The Other Ten Essentials, Continued: Five More Things You Can’t Buy, From Patience to Joy

The Other Ten Essentials, Continued

Five More Things You Can’t Buy, From Patience to Joy

Farwell’s “The First Five Essentials” should be with everyone venturing away from home into the unfamiliar. But they’re not enough. You also should have “The Second Five Essentials” If you always have them with you whenever you venture forth, you’re not likely to find any challenge too great. That’s a pretty big return on a small investment of time and sweat, isn’t it? I think so, at any rate, and I’m betting you’ll agree.
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by Farwell Forrest | November 17, 2017
First published, in somewhat different form, on December 12, 2006

Many years ago, the Seattle Mountaineers hit upon a clever way to remind ounce-paring climbers that there were some things they simply couldn’t afford to leave behind: The Mountaineers compiled a list of must-have gear, the aptly named “Ten Essentials.” It was a very good list, too, containing — in an accolade borrowed from an early 19th-century seaman’s handbook — nothing that was superfluous, yet including all things that were useful. Not surprisingly, then, this list remains as valuable today as it was when first published, for climbers and paddlers alike. But it has its limitations. As … Read more »

The Other Ten Essentials: Five Things You Can’t Buy, From Curiosity to Confidence

The Other Ten Essentials

Five Things You Can’t Buy, From Curiosity to Confidence

You won’t see these offered for sale on any outfitter’s shelf, and you probably won’t find them in anybody’s gear list. But just try embarking on a journey — any journey — without them. Happily, though, they’re free to everyone. The only requirements? A little time and a lot of sweat.
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by Farwell Forrest | November 14, 2017
First published, in somewhat different form, on November 28, 2006

Paddlers — most of the paddlers I know, at any rate — are gearheads. We memorize whole sections of outfitters’ catalogs. We devour pages of Web copy describing whatever is newest, lightest, fastest, or coolest. We read accounts of other paddlers’ trips from back to front, beginning with their equipment lists. And this makes sense. Despite the lip service we give to the traditional aspects of our sport, its evolution is driven by advances in technology. It always has been, right from its beginnings in the well-publicized adventures of John “Rob Roy” MacGregor and Nessmuk. After all, the molded paper canoes that made headlines in the sporting press a century and a half ago were no less revolutionary in their day than the latest carbon-fiber confections are … Read more »

Winning the Cold War: How to Not Die of Hypothermia

Winning the Cold War

How to Not Die of Hypothermia

With the New Model Climate turning autumn into spring, it’s easy to forget how quickly the weather can turn. But don’t be fooled. An ancient killer still lurks in the hills and waters of Canoe Country. The name of this baleful beast? In an article that originally appeared in 2005, Tamia reveals the chilling answer.
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by Tamia Nelson | November 3, 2017
Originally published in different form on January 11, 2005

It attacks the unwitting, the unwary, and the unprepared. It stalks its prey in all seasons of the year. It can strike during a summer picnic on Golden Pond, in the middle of a rough open-water crossing in November, or while traversing the Grand Portage in a swirling spring drizzle. And it waits patiently in any water cool enough not to feel comfortably warm. Many of its victims never see home again.

What is this stealthy killer’s name? Hypothermia, that’s what, and it’s every bit as deadly as drowning. Know your enemy. That’s always good advice. So let’s take a closer look at …

The Big Chill

The human body isn’t a heat engine in the strictest sense, but it

… Read more »

In the Midst of Death… What Good is a Dead Tree?

In the Midst of Death…

What Good is a Dead Tree?

The Others have an answer to the question in the title. But is anyone listening? Tamia is.
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by Tamia Nelson | October 10, 2017

A Tamia Nelson Article on Backinthesameboat.com

The Expert looked at his watch, and gave his companion a thumbs-up. The job wouldn’t take long. A flight of finches exploding into the air. Neither man noticed. The Expert eyeballed the old pine. He didn’t see the red squirrel clinging to the trunk. He saw only the brown needles and the bare limbs.

“What good is a dead tree?” the Expert asked, not expecting an answer. His companion knew the question was purely rhetorical. And he marked the pine for removal.

The two men thought they were alone. But they were wrong. And the Others who were present did their best to answer the Expert’s question. He wasn’t listening, though. Perhaps he never had. In any case, his companion was anxious to get going. Time is money, after all, and the Expert had more trees to condemn.

Yet the dissenting voices of the Others continued to make their case, long after the Expert had gone. It’s too bad that the expert and his companion … Read more »