One thing I will never do again is . . .

[Glenn MacGrady]

"invite anyone on a trip who is not a nice person. You can teach a nice person how to camp and paddle, but you can’t teach a skilled jerk to be nice." — Cliff Jacobson

Q&A With Expedition Canoeist Cliff Jacobson

His best advice, pet peeves, biggest blunder and where he dreams of paddling next.

paddlingmag.com

Things I will never do again include:

- putting Kevlar felt skid plates on a new canoe (ugly, noisy, unnecessary)
- day paddling the east entrance of the Okefenokee Swamp (artificially canalized and boring) (the west entrance is interesting)

How about you?

 

[Patrick Corry]

Haha! I will never again drag my canoe through the seemingly endless bog of upper Harrington Brook because I missed the turn onto Rainer Creek between Lake Lila and Clear Pond; Whitney Wilderness, ADKs.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Haha! I will never again drag my canoe through the seemingly endless bog of upper Harrington Brook because I missed the turn onto Rainer Creek between Lake Lila and Clear Pond; Whitney Wilderness, ADKs.

Pictures, Pat?

 

[Robin]

I will never buy another canoe to restore and resell. I ended up with more canoes than I could actually use or easily restore like in the old days. Now that I have moved a few to new owners, the pressure is off. I still have two more project canoes, but they can wait, I see more paddling time in my future.

 

[Boreal Birch]

Good trade Robin, time in the shop for time in a canoe.

 

[memaquay]

I will never again portage a sealine pack with 75 cans of beer in it 2 kilometres.

 

[MrPoling]

River surf (or otherwise play in whitewater) without a PFD. Coughing out water is really unpleasant.

 

[Rubbaboo]

Drink straight from a water source. It’s not worth the paranoia.

 

[JohnSand]

Cruise all day in a gale, or downpour.
Get married.

 

[ppine]

No more rivers in flood.
No more jerky people that I don't know very well.
No more big groups.

 

[BWCA66]

Go with a group that includes folks I know nothing about.
Leave my pup at home - you want to go with me then you go with my pup.

 

[Paddlinhal]

Go on a monthlong trip with a canoe partner that isn't tried and true.

 

[Keeled Over]

"invite anyone on a trip who is not a nice person. You can teach a nice person how to camp and paddle, but you can’t teach a skilled jerk to be nice." — Cliff Jacobson

Q&A With Expedition Canoeist Cliff Jacobson

His best advice, pet peeves, biggest blunder and where he dreams of paddling next.

paddlingmag.com

Things I will never do again include:

- putting Kevlar felt skid plates on a new canoe (ugly, noisy, unnecessary)
- day paddling the east entrance of the Okefenokee Swamp (artificially canalized and boring) (the west entrance is interesting)

How about you?

I will never shed tears again because Glenn called my canoe ugly, noisy and unnecessary.........

 

[yknpdlr]

I will never again home dehydrate 20 kilograms (44 pounds!) of dry weight food per paddler! as required by the rules to start with during the first ever Yukon River 1000 mile canoe race. I had seven paddlers in my voyageur canoe to feed. I spent months dehydrating, storing, sorting and packaging that much food into two full high calorie meals/day, plus daytime snacks before the first 2009 race. Plus, it all was required to be packed in certified bear resistant containers. In the end we only used a total of just 1/4 of it during our six day paddle to the finish line, and no one went hungry or lost any weight. Thankfully, race officials dropped that ridiculous requirement for the second and subsequent year races. The next year I dehydrate, packed, and we brought only enough food to last for up to ten days.

 

[Odyssey]

I will never refuse a good friend my last pair of clean gotchies on a trip. That should never happen. I still feel bad about that.
I should've gone commando for the sake of a friend in need thing.

 

[yknpdlr]

I will never refuse a good friend my last pair of clean gotchies on a trip. That should never happen. I still feel bad about that.
I should've gone commando for the sake of a friend in need thing.

An old scouting rule of thumb is that a single pair of underwear (gotchies) will last 4 days while camping, front/back and then inside out front/back.... Of course if you share a tent with buddy, then you each will get 8 days of wear.

 

[memaquay]

Strange that Odyssey should talk about lending gotchies.....he probably get's that request frequently........I will never again eat Odyssey's jalapeno bannock or pancake, or whatever was the delivery package for the molten fire that made my bunghole resemble Mic Jaggers lips.

 

[Tsuga8]

- day paddling the east entrance of the Okefenokee Swamp (artificially canalized and boring) (the west entrance is interesting)

Glenn, the trick is to turn left! As I recall from my summer working in Oke many moons ago, Chesser Prairie, the first turn south off the canal, usually had good wildlife and scenery. The west entrance was better though. I also haven't been back since before the scenery-changing catastrophic wildfire they had about 10 yrs ago....

 

[Patrick Corry]

Pictures, Pat?

Pictures don't really do it justice... but here are a few.

The pleasant paddle up Harrison Brook prior to the drag.

In the thick of the bog. Some of the channels were quite narrow, but waist deep! (sorry about the vertically oriented photo showing as horizontal here):

Typical channel; too narrow to paddle effectively, quite deep to drag with no solid ground adjacent to stand on and line the canoe:

Random machine part ( I have since learned it's a modern brake rotor!) resting on a tiny beaver dam which created a level change in the narrow channel:


Once I gave up on the bog and dragged the canoe over to the railroad right of way, I discovered that I was within probably 75 feet of the place where the right of way carry departed into the woods over to Clear Pond. Here, finally back on track to Clear Pond:

 

[Patrick Corry]

Harrison Brook area: Lake Lila is off the map to the bottom, my erroneous path to and through Harrison Brook bog is in red, turnoff on Rainer Creek to the proper carry landing is in green, the actual carry along the railway right of way and through woods to Clear Pond is in yellow. Clear Pond is just visible at the top of the map- end of yellow path.