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.