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I carry baby wipes. I do most of the cleaning with whatever happens to be available, be it the underside of a leaf or a spruce bough moved in the correct direction. Then, I finish with delicate hands and a single baby wipe. Don't just use any baby wipe though - most of them are horribly...

PolyOne bought Spartech, who in turn had bought the rights from UniRoyal. These links will explain it better than I can: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royalex https://paddlingmag.com/stories/news-events/royalex-canoe-material-is-dead/ Originally there were a few other things made with Royalex...

My approach has always been guided by on question: Are the bears here afraid of humans? When I go to Algonquin, I hang my food - with a rope between two trees where necessary - and do my level best to follow Cliff's method. When I go to Wabakimi, not so much. Bears in Algonquin, or in many...

I still carry a 2xAA LED Maglite, although I've been reconsidering it. The LED Maglites don't like rechargeable batteries, likely due to the lower voltage. That said, they're bombproof and waterproof, and can be turned into a standing lantern in a pinch, or hung from the top of a tent without...

The rise of T-Formex has at least demonstrated one thing - PolyOne (the penultimate purchaser of Royalex rights) didn't understand the market. All they had to do was raise the price. If there's a market for T-Formex today, it stands to reason that the market for Royalex never truly dried up but...

I dropped some pocket lint on a trip once. An eagle saw it, a deer heard it, and a bear smelled it. (adapted from a proverb of unknown origin) I will admit to using a copious amount of ziplocs on trips. I've become quite adept at sucking all the air out of them and creating a passable vacuum...

Either way, Glenn has a point; a link or summary would be very useful in cases like this.

Twice, actually :sick: One fellow I trip with is otherwise a very clean and sanitary person. In the bush though, he tends to regress. We had known each other for decades through a mutual acquaintance, and one day I found out he'd always wanted to do expedition wilderness trips, but lacked the...

Did you consider hand sanitizer? That's what I use after #2 when washing my hands is impractical. It's much faster and easier when washing your hands can feel like a chore.

The worst for me was on a car camping trip, only about an hour's drive from a hospital. My brother is a type 1 diabetic. He had been diagnosed at the age of 35 (yes, it happens) and was still figuring it all out. Type 1s generally need two kinds of insulin: a long acting, once daily shot, and...

It's amazing how far out you find garbage. I think my most interesting finds were a pair of boxers, obviously left by someone who soiled themselves while pooping in the woods, a three day paddle from everywhere. Those got burned in the fire and I wondered why the original owner didn't have the...

I still haven't had time to read the articles. But I think the old adage stands: When thunder roars, go indoors. Not quite the same thing in the wilderness, but the general principle remains the same, I think.

My packs have gained weight in recent years too, but for different reasons. I'm more able now to undertake lengthly expedition trips, which generally means carrying more crap. This is quite different from the 5 day, single carry, go-go-go trips I've done when I could only find a few days off and...

Ya'all make me feel young. The last time I weighed my 115L SealLine before a trip, it came it at 80 pounds. To be fair, it had all the food for two weeks.

The first was an unnamed river, that ran from a lake I'd camped on as a child for a decade or so. For years, we camped at a private teacher's campground in Ontario (we still do - in fact, my mother is buried in that lake). We were around 14 years old when I and a cousin of mine got this idea in...

These days, we carry an InReach. The ability to communicate exactly what the emergency is, is of great value to us. It may be as simple as "we need the nearest hunting lodge to send a boat, we have a broken leg/boat/ our food got carried off by a bear/fell off a cliff". The advent and value of...

In other words - good judgement comes from experience. And experience comes from bad judgement.

I suffered a major ACL sprain back in 2019, four months prior to a trip through Killarney that involved some MAJOR portages. While I don't notice it any longer, at the time, it was still very present. I was popping painkillers like candy on that trip. The next year, it had *mostly* fully...

I am neither interesting nor instructive. I've just made a few mistakes and lived to tell of them. Opinions, though... I have plenty.

My biggest fear is losing a boat. On one of my first expedition trips, the Missinaibi, at the end of a particularly dangerous set of rapids was a repaired canoe. Some unlucky travelers had previously run the rapids. In doing so, they wrecked and abandoned their boat. Some years later, another...