Alone in the Adirondacks GGTBod 2016

[GGTBod]

No pressure Leshy you take your time mate

In that lake there is bass, catfish, perch, grayling and many others, loads and loads of fresh water clams too, i collected a load in less than ten minutes, there was so many clams you could sit and watch the streams of bubbles coming up from the silt

 

[Robson Valley]

Good. I like those trips with lots of fresh food along the way. How did you do up the clams?

 

[GGTBod]

I had planned to boil them first and then fry them before adding them to a beef stew but ended up not eating them as I had not checked before i left if there was any health restrictions or things to be wary of about when eating them like local pollution etc, wish i had realised they were going to be there because i'd have enjoyed them and probably took butter and garlic with me knowing they were there (next time), i put them all back but you could have had a bucket full from every mudflat with the reed beds growing out of it, some were like floating bogs.

The first thing i plan to do when i emigrate to the US is take a solo trip up this way with no time limits, no concerns about anything outside of the wilderness like flights back to uk, i've been wondering lately how long i could last and still enjoy myself and be comfortable, both trips up that way i have been there for 3 weeks but i ended them then because i had too, felt like a puppy getting dragged away from it's home each time i had to leave. I quite like the idea of having one of those storage units and just have it stuffed with seasonal specific gear and every now and then pop back to it and restock on your dried provisions before heading back into the big green spaces, av got goosebumps

 

[Robson Valley]

Given your travels, I'd guess that the aquatic foods would be pretty clean.
Freshwater clams have always been a disappointment to me = tough as a boot.
I keep hoping that some culinary genius will point out the error of my ways.
Very proper of your respect for the land to put them back.

The First Nations people got it right = they had at least 2 camps, one for summer and one for winter. Maybe a third one just for fishing.
Find your storage unit inbetween.
Hell, the Haida even dismantled their house boards and took them along! No problem in a 40'-60' dugout cedar boat.
Just bought a short stack of older reference books about the FN peoples, mainly the PacNW. They were so resourceful.

The days are noticably shorter as August crawls along. The odd frosty night, the leaves coloring up, even starting to fall off.
Those cues always made me want to head for "home", my winter/work camp.
Thanks again for the videos, floods of memories for me. I like that.
The day length changes become so much more dramatic as you go further north as you know.

 

[GGTBod]

I was 90% sure the clams would be fine but the last thing i needed was to get some sort of shellfish related stomach troubles when my cellphone has intermittent signal and i am 7 mile from my pickup point, also don't want to spoil my trip with maybe some lesser trouble like having the skitters for 2 days.

I did see plenty of those storage facilities when i was up that way too, it could easily hold whatever seasonal gear you weren't using at the time, funny thing is to me the Adirondacks is heading south by a good long margin, if i remember correctly it is on or around the 46th parallel north of the equator, at home here in Newcastle i am more in level with Saskatchewan Canada as i am on the 55th parallel north, we're currently getting just over 6hrs of daylight per day at the minute here, solstice was just over 3 weeks back so the nights are getting shorter everyday, thank the gods of mice n men on that one being something you can rely on

 

[Robson Valley]

8:50 AM and the dang sun is up, finally. -28C but no wind. Typical for that cold. I'm at 53N, used to live at 54N in Prince George.
The Fraser river valley here is about N/S with a mountain range on both sides. They clip 30-60 minutes off the ends of the sunlight.
5,000 - 8,000' just a few miles away. That's a relief on a 30C afternoon in the summer but no consolation today.
On the winter solstice, my house is in shadow at 1:52PM.
It's a delight to recognize the increasing day length. The cold is more endurable when I can see what I'm doing.

"Skitters?" = Running Green Screamers, here. Yeah, a long solo trip and bad food would be a desperate mix.

Have you got another Adirondacks trip in the planning? I wonder what the BCUSA people have to say about the clams & fish.

 

[GGTBod]

Once i emigrate to the US the very first thing i plan to do is have a trip into the Adirondacks without time restraints, then just after than I plan to do a similar thing in the wilderness of Maine, got some friends in Montana who have told me they will show me the wilds of Montana like a local, I also want to go to kodiak Island during the salmon run, all just pipe dreams right now like hahaha started my emigration papers 2 weeks ago

 

[Robson Valley]

Go north half way to Alaska and do a guided ocean-going sea kayak tour of Haida Gwaii.
The only way to visit so many of the abandoned villages with their monumental totem poles.
Catered invisibly as well. Apparently, the caterers & boat are never seen. Not a part of your experience.

You are required to relax and have a good time.
Retired friend is so hooked on the trips that he's bought his own ocean kayak!

 

[Robson Valley]

Go north half way to Alaska and do a guided ocean-going sea kayak tour of Haida Gwaii.
The only way to visit so many of the abandoned villages with their monumental totem poles.
Catered invisibly as well. Apparently, the caterers & boat are never seen. Not a part of your experience.

You are required to relax and have a good time.
Retired friend is so hooked on the trips that he's bought his own ocean kayak!

This ought to give you the idea:

http://www.kayakingtours.com/?gclid=CLLMkZ2MvdECFYlffgodJh0LAg

 

[GGTBod]

Looks totally amazing what they do but that is so beyond my price bracket it made me blurt out laughing when i seen the cost of any trip i fancied going on from their lists, sounds truly amazing and probably totally good value to have that level of guide and support but i haven't got £8000+ to spend on a 2 week holiday

 

[Robson Valley]

Those Adirondack trips look so very much like a lazy week or two on the Churchill River in July.

Sorry about the double post. I can sit on my hands and watch this particular computer do that from time to time.
Mainly to show what Haida Gwaii can look like.

 

[Woodywoodpacker]

Looks Like An Awesome Trip Mate

 

[GGTBod]

Definitely was mate, so far my best outdoor adventuring to date, got big plans though for the future adventuring

 

[Joe tahkahikew]

I am glad you enjoyed your trip. Being alone in the woods and forests is a good way to reconnect with your soul and heart and to make you understand what things in life are important. To do a short trip in your canoe is also good.
If you want to do longer trips they need not cost a lot of money. For example from St James Bay in Ontario you can canoe all the way to Nunavut way up north, paddling several different rivers. paddling up river and down too. Once you set off from St James bay it won't cost a penny - or cent! There's no people, stores or shops!!! Take many, many weeks of paddling too and no see anyone.

I remember asking my father who once made such a long trip of many months what he did for food. He said he took a plenty of bullets, flour, tea and sugar.

If you go again paddling you may find it easier if you can learn to paddle straight line by paddling on only one side of the canoe and not keep switching from side to side which is tiring and not so good for arms or speed. Such strokes are many and are called in English, J stroke, pitch stroke, northwoods, or Indian stroke. My granddaughter says there are many films showing them on the internet.

 

[GGTBod]

Cheers Joe thanks for watching and i really appreciate the feedback and shared knowledge, the main cost in the trips right now for me is flights, I had wanted to do Kodiak Island but it was over £2000 just in flights and other transport to get there, even more if i wanted to take cold weather clothing as it doesn't fit standard luggage allowance weights, then i have boat hire, i'm just a blue collar cockroach human cattle i don't have that kind of cash kicking about, when i emigrate to USA this all changes.

I was waiting for someone to point out my paddling , this was my first time solo in a craft so big but i have to change sides paddling due to old injuries and lower back problems, my dad was showing me the techniques for one man in a big canoe like you mention like the j stroke and the Greek rudder but after about 20 minutes of sticking to one side with my paddle my whole back started locking up and i was in a lot of pain and discomfort for a good while afterwards having to do my physiotherapy and stretching to put it back in place, not something i want to be dealing with when in the woods so i have to compromise, the good thing is with the power of editing all the times i got spun by my bad paddling technique or getting caught by the current and my occasional expletive when this happened when i least needed it too is not showing in the final edit.

If you think my paddling is suspect you should see me walking, you might notice you rarely see me walking in my videos and if you look close if i am walking you might catch my cane that i try to conceal, i have spotted it's shadow occasionally getting into shot.

Once i am in USA i plan to spend the huge majority of my life in the wilderness, i plan to de-evolve from modern society, i gave it my all for 40 years of my life and got nothing in return but a permanently bad back, loads of debt and a feeling of total loss and isolation whilst living in city with 6 million people in it my whole life, at least when you are alone in the woods it is a good honest alone feeling that lifts your spirits.

I like the sound of that kit list Joe, bullets, flour, tea and sugar, if that was not for the bullets it would sound very English, the St James Bay to Nunavut sounds right up my dreams type of paddling (i just map drooled over it for 20 minutes).

Where i am moving to in US (first) all forms of bow hunting are completely legal so making and using traditional bows and arrows if something i wish i to master, hopefully with good eating i've easily got a good 30 years left to get good at it, life might not have been a total waste by the time i make the grave on my new path, if i had stayed on my old path id have lived and died as human cattle and been none the wiser, in a way my back injuries done me a favour as it forced a complete stop and reboot of my life after best part of a year bedridden at the start, you do a lot of thinking and soul searching when you spend the best part of a year in bed, lose your job, your girl and most your friends, still fighting back i keep telling myself i am going to walk properly again totally unaided, might be a fantasy but i am working on it

 

[Joe tahkahikew]

That sounds like you've been in a a bad place my friend.

We could all do with an editing kit to remove the bad stuff from our life and actions. But we make our own luck I think and you sound like you have started to make your own too by moving south of the border to the states.

Many indians from many tribes end up lost in cities. Lost like you describe. And many end up on the drink with no hope. You have hope my friend and I hope you make your dream come true and have many pleasant times in the forests, on the rivers and lakes. All hopes and dreams are nothing without action. Even the longest trail is started by just one small step.

Good Luck on your journey

kickanakwat

 

[GGTBod]

I would like to do the opposite and get lost in a small tribe, i would love to be part of a small hard working community who were all contributing to each others needs, that is if that is not some stupid historically romanticized city cattle imagining of what it would be like being in a small tribe, i have no real basis for a proper understanding but it has to be more fulfilling than just being an anonymous cog in the machine of some big company in some big city.

Pure wisdom shared there Joe, thank you.

 

[Robson Valley]

I think that the communities of either Missinippe or Stanley Mission, both in Saskatchewan on the Churchill River, might be worth a look.
I lived in a city of 125k for more than 30 years. This village might be 500. Can't say as I have any longing for the other place in the last 10-15 years.
But, there's no faults in no place. I considered several other small towns before I stopped here.