We’re told that time and tide wait for no man, and it’s safe to say this is equally true for women. Most of us have missed chances to get away simply because we ran out of time. Which is why I’ve given a fair amount of thought to making the most of any opportunities to escape to the backcountry, whenever and wherever they arise. My “getaway pack” was one result. I described it at some length in an earlier column, but a recent e‑mail from Jason, an In the Same Boat reader, reminded me that words aren’t always the best tools for communicating:

I really like your articles and have spent a lot of time reading them over the past week or two. I enjoyed your getaway pack, and I was wondering if you had any pictures. I tried to start my own, but once I began putting all the stuff in, I found the pack was nowhere near big enough. Actually, I think all my stuff was too big to fit the pack. Anyway, it would be interesting to see some photos of your getaway pack. How do you keep the stuff organized so that you can get what you want quickly? I would be interested to see a “picture” article on this, because I think it helps a lot for people like me who have never done an activity or are only starting out with a few extended trips under the belt, to see what more experienced people have already done. And I do think you can learn from others’ mistakes and not have to make them all on your own. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Indeed it is. Sometimes. And this is clearly one of those times. So here goes, Jason. This one’s for you: Picture this—my Getaway Pack… Read more…

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Sooner or later we paddlers have to leave our boats and get up on our hind legs, if not to portage or scout, then simply because — however much we like being on the water — we’re basically land animals. A paddler who had to spend every hour of every day afloat would soon be in a predicament not unlike that of a fish out of water. Happily, few of us are so wedded to our diminutive craft that we find getting about on foot to be a burden. In fact, many of us enjoy hillwalking and snowshoeing as sports in their own right, and a small but growing cohort of amphibious outdoorspeople have discovered that cycling is a natural extension of paddling. (Does cycling belong with hillwalking and snowshoeing? I think it does. After all, a cyclist uses his legs to get him where he needs to go.) Of course, if you happen to live in the northern reaches of Canoe Country, you’ll be locked out of the water for a good part of the year, anyway. Canoes and kayaks make poor icebreakers.

The bottom line? Paddlers are only paddlers part time. Much of the rest of the time we’re pedestrians. And this isn’t such a bad thing. Still, my introductory paragraph is a bit misleading. For many of us, walking involves more than swinging our hind legs back and forth beneath us. We’re tripeds (or even quadrupeds) by choice. Like me, for instance. I take a walking stick whenever I go afield, even tucking it under my getaway pack when I go out in my little canoe. Regular In the Same Boat readers may recall that I’ve encouraged other paddlers to do the same.

And how many folks have I met who followed my example? Until recently, I could count them on one hand. But now that’s changed. Suddenly walking sticks are fashionable… Read more…

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No, this isn’t about HTML or CSS. It’s about joining the ends of a length of nylon webbing. I used tubular webbing to make my camera neck straps, but I didn’t bother with a sewing machine. Instead, I tied the ends together with a water knot. Here’s how I did it:

In the photos above, I’m forming a loop from a single length of 1-inch webbing (Panel 1a in the photo above). I made a loose overhand knot in one end, leaving a generous tail (Panel 1b). Then I threaded the other end over the first, following every twist and turn, while making sure that the “follower” lay flat against the “leader” (Panels 1c and 1d) at all times.

Once I’d finished following through (Panels 2a and 2b), I snugged the knot down (Panels 2c and 2d). This took some care, particularly as I wanted 2-inch tails. (In forming a water knot, you want the tails of the finished knot to extend at least twice as far as the webbing is wide. Why? Because the tails will gradually slip with every load-unload cycle, slowly creeping back into the knot. (The water knot is sometimes called the “death knot” in climbing circles for just this reason.) Leaving the tails long makes it easy to inspect the knot for early evidence of creep, however. So do it!

Now here’s the finished knot, seen in both front and back views:

Note that the tails leave the knot on the same side. If your knot doesn’t look like mine, untie it and start over. And be sure to snug it up well. Don’t worry that it will be hard to untie later. It won’t jam under normal loads. Water knots aren’t limited to forming loops, either. They can also be used to join up multiple lengths of webbing, but it’s important that all the pieces have the same width.

That’s it. Are you itching to tie one on now? I’ll bet you are!

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