Hi Mihun09,
Stick with it, it will smooth out with experience.
When I started backpacking, I learned some hard and lessons about packing lighter. This was good training which helped me lighten my canoe load somewhat for canoe tripping. In canoeing, everything is heavier and bulkier because of dry bag requirements, plus paddles, life jackets, canoe, repair kit, fishing gear (fry pan, gotta have a fry pan!
, etc.) Hikers don’t have to deal with bilge water in the canoe and immersed packs. So our load is bulkier and heavier. I just add extra carries to portage trails. If I am under a week, I can manage with 2 carries using a 30L barrel T’d up over my big gear pack, but with 2-3 weeks I am using a 60L barrel doing 3 carries, and a month or more I am using 2 60L barrels and taking 4 carries. Its not a problem because one just adjusts the style of the trip - there is definitely no hurry. As a woman your frame will be lighter than the average man of similar height, so add a carry or two or three if you need to, there is no need to keep up with the muscleheads who brag about how fast they are. I am only 5’4” and the thought of a single carry is alien to me. I can’t do it. I know the single carry heroes will likely have back and knee and hip problems when they are older carrying too heavy of loads. Recall tortoise-hare stories. I am closer to the tortoise. I am approaching mid 50’s and I have good joints, maybe because I did not do single carries, (I do 2,3,4 carries depending on the trip) and I am planning to solo trip well into my 70’s at this rate.
I find much of the literature is obsessed with time and so-called efficiency. When I am on a canoe trip, I am on vacation and take my time when I want, and hammer down to make K’s when I want. I also plan in flex time in case I get behind schedule and need an extra day or two. Plan your own trip and don’t let someone else’s travel rate standards dictate to you.
Re bears: I disagree with Gavia’s post. Eastern vs. western black bear is an erroneous distinction biologically. I have 4 colleagues here who have been attacked by a predatory black bear in Ontario. Three fought them off with spray and other tactics, including big sticks, and one was taken down, partially ripped up, and was saved by her co-worker who stabbed the bear and held it off with aggressive behaviour and slashing that knife, and she was heli-vac’d and barely made it. They did not have bear spray. But we also know that bear spray may only buy you a few minutes of retreat from a determined bear. That said, the odds are very very low you will be bothered by a predatory bear, and a vehicle accident en route is far more likely.
You need to steel your mind and then things get comfortable. You are a fearsome predator, descended from fearsome predator ancestors, and are only here because our ancestors could and did kill everything in their path. A bear who messes with you will bleed and think twice because you will fight back with a blade and everything you have. I suggest adding a fixed blade knife with finger guard to your personal weapon arsenal. Its recommended as standard kit by my employer (Ont Gov’t). Bangers are very useful, I have mine on me at all times, and have used them effectively many times, with black and grizzly bears. I also have a can of bear spray on me at all times, including in the tent. Don’t worry it will not discharge with the safety fitting on it. I carry an extra can now in the barrel, after my friend last year emptied a can on a determined bear, even when he was rationing each of 4 bursts – the bear kept coming.
Steel your mind and relax knowing that the odds are incredibly in your favour. Our ancestors steeled their minds in a life with no safety net and no guarantees, that’s how they lived every day. Also, there is nothing really sacred about my or your life. We are mortals and when our time comes, it comes, and then we are compost. No big deal. By being out in the bush and canoe tripping, you are truly living well, and its well worth it, every single freakin’ second. Don’t let fear spoil it and stay in the city all year where its “safe”.
There is an old saying: “If you are afraid of dieing, you better not be afraid to live”. In other words, life is short, old age and decline and death are inevitable, so don’t be afraid, embrace life and life it to the full, and don’t let the bears deter you. The bears should fear you. Be fierce like our ancestors – carry weapons of your choice, (knife, axe, bangers, spray, other), you are a fearsome human, and natural selection has made most instinctive behaviours in big animals to run from us, because any animal that does not was dispatched and eaten by us, genes not passed on. You are fearsome, live that way. Yes the occasional bear very rarely will test our resolve, so be prepared, and thrive. I have had many bear encounters and always acted assertive, never subordinate, and they all ran. I await the final predatory encounter, but it likely won’t happen. If it does, whatever, everyone’s time comes. No sense missing out on canoe trips. Go get’em!
