Chores & Bugs & Bears...oh My!

For those who have not had a chance to read through the Canoe North Adventure website, I thought I would post up some of the Frequently asked questions.

1. How hard are the trips? What level of physical fitness do I require?
   
   This is one of the first and most common questions people have about travelling in the far north. Our approach to paddling in the north is to match appropriate rivers with the skill levels of our paddlers. We offer novice, intermediate and advanced paddling experiences. There is a different physical requirements for each of those three types of trips. Also, our trips are designed to spend time on the river so that the camping, photography, hiking or just plain reading in camp can be part of everyone’s experience. We have either one or two layover days on a trip depending on the length and we do not plan to just blast down a river. After a leisurely breakfast in camp, we get on the river at about 10pm to 10:30pm. We take many breaks during our paddling day and finish at about 4pm. Earlier in a trip, we would have shorter days and build up to longer days towards the end of the trip. We have a mid morning and midafternoon gorp break and a fairly long lunch break. We feel we have built a balance between feeling the challenge of paddling a long distance on a remote river and making sure that people do not move too far out of their comfort zone. We take care of people on the trips!
    
2. What about bears? They say that you are honoured to see a bear in the north and we have been honoured many times. The bears in the far north are extremely wild and have not been trained to associate people with food. In most cases, they associate people with hunting and they have a natural fear. This means that unfortunately, often the view of a bear is fleeting and we see only their back-end as they run away. We most often see bears on the shore when we are in our canoes or swimming the river ahead of our boats. In a lifetime of paddling, we have never had a bear intentionally come into our camp. We have had four bears over that time, on their morning constitutional, come upon our camp and these bears had a serious wake-up call when they realized the scope of what is in front of them as they hightailed it out of there. We carry both bear spray and bear bangers, and have a comprehensive plan with our paddlers about how to manage ourselves in the wilderness so we do not have any serious bear encounter and clear instructions in case their was an unexpected bear.
    
3. How bad are the bugs? Bugs are not an issue for any of our paddlers. In the mountainous regions where we travel there no black flies and few mosquitoes. The tundra regions where we run only a few trips have their fair share of bugs, in fact, in the barrenlands the bugs are truly brutal. If you look at our pictures of our trips, you will notice that no one is wearing a bug jacket even though we list them as an essential on our personal gear list. This is not because we took out all the pictures of people with their bug jackets on but because they are not being bothered by the bugs. Believe me, as soon as there are bugs, the jackets do come out. Rarely on a trip would there be any need for a jacket although as with anything, we never say never about bugs. For example, if we camped on an overcast day and had not found the most ideal campsite with perhaps excessive vegetation or low land, we just might have some bugs. If bugs are an issue for you, please help us to plan a trip where they will not be an issue.
    
4. How many people in a canoe? In a tent? Two people to a canoe and two people in a three man tent with a substantial vestibule.
    
5. How cold is the water for bathing? Do we have to worry about water quality? The water temperatures are cold depending on the river between 5̊C and 10̊C. Most people do get in for a swim although these are fairly quick junkets. Daily washing is fairly common although we recommend biodegradable soap and even then using only significantly small amounts of soap.
   
   We carry a expedition water filter since all regions of the world now have some level of parasite giardia that can causes intestinal problems. This filter removes everything down to 2 microns and pumps and incredible four litres a minute. Even though the water is often clear unless there is rain pushing silt into the river, we recommend that you drink the filtered water.
    
6. Do we share camp chores? It has always been our before at Canoe North Adventures that part of a any canoe trip involves building a fire, cooking meals, cleaning up camp or building a latrine. Our plan has always been to form a few teams that can take over these responsibilities on a rotating basis. This means that people are not all trying to help at once and that everyone gets time off to relax.
   
7. Who would I paddle or tent with if I came on my own? Many people do come on our trips without a paddling partner. Many trips will have a combination of couples and singles. This has never been a issue on the river or in camp. When looking at an overall group of paddlers, we establish what we think is the best mix of skill in the canoes. We look at our group as a team that needs to get down a river and therefore, we want each boat to have a combination that will ensure safety and a consistent speed on the river. We do switch paddlers around unless there is a special request from a client to stay together with their paddling partner. We do mainly use double occupancy tents but have single tents if people feel more comfortable with their own tent.