May 29-31, 2009
Preparations for the trip to the Great White North are nearly complete. Following in N & C's footsteps of three years ago, a ten day canoe journey in the wilderness of Canada awaits J and C. Though instead of going to the BSA Canoe base called Atikokan, we are heading to the Bissett base. Variety and deep wilderness experiences are some of the wonderful spices of life.
To prepare for this trip we have been training and practicing. Most of the practicing was on rivers - which teaches you great canoeing skills. However, much of the Norther Tier (or NTier see www.ntier.org) treks are made up of lake canoeing and portaging through trails. Well, some of them are like trails - but others require you to almost blaze the trail (including cutting out trees that have fallen across the path).
This, our last training trip, was at the Allatoona Canoe base where they have a unique training event to help scouts prep for Northern Tier. It is fantastic as it gets you 85% ready for what to expect.
Everything you need you carry with you. And, you carry it on every portage. Simplification and small size is the name of the game. Keep a lot of small items kicking around and a portage will take 15 minutes longer. And there are a lot of portages (carrying the canoe on your back and all of the gear too).
If you note C's left hand (the guy in the forefront left of the picture) appears to be touching what is referred to as the Duluth sack (due to the city of its creation) or the Elephant Sack (aptly named for its color and size). These packs carry the gear for three people for 10 days. So think about it...someone carries the canoe - a 75lb wind catcher...someone carries the elephant sack - a 70-100lb monstrosity...and someone carries a food or equipment pack - quite firm. As the week wears on, the food pack is increasingly desirable to carry. At the end, it is almost featherweight - only carrying the food waste that we pack out.
The training had plenty of portages during the day so we could practice unloading, portaging, and reloading. It is quite fun. After eight or so portages we made our last stop and portaged in to set up camp. We arrived there before 4pm and had more than one glorious hour after setting everything up to just relax and talk...or sleep.
Please note some of C's clothes on the tent on the left. We pitched camp, set up the kitchen (an upside down canoe) and the scouts made a nice fire.
**the photographer
J is practicing his Terminator self portraits. And, he is making good use of the 'duffers' seat cushion. Duffer is the endearing term used to describe whoever is sitting in the middle seat. The ideal canoes for portaging have three people in each canoe so you can carry everything in one trip. The middle seat is often not a seat, but a cushion that you place on the bottom of the canoe. You can help paddle there when needed. We like to use the duffer to filter water so everyone stays well hydrated.
In Northern Tier the yell to other Canoers to see if they are from NTier includes the yell Hol-Ry!
We are feeling like we are about as ready as we can be. Soon, the real testing will come.
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