Who Knew…

Now that I have all my gear organized, time to concentrate on what I’m going to eat. Typically if it doesn’t cook in a microwave in under 4 minutes I don’t eat it, I exaggerate for effect but it’s not far from the truth. By comparison, getting all the excursion equipment was child’s play.

As I did with my gear, I’ve created a planning spreadsheet and listed each of the 15 days broken down as follows:

• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner
• Snacks

compiled an itemized list of everything required including condiments, spices and drinks, I don’t want just be drinking water for two weeks.

I won’t need to cook every meal and anticipate there will be some that I stop at restaurants for, even still that’s somewhere between 30-40 meals that I have to pre-plan and carry along.

One of the downsides of doing this trip solo is I have to carry EVERYTHING, I really don’t think there will be enough room for equipment and food for 15 days.

Couple of options…

Pack enough food for around 5 days and re-supply along way, shouldn’t be too much of an issue, there are many places along the Trent to get more supplies. Also means I can vary the menu along the way and can have more days with fresh food like vegetables and non-dried fruit.

Alternative, split food into groupings enough for 5 days and pre-mail care packages to either a specific lock or post office box with instructions to keep onsite with an expected pick up date. I’ve heard this can work really well if you plan properly. Has the side benefit that I could also include more clothes to save me from doing laundry. I can’t take 15 changes of clothes so this way I could take the new stuff out, re-pack with old stuff and ship back home. Logistically I’m not sure if this is too much of a hassle, at least considering it.

I will probably wait until I do a test pack with a kayak, Swift Canoe doesn’t open until may so I’m a couple of weeks away from doing that. Once I know how much room is left over I can make a final call.

Might even bring the fishing rod, fresh fish might be a nice change.

Countdown

3 months left until my trip unless I push the date up.

I was reflecting today, it’s been a month since I started this blog to track planning for my trip, while I do have a lot left to organize I’ve made significant progress so far, way ahead of schedule and almost completely packed.

Big difference from when I first got the idea back in February and was like, where do I start?

Plan Complete

That pretty much covers off everything I could think of so far, I will continue to refine this plan over the coming months and looking forward to warmer weather now more than ever.

Push the Limit

I intend to watch weather forecasts religiously, any sign of questionable conditions and I will be parked safely on shore with nothing but ground under my feet.

Unfortunately, no amount of planning ahead can eliminate the possibility that conditions may change at any time. This is my biggest concern, having a nice day and boom, all of a sudden wind and large waves, KM away from shore, wind pushing me into more open unpredictable water, or worse yet, capsizing and not being able to rescue because I’ve never been in that situation before.

My last training task before the trip is to “push the limit”. The plan is to pick a day where the wind is blowing and the waves are crazy, and get out on Georgian Bay and see what it’s like. Specifically, how does the kayak react in waves, against the wind, with the wind, etc., I also plan on capsizing numerous times and practice rescue techniques in extremely bad conditions. My thought process being I want to know what to expect should it actually happen instead of being faced with the situation with zero experience. I will not be doing this alone, I’m not an idiot, I will have a spotter with me in a boat should assistance be required. Safety is my first concern.

I read a great article on estimating wave sizes. When you are in a regular boat, you are high above the water so it takes a very large wave to obscure the horizon. In a kayak, you are very low in the water, all it takes is a 2’ wave to obscure the horizon, a good technique to estimate wave size (yes I did this) sit on your kitchen floor and look at the top of the counter, it’s about 3’ high, now imagine that coming straight at you one after the other, now look at the fridge, it’s about 6’ high and you don’t want a 6 foot wave coming at you in any boat let alone a kayak.

Test Drive

In theory, at this point I should be comfortable enough to take the kayak out for my first solo trip.

The plan is to pick an extremely calm day and head out on Georgian Bay for the day to get my “sea legs”. I choose Georgian Bay because I’m familiar with the area and one less thing to worry about, there are many family and friends around with boats who can come get me if I screw up badly. Created a Google Map (on sidebar) for the intended practice route.

Prudence dictates that I should pack the kayak completely and make it an overnight trip, If I can’t stand doing a two day trip, I’m not going to be very happy after 15 days. Haven’t decided on this one yet, just want to put everything I learned into real practice and get a feel for it.

This is also my first opportunity to figure out how many km/hour I can do without overly exerting myself, I can then adjust my trip plan to accommodate.