View topic - Leaving in 9 hrs for my first solo.

Any last minute advice?

5 days long in Algonquin.

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Take your time and enjoy your solo wilderness experience

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"It's healthy to be dirty" - Lars Monsen

Did you pack toilette paper? How about lens cleaner and a good book?

I'm about to embark on a 6 d group trip tomorrow morning. The above items were ones I just shoved into my pack in retrospect.

Have fun and keep thoughts on safety.

Ken

Conn Iggulden's Stormbird and two rolls in glad freeze bags.

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Tarp? and favourite hot beverage.
Enjoy

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Choosing to save a river is more often an act of passion than of careful calculation. You make the choice because the river has touched your life in an intimate and irreversible way, because you are unwilling to accept its loss. — (David Bolling, Ho

Pause and think and then think a bit more before you do anything stupid. That includes something as simply as where to put your foot down when on uneven ground.

Basically be extra especially careful - do not do anything on auto pilot.

And have fun.

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 Killarney Campsites - check it out... http://sites.google.com/site/killarneycampsites/Home

Lets us know how it all turned out and with some pictures if possible. You can probably be the giver of advice once you get back. Good luck. I'm looking forward to hearing from you when you get back.

Reiterating what WWGOD! Said. Be prepared for fatigue factor. (especially if you lack sleep) and take your time, and think through every move and remind yourself of the wise adage, safety is always first. Have a great journey! Storminnormin

I'm back. I bit off way more than I could chew. Fatigue was a real issue a dumping at a put in ,in freezing lake water which soaked all my gear except my sleeping bag as I was taught to water proof it from the time I started tripping over 30 yrs ago. Didn't enjoy myself needless to say. Did however prove to myself that when the going got tough I could bare down and meet the challenge (triple carry over a 5500 meter portage after my canoe cart broke an axle)I know it's only once but I think that's it for me. I'm 50 and the isolation was just too much for me to handle. Turns out a lot of my enjoyment of nature comes with sharing it with those I love and hold dear to me, By myself I had to force myself to do something and reading got pretty boring. Bad weather and high winds probably didn't help as I was shorebound for a couple of days.

PS Like new solo canoe for sale in the classifieds.

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Thanks for the info. I guess now you know. I have been seriously thinking about doing a solo trip myself as it seems hard to find someone to do this with around here. Not really into big crowds of unknowns either. The problem is that I don't really have years of experience either. I would definitely keep it simple and not something known to be treacherous. Why is fatigue such an issue? I'm guessing it's because of not getting a good nights sleep wondering when a grizzly or black bear is going to snatch one out of the tent. Something like that could possibly be running in my mind. lol.

Selling canoes is always a risky business, cause you never know when the bug for that canoe might come back. For instance, it's often fun to solo with a group. In other words, travel solo with some other friends, you get the best of both worlds. You can be self contained but still have companionship at camp.

Soloing is not for everyone, but when the weather warms up and you leave the 5 k ports out of it, it can be a really positive experience.

I get what your saying about selling but I have access to a tandem canoe with my normal canoeing partner(we've met Rob you dropped John and I off for our Kowkash trip a couple years ago)

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Yes, I hadn't forgotten you. I'm not really offering advise, just speaking from personal experience. I have regretted selling every canoe that I have sold, and there have been a few of them. It seems like about a week after I sell them, a use comes up. But I guess I'm kind of a pack rat too.

A triple carry on a 5KM portage? So that is either going through the port 3 times or 5 times.Either way thats over 15 KM or even 25 km of one port! That would have taken the better part of a whole day to complete..yup that certainly more than most folks would want to chew and put the most optimistic person into a funk.

Also after studying too many canoe carts, I have yet to find anything that might work in Algonquin.

Picking a solo route takes a lot of time and consideration, small or very narrow lakes and small ports are all necessary ingredients for an enjoyable trip. Sorry you didn't have a great time , but you must at least had decent weather since this last week was nice.

5 times took a whole 13hrs.Weather was great on the way in after that t-storms and high winds the rest of the trip. Hard to dry out your gear when its so damp. Thank god for polar fleece.

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