Northern Tier High Adventure Program Equipment

I recently returned from a trip to the Northern Tier High Adventure Program's Charles L. Sommers base in Ely, MN. While there, my son, other scouts and advisors and I canoed through the Boundary Waters in the US and Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada for six days and five nights. This trip was over a year in the planning and we all had a great time! I'll focus on some other items related to the planning and execution of a high adventure trip in other blogs, but today I wanted to focus on some of the equipment we purchased and used.

While planning the trip, I found very little information on the internet about equipment. I don't know if this is because of how I was using Google to search or what. There was much anxiety over equipment because once you canoe out of the Ely base, your crew is on your own with what you are carrying for the next six days!

There were three purchases that made all the difference in the world to our trip: boots, socks and underwear. These items were critical because you are wet most of the day from at least the knee down and sometimes from the waist down. Without the proper footwear and underwear, the days of paddling could have been miserable, but instead they were quite comfortable.

I'll start with the underwear. The leader who was organizing the trip contacted our local REI store and arranged for an equipment discussion and demonstration early one Sunday morning before the store opened. I found that to be very useful and full of great information. We were met by two store employees, one man and one woman, both of whom spent a lot of their spare time out of doors engaged in high adventure. The man had been to NT many years ago as a scout but had recently canoed in Maine.

It was the woman who suggested Ex Officio underwear to us. She had done a lot of through backpacking and highly recommended them. The "Give-N-Go" comes in boxer, brief and boxer brief styles and is a nylon and Lycra spandex blend that is treated with a chemical that resists bacteria that causes odor. They are soft, breathable and incredibly comfortable as well as quick drying. The REI woman suggested two pair and that was plenty for our trip.

As underwear goes, they are pricey (about $28 each) but well worth it. I'm not the most nimble on my feet and fell over a couple of times while getting into or out of the canoe or while portaging across rapids. Even while completely soaked, they were comfortable and didn't itch or chafe the way cotton underwear sometimes does on canoeing trips. I also found that they frequently dried faster than the Columbia Voyager Convertible Pants that I was wearing.

The boots caused me the most anxiety. From the Northern Tier gear list is the following:

 1 pair Boots (REQUIRED)

o All participants are required to wear boots that have full ankle coverage, a rugged stitched or vulcanized sole and drainage at the instep. If you are unsure if the boots you are planning to bring meet this requirement please feel free to contact us prior to your arrival. Crews arriving with inadequate footwear will be asked to purchase boots in the trading post prior to departure on water. The health and safety of our participants is of utmost importance to us, for this reason there are no exceptions to the boot requirement. 

It is incredibly difficult to find boots that meet this description. The only readily available style is the Merrell Moab Mid Ventilator. These are good boots. I bought a pair myself but did not take them to Northern Tier, although everyone else in our crew except my son, our interpreter and myself had them. I was concerned about two things with them: the ankle support and whether they would stay on in very muddy areas. While you can lace them tightly, they feel a bit loose and could come off if you stepped into deep mud. We had heard horror stories of people stepping into waist deep mud and loosing their boots!  The Northern Tier trading post sells these Merrells for $99.95, but they can be found for less than that. I think I paid around $80 for mine at Bass Pro Shops. Everyone in our crew that wore them had no complaints.

I did a ton on internet research on these boots. I found Navy Seals and others who frequently work in and around the water who swear by these boots and find that they last a good long time, even with daily use. I decided to order two pair, one each for my son and me. NRS says, "Whole sizes only. Women order one size smaller. 1/2 sizes order one size larger." My son normally wears size 8.5 so I ordered him a size 9 and they fit perfectly. I normally wear a size 10 but I have wide feet. I decided to take a chance and ordered size 10 for me as well. I needed a size 11, which upon their arrival, fit well. 

I ordered from Landfall Navigation and cannot speak more highly of the experience. A few days after my initial order, I received an email saying the boots were back ordered and asked when I needed them. I replied saying we needed the boots well before our July departure to break them in. The boots arrived maybe 10 days later. I again emailed asking about exchanging my size 10's for size 11. Less than a week later, the size 11's arrived with instructions on how to return the 10's. If you're planning a trip to NT or just need gear for water activities, I highly recommend Landfall Navigation.  

The first time you put them on, they are very tight and very difficult to pull on. However, by the second or third time, the neoprene sock inside has limbered and they slip right on. I wore them several times around the neighborhood walking our dog and even wore them to work. I found that they broke in more quickly than other boots I've owned. On the trip, the boots were a dream! They give a ton of ankle support, drain well after submersion and generally felt great, even while hiking on long portage trails. Each day once we got off the water and pitched camp, a couple of hours drying in the sun and they were good to go the next day. Even after six days of constant and rigorous use, they are like new. I will not return to NT without a pair of these boots!

Finally, the socks are nearly as critical as the boots. The NT gear list states, "All trail clothing should be non-cotton and made of synthetics and/or natural non-cotton fibers." For socks, the list suggests three pair of wool or wool/synthetic blend socks. Our REI advisors recommended any of their thin hiking socks, Merino wool or wool blends. I bought one pair from REI but then on a trip to Cabela's, bought their Cabela's +Icebreaker thin cushion Merino wool socks. They are thin but durable and incredibly comfortable. Just like the boots, peel them off and place them in the sun for a couple of hours and they were good to go each morning! My son wore the REI socks and he was comfortable the whole trip as well. I think the key is wool, thin cushion and comfortable.

My son and I before hitting the water

The other boot listed on the Northern Tier trading post website is the Wellco Jungle Boot Model #B130 but they are listed as discontinued. These are the boots that our interpreter wore and she really liked them. I found them on various web sites but most were out of stock. I found one outfitter that told me Wellco was purchased by a different company so they had temporarily ceased production, but would restart production once the sale went through all hurdles. It that's true, by the time you read this and are preparing for an NT trip in 2016 or beyond, they may be more readily available.

I liked the Wellco Jungle Boot because I wanted military style, jungle boots; boots that are tall on the calf and provide lots of ankle support. I spoke with someone at a boy scout event who was ex-military and wore his US DOD issue jungle boots to NT. Outside of a military base's PX, these boots are difficult to find.The boots I settled on came from a mother's recommendation who had sent her son to NT several years ago: NRS Workboot Wetshoe. NRS does not sell direct to consumers but I found several outfitters that had various sizes in stock. 

A trip to NT is expensive, but I believe it to be less expensive than the grandfather of all BSA high adventure trips, Philmont. We live on the East Coast, so getting to MN is less expensive than getting to NM. We also chose a 6-day excursion as opposed to the 10-day excursions that are available to NT. I'll touch on expenses in a different blog, but much of the equipment we purchased can be used again and again for other boy scout trips, even those that aren't high adventure related. If you are careful, do your research and buy good quality, the equipment should last for years of fun ahead!

On a personal note, I would not trade the 9 days with my son for anything in the world. He is 15 and doesn't always want to be around his "pops" but we had a great time and really pushed ourselves physically and emotionally across those days. I think we both came back slightly changed, although he more than me. Even if you are not an outdoors person, if you have the chance to go on any high adventure journey with your son or daughter, you owe it to them and to yourself to do it. If you are careful, thoughtful and do it correctly, you will not regret a second of it!

Story Idea

I do a lot of writing. My mother is a retired English teacher-turned-high school guidance counselor. Books were a huge part of our home even though I didn't read much outside of school until I well into high school. My wife is voracious reader - she read 100 books in 2009!

Lately, mom has been working on a book with our Uncle Mike (he was married to my mom's aunt) about his life. He's an architect so I was asked to write a passage for it. I worked very hard on it and it sort of got my writing bug back!

I've been thinking about choices in my life. I'm extremely happy with who I am and with the choices that I've made, but with the aid of Facebook, I've been thinking about what would have happened had I made a few different choices. This has led me to a fiction idea.

I have no doubt that God's plan for me was to marry Amy and have our children. After that, was it God's plan to live in Maryland, work at Design Collective? I don't know.

This is sort of a science fiction kind of idea. There's a middle aged man, professional, happily married, several children - sound familiar? Anyway, he's approached to take part in an experiment with a time machine. He'll go back in time and make 1 different decision and see what happens. Will he meet his wife under different circumstances or will he fall in love with someone else? Will his career choice be the same or will he follow a different path?

That's about as far as I've gotten right now. More later!

The Ride

Ok, so its been over a year since I last posted. That's not surprising given my load at home, with family and at work. Anyway, lately, I've been thinking about a sort of half cross-country motorcycle ride. The purpose would be to get from Dallas back home to Baltimore, but the secondary purpose would be to visit some places I used to live and see some buildings that I worked on. I think about this idea periodically. Each Labor Day weekend, my folks buy a plane ticket for me to fly to Dallas and ride bikes with my parents, sister and occasionally her husband. The idea would be for me to buy a bike while I'm there and ride it home.

Here's how the journey might unfold. Oh, and I would avoid major interstate highways like the plague!

Day One: Plano, TX. I would leave bright and early in the morning & head towards Caddo Mills, where Dad used to teach high school math. I would probably continue on up to Greenville, TX and then turn southeast on US 69 towards Mineola. I've done part of this ride before and its not terribly scenic. That part of Texas is primarily farm country. However, its a means to an end. At Mineola, I'd hit US 80 east. 80 roughly parallels I-20 towards Louisiana. This route takes me through Longview and Marshal.

The first issue with interstates comes in just east of Marshal. US 80 merges with I-20 until you get past Bossier City, LA. I think a turn northward at this point is in order as my bro from high school and his family live in Atlanta, TX, just south of Texarkana. From Marshal, I take US 59 north right into Atlanta. End of Day One: stay the night with the Williams.

Day Two: Atlanta, TX. The ultimate goal of this day is to reach Mississippi, but where to stop? The problem with this trip is I want to see Jackson, Oxford and Starkville. As I am close to extreme northern Louisiana, a stop in Oxford first might be in order. From Atlanta, TX, I'll take State 77 southeast to Zylks, LA. From Zylks, its LA Hwy 1 to Vivian, LA then LA Hwy 2 east to Gordon, LA and then on LA Hwy 161, across the border into Arkansas towards El Dorado, AR. The goal is to cross the Mississippi River at Greenville, MS. That means US 82 out of El Dorado, through Crossett, AR, a slight detour north on AR 452 and finally through Lake Village, AR, across the river and into Greenville, MS.

I suspect this to be a very long day. Eastern Texas is slightly more scenic than northern Louisiana, but not by much. The Mississippi River Delta, no matter which side of the river you are on, is endless cotton and soy bean fields broken by the occasional farming community and country club golf course. However, dinner at Proud Larry's in Oxford, MS awaits, so I'll try to make it the whole way there!

From Greenwood, MS, I'll turn north on MS 7 through Leflore to Holcomb and on up to Grenada, MS. From Google Maps it looks like there might be a couple of turns, but MS 7 eventually ends in beautiful Oxford, MS. The snobbish Ole Miss crowd aside, Oxford is one of the best little towns I've ever visited anywhere in the south. Had Miss State Univ been in Oxford rather than Starkville, I might have never left!

Along with the aforementioned dinner at Proud Larry's, a stop by Square Books and hopefully a stay at a B-and-B on the square will also come about.

Depending on the time of day I arrive, there might be stops by the Ole Miss Library, where I did the furniture & equipment in 1996-1997 and the National Food Service Management Institute that I also worked on in 1998-1999.

Day Three: Oxford, MS. Probably the following morning will be the time to visit the Ole Miss Field Station outside of Oxford. This is where we built a couple of buildings for the Center for Water and Wetland Resources (CWWR). This project was my life for the better part of 1995 through 1999 when I left Foil Wyatt Architects in Jackson, MS and moved to Baltimore. I just visited www.olemiss.edu and the main photo on the home page is an aerial of the field station. You can see some of the components I worked on.

The first project was to do some site work and infrastructure installation. We did some clearing and rough grading, built a road from the entry to the site to the building pads and then down the hill to the one-acre sized ponds (nearly 200 of them) where the actual research takes place. This, along with the library work, was my first CA experience. Later, I worked on the Visitor's Center and the first research building, but haven't seen them built or really even a photograph of them.

Currently, Google Maps is letting my down trying to find "County Road 2078" which is what the Field Station address is listed as. However, I can probably find it once I get to Oxford. The trick will be security at the facility. It is so remote, that I can't imagine they put fences and gates around it, but they might have. We'll have to see what happens when I get there!

After a couple of hours at the Field Station, it'll be time to head down to Jackson. This trip normally would take 2 hours 45 minutes or so if you took US 278 out of Oxford and then I-55 down into Jackson, but I'm avoiding interstates. I'll cut down through the pine forests of central Mississippi on MS 7 to MS 9 through Paris, MS and Bruce, MS to Calhoun City, MS. From there, I'll stay on MS 9 past Eupora to the Natchez Trace Parkway. This is US Park Service parkway, with limited access, no commercial vehicles and a strictly enforced 55 MPH speed limit. It is a beautiful drive and probably no more than 2 hours or so from Jackson at this point.

I'll jump off the Natchez Trace north of Jackson near Ridgeland, MS. This was area of town my wife and I lived in from our marriage in May 1996 through our move to Baltimore in June 1999. I'd have to see the old apartment that we rented on County Line Road and then the duplex we rented on Northtown Road. I might want to run out to the Ross Barnett Reservoir just to see what's changed, but ultimately, I'll visit the offices of Foil Wyatt Architects on State Street in the Belhaven neighborhood of Jackson.

The balance of Day Three and much of Day Four will be spent renewing friendships with Skip and Mike of Foil Wyatt, friends from working there and from college and seeing some of the projects I worked on in the city and also what has changed in the last 10 years. I especially want to see Just Hall of Science at Jackson State University. I've seen it mostly finished, but not with the observatory on top!

I'll pick up Day Four in the next post.

Story idea

My wife loves Christmas music. I have about 4 cd's that I listen to over and over again on my iPod during the season. One is Jimmy Buffet's Christmas Island. While listening to it the other day, an idea for a short story or novella came to me.

What if Santa only uses his sleigh through the northern part of the Northern Hemisphere? What if when he gets to the Caribbean, he switches off to a canoe or boat of some sort?

Random Ramblings

This may seem like an incoherent rant, but its really a bunch of random ramblings.

Its Sunday evening & the Ravens are getting their asses completely kicked by the Colts on Football Night in America - how stupid is it for NBC to call their weekly broadcast that? Anyway, I expected this last Monday when the Ravens hosted the Patriots, but somehow, the Ravens damn near won that game & then decided not to show up tonight. Its 44-7 with 6:31 left in the 3rd & the Ravens just signaled a fair catch off a punt.

That game Monday night was great until the vaunted Ravens defense decided to act like spoiled little girls, especially Bart Scott, earn a bunch of penalties & piss away the win. Then, they completely showed their collective asses by saying how the refs stole the game from them, thus earning about $70K in fines from the league. Way to be classy, Ravens.

My friend Carlie is a huge fan, born & bred in Baltimore. She & I argue about the team - I say they suck & she says they don't. Believe me, they suck. I'm still a fan, but I have to call it like it is.

This weekend was spent in a state of flurry. At 3:15 PM Friday afternoonm, I recieved an e-mail stating the cub scout pack meeting for that night was being cancelled because of weather. It was raining & might threaten to freeze when the sun went down, but who knew? I had to feverishly call some parents & send out an -emial hoping I could get in touch with tall.

It was also my office's "First Friday" office meeting & happy hour. I had a few beers, listened to the bosses & chatted with some compadres. I was home by 7 or so. Wife didn't feel like cooking, so I had the liquid dinner. At some point, wife realized that son did not have a tie to wear the next day for his First Reconciliation. She & son ran out in search of tie. I passed out & somehow got the other 2 to bed.

This blog post is flaming out & so am I. Good night.

Impressive

A post 2 days in a row - this is impressive!

I'm very proud of myself this morning. If you happen upon my blog & are extremely adept at using html tags & other such web page design codes, keep moving. This is not for you. If you are somewhat technologically savvy, but can't program html, keep reading. This might help you.

I am a college sports fan. Especially football and basketball. I grew up in Fayetteville, AR, home of the University of Arkansas and attended Mississippi State University. I was at State when the SEC expanded to include Arkansas and South Carolina. Needless to say, I am a huge SEC fan. Since State is very strong in baseball, I guess you can include baseball to my fandom list.

I spent 5 years following graduation practicing in Jackson, MS, so I read the Jackson newspaper The Clarion-Ledger on a daily basis. Its the best way to keep track of State's sports teams. Their State beat writer is one of the best we've had recently. I suspect he won't last long but will move up to a bigger paper, just like the last one did. Both this one & the previous one have blogs which I read and occassionally comment on. There is a small group of probably 12-15 regular contributors to Kyle's blog.

Several weeks ago, someone illustrated how to use HTML code to post links, like I did in the paragraph above. At the time, I didn't write the directions down & now, I'm unable to find that post and comment. So, I Google searched & found this site which I used successfully for the first time this morning in a blog comment about State's bowl game opportunities. Hence, I'm very proud of myself this morning!

Mother of sons

I love my wife. Since leaving her job this past summer, I love her even more. She has been truly happy for the first time in several years. If there was any doubt the impact of that negative work environment on her, it has been erased by her happiness, her attitude and the things she's done for our children, for herself & for me in the last 6 months.

Still, things happen that make me laugh. Just now, she was taking our 3 kids and 2 friends to the library. Our 2-1/2 year old had gone outside ahead of my wife. He fell down our front steps. I heard him crying & looked out the 2nd floor window. My 11 year old daughter had him & he seemed fine, just scared. She's yelling for mom & I hear my wife say, "is he bleeding?" Spoken like the mother of 2 sons!