Personal Locator Beacons

With this being a solo trip, I'd like to take a reliable personal locator beacon (PLB).  A friend on the AT had one to communicate his location and to his parents every day.  I don't remember which one he was using.  He needed to leave it in a location with a clear view of the sky for a few minutes in order to send a signal.  The beacon had two options.  One sent the coordinates with a message that said everything was ok, and the other sent the coordinates with an emergency message.

It looks like these have become popular with boaters.  I've been reading through some of the reviews on Amazon.  It would be nice to be able to look at each and talk to a sales person about each one.  Does anyone have any experience with a PLB?

Alcohol Stoves & Beer Brands

I can no longer find Heineken in the beer barrow shaped cans.  These were the perfect size and shape for making alcohol stoves.  A soda can seemed to fit perfectly inside the Heineken can.  I made dozens of these stoves, and only rejected a few due to leaks around the seams.  These leaks would cause the flames to come out around the top seam instead of the holes in the top.  I used one of these stoves for months on the AT.  They are light and completely reliable.  I used a tomato can with slits along the side for a stand.  The tomato can helped the stove remain hot so that the alcohol flames came out as jets.  I also had a cough syrup measuring cup to measure fuel amounts.  I got so good at estimating fuel that when the flame went out, my dinner was cooked to perfection.

Ryan Conklin (http://followingblazes.blogspot.com/) posted the link below on his blog concerning several options for alcohol stoves.  Probably about half of the thru hikers on the AT in 2008 used alcohol stoves, and the most common design seemed to be the Heineken beer can model.  I see from this website (http://zenstoves.net/) that there are several other beers that use a slightly smaller can that might work well for alcohol stoves.  I'm going to try Guinness this weekend.  If that doesn't work, I will have to pick another brand for next weekend.  I'll just keep trying new brands until I find something that works.

The zen stove website also had a comparison of fuel weight and heat.  Petroleum fuels might have about a third more heat per pound, but I liked the denatured alcohol stoves because denatured alcohol was so easy to find and it did not explode like petroleum.  The alcohol stove is also so light that a few more ounces of alcohol is probably still an overall weight savings.  The only problem was that the flame is nearly invisible during daylight.  We used to joke about not knowing if your stove was lit until you can smell the hairs on your hand burning. 

My Heineken Stove on the AT

Phone Question

I need a phone I can use to email and post, but I only need that phone while on the NFCT.  My employer pays for my cell phone now, but I can not send emails or connect to the Internet.  Is it possible to buy a used smart phone, and get service without signing a two year contract?  Does anyone have any recommendations for a phone?

CANPASS Remote Boarder Crossing Permit

Is it possible that the CANPASS Remote Boarder Crossing permits do not apply to the NFCT?  I used these permits many times to cross into Canada from the Boundary Waters side of northern Minnesota.  I just did a search of the CANPASS website, and did not see any entry points for the eastern US listed. 

I'm really a poor logistical planner.  I tend to travel best when all I need to do is to get to the start point with the stuff I need.  My only planning on the AT was getting to the start point.  I took care of all other logistics while on the trail.  Hitch hiking and hostel shuttles were always good ways to re-supply if the distance to a store was too far to walk from the AT.  I was a very poor hitchhiker so I tended to walk to most of the re-supplies.

I know the NFCT website has some boarder crossing information.  I need to look through it in detail to figure out how I'm going to get into Canada, and then get back into the US.

Time Alone

It's interesting that I have little concern for doing a 5 week + solo trip.  On the Appalachian Trail, there were always people to meet and talk to at the shelters.  I expect this will be an entirely different experience.  I do not expect to meet people in the same way as I did on the AT.  It looks like there are only a few thru paddlers each year on the NFCT, and there doesn't look like there will be common camping spots like the shelters of the AT.

I'm not sure what happened on the AT that changed my perspective, but I would not have ever considered a solo trip of this length before the AT.  I totally expect to be bored and sometimes lonely in the evenings.  This was my experience with my last solo trip to the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota.  However, I was quite comfortable traveling alone during the day.  I actually found traveling alone to be a pleasant experience.  However, that was only a week long trip.  I'm not sure what it would be like to go weeks without talking much to anyone.

I'm likely going to use the alone time for travel.  The times on the AT where there were few people, I found were not a problem if I was tired and ready for sleep in the evening. 

Two More Months!

Everything is looking good for a start date in mid May.  I've done little to prepare my kayak and equipment.  However, the weather is warming, and I will start working on this stuff soon.  I also still need to figure out how to cross into Canada and back into the US.  I'm going to work on that this weekend. 

I'd like to make a couple new paddles for the trip.  I've always favored quarter sawn Sitka Spruce for paddles.  It is light weight and very strong.  The paddle design that I'm most comfortable is the Aleutian thin bladed paddles.  I need to place an order for some Sitka Spruce this weekend.  I was going to place an order a couple months ago, but did not like my size choices.  The standard sizes sold would create too much waste.  I just realized today that I can glue two halves together, and create another paddle from the waste.  If I were to have the glue seam down the middle, I don't think strength would be compromised.

I've also been working on making alcohol stoves.  I think that Heineken no longer makes the beer barrow shaped beer cans.  These beer cans made prefect stoves.  I still have a few of these old stoves.  I'll have to do a search to see what other options are out there for camp stoves.

My training consists now of carrying 5 gallon jugs of maple sap through the woods.  The maple syrup season will be over in a couple weeks, and I will start seriously training for the trip then.  That would give me about 8 weeks.