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Smoothing It: Secrets of a Happy Camper

Smoothing It

Secrets of a Happy Camper

Camping can be great fun, but the fun fades fast if you’re soaked, bug-bitten, hungry, or tired. A few days of misery like that, and you’ll find yourself daydreaming about the traffic jam on the way to the office. You don’t have to rough it when you hit the trail, though. Here Tamia tells you how to smooth your way in the wild.
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by Tamia Nelson | August 10, 2004

A Tamia Nelson Article on Backinthesameboat.com

We do not go to the green woods and crystal waters to rough it, we go to smooth it. We get it rough enough at home.…
—Nessmuk (George Washington Sears)

Some folks like roughing it, or think they do. I did, once. My dream of a good time was hanging like an addled bat from the flank of a knife-edged ridge and snatching forty winks in a gale-buffeted tent, while waiting for the next avalanche to sweep down off the towering heights. So when my first long camping trip proved to be a never-ending ordeal of sodden clothes and blood-sucking flies, I shrugged off my misery, comforting myself with the thought that I was preparing for bigger and better agonies to come. But … Read more »

The Lady’s Not for Turning: The Extraordinary Story of Mina Hubbard

The Lady’s Not for Turning

The Extraordinary Story of Mina Hubbard

There were woodswomen long before “Woodswoman,” and one in particular stands out. In 1903, Mina Hubbard’s husband starved to death in Labrador. Two years later, his widow was leading an expedition along the same route, determined to finish the job her husband had left undone.
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by Tamia Nelson | November 12, 2002

Mina Hubbard on the Trail - 1905 - A Tamia Nelson Article on Backinthesameboat.com

Some of my happiest hours have been spent in library basements. Dark, dank, and neglected, they often house unexpected treasures: government reports describing the natural history of remote regions, bound volumes of nineteenth-century magazines, old books slated for “weeding” (librarians prefer to call this “de-accessioning”) … . What with one thing and another, trips into these dusty catacombs are always fascinating. Many turn into voyages of exploration among forgotten literary landscapes, with every shelf promising something new — and often delivering.

On one such expedition a few years back, I spotted bound volumes of Harper’s Monthly Magazine. Here was a find, indeed! Though not known as a sporting periodical — today’s Harper’s takes its job as a guardian of high culture very seriously — its turn-of-the-(last)-century counterpart occasionally printed articles about canoeing and kayaking. Ever hopeful, I lost no time … Read more »

Burning Issues: When to Say NO to a Campfire — and Why

Burning Issues

When to Say NO to a Campfire — and Why

The campfire is a backcountry icon, and “dreaming the fire” is one of the great joys of evenings by the water. But the pleasures of the fireside come at a price. With this year’s drought-driven infernos still fresh in her mind, Tamia explores some “Burning Issues.” It’s a hot topic.
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by Tamia Nelson | October 8, 2002

A Tamia Nelson Article on Backinthesameboat.com

It’s raining as I write this, a steady, sustained, soaking rain. Such rains aren’t uncommon in the northern foothills of New York’s Adirondack Mountains, but they were very rare this year. The summer that just ended was hot and dry — unusually so, in fact. Fire weather. And not surprisingly, we’ve had our share of fires. Some 70 flared up across the Adirondacks in August alone. Most were small, almost intimate, affairs. Many involved only a few acres, or a few tens of acres, and nearly all were contained quickly. None reached the size of the terrible western infernos that led the network news broadcasts.

A few still smolder on, though, and a brush-fire complex that began in a training area on Fort Drum (home to the 10th Mountain Division) was initially allowed … Read more »

In the Same Boat: Getting Acquainted

In the Same Boat

Getting Acquainted

Who we are, where we came from, where we’re going, and what we’re about.
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by Farwell Forrest | March 1, 1999

A Farwell Forrest Article on Backinthesameboat.com

Nearly twenty years ago, I found myself in an Old Town Tripper on a wild river in northern Quebec. With me in the boat was a young woman I hardly knew. We’d met several times, of course, usually in the little library that served the small upstate New York town we both called home. I’d noticed that we took out the same books. So had she. It was just about all we had in common.

We’d paddled together only once before — a hastily-planned canoe trip down a stretch of the Androscoggin. What brought us together on the river in northern Quebec is a story for another day. At the time, only one thing really mattered: we were there, we were in the same boat, and we had nearly two hundred miles of river and lake ahead of us.

Well, the trip spun itself out as such trips always do. The tempo varied, but the theme remained the same. River, lake and portage. Still water and fast. Gale-force wind and dead calm. Rain and … Read more »