Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Final Preparation

Couple of things I learned from my pre-trip experience.

Gloves

Need paddling gloves, my hands started to get sore and need the extra padding this will provide.

Water

Don’t need to bring 2 water containers, just need 1 to fill with water when I get to camp, I can’t reach the water anyway from the Kayak and having my water filter handy seems to be a better approach anyway while out on the water. I do have my Camelback for extra drinking when needed. When I get to camp I can fill the water container for what is needed there.

Tent

In 30-40km wind my tent is a pain to put up, tent has 3 parts, footprint, tent, fly, the footprint has stake holes to stake to the ground and that stays put nicely, there is also the female end of a butterfly clip that the fly connects to which holds it down, the tent part however doesn’t have stake down holes, just a slot for the tent peg and the same female butterfly connector (which you connect the fly to if not using the footprint) problem is that you can’t stake down the tent and the wind makes it impossible to get the fly attached before it blows away, frustrating…. I had some guy at the lock assist but can’t rely on that, my solution is to use four separate lengths of rope with loops at either end, temporarily i can loop around the tent pegs and stake them to the ground to give me time to get the fly on. Should work fine, can only test once I’m back in that situation.

Rope

Need bow and stern line ropes to tie this thing up if i get to a dock or need to park overnight at a dock, didn’t have any on my last trip so when I stopped for lunch I had to rig up my paddle to connect kayak to the dock to stop it from drifting away.

Bumpers

Need 2 small bumpers, may need to park at the lock overnight in some places and with a fiberglass kayak against cement, wouldn’t be good, need two really small ones that I can quickly attach.

Sponge

Don’t forget this one, damn water in the bottom is impossible to get out without it, the pump can only get out so much.

Stove

Stove worked great the first night but having difficulty figuring out the proper steps to pre-heat and ignite it, going to have to work on it a few times before next week. At least I know how to build my own stove and may resort to that for a few meals just because it is a hell of a lot easier.

Padding

Sitting in a kayak gets sore after awhile, hope I don’t forget to grab my padded motocross shorts for extra protection, may see about getting a padded seat insert as well.

Stretch

Damn legs are still stiff from last weekend, doing extra stretching to hopefully work the hamstrings.

Count down continues.. less than a week left

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