{"id":3492,"date":"2010-09-02T10:28:56","date_gmt":"2010-09-02T15:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moshannonfalls.com\/?p=3492"},"modified":"2010-09-30T17:23:24","modified_gmt":"2010-09-30T22:23:24","slug":"canoe-camping-adirondacks-trip-part-3-lessons-learned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moshannonfalls.com\/canoe-camping-adirondacks-trip-part-3-lessons-learned\/","title":{"rendered":"Canoe Camping Adirondacks Trip – Part 3 Lessons Learned"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Canoe<\/a>

Taking a Break on the Canoe Portage<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read\u00a0part\u00a02 of this canoe\u00a0trip report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wilderness canoeing is not as simple as you might think. Just as a hiker needs to be fully prepared before heading to the trail, a canoeist needs to be prepared with the proper gear and knowledge before heading off to a Wilderness canoe trip.<\/p>\n

Below is a list of mistakes I made and lessons learned on my\u00a0recent Adirondack Canoe Trip. Read my lengthy Adirondack Canoe Trip Report Part 1<\/a>. I’ve been canoe camping for\u00a0over 20 years but the fact is that wilderness canoeing takes preparaton beyond\u00a0the average canoe camping trip and it takes a few trips and maybe even some investment in new gear\u00a0to get it right.<\/p>\n

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  1. Boat Design –\u00a0On past trips\u00a0I managed to portage my 67 lb canoe without any major issues except for the thwart resting on my shoulder became painful, but I managed to correct that by wrapping the thwart with a towel for extra padding. However on the last Adirondack trip the portages were much more challenging and the weight of the canoe and pain from the thwart became\u00a0nearly unbearable.\u00a0My lesson here is that on my next trip I will have a lightweight canoe designed for extensive portaging, and\/or a canoe cart.<\/li>\n
  2. Food and Food Containers – I’ve have a lot of experience packing for downriver canoe trips that\u00a0enable me to carry a boatload of gear, but on portage extensive trips you\u00a0need to keep\u00a0the weight\u00a0to a minimum. That means relying mainly on dried food. Go\u00a0light on\u00a0the frozen and canned food, and forget special\u00a0meals requiring a lot of preparation, forget bottled water (buy a water filter and drink from natural sources<\/a>), \u00a0use a lightweight stove (Jetboil<\/a> and MSR Reactor are good choices), forget hard coolers because even my small lightly packed beverage cooler was a serious hinderance to my portaging. Watch the video on how to pack food for an eight day canoe trip<\/a>\u00a0for some food ideas.<\/li>\n
  3. Dry Bags and\u00a0Backpacks – You have to be meticulous when packing gear\u00a0for these types of trips because even something as simple as a broken shoulder strap on your backpack can cause you a world of discomfort. I lost my shoulder strap\u00a0for my dry bag\u00a0but managed to rig a shoulder strap from\u00a0another strap and some rope but unfortunately it was a painful fix as the rope wanted to cut deep into my shoulder with every step I took up the portage trail.<\/li>\n
  4. Waterproof Clothing – Too little clothing can mean a cold miserable trip but too much might mean the misery of carrying five\u00a0extra pounds, and that may not seem like a lot of extra weight\u00a0but it is when you have to carry several miles with a canoe on your shoulders. Investing in some waterproof weather approriate clothing such as neoprene,\u00a0splash pants and\u00a0Muck Boots will increase your chances of keeping warmer and dryer throughout the trip, and that means you get to pack and carry\u00a0less clothing.<\/li>\n
  5. Quick dry clothing is\u00a0a great\u00a0way to go for shirts and pants because\u00a0\u00a0it helps you stay cooler in hot weather and warmer in cooler weather.\u00a0But another great advantage of\u00a0quick dry clothing is that\u00a0when you get wet from rain or sweat the quick dry shirts will normally dry in a few minutes and that enables you to pack less clothing.<\/li>\n
  6. Synthetic sleeping bags<\/a> are the best option for these\u00a0trips\u00a0because they dry fast yet do maintain their warmth when wet. My synthetic sleeping bag got wet just from rolling it up our third morning but I easily dried it by hanging it over a line later that afternoon.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Go on to part 4 and view the Adirondack Canoe Trip photo gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Read\u00a0part\u00a02 of this canoe\u00a0trip report. Wilderness canoeing is not as simple as you might think. Just as a hiker needs to be fully prepared before heading to the trail, a canoeist needs to be prepared with the proper gear and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moshannonfalls.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3492"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moshannonfalls.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moshannonfalls.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moshannonfalls.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moshannonfalls.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3492"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/moshannonfalls.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3509,"href":"https:\/\/moshannonfalls.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3492\/revisions\/3509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moshannonfalls.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moshannonfalls.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moshannonfalls.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}