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A Word in the Woods

A city-dweller's outdoor travels, gear reviews and field tests, survival tips and tricks, camping and canoeing.

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A Day with Pinock Smith

July 20, 2011 by Michael Zimmermann 3 Comments

On January 15, 2011, I had the distinct pleasure of spending the day with Pinock Smith, a master builder, known for his traditional canoe-building methods. I first heard of Pinock in the second season of Ray Mears’ Bushcraft, where he and Ray built an authentic birchbark canoe in a week. They worked on screen again in…

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Filed Under: Canoe, Front Page, HowTo, Personal, Uncategorized Tagged With: algonquin, building, Canoe, first nations, native, pinock smith, ray mears, traditional

Balance leave-no-trace extremes

July 14, 2011 by Michael Zimmermann 4 Comments

Perhaps not something that everybody likes to hear, but I, for one, found myself nodding along with many of the points in Don Tryon’s Leave-A-Trace editorial page. He makes the point for a common-sense approach to camping, and takes issue with the extremes that some enthusiasts have gone through to erase our existence on the land….

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Filed Under: Conservation, editorial, Front Page, Personal Tagged With: camping style, editorial, ethics, Leave no Trace, LNT, opinion, purcell

It’s that time again

May 14, 2009 by Michael Zimmermann 1 Comment

I haven’t posted in a while, and for that, I’m sorry. I’ve been busy at work with a new job, and a lot of busy weekends, so I haven’t had much outdoors about which to write, but I get the feeling I’m back for a bit. It’s going to be a good year with lots…

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Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: 24, may two four, nostalgia, victoria day

Back at last

September 8, 2008 by Michael Zimmermann Leave a Comment

It was a bit of a rainy weekend on our favorite Algonquin park lake, but fun nevertheless. The unfortunate and undesirable part of camping is the drying out of gear after you get back. Right now, I’m just going to throw it all on the balcony, and hop in the shower. I’ll update with a…

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Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: algonquin, rain

I hate blog spam

August 5, 2008 by Michael Zimmermann Leave a Comment

Here’s a wonderful little comment I got on a past article: “I found your blog via Google while searching for camping and your post regarding camping store Marathon having end-of-lease sale |  A Word in the Woods by Michael Zimmermann looks very interesting for me. I go camping every weekend during the summer months and…

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Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: blacklist, spam

For the future catch of the day

July 26, 2008 by Michael Zimmermann Leave a Comment

I was inspired by my last camping partner’s prolific use of the fishing rod, and have decided to try catching my breakfast, lunch or dinner, and cooking it over the coals. I normally like things that need slow cooking to get into the coals, like potatoes, corn, and more recently, prime rib, but this time,…

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Filed Under: Personal, Things to try Tagged With: cooking, fishing, food, menu

Does anybody know of a good, light, durable, stylish liquor flask?

July 15, 2008 by Michael Zimmermann Leave a Comment

I originally used the term “Mickey” instead of flask, but it seems that it’s a bit more of a Canadian-specific drink-related term than I thought, like May Two Four (TwoFer), A cube (12-pack of bottled beer), and many others. From Wiki: “# Mickey, a term for a 375 ml bottle of alcohol in Western Canada…

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Filed Under: Personal, Questions Tagged With: alcohol, comfort, containers, luxuries, nalgene, whiskey

Off to Algonquin for the first canoe trip of the year

July 11, 2008 by Michael Zimmermann Leave a Comment

I’m off to Algonquin for the first backcountry trip of the year (actually, I’ve done some winter hikes, so it’s the first canoe trip of the season). I’ve taken the canoe out for a quick spin already, but I find the first trip always to be the toughest… I spend all winter forgetting what it’s…

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Filed Under: Canoe, News, Personal Tagged With: Canoe, canoe pack, newbie, trip

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