Post trip

Creative use of the hotel room balcony

After a few days powering down the spectacular Minong ridge on Isle Royale, I'm resting and refueling at Lake Bemidji, the headwaters of the Mississippi, grateful for everything in my pack (especially my trekking poles, critical on that quarter mile, one-plank "river crossing").

I hope the NPS will find time to recheck the mileage along that route. I met only eight people in three days along a thirty-plus mile footpath, all of them seasoned, and we all agreed that every mile felt like two--and very likely was closer to one and a half.

So much of the rocky, root-studded trail is hidden by armpit-high foliage this time of year that the hike turned into 38 miles of one deliberate step after another. The section where the ridge is exposed and slabby, between Little Todd Harbor junction and Lake Desor, would be unsafe (if even passible) when wet or foggy. Take heed and pack extra food for the rest day it would take to dry the rock or for the marine layer to lift.

Josh Knox and I admiring the view across Lake Superior to the Sleeping Giant

Don't forget to write up your trip report. After recording the weather, the route conditions, what was in flower and what was ripe enough to eat along the way (blueberries and raspberries were everywhere around me but alas, unripe), jot down what you needed (extra fuel and mosquito repellent!) and what you could have left behind (power brick for my iPhone). Take time to alert the rangers to any issues along your route. Your post trip checklist should also include a full day for laundry and air-drying a clean tent.

Don't let wet, dirty gear languish in hot cars where condensation can contribute to mold growth.

Once you get home, check to see if anything needs repair before shelving it.

See you out there next time. 

Signing off with the sunset view (minus the symphony of loon calls) of Todd Harbor, one of the loveliest nights I've spent in a tent in years. It's got everything a girl needs including a dock! 

Seaplane, anyone?

Group Site 1 at Todd Harbor has level tent platforms, a dock for your seaplane and your morning dip, a picnic table, this view at cocktail hour and a fire ring for tall tales, wolf songs and northern lights after dark.

Travel Light, Drink Well

Nine wee nips and you'll never lose the cap.
It's tethered. Dry weight: 1.2 oz

The new generation of flexible, BPA-free plastic beverage bottles is just rockin'.

PlatyPreserve bottles get the air out

This stuff weighs nothing, disappears inside your luggage and still looks good on arrival. It'll hold all the water, whiskey and wine you want for three perfect days wherever you end up. I've tested these products extensively.  You bet I have.

Check out the Vapur Element, the PlatyPreserve wine preservation system from Platypus and the 9-oz Highland Flask from GSI Outdoors 

They all work suitably, clean easily and transfer no weird tastes to your drinks.

Easy to tell whose water is whose

The Vapur Element water bottle
rolls up, welcomes ice and clips to your bag

Staging Areas

Chin's 24-hour turnaround: where's he headed?

Where's your staging area? Do you have to leave home to get ready to leave home?

Here's what adventure photographer Jimmy Chin's looked like when he had only 24 hours to pack for a trip. He shared the snap on Facebook, thanking everyone who helped him get on the plane:

Always love the 24 hour home base turn around. Organized chaos. Thanks to @jxnhende and the @tetonvillagesports boys for helping me get out the door on time! @revosunglasses @dynafitna @gopro @thenorthface @thephotosociety

Maxim No. 17

Adventure travel maxim no. 17: Don't forget the duct tape.

I know I've got enough when I've made a couple wraps around my water bottle. Which gives me one more good reason to bring along an actual water bottle (instead of just a bladder or an Aqua Pur).

There are like a zillion more reasons--like, who doesn't use theirs as a clothes dryer or a hot water bottle? But that's another story.

How to Fix Stuff that Gets Trashed

Plan on trashing your gear in the very near future? Who does?

We all wreck our stuff from time to time. Or else others do it for us.

And then there's the whole scheduled field maintenance thing. One day I'll actually calculate how many weeks out of seven months on the Appalachian Trail were spent "cleaning" and "repairing" my white gas-fueled MSR stove. It always felt like I was rebuilding the thing on a daily basis. I did less care and feeding for my newborn.

Now there's a hand to hold when field repairs get you down. The GearAid app for iPhone and Android.

It gives step-by-step care and repair instructions that don't suck. It even links to YouTube so you can attend GearHead University on the internet. And the app is incredibly intuitive and easy to use, at least on my iPhone, which is a bonus when you find yourself on the road, out of luck and not in the best of moods.

Heed Maxim No. 17: Don't Forget the Duct Tape. And don't leave home without a decent repair kit.

That doesn't mean you need to pack a separate suitcase. My travel kit always includes trusty ole SeamGrip, zipper repair tools, tweezers, mini scissors, eyeglass repair tools and spare parts, plus a ring-finger-size roll of duct tape, and it fits inside a sandwich-size Gladlock. My backcountry setup fits inside the smallest zippered pouch made by GearAid, the repair products division of Bellingham, Washington-based McNett.

I like the branded pouch because it's distinctive enough for kids to locate while you're standing in a gale beside your pitched tent, holding a snapped pole that got its compound fracture inside the fabric sleeve. If you let go of that pole to grab the repair kit, you'll return to a shredded tent.

So practice saying, "Go get the billy goat kit! And bring my phone!" calmly, like you're on top of it with grace under pressure. Repeat ten times. Make sure you charge your smartphone before every trip. Set it to Airplane mode. Bring backup power if you think you might trash your gear a few days hence. And then get out there!

Portable power

For years I’ve experimented with solar rechargers for electronic devices I take on backcountry trips. Like my phone, my camera and my iPod. And sometimes my laptop, if I’ve escaped to write.

Most encased solar chargers aren’t rugged enough for backcountry use. The plastic cases always crack on trips. The utility of solar mats is pretty much limited to base camp use. When you’re moving, they just don’t work. And in spite of manufacturer claims, I find that they’re not waterproof. So leaving them unsupervised out in the open is just asking for trouble. They don’t work reliably inside a tent or in a resealable plastic bag.

So I’ve turned to juice packs for portable power.

The one I’m using now is Powerstation PRO from Mophie, and it works. You charge the juice pack at home and take it with you to recharge your toys on the trail.

At $100, it’s at the top of the food chain on price point. But if you do the math (which I had an Apple Genius help me with), you’ll find models costing a third as much just won’t get the job done. They’re basically designed for urban use when your phone goes unexpectedly dead and you need a power boost quick to make an urgent call or check texts. Travelers, trekkers, sailors, skiers, climbers, riders and beach bums want to run apps, recharge cameras, listen to audiobooks or radio and play music at dinner. One Powerstation is more than I usually need for four or five days off the grid.

This rugged, wallet-size model packs easily and weighs in under 350 grams. It reliably recharges my battery-sucking iPhone 4S four times in the backcountry in three-season temperatures. At 6,000 mAh (that’s milliamp hours), it should be able to give my Macbook one full recharge and still have power for a single phone recharge. (A Macbook battery delivers about 5,300 mAh.)

Managing juice packs, like managing power on your devices, is a nerd sport. Read the manual and follow the directions. The most important thing to remember for high performance is never to leave your device plugged into the juice pack longer than it takes to recharge.

Power-saving travel tip: run your phone in aircraft mode on trips, especially in the backcountry. Carry a SPOT tracker instead for safety—not the SPOT Connect, which saps power from your phone. And use a handheld GPS device for navigation⎯not your smartphone. This approach also gives you the benefit of redundancy. You can readily buy replacement batteries for that critical gear on the road. Worldwide. You’ll need an electrical outlet, a USB adaptor and a couple hours to recharge the juice pack.

3G coverage and apps like Packing Pro and HG2 are adding to the pleasure of adventure travel, so I predict that lightweight, portable power will only keep getting better. Get off the grid and recharge.

Travel Tip: avoid a UK Mac attack

Mac people: Don’t leave for the UK without this key add-on. You won’t be able to recharge your Macbook in many hotels without it.

I learned the hard way on a recent trip to London.

You won’t find the product listed on Apple’s UK site (???), and it’s not sold anywhere in the US as far as I know, so buy it here from Amazon. 

Tailwinds!

British electrical code for restored buildings (like The Stafford, at left, along with the Berkeley, Claridge’s, the Connaught and so on) requires outlets to be placed too close to the skirting boards. Your MagSafe power block will not be able to dock with the electrical outlet. Your World Travel Adaptor Kit will NOT fix the problem.

Ten minutes online today will save you a trip to one of the UK’s 35 Apple stores. Not one of which is anywhere near the Cornish coast or the Scottish Highlands.

How To Pack

Fellow Traveler, meet Pocket Valet.

This great little app for iPhone has guided me through a year’s worth of trips. A solid four-season performer from business to backcountry to holidays abroad. 

Packing Pro makes sure you prep it and never forget to bring it. When you’re out there, it prompts you to recharge batteries and confirm bookings. When you get back, it reminds you to clean and repair it.

Forgot the sleep system you used on that great trip to Bryce Canyon? Or how many No. 2 Camalots you needed on that route? Or which budget airline got you from Berlin to the Rhine valley? It’ll never happen again with checklist-based Packing Pro.



Customize your gear list down to the last detail. Riding? Fishing? Climbing? Skiing? Diving? Paddling? Winter camping? Make a separate list for each. Trains, planes, cars and canoes? It's easy to manage logistics for each part of the trip.






Well done, Quinnscape. Now if it could only manage repairs and restocking. Four stars.