The most common failure of a zipper in the outdoors is when the zipper parts after closed. If your zipper is a coil zipper–most zippers used for outdoor gear are–then the problem probably lies with the zipper pull. Often the zipper pull becomes deformed and that deformity prevents the coils from meshing, which causes the zipper to split open after you closed it. You can imagine the desire to fix a broken zipper on your tents canopy during bug season in a boreal forest, and you can imagine a run to the boat to grab your emergency duct tape. Before you apply tape, try a quick emergency fix for your broken zipper.

Quick Emergency Zipper Fix

Anna Latz of Heavy Duty Sewing says that the easiest emergency fix for zippers is to attempt to reform the zipper pull using a pliers. Before you attempt any fix, gently slide the zipper pull down to the beginning of the zipper. Then, using the pliers crimp the bottom of the zipper, like shown in the picture. Crimp the other side. After you compress both sides, try the zipper. If the zipper fails, try again. Work gently so you don’t over-compress the zipper pull, or, because the metal weakens with each crimp, break the zipper pull.

If this quick fix works, you won’t have to get the duct tape out. This is a good thing, because duct tape, Latz says, often leads to a more expensive repair. The adhesive in duct tape can ruin the fabric surrounding the zipper which makes the zipper repair more extensive.

A More Permanent Zipper Repair

Once you’re out of the wilderness and back home, take your broken zipper to a local seamstress. The seamstress will be able to replace the zipper pull quickly and inexpensively. If you have time, most outdoor gear and clothing manufacturers offer good, if not lifetime, warranties. These warranties usually cover zipper failures. In the past, I’ve sent in several items for zipper repairs. Turn around time for garments from both Marmot and Sierra Designs–both YKK zippers–was under six weeks. Sometimes, stores carry extra zipper pulls to fix coats and they can complete a repair in under an hour.

Prevent Broken Zippers

As with any mechanical device, zippers wear out the more they’re used, but using them correctly helps extend their lives. The single most important action you can take to extend the life of your zipper is to use the zipper pull to open the zipper. Opening the zipper using the flap of fabric above the zipper pull creates stress on your zipper pull and causes the bottom to part and deform. Also, yanking on the zipper pull when fabric is stuck in it, can cause deformity. It’s best to gently work the fabric out of the zipper pull.

A guest post by Amy Funk of Campgirlz.com

To talk about why I canoe, I have to first address my passion for the natural world. Sometimes tragedy can push you to find comfort. The year I turned six, my brother was killed in a car accident in July. A few months later, one of my Mom’s best friends died of a brain tumor, and the following month, my cousin was killed in a fire started by a Christmas tree. I remember this time as very confusing and scary. I also remember this time as my first glimpse of the healing solitude of the outdoors.

Trying to deal with all the emotions and turmoil, I started to create secret forts around my neighborhood. I had many “hiding” spots in various bushes and trees in my neighborhood. I am not sure if it was the grief or my natural personality, but I spent a lot of time alone in my hiding places. I was happy and peaceful in solitude. I loved to hear the wind, or watch a spider spin a web. I would follow ants around or look for ‘pillbugs’. I routinely would get in trouble because no one knew where I was and I couldn’t hear my Mom calling. I wanted to be outside at all times in all sorts of weather. I had a special affinity for following water. After a rain, I would follow the flow of water down our streets and check out the levels in a creek that ran through town. I would make play boats with leaves and send them off to see what course they would take. Over the years, I kept those hideouts and my fondness for being alone in nature only grew. I never could understand why others could not feel the complete beauty and healing touch of just hanging out in wild places.

My First Experience with Canoeing

My first experience with canoeing was in middle school, through a neighbor named Les. He owned property along a local river, the Mackinaw. While he worked on his property, he would set four of us neighbor girls adrift in canoes down the river. At the end of the day, he would pick us up downstream. I instantly fell in love with canoeing and the flow of the river. The river sights, sounds and smells were all new to me and I felt like I had found another hidden world. In many ways, the river became another secret hiding spot for me. To this day, I am madly in love with rivers. The idea of traveling along waterways captures my passion in a way few things do.

My Yellowstone, the 'Mud Puppy', we did a very small creek, very twisty, lots of gradient, some portages. It was so fun. I love to portage, by the way. I guess I am crazy.

During college, I worked as a camp counselor and naturalist for various Girl Scout camps in Illinois. In all serious, one of the main reasons I accepted an assistantship and went to graduate school was to have some more summers as a naturalist. I know a lot of people can relate to the horrors of giving up on living in the woods! I owe most of what I learned about canoeing to a lady named Linda at a camp along the Mississippi in Northwestern Illinois. She shared her passion and expertise on canoeing with me. I learned to teach girls to canoe and learned some boat control and technique. She was a huge influence on me and one of the reasons that I want to keep reaching out to girls to encourage them to explore. She was the first one who showed me that girls can do this type of thing. Although I always had a dream to take off and explore by canoe, gradually, in my 20s I stopped canoeing. I had only used aluminum tandems and no longer had any partners to go out with. I focused on my other passion, hiking, and exploring the woods by foot.

Rediscovering Paddling

Fast forward to about 2005. I had a health scare that I thought was serious. When the doctor originally talked to me, I thought I was ‘not long for this earth’. As I sat in her office after she told me, my first thought was of my family, especially my kids. But, my second thought surprised me! I actually almost said out loud, “I haven’t canoed enough rivers.” Driving home, I had an almost uncontrollable desire to be back on a river. I had to go through surgery and a biopsy to get the results, which were thankfully benign. While I waited, I joined a few message boards on the internet. I read about lightweight solo canoes, and was ecstatic! I didn’t know anything about all the new materials and options. I also realized there were people out there who loved the outdoors as much as I did. I could hardly read trip reports about Canadian Rivers because I wanted to be there so bad.

A picture of my Mad River Independence, 'Gypsy 42' in the Boundary Waters during a Mom-daughter trip. That is my daughter, Dani, living the life.

I bought a kevlar Mad River Independence. (She is gorgeous). I joined a local canoe club and started canoeing down my beloved Mackinaw again. Over the next couple of years, I bought more canoes and became fully entrenched in my new addiction. I took a couple of white water classes. And, last year, I attained one of my dreams to go on a Canadian River trip. I was able to get in with a group that did the Kopka River. It was so beautiful and serene and remote. My favorite memory is on a duff day or rest day. I took the canoe out by myself near a spectacular waterfall. I sat there for a long time, holding my place in the frothy water, listening to that powerful water and watching the churning of the waters. That really is what life is about for me. I find such serenity and clarity in those moments.

What Paddling Means to Me

Just a few months ago, I started a website to encourage girls to explore nature. Especially today, there can be a lot of pressure on girls to attain all sorts of superficial and meaningless stereotypes. It would be great if every girl had the natural world to fall back on. A ’secret’ place to be herself and find her truth. Now that I am getting older, I lean towards nature even more. It helps me accept aging and still know my place in the world. I still love to go exploring as much as I did when I was six. To travel by canoe is to follow the path of my heart and soul.

About Campgirlz.com:

Campgirlz.com was created to encourage girls of all ages, from 1-99, to explore nature! It is dedicated to all girls, young and old, who have a passion for the outdoors. Is your passion hiking, bird watching, skiing, canoeing, kayaking, camping, and/or star gazing? Do you like to explore & play in the dirt? Then, you are you a camp girl. Don’t worry if you live in a city- your own backyard or local park can be a wild place to explore.

Over at Kayakquixotica.com, Derrik asks, “I know there are lots of very experienced paddlers out there.  Help me out and share how you got into paddling in the first place…” Taking up his challenge, I posted a comment on his blog. Many more comments followed mine, and I found each comment interesting and enlightening. From the comments, it’s easy to see how appealing the sport is to all types of people.  The more I thought about this, the clearer it became to me that doing a post on Nessmuking about how I got into paddling would be a perfect way for me to expand the topic.

How I Got into Paddling

Growing up, my parents owned a beat up red fiberglass canoe. The hull was built from fiberglass mat or was sprayed into the canoe mold by a fiberglass chopper gun. It weighed a ton, and without a portage yoke, we hauled it around by the ends taking many rests on the way to the dock. Once or twice a summer, the canoe sprouted a hole, so we’d try to repair it using a fiberglass repair kit from the auto parts store–those repairs never seemed to hold.

My siblings, cousins, and I paddled the canoe on the backwaters of the Mississippi River near Savanna, Illinois. My aunt owned a cabin sandwiched between the railroad tracks and the water. A steep wooden stairway lead down to a wooden dock where we launched out into the backwaters. Paddling the shores, we hunted frogs, fished, and explored. We dodged water snakes pretending they were water moccasins. Despite warnings from our parents, we explored beyond the back waters into the main channel.

On one memorable adventure, we wandered the backwaters until we dead-ended in front of a small opening between islands leading to the channel. Water from the main channel poured through the opening creating a small drop from the channel into the backwaters. I didn’t know if we could paddle through current like that, because we’d never tried. We got a run into the current with all our strength, but the current stopped us. Luckily, we stopped near an upstream rock, which we pulled and pushed on to get into the channel. Looking back, it was so shallow that I should have just stepped out of the canoe and walked it out, but the spirit of adventure kept us in the canoe. It was probably that day, pushing our limits, trying to see what we could do, exploring boundaries to see what was around the corner, that helped form my drive to keep pushing myself in outdoor sports.

Where I Went From There

After those early adventures in our fiberglass canoe, I expanded my outdoor sport interests to include backpacking, mountain biking, and climbing. My studies in college and the job I worked to pay for it didn’t leave time to explore the outdoors, but with an excellent mountain biking trail near the university, it seemed like the perfect sport to take up. I spent my free time riding 10 miles to the track, 10 miles around, and then back home. In summers, I worked for the DNR and in the IC Park and Recreation department. I tried to be outside as much as I could and desired to embark on a long paddling trip.

College ended, and I found myself working seasonal outdoor jobs. During winter, a buddy of mine and I talked about paddling a canoe down the Mississippi River. In the end, because of the cost of buying a canoe and a special on PBS that we both watched, we decided to hike the Appalachian Trail instead. Six months later I found myself back in Iowa for the winter and when summer came I discovered climbing.

Both rock and ice climbing consumed my every free minute for years. I climbed all over the country including my two favorite climbs–a winter ascent of Devil’s Tower via the classic Durrance Route and a long ice route in Smuggler’s Notch. On both climbs, my climbing partner and I rappelled down in the night.

At some point during those climbing years, while working for a retail operation, I discovered kayaking. I bought my first touring kayak, a Dagger Magellan, and used it to explore Iowa’s waterways.

Rediscovering Paddling

Those explorations took me on trips down the Maquoketa River, the Iowa, the Upper Iowa, and out onto the Mississippi. It didn’t even occur to me that kayaks were designed to be paddled in open water. I read the magazines filled with worldly adventures, but with all the waterway’s of Iowa, I had no desire to paddle anywhere else.

After a season or two with the kayak, I sold it. Some years later, I bought a solo canoe and started to build a cedar strip tandem canoe in my apartment’s living room. During the years between selling the kayak, my focus and wanderlust that had been quelled by the Appalachian Trail reappeared. New disposable income that allowed for climbing travel also opened up my eyes to the wonders in the paddling world. I had always known about the Boundary Waters, so I decided to go.

In 2001, just days after the September 11th attack, my friend Steve and I journeyed north with two solo canoes. The town of Grand Marais, which I instantly fell in love with, was a ghost town. We put in on a route along the border. Several times a day, fighter jets flew along the border above us. At camp, we tried to catch news about the attack on a radio I brought with me. We had great campfires built with Canadian wood. We paddled on seeing no one until our last night. On the portage to the lake with our campsite, we ran into two guys who were heading out of the BWCA. They hadn’t heard the news, so we didn’t tell them.

After discovering the BWCA, there was no going back. I fell in love with the place, gave up climbing, learned to freestyle my solo canoe, and went on several Boundary Water trips a year, including many solo trips covering 100s of miles. (Links highlight just a few.) I fell so heavily in love with the Boundary Waters that during one solo trip, I knew that my place in life would be to move near it. Somehow I knew I’d have to leave my great job, the security it provided, to move into the unknown.

Back in Iowa, many of my friends were kayakers and rolling looked fun. So, I built a skin-on-frame kayak, got into rolling, built a plywood version of the skin-on-frame and used it to paddle 500+ miles of the Mississippi River. Although just the section between Jacobson, Minnesota and Dubuque, Iowa, it gave me a taste of the adventure I could have had if I had canoed the Mississippi instead of hiked the Appalachian Trail. Paddling became all-consuming. It was no longer a hobby, it was my life.

The Move North

Just after the Mississippi River trip, I moved to Grand Marais to be closer to the paddling in the Boundary Waters. I started Nessmuking.com. I paddled often in the BWCA using one of my two solo canoes or my tandem canoe. I also discovered kayaking again on Lake Superior.

Kayaking on Lake Superior is like kayaking on a freshwater ocean. Waves, open water, and its miles upon miles of shoreline grabbed my attention. Using what I learned from my other kayak builds, I designed a new kayak and used it to explore the lake. During that time, I started guiding kayaking for a resort, and obtained instructor certification from the American Canoe Association. I took kayak trips to places like Georgian Bay, Lake Nipigon, Norway, and many locations on Lake Superior. I built another kayak and designed custom boats for other paddlers.

Eventually, my kayaking cumulated in a failed attempt to paddle around all five Great Lakes. Early in the trip, I developed tendonitis in my elbows, something that has plagued me for years, and just before the trip I had re-injured an old climbing injury. I knew I had to cancel the trip when I wasn’t able to even hold a port-side stern rudder on following two-foot waves. Since the trip, I’ve slowly been able to paddle short distances again, but I continue physical therapy in hopes that the pain will eventually go away and that I’ll be able to attempt a long expedition someday.

And that brings me to today.

What Paddling Means to Me Now

Knowing what paddling means to me is almost impossible to put my finger on. For over 10 years, there hasn’t been a day in my life I didn’t think about paddling. If I wasn’t out paddling, I wished I was. My injury and having to quit my expedition forced me to look elsewhere for outdoor recreation–to look elsewhere to try to redefine myself. It challenged me to discover who I was again. I took up light-duty mountain biking, trained for a bike tour, and road my bike from Duluth to Dubuque, Iowa. But, I just came back to paddling. It’s just who I am. I paddle. Other than Ilena, it’s what makes my life complete.

What’s your story?

Please, share.

A guest post by Scott Schuldt of canoepost.blogspot.com.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009 – You Can Tell

I woke up early this morning. It was dark and I was in bed, but I was already in my canoe. Fall is here. It will be unusually warm today, maybe 15 or 20 degrees above normal. The thermometer will say summer. The simplest and easiest measurement will lead one astray, as simple and easy information often does, in all things. It is fall and while at the scientific level there are dozens of measurements that say so, it is the qualitative that tells me so. The light has changed. Gone is the harsh washed out scenery of summer days when my photographs were all about timing and the tricks of nature; early light or dramatic clouds that filter rays and cast shadows. The fall light brings deep rich tones and contrasts. In fall, my photographs are about composition first, and keeping the shots with good light. The air has changed as well. The nights are longer, cooler and damper and day seems to struggle to return summer’s warmth. The longer nights bring unplanned but orchestrated smells and flavors. It’s not of showy flowers, but of the hidden deepness that sustains life. Summer air was tinned spices while fall is fresh cardamom seeds crushed this very second under my rolling pin. Winter will change all that, deadening the spices, but it will bring its own beauty in an even trade. Observations – the lily pads are browning at the edges. They show a summer’s wear with chunks missing and deep tears. A flock of 100 coots has returned to the bay. Cormorants are sitting on the new dirtbergs that have hit the surface in mid-bay. I spot two green backed herons, some great blue herons, wood ducks, and two horned grebes.

About the View from the Canoe Project

‘The View from the Canoe’ is an art project that has followed a two-year long evolution that started with my getting back into canoeing.  Seattle is primarily a sea kayak area, but even after 20 years, I just never connected with kayaks in the way that I do with canoes.  In 2008, I bought a used canoe and a few months later started blogging my 3 to 4 day a week trips in and around Seattle, writing my observations of the natural changes throughout the year and reflections on how people see and use the water, both in the present and in the past.  Recently, I started recording my better writings in my own voice, which lead to adding photographs, which lead to taking video and recording background sound effects.  Still a work in progress, The View from the Canoe may end up being a short documentary film, art video or “book on DVD”.  As often happens with an art project, I am just along for the ride.

On the surface, the project documents and reflects on nature and man’s use and abuse of water.  Underlying that, the work also shows how I have managed to find a sense of wilderness while in the midst of a major urban area.  Most of the writing happens in the canoe, as does the photography, film and sound effect work.

Scott Schuldt’s Bio –

Scott Schuldt is a Seattle based artist working in content- and concept-driven art (non-fiction, detailed and often narrative).  Born and raised in Minnesota and schooled in engineering, Scott dropped the engineering career in 2005 to pursue artwork on a full time basis.  His primary medium is hand-sewn beadwork, but has increasingly moved towards working with whatever medium will get the story across.  ‘The View from the Canoe’ is his first step into writing and film work.

The View from the Canoe Blog is found at- canoepost.blogspot.com

Scott’s website – www.scottschuldt.com

“There is no bad weather, only the wrong gear.” -Minnesota Proverb

Winter shorelines feature ice formations, ice caves, and the air is crystal clear which allows you to see for miles. On a blue-sky winter day, I feel there’s no other place I’d rather be than on the water paddling. With the proper gear and precautions, winter needn’t be a reason to stay off the water. Luckily, for me I live on the north shore of Lake Superior, and its shores remain ice-free for most of the winter. Some winters, we have only a few weeks of ice, and during some, we have months of ice. If you have open water, as long as the air temperature remains above 15 degrees Fahrenheit, kayaking remains pleasant with the right gear–below 15°F water freezes so quickly on your kayak and gear freezes that it isn’t as fun.

Dressing for Water Temperature

To properly dress for winter kayaking, you must account for heat loss through conduction, convection, evaporation, and radiant heat. The old kayaking adage that you must dress for immersion becomes even more important. Not only is the air cold, but the water is cold, and through convection the cold air and water–which works 25 times faster than air–seeks to draw the heat out of your body. The water’s surface contacts the hull of your boat and through-the-hull conduction robs your body heat by drawing it away. Because you’re exercising and in and near water, evaporation from water and sweat cools you down. And your body always radiates heat.

In addition to the four forms of heat loss, you must manage the risk of becoming immersed in cold winter water. On Lake Superior, according to the NOAA Great Lakes Coastal Forecasting System surface temperatures in January ranges from 34°F to 38°F. If you fall into that cold of water without protection, you have somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes of time to reënter your kayak, while your body retreats into shell/core compensation, before you lose strength and dexterity. You may also suffer from cold shock, which is a hyperventilation-like and gasp reaction, typically lasting one to three minutes. During cold shock, you could inhale water and drown.

Consider the following clothing items mandatory for winter paddling:

• A drysuit, like my favorite Kokatat’s Gore-Tex Meridian, and plenty of insulation will keep you warm while paddling and gain you extra time if you become immersed into the water. The insulation under the drysuit forms dead pockets of air, which helps prevent convection. Despite the drysuit’s breathability, it helps trap radiant heat emitted from you and reduces evaporative heat loss.
• A lifevest keeps you afloat and helps keep your mouth above water if you suffer from cold shock. It also helps you save energy by relieving the need to tread water. A trick related to keeping your mouth above water is shouting “capsized swimmer” the second you come up from a swim. This forces water away from your mouth and prevents you from inhaling water.
• A neoprene hood, like NRS’s Mystery Storm Hood or a diver’s hood, helps prevent cold shock during immersion, limits convection, evaporation, and radiant heat loss. On days were the risk of immersion is low, a stocking cap should be considered.
• Neoprene gloves or mittens, like NRS’s Reactor Gloves or Toaster Mittens, protect your hands from the cold and keep them functioning.
• Warm socks and neoprene boots, like Kokatat’s Nomad Paddling Boots, keep your toes toasty while in the kayak and when getting out near shore.
• For comfort, consider adding heel pads and a seat pad to help fight through-the-hull conduction.
• Also bring: Extra clothing, equipment, a bothy, a thermos of hot water, first aid, emergency kit, a way to start a fire and anything else needed for an emergency, like a ditch kit.

Items to Monitor While Winter Kayaking

Besides watching for the normal things you would when kayaking in the other seasons, like the wind, weather, and waves, while winter kayaking you should watch items for ice build-up.

• Deck ice builds up quickly from splashes and drips from your paddle. So anything you keep on deck, like a bilge pump and paddle float will quickly and solidly freeze to your kayak. As your deck bungee cords freeze, they lose elasticity and become useless–a good reason to consider traditional Greenland decklines and sliders.
• Your sprayskirt and grab handle may become encased in ice and freeze to the kayak making them hard or impossible to remove. A grab handle frozen to the deck may make it impossible to perform a wet exit if needed. Continually check these items and break the ice off of them to keep them flexible and working.
• Pack ice moves with the current and wind. This can block access to open water and block access to shore. Although, not impossible to move through, it makes it difficult, to say the least, to get your kayak where you want it.
• The shoreline will be icy. Prepare to slip. Sometimes the shoreline becomes covered with high shelves of ice that make it hard or impossible to land a kayak, scramble over the ice, and come ashore.
• Hypothermia. Know the signs, mental status change and shivers, and watch for them in yourself and in your paddling partners.

Skills and Risk

Because of the cold, winter paddling is risky. If you go, you should have the skills to handle the conditions you expect, you should bring a friend, dress properly, be ready for the worst, and have a reliable roll in case the worst happens. Consider winter paddling only on days that are well within your and your partner’s skill levels. Always approach winter paddling with a conservative risk management plan, because there is little room for error when the water is cold and the air is cold. It’s easy to die out there.

New Report on Winter Paddling

Fox 21 News out of Duluth, MN did a piece on winter kayaking. Watch it here.

Picture of Winter Paddling

APPARENT HORIZON: Where the sky appears to meet the Earth. (See also sea horizon.) Because of perspective effects, different observers generally have different apparent horizons. Because of refraction, even the sea horizon usually lies above the geometric horizon.

-From the Atmospheric Optics Glossary.

Knowing the distance to the horizon is handy when estimating how long it will take you to travel to a distant point. To accurately estimate to distance, understand that the apparent horizon changes based on the height of your eyes; the higher your eyes, the further you can see. That’s why it seems you can see forever when standing atop a mountain.

Estimating the Distance to the Apparent Horizon

First, determine the height of your eyes above the ground. This will vary depending on whether your standing, sitting, or if you’re high on a cliff above the water. Once you know the height of your eyes enter it into R. Langton Cole’s  formula from his 1913 article “Distance of the visible horizon,” which appeared in Nature:

distance to horizon (miles) = √ 7h(feet)/4 

This formula gives you the rough distance (Imperial) of the apparent horizon accounting for normal refraction. This is the distance to where the sky appears to meet the Earth. If mirages are apparent, the distance to the apparent horizon may differ.

Because of the atmosphere, these calculations are estimates, so we can simplify to a more commonly used formula. This second formula is slightly easier to remember:

distance to horizon (miles) = sqrt [1.5h]

For paddlers living in advanced nations using the metric system, the formula is:

distance to horizon (kilometers) = sqrt [13h]

The Imperial formula uses feet for height (h), and the metric formula uses meters for height (h). Note: The abbreviation “sqrt” stands for square root.

Examples using the first horizon formula:

• Sitting in a kayak: The distance to the horizon for someone sitting in a kayak is approximately 2.1 miles. When you’re sitting in a kayak your eyes are about 2.5 feet above the surface of the sea–this is why waves appears so big when you’re in your kayak. 7 x 2.5 = 17.5 and 17.5 / 4 = 4.375 and sqrt of 4.375 = 2.09165.
• Sitting in a canoe: The distance to the horizon for someone sitting in a canoe is approximately 2.3 miles. Because your eyes are higher in a canoe–about three feet–you see further away to the horizon.
• Standing on shore (standing in a canoe): The distance to the horizon for someone standing is approximately 3.1 miles. I’m 5′10″ tall and my eyes are about 68″ above my feet. When I’m on the beach and my feet are just touching the water, I can see about 3.1 miles.

Using Horizon Estimates on the Water

Quoting from Douglas Adams, “the practical upshot of all this is that” when you’re paddling and can just see on the horizon the point where the land meets the water, you know you’re seeing the apparent horizon. This means that you’re within 2.1 miles for a kayak or 2.3 miles for a canoe away. This is very handy when making long crossings. Or for knowing how far away the beach is.

Estimating Distance to Distant Objects

You can use this formula to estimate the distance to distant objects, too. Figure out the distance to the apparent horizon for the distant object and add that distance to your apparent horizon. When you can just see the top of the distant object, you are that distance away. The formula, using the second apparent horizon formula, looks like this:

distance between objects (miles) = sqrt [1.5h(distant object)] + sqrt [1.5h(your apparent horizon)]

Examples for Distance to Distant Objects:

• Grand Marais, MN lighthouse from a kayak: From the NOAA charts, we know that the Grand Marais, MN lighthouse focal plane is 48 feet above datum. The apparent horizon from the light is about 8.5 miles. When in a kayak, our apparent horizon is 2.1 miles. We add 8.5 to 2.1 and get 10.6 miles. When we can see the light, we know we’re about 10.6 miles away. This puts us near Cascade State Park or the 121 surf break. Chance are unless it’s a crystal clear day, we won’t be able to make out the lighthouse, but we may be able to see the flashing light.
• Carlton Peak from a kayak: Another northshore Lake Superior landmark is Carlton Peak. It stands out as a lone peak and rises to 1,526 feet, but it only rises 925 feet above Lake Superior. When atop the peak, your apparent horizon is about 37.2 (sqrt [925 * 1.5]) miles away. Add that to 2.1 and you should be about to see the peak just pop over the horizon at about 39.3 miles away.
• BWCA pine shoreline from a canoe: Mature pine trees range in height from 80 to 110 feet tall. So from the top, you could see about 11 miles to the horizon. In a canoe, you would see them appear above the water about 14 miles away.

Nessmuking welcomes a new advertiser: Sanborn Canoe Company. Sanborn Canoe Co. is based in Minnesota and makes lightweight gear tested and proven in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, our home waters. Here’s a little more about Sanborn Canoe Co.:

Sanborn Canoe Co. is a lightweight wooden canoe paddle and cedar strip canoe company located in Winona, Minnesota. We like to make things light, durable and easy to use. You can buy them right here from our site, we ship almost all over the world, or find one of our amazing dealers.

It was started early in 2009 by Todd Randall, John, Zak & Greg Fellman, Mark & Michael Boysen and Kevin Kriesel to have a degree of say in the equipment we would use in our numerous backcountry canoe trips. Canoeing and camping in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Northern Minnesota is at the heart of our group, and for some of us it goes back in our families to the early days of the last century. And most of us have been on canoe trips since we were babies.

Beginning as a fun hobby, that more than occasionally turned into watching the ballgame rather than working, quickly grew to encompass more things we are interested in. Mostly things that will make our own backcountry trips easier. We’ve developed light-weight canoe paddles and we’re working on crafting our canoes to be durable yet light enough to comfortably carry over portages. If we wouldn’t use it we wouldn’t make it.

After taking a couple of our paddles and canoes on trips to the BWCA we were encouraged by how they handled and decided that other people would like ot use them as well. And since we liked working together we decided to turn it into a business.We’re growing and expanding, adding great dealers and new products.

We’re just a bunch of guys who like to hang out together and make stuff out of wood.

We’d like to thank Sanborn Canoe Company for choosing to advertise on Nessmuking.com and we encourage you to check them out at their website here.

More Info

• Sanborn Canoe Company Website
• Sanborn Canoe Company on Facebook
• Sanborn Canoe Company of Twitter
• Sanborn Canoe Company on Blogger

Over at Xtranormal, a website that allows users to easily create animated videos, a number of paddling related videos are appearing. They take a humorous look at serious issues and debates that occur within canoeing and kayaking. Many of the videos are based on some of the actual silly online debates that have occurred over at paddling.net.

Pungo Kayak Expedition

A funny examination of the Dunning-Kruger effect:

1. Incompetent individuals tend to overestimate their own level of skill.
2. Incompetent individuals fail to recognize genuine skill in others.
3. Incompetent individuals fail …to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy.
4. If they can be trained to substantially improve their own skill
level, these individuals can recognize and acknowledge their own
previous lack of skill.

The above points, copied from Wikipedia, about the Dunning-Kruger effect spell-out the themes playing in the video. It serves as an excellent example of some of the dangers involved in rating your own skill level as a beginner in the sport.

Half Nut the Inuit Robot

A humorous poke at the American debate about rolling kayaks. The video shows the debate between kayakers who believe a roll isn’t necessary and those that do. It also pokes fun at the Greenland paddle movement in a way most Greenland paddlers will find funny.

Defective Kayak

A look at the frustration of beginners trying to learn the forward stroke.

Pammy Verses Nigel

A look at the quality control issues from NDK/SKUK. And a poke at the p.net user, Pamlico 140. It sort of covers the debate over composite vs. plastic.

How to Make Your Own

1. Download the free Xtranormal software or make a movie online.
2. Find a silly, bitchy, or an out-of-control thread on Paddling.net. Basically, any thread with over 100 comments. (And believe me, I’m not immune from silly online arguments.)
3. Summarize both sides of the arguments and turn that into dialog.
4. Put everything into the Xtranormal program and poof! You have a video.

Conversations in the Sauna: This Euro is Like a GP

An example created from this thread. Sorry, Steve, Melissa, Roy, Paul and Jeff and everyone else involved in the thread, but the thread makes a good parody.

Find more conversations in the sauna here.

A common fear among paddlers is losing the boat or getting into a situation where the boat must be abandoned. Usually, along with the boat, the gear is lost too.  It happens. An example of it happing comes from Canoe Trip: Alone in the Maine Wilderness. The author David Curran finds himself on the wrong side of a flooded river upstream of a rapid that would likely mean his death. After getting to shore, he abandons his canoe in an attempt to walk back to his car. In the process, he leaves essential gear behind. Another example comes from Robert Pruden when his kayak was swept over an unexpected rapid. His kayak was destroyed and some of his gear lost. Luckily, he was within a short distance to safety and rescue. The tragic death of Andrew McAuley serves as a third example. He lost contact with his kayak and with it went his emergency gear. He died at sea. These serve as only a few of the many examples.

To address this fear, many paddlers attempt to put together a emergency kit–sometimes called a ditch kit or bail-out bag. The concept is to have everything needed to survive an emergency separation from the rest of your gear in one easy-to-grab location. When thinking about putting together a emergency ditch bag, I came up with three concerns that a ditch bag must address:

1. It has to be small enough to be on person or attached to person without the risk of entrapment in the event that all other gear is lost. As the Coast Guard says, if it’s not on you, you don’t have it. In the above examples, none of the victims had emergency kits attached to them and even if a bail-out bag was kept behind the seat, it’s doubtful that it could have been grabbed–Curran later outlines how he addressed the lesson learned by using a fanny pack on future trips. In each case, essential items were either left behind or completely lost after the accident. In one case, it resulted in death. An additional concern with a bag that must be grabbed is that it ties up a hand when it may be important to have two hands free.
2. An emergency ditch kit must contain everything needed to survive until rescue. This must necessarily vary based on the trip’s expected conditions.*
3. It must contain a reliable way to signal a rescue.

Keep the Emergency Ditch Kit On You

The best place to keep the emergency ditch kit is on/in your life jacket, because when on the water, it should be worn. One only has to look at the 2008 U.S. Coast Guard Recreational Boating Statistics [pdf - 3.8MB] to realize how important it is to wear a vest; it shows that out of 114 canoe and kayak deaths for which we have life jacket data 93 victims were not wearing a life jacket  In addition, life jackets are designed to stay on your person until you take them off, and they have lash-points and pockets to store gear in.

Additional gear that doesn’t fit within can be carried externally in a worn fanny pack or within a PFD mounted hydration pack.

Emergency Ditch Kit Survival Gear

To address the second concern, enough gear must be assembled to also answer these survival needs:

1. First aid.
2. Fire.
3. Shelter.
4. Water.

First Aid

The emergency ditch kit’s first aid component should be kept minimal to work in conjunction with a larger first aid kit. In my opinion, the emergency ditch kit’s first aid component must be able to stop bleeding, bandage and help stabilize injuries. Carrying a roll of vet wrap, a few band-aids, butterfly closure bandages, and gauze goes a long way toward being able to improvise what is needed to stop bleeding, bandage and stabilize. Maybe throw in a couple of doses of ibuprofen. Remember, ideally you are going to be quickly rescued and the kit has to fit within a waterproof baggy on your life jacket. I’d include band-aids to make the kit serve double-duty as an easily accessible kit to use while paddling and to be replenished in camp. Some may want to include a ventilation device, like a NuMask. If you don’t like making your own first aid kit, a small kit, like Adventure Medical Kits UltraLight .3 First-Aid Kit, would be reasonable enough to carry. Additionally, I recommend Wilderness First Aid, Wilderness Advanced First Aid, or Wilderness First Responder training. Base your ditch kit’s first aid on your personal requirements.

Fire Starting

For fire, carry a lightweight fire starter, like the reliable, waterproof, and approved for use by the International Survival Instructors Association Light My Fire Swedish FireSteel Mini. This kind of fire starter isn’t limited to the number of matches on hand, nor is fire starting with it significantly hindered by cold hands, like a lighter is. Maybe throw in a couple Ultimate Survival Technologies WetFire Tinder cubes to help get your fire going quickly.

Shelter Construction

The shelter concern is more complicated, because it can be constructed out of natural materials found in the woods. But, it’s much easier to build a shelter if man-made materials are available. Because of that, carrying an
emergency blanket goes a long way towards making this task easier.** Better yet, a lightweight silnylon tarp, like Integral Designs Siltarp – 8′ x 5′, is lightweight (7 ounces), compact (3×6 inches) and provides enough coverage to be able to serve as your trip’s primary shelter or kitchen. With just one stick pole in the center of the long edge and the all of the corners staked, this becomes a warm and secure shelter.

Water

Water is easy on paddling trips–unless you paddle salt water. Just walk out to the pond. But you may want to purify it. If you’re using a hydration pack, an in-line water filter, like Sawyer’s Inline Water Filter, carries out the work for you and weighs only 1.8 ounces. An easy-to-carry chemical treatment, like Mcnett’s Aquamira Water Treatment Drops can be repackaged into small droppers an stored in the bottom of your ditch kit’s first aid package. If you’re not using a hydration pack, consider carrying a compact Platypus 1 Liter Water Bottle. It folds up small enough to keep inside a pocket in your life jacket, which means that you’ll have a water container when you need to transport water.

A few extra items to consider including:

• 30′ cordage: Endless functions.
• Knife: According to survival expert Doug Ritter, “With a suitable knife you can improvise virtually everything else you need to survive, were it necessary.”
• Map and compass.

Reliable Signaling for a Rescue

To address signaling, we have several choices: electronic, visual, audible. An emergency ditch kit should include, at least, one item from each catagory.

Electronic Signaling

Among electronic signaling devices, the two most reliable are a VHF radio, like the Icom IC-M72 Handheld Marine VHF Radio (cheat sheet), and a Personal Locater Beacon (PLB), like the ACR Electronics SARLink 406 Personal Locator Beacon. A third device that may work is a cell phone.

VHF radios grant you instant access to the captains of nearby boats and in many coastal areas will link into the Coast Guard. They don’t  rely on point-to-point communication, so if another boat is closer than the Coast Guard, they may be able to respond, because they’ll also hear your mayday call. VHF radios aren’t limited by requiring a tower to be in-range. Once you press the call button, your mayday is broadcasted to every boat listening to channel 16, which in many places is required of boat operators–most boaters monitor channel 16. Additionally, the Coast Guard can use radio-direction equipment to help pinpoint your position. VHF radios are limited by the range of your device, which depends on sea state and the output power of your radio. If there are no nearby VHF radios to receive your call, no one will hear it.

A PLB, once activated, broadcasts your position to a worldwide network of search and rescue satellites. This activates a local search and rescue team to come looking for you. ACR claims that this technology has saved over 25,000 lives since 1982. Once a PLB is registered, it broadcasts a unique identifier, so SAR will know exactly who you are before they even get to you. Plus, there are no yearly registration fees; once you buy the device and register it for free, you don’t have to pay anything extra to get the service.

Cell phones were not designed to operate in a marine nor a wilderness environment. They depend on the proximity to a tower to function. They were not designed to function as emergency equipment. So, because they were not designed to function in the situations where rescue might be needed, because they weren’t designed to function as emergency equipment, and because they require access to a system with limited coverage, I don’t consider them worth including as a primary electronic device in a ditch kit. I think Becky Squires, writing for Boat U.S. Magazine, said it best, “…depending on a cell phone to get you help when you need it on the water is right up there with depending on a blow-up plastic dolphin to be your boat’s primary life raft. It’s better than nothing, but not the ideal choice in an emergency.”

Visual Signaling Devices

The three smallest visual signaling devices that make the most sense to include in a life jacket based emergency ditch kit are a signaling mirror, a strobe light, and flares. Choose a signaling mirror that’s unbreakable, includes an aiming aid, and is light. Adventure Medical Kits Rescue Flash Signal Mirror serves as an example of this type of mirror. Princeton Tec’s Aqua Strobe is waterproof, easily attaches to a lash point or around a shoulder strap on the back of your life jacket. It’s visible for three miles and runs off AA batteries. For an emergency kit, Orion SkyBlazer Aerial Signal Kit offers flares that will fit into a pocket on your vest, they’ll burn for about seven seconds and launch to 450 feet.

Audible Signaling Devices

While there are many audible signaling devices, a whistle makes the most sense for paddlers, because they are light, attach directly to your vest, and stay out of the way when not needed. You should have a whistle attached to your vest anyway. One of my favorite is ACR’s U.S. Coast Guard approved WW-3 Res-Q Whistle. This 1.4 ounce flat whistle is loud and small enough to stay out of the way.

Double Duty

Many of the items included in a emergency ditch kit can be used during the normal course of a trip and to save weight–they should do double duty. For example, your vest’s first aid kit can be used during the day to address small injuries without have to dig the larger kit out of your pack or hatches. A tarp can be used as a primary shelter. The more functional during a normal day on the trip, the more functional the gear will be during an emergency.

Conclusion

Losing a boat can happen and being prepared for it might be the difference between life and death. In the case of one of my opening examples, Andrew McAuley probably died because his emergency gear wasn’t attached to his person. In a New South Wales Sea Kayak Club report about Andrew McAuley’s death, the author, Michael Steinfeld concludes his report by giving evidence from Paul Caffyn, a respected, long-distance, wilderness kayaker. Steinfeld writes, “when paddling in a remote area, emergency communication equipment (EPIRB, VHF radio, satellite phone) should be carried, either be attached to a life jacket which would be donned in deteriorating weather conditions or contained within a bale-out bag which could be attached to the life jacket or tethered to the paddler in deteriorating conditions.” It just makes sense to carry enough gear on person to survive until the calvary arrives, and it just makes sense to carry a reliable device that can initiate a rescue.

Thoughts? Things to add? What do you use?

*On open water crossings, additional survival gear, like a flotation seat, or boat tethers should be considered.
**An emergency bag could be used at sea to help prevent heat loss.

Photo: Lena Conlan

Tim Smith, the owner and founder of Jack Mountain Bushcraft School, often gives a presentation about wilderness survival at Canoecopia. He also teaches bushcraft and wilderness survival at his school. I’ve attended several of his Canoecopia presentations.

Basically, during the presentation, he talks about wilderness survival, discusses making fire, what to have in your survival kit, and a survival plan.  These skills are essential to anyone heading into the woods (Also, check out my article: Nessmuking’s Core Philosophy). His main point is this:

• Survival = Maintaining body temp, getting eight hours of sleep a day, and staying hydrated.

If you can carry out those three activities, there’s a good chance that you’ll survive 40 days.

Survival Plan

His basic strategy aligns with what many in the search and rescue field advise: stay in one location, sit, get fire, and wait to be rescued. During the presentation he broke down his survival plan or his plan to show you “what’s going to kill you first”:

1. First Aid (If you survive 30 minutes after the injury, you have a 65% chance to make it 3 days).
2. Fire lighting (no fire then insulate).
3. Make a shelter.
4. Gather purified water.
5. Signal when the rescuers get near (three short whistle blasts).

In an article on his website, he elaborates further by stating NEVER forget matches, a sleeping bag, a shelter, a way to purify water, and food. The goal is to stay out of situations that would need a survival plan, and if you find yourself in a situation, make sure that you’re prepared to wait for rescue and you have the skills to carry-out that wait–essentially, practice the old British army adage: prior planning and preparation prevents piss-poor performance.

Survival kit

During the presentation, he stated that your survival kit needs stuff to address sleep, hydration, and maintaining body temp. If it doesn’t do these then leave it at home. Your kit should reflect your level of training and have items specific to the activity or application. Make the kit small enough so you carry it with you on your person, because if it’s downstream in a runaway pack you can’t use it. It should specifically include a knife and fire makers.

Important items for survival:

• Warm clothing.
• Fire-making skills and equipment, like matches.
• Knife: sturdy fixed blade, carbon steel, 25 degree angled blade, deep sheath, good steel. It helps during fire-making.
• Pocket-sized first aid kit. It must have a way to deal with knife and axe cuts if you carry a knife or axe. Include steri-strips, band-aids, duct tape, and small magnifying lens.
• Signaling devices: whistle, signaling mirror, and signal fires.
• Navigation equipment and skills: map, compass.
• 30′ string or cordage (know slippery knots!!!).
• Other tools to think about bringing because they make things easier:
  • Shelter components
  • big pad
  • axe
  • saw
  • metal pot

Survival School Training

Smith also talked about something not preached about hard enough: that the skills that help you survive are built through Practice! Practice! Practice! Reading a book or website isn’t enough. You must get out and practice fire starting, shelter building, etc…  in a safe location before you need to use the skill in the woods and in an emergency.

He says this accomplishes a couple of things that help you during a survival situation:

• Memorizing makes rapid progress during an event.
• Rapid progress helps regain a sense of control.
• A sense of control helps boost confidence.
• Acting quickly takes advantage of adrenaline.

Favorite Quote

“It takes four nights to own a shelter.” Important to think about for those who po-po a tarp after only using it one night.

Wilderness Survival Resources

• Jack Mountain Bushcraft School on Ning
• Bushcraft: Outdoor Skills & Wilderness Survival by Mors Kochanski: A classic book for the northern Boreal forests.
• Jack Mountain Bushcraft Student Handbook
• Realistic Wilderness Survival by Tim Smith
• Jack Mountain Bushcraft School