I came back from algonquin a few weeks ago, and classes started right away, so I never got a chance to report. Unfortunately it rained for seven days straight, so I never took my phone out to take pics.
First off: thank you to the forum for all of the diy guides, and searchable advice! It's an amazing resource!
Warning: this is a little long winded, but it was eventful!
Now, the trip itself started 32 years ago as a freshman orientation program at the university I teach at. It's evolved, and weathered some politics, but it's still going strong. I backpacked the highland routes in algonquin years ago when I was in college, and when the email went around looking for new faculty leaders I jumped at it.
I haven't been out on the trail in a number of years (four year old at home), so when I started going through my gear I started to discover missing pieces due to multiple moves. Most notable were my sleeping bag and ground pad. I also pulled out my old cheapo Byer of Maine hammock and discovered that the netting had several huge holes in the netting. At first I was going to replace the netting, but after a little poking around I discovers the forums, and built myself a diy double layer hennessey out of some polyester I had laying around in a few hours. Much much better hammock. I took the zipper out of the Byer mosquito, and bought some noseemum from DIY gear supply, and had a comfy new hammock.
Now I didn't have a bag or insulation for it. Dicks had a cheapo 24" Coleman pad, so good. For bag I borrowed a ultralight 60 degree north face bag from a friend. Really not much more than a heavy sheet. On checking weather I saw the park was experiencing a cold summer. Lows into the low forties. I supplemented with a diy hancock fabric fleece topquilt for $10. It's a bit heavy, but it's canoe camping with the longest portages being 2.5 kilometers.
For a tarp I was thinking about building an ultralight asym, but since the weather was hairy and I was leading a group of six freshman and two student leaders I figured bigger was better for privacy, and in case we needed a rainfly for cooking. I bought a kelty noah 12x12. Thank god I bought the 12x12. More on that...
On the first night we camped in a state park in PA. I threw my old Sierra designs 2 man tent(what was considered lightweight in 2001 at 3lbs) along with what was left of my Byer mosquito just in case my new hennessey clone had an issue. My male student leader tried the Byer hammock that night, and my female leader used my tent to have some privacy from our freshman that were in four person tents. It poured rain at 2am. My male leader ran in to join my other leader in my two person tent, and the both discovered it was flooded. The rainfly might need to be treated, and I need to check the seams on the bottom I guess. I on the other hand was totally dry under my tarp! Needless to say the tent stayed behind on the trip.
The canoe trip itself was amazing and brutal. It rained everyday, except our last day out. Temps were highs in the 60s, and lows down to forty.
We discovered the first night out that the dining rainflys we were issued were as water proof as my old tent. Fortunately we had my tarp, and my male leader had a 10x8 blue tarp I advised him to buy at the outfitters before setting out, since he wanted to sleep in my old hammock. The leaky rain flys did work out though, since the tents the freshman were using had undersized ground tarps, and were flooding. I had them use the rainflys to supplement the ground cloths.
Needless to say much of the time we were borderline hypothermic. Rain gear only does so much good when out on the water, and wading through the water. Everyone had wool or polypropylene long underwear, so we didn't freeze.
On day three we hit a big snag. By this point the portages were slippery streams going uphill and downhill, and bogs at the low points. This particular one was awful. I was carrying a canoe, and following another kid carrying a canoe. He stepped into a muddy part and sunk up to his thigh. He did a good job of dropping the canoe safely though. I helped him out, and we carried the canoes through together stopping to help another student get her leg out after suction almost pulled her boot off. Nothing like being elbow deep in mud pulling someone's foot out.
Now the snag. I got to the end of the portage, and put my canoe down just as my female leader came running into the launch site ordering us to clear space on the side of the trail. 2 minutes later my male leader came running in carrying one of our freshman. She had slipped on a rock, and hyper extended her knee. She thought shed heard a pop. She was probably our toughest kid and was in tears. We pulled up her pants leg, and swelling had already started.
Basic first aid applied, and out comes the sat phone. Oh good we have seven bars of signal. Try calling out, oh crap the instructions on how to use the phone are awful... Why the heck can't we get through? Oh wait we have zero bars... Oh wait we're on a river with no LOS. Satellites are flashing by overhead giving brief signals... Crap I'm afraid this girl has a torn ACL!
Long story short we could go back through a 2k portage to get a signal, or carry on through 4 short portages and a beaver dam to get to a lake that has all four of our groups meeting up on and a ranger cabin.
We moved forward. This girl was tough. We carried her through the portages. Wrapped her in my fleece blanket to keep warm. And repacked all the canoes to transport her. The kids all came together like you wouldn't believe. We were all making multiple trips to haul gear and canoes. Nobody complained. They rocked.
We ran into another group at a short portage that had two wilderness EMTs. They looked her over, and patched up a little more totally immobilizing her knee.
Eventually after a grueling day we hit the lake at 2:00. A paddle through the rain and we were at the ranger cabin by three. They were clearly in residence, but out. I had no signal on shore, so we headed out onto the lake, and finally got a call into base camp at the outfitters. Of course base camp was in town at the library, but the outfitters agreed to coordinate with the park until he came back.
Just as I got back onshore we saw the rangers coming in on a boat. They wouldn't let us in the cabin at first, because they had to "clean up". We'd seen the booze and pictures on the walls through the windows. Not even my uber Christian male leader was going to judge them at that point if it got us warm, but oh well.
After all that we flew her and my female leader out on the float plane. We found out when we got back in that she had just a really really bad sprain. Thank god. 32 years of this trip, and on my first year we had to evac somebody for the first time!
Before the left I traded my soaked sleep gear for my female leaders 20 degree bag. She apparently gets cold easily. I was warm enough in my makeshift system at 40 degrees. With her bag I was sweating.
A few hours later we reached an island and hooked up with one of our other groups. They had a huge site, we were shivering uncontrollably(that day was a high of 55), and we declared our situation an emergency, and broke the occupancy rules. The rangers who'd helped us out the day before came by for some maintenance, and didn't even blink.
The rest of the trip was uneventful. The kids bonded like crazy. My tarp kept us all dry at dinner, and I slept better than I ever have in the wilderness in my hammock.
Thank god I brought the big tarp.
I was still thinking about building a small tarp, but instead I think I'll build a skin on frame canoe this winter, so that I can take my son out next year. He can't handle back packing yet, but I think he can handle short portages if I carry the gear. I've done a several kayaks, and a solo canoe should be even easier.
I also picked up a 70 liter silnylon drybag that was on clearance at the outfitters. Someone returned it claiming a small hole. I can't find a hole, and it fits my expidition bag nicely for the next time I have to deal with a monsoon.
Thanks again for teaching me how to hang properly. It works even in adversity!
John
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Originally Posted by Bubba
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