PRO TIP P
PICK A GOOD CREW
utting together a tight, well-rounded and workable group is a lot of work and you’ll do well to remember these commandments.
COMPATIBILITY A good crew is invested in the safety and happiness of all its mem- bers—there’s no room for selfishness, insensitivity or arrogance. Friends often get along better than random family members—old scars and residual animosities may blossom again under strain.
EXPERIENCE This can be tricky, each person needs to make an honest assessment of his or her abilities. If you’re doing whitewater or big, cold lakes then you better have at least one experienced paddler in each canoe and spend the first day training the others.
JUDGMENT Maturity and level-headedness are more critical than technical proficiency. A crewmember who knows when to portage is far better than one who is eager to tackle every rapid.
RATIONALE Why do you want to go? Is this a journey or a competition? Find out what everyone hopes to get out of the trip, make sure these goals are harmonious, and de- velop a trip philosophy agreeable to all.
SIZE On remote northern rivers, a group of six is safest—this provides ample room if you lose a canoe in a rapid. Otherwise, a group of four offers the optimum blend of safety, harmony, easy food prep and campsite selection, and availability of group members. Larger than six, and you’ll almost certainly have compatibility issues. —HW
READ A MAP
T
opographic maps are your lifelines on a
SKILL ESSENTIAL
wilderness canoe trip. A GPS is not a sub- stitute for paper maps! Experienced trippers rely on 1:250,000 scale maps; aging eyes prefer more detailed 1:50,000 maps. Before you go, mark the miles on your
maps. I mark every four miles on 1:250,000 maps and each mile on 1:50,000 maps. This works out to a mark roughly every inch. Since the average speed of a loaded tripping canoe is four miles—or one inch— per hour, this makes it easy to keep track of your progress in the field. If you keep an eye on your watch, you’ll seldom be far off schedule. Next, determine the drop of the river.
Label the elevations where each contour line crosses the river and indicate whether the elevation is in meters or feet. Make a table like the one in the example. Note how many feet per mile the river drops between contour intervals. Generally, a drop of less than 10 feet per mile is easy paddling, more than 15 and things can get hairy. River size matters—a small, shallow river
with a drop of 40 feet per mile and constant gradient may be runnable while a big river with the same drop is not. And, of course, it depends on how the drop is distributed—as an even descent or by a series of falls.
MAP RULES • The closer together the contour lines, the greater the drop. Tightly spaced contour lines that cross the river indicate a falls; parallel to the river represent a canyon.
• The closed “V” end of a contour line always points upstream.
• The contour interval (CI) is given in the map margin. The larger the CI, the less clear the characteristics of the river. —CJ
PRO TIP PACKING HEAT T 38
here’s really no reason to carry a gun on any canoe trip, even those in Alaska and the Northwest Territories. The exception might be if you’ll canoe where grizzly and
polar bear encounters are common. Most recommended is a 12-gauge pump shotgun, with high-performance slugs. The compact Marlin Guide rifles in .450 Marlin and .45-70 caliber are also popular. A waterproof gun case is essential, tie the case into your canoe so it won’t be lost if you capsize. Check state, provincial and park regulations before you pack heat—some areas prohibit firearms. —CJ
EARLY SUMMER 2012
ILLUSTRATION: EXPEDITION CANOEING (FALCON GUIDE, 4TH ED. 2005)
PHOTO: COLIN FIELD
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