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If the little nymph ticks (we call them seed ticks here in TICK central) transmit disease, then we are truly doomed and I will begin changing careers so's I can spend my days inside. Their nests are awful and will leave you quite literally crawling with hundreds of invisible mites. We assure...

Central VA has a lot of ticks and lots of my guys get sick. We survey land and spend lots of time outside. Lymes. Lone star allergy. Rocky Mnt. The big ticks are easy if you pay attention and go after the initial sting. It takes a while to transfer the juice and you want to get them when you...

THREE. Hance Hance, mile 77.2, represents the psychological crux of your solo canoe trip through Grand Canyon. The big bad mental hump day. Having never seen a Grand Canyon NINE, you're going to want Hance behind you. Like Adam and Eve in the garden standing beneath the tree of knowledge...

Helmet protect head. Head important. Don't let this be your skull:

Mr. Gage: Sleep in GC is wonderful. It's almost always on sand, like beach sleeping, and I splurged on my weight and carried a Paco Pad, which, if you're unfamiliar with the Paco, is essentially two layers of foam with an air pocket in the middle wrapped in heavy-duty PVC plastic (like raft...

I'm not a poler, and I realize this is directed at polers, so I didn't cast my vote, but I feel pretty strongly about helmets. I carry one with me probably 98% of the time. Not always on my head, depending on how I'm sitting in the boat, but nearly ALWAYS available (even my 16' Old Town canoe...

I won't buy any other brand either. You can get much, much cheaper suits now (as low as 200 USD), but Kokatat stands behind their suits like none other. I had a friend whose Goretex suit--after 12 YEARS of paddling--started delaminating, so he sent it to Kokatat not really sure if anything could...

Bcelect: nice link. I try to keep vigilent and study the various ways people die on the water. I'm convinced that anyone who spends time on the water ought to study the many ways it can kill you. One of the surest methods for MITIGATING catastrophe on any trip--not simply solo trips but any...

TWO: On Cardenas Camp Orange helicopter signal panels (3'x8'), cut from Coghlan's emergency tube tent when Big Bill refused to loan me his. Big H., my river mentor, offered the use of his panels, but the tube tent costs about six bucks and it took me about five minutes to cut the panels to...

So I'm working on scribbling down a bunch of stuff and pulling together this and that and, while I don't want to bore people with long-winded ramblings that probably mean very little to anyone but myself, I'll start putting some of my rougher, unconnected sentences up here. I'm also trying to...

Mr. Gage writes: "Just before a big trip, whether it be a canoe trip or cross country road trip where I'll travel back roads looking for out of the way hiking opportunities, I'm always filled with a mixture of excitement and sadness. Excitement obviously comes from the impending trip and what...

As I said, Mr.McCrea, impressive. Even if the impressive feat was back when you could paddle 34 miles UPSTREAM and grow an awesome, Bob Foote ponytail.

Ahhh. Sorry about that. You're on it, Mr. Gage. Thanks.

Thanks Steve (in Idaho). I'll try not to inundate you will all of my various drafts, but I'll try to put up a few pertinent sentences. Mr. McCrea (without ry): Here's the link to your story, in the event you are still scratching your head.

Ah. Yes. My apologies, Mr. McCrea. I'll try to remember to drop the suffix, and leave you where you belong. I got Spencer Canyon from what I assumed was one of your articles in my rather extensive online search of solo paddlers in the Grand Canyon. Get Lost Magazine? This paragraph: "Next day...

Thank you all for the well wishes and interest in the trip. It certainly was a grand adventure and one I hope to somehow articulate--to the degree that I can--in a string of sentences. As this is really the only online site to which I post anything (canoeing to me involves so much more than...

There are certainly risks that must be mitigated and a calculus that must be run before determining whether ANY undertaking is within your range of possibility, but I suspect the word "foolish" might be a little strong. Paddling GC solo cannot be categorically judged foolish. I never felt like I...

Cool new app. I have emerged successfully, if a little humbled, from Grand Canyon. I'm on a phone so cannot say much. (It will probably still be too much. Forgive me, as always.) Suffice to say that, like Columbus, I imagined the canyon far too small, which, in the end, enabled me to launch...

Quite a few people on this site, myself among them, spend a good deal of time paddling solo. Some of us paddle alone for weeks at a time, alone in the dark wilds, alone in the wide open, alone in the cold. Some of us--though of course no one on this particular site--go a little loopy. (Chris...

Grand Canyon 2017. January 2 launch.