavy pot hanging on a tree by the firepit there... cannot believe someone carried it all the way in; possibly skiied/sledded...

If it's below waterline, why not get some Rustoleum enamal? I bought a can each of green and red to touch up my Chestnut and Old Town W/C canoes. They're a close enough color match, and iirc, the pints are about $10 at Home Depot. For tape, it's hard to say... I use Gorilla Tape on my Hemlock...

Pete, Bundick Lake, LA, c. 2009. Pete grew up neglected, hence the bare spot at the base of his naked tail... He was 6 when we got him in 2008.

Sounds: Loons, red squirrels, and white-throated sparrows Trout flipping around the bottom of a canoe Wooden paddle on wooden gunwale Water dripping of a paddle The lap of water against the shore Wind in the pines and leaves Water as it falls Crackle of fire, especially when it's cold/wet and...

Hard to say what's best... I've had a couple that had the requisite view, mood, and isolation... One was in the middle of nowhere in the Kisatchie Hills Wilderness. The other is an un-numbered (but legal 150' from water/trail) somewhere in the St Regis Canoe Wilderness. If I have a favorite...

I live in MD between Philadelphia and Baltimore. If I stop overnight to see my folks on the way up, I get them from Liehs & Steigerwald's on Grant Blvd in Syracuse. If I go directly north NYC and then to Albany and beyond, I get them from Binkert's, ahead of time, in Baltimore.

I tend to stick to small ponds and lots of portages with a Hemlock Nessmuk XL (carbon fiber), so all I carry is duct tape, a few safety pins, needles/threads, pliers, a couple rivets, and some buttons, plus my hatchet, knives, and saw. When I use a wood canvas canoe, it's mostly lakes/flatwater...

Mostly garbage, occasionally a half-full bottle of alcohol. Useful stuff includes a lot of fishing lures (some lost in camp, some snagged in a tree or on a log that I could get to and recover) and bobbers, sun/reading glasses, and a couple knives. My wife found a headlamp once, and still uses...

I'm usually solo, and always lazy... I hate double portaging, so it's just a food bag, and nothing perishable. I tend to go early spring/late fall anyway, when the weather's coolest without being cold, and that helps keep things like bacon, cheese, and alcohol cool.

+1 for Trailcampro.com. Good folks. I've gotten a couple Browning from them that I really like. I set them up in the woods behind my house and swap cards every couple days... all kinds of interesting stuff... some birds, neighborhood cats, etc... but mostly foxes, deer, raccoons, possums, and...

Seeker... the initiate in a vision quest, it turns out... I just knew I was looking for something, born out of an exceptionally painful chapter of my life that lost me a fortune, my faith, and pretty much stood me on my head for a couple years. Seeker fit at the time, unintentionally, and when...

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...

No worries... and thank you for graciously taking it in the spirit in which it was intended... one of the things I like about this forum, people's courtesy. btw, I had to move everything out of my wife's living room to do my first Whelen on the floor... second one, I had a big enough basement...

I too need to "slouch" a bit more than normal to get comfortable while seated... car seat is way back, I use a standing desk at the office, I put my legs up on the desk here at home, and in my Hemlock Nessmuk XL, I have to scoot up a bit to get the Crazy Creek chair to work... If you move the...

Every time I complete the steepest part of the Turtle to Clamshell portage, and am resting by that big boulder at the top of the trail, I swear I will never do it again, that I'll go the other way (Long Pond to Nellie)... and by the time I'm down the hill at Clamshell, I've forgotten all about...

Not to be a pedant, but also don't want interested people looking for something that doesn't exist... Whelen talks about his lean-to in his book "On Your Own in the Wilderness". "(New) Way of the Wilderness" is by Calvin Rutstrum, and he prefers a different kind of shelter (tent with multiple...