A Word in the Woods

Here’s a bit of an update to follow up on my previous post about Marathon’s “End of Lease” sale.

Everybody that knows me would have been proud. I stopped into the store and managed not to buy too much – just a few sets of batteries, and a rubber foot for my walking stick. I’ll probably be back for a knife when it gets closer to the end of their lease — I’m reasonably confident that they’re not going to be selling to impulse buyers, as it’s still a $100 purchase.

Find out what’s going on inside the store…

Tags: first-aid, knife, Marathon, shops, toronto
Posted in Gear, News | No Comments »

A friend of mine lent me his GPS handheld unit while he’s away, and I’m going to try it out for the next few days. I’ve been thinking about purchasing a GPS unit for a while, and I have an upcoming trip that would be a good testbed for it. It’s a cute little unit called the Garmin Geko, and looks nice and simple to use. Unfortunately, I’ve been in the subway and the office all day, so I can’t seem to get it to work yet. From what I’ve seen, it’s probably because I haven’t done something right yet. I’ll get around to reading the manual eventually.

I’ll take it for a spin around town, but I suspect that I’ll end up getting something with a map, perhaps something like the eTrex. Still simple, but with an 8MB memory. I may fall for an impulse buy if I find something on sale.

One of the things I don’t like is that these things still use serial connections. Nothing I have in the way of computers has a serial port any more, and that just means a proprietary cable – I can’t just hook it up to any old computer.

I’ll do a bit of a walk and try and figure out how it works, and let you know how things go… If I can get it to work.

Tags: garmin, Gear, gps, navigation
Posted in Gear, Things to try | No Comments »

It looks as though Marathon on King street is closing down. They have an “End of lease” sign up, and are offering savings to sell off their inventory. In the past few weeks, it’s gone from (up to) 40% off to 70% off as of today. I plan to stop by today or tomorrow, so I can take a look at what’s available.

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Tags: Europe Bound, knife, Marathon, MEC, sale, shops, toronto
Posted in News | 4 Comments »

Most people who like the outdoors have invested in a good hiking pack at one point or another. The most technical and the simplest all have a few common traits that are horrible for use in a canoe. Is there any alternative? Yes, there is…

Tags: canoeing, Gear, Packs, review, shelter, storage
Posted in Gear | 1 Comment »

I’ve been working on another site that’s coming along nicely, GeeksInTraining. It’s been taking up a fair amount of my time, but I’ll get a good balance happening. I’m excited to share my experiences with my new canoe pack from Cooke Custom Sewing, as well as the buying experience. Expect to see it soon, with lots of pictures.

Tags: geeksintraining.com, update
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

I have a saying, “I’d rather spend more time in the canoe than under it.”

We all love canoeing, but not many look forward to the portages. They can be stifling, sweaty, buggy and tiring affairs that feel like more work than they’re worth. They’re well worth it, but here’s some ways I make the necessary portages a bit more enjoyable.

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Tags: canoeing, portaging
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I live in a small apartment in downtown Toronto, Canada, so I had a few challenges to deal with when deciding which canoe to buy. I needed flexible storage and transportation options.

I ended up with a Pakcanoe, a skin-on-frame canoe that comes apart and stores or travels in a bag about the size of a hockey duffel. It’s sometimes known as a folding canoe or a collapsible canoe.

We were up at a friend’s cottage this past weekend, and he was nice enough to take some shots of us in action, getting most of the assembly process.

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Tags: assembly, Canoe, pakboats, pakcanoe
Posted in Canoe, Gear, HowTo, tips | 3 Comments »