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PostPosted: August 26th, 2022, 2:27 pm 
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wotrock wrote:
remogami wrote:
can put on a layer to escape the cold. can't take off your skin to escape the heat.


But the lake beckons!


It does. Bless a clear, cool lake or river pool on sweaty summer trips. The moving water river stuff is occasionally great fun; float down immersed in the current into a run out pool, circle around for a while, walk back to the top and do it again. A nice tight oxbow, walking across the neck for 20 yards to float for 100 yards, can be a natural water park.

Hint: On the Suwannee watch for the dead, bloated wild boar washing downstream into the eddy behind you.

At least in camp I can wear as little clothing as possible, and don’t need “swim trunks” to take a cooling dip. Hand me my robes and tribal headdress, I am McFaisal the First dammit, Sultan of this rock and all I survey.

ImageIMG016 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

No trunks while swimming, but some minimal garb in canoe/in sunny camp is a good thing. A scorching weather butt-naked (operative word) trip down Boquillas canyon in my 20’s demonstrated that some parts of the body that have never seen the light of day will sunburn easily.

I’d rather be a redneck than a redass. Any kind of quick-dry shorts will do; the zip-off long pant leggings have never worked satisfactorily for me.

I do have a lightweight, quick-dry, UV protective sun shirt, with long sleeves that can be rolled up and held button closed. A most near and dear piece of clothing, would buy again.

Eh, so OK, for blazing sun summer or desert trip I bring a frou-frou UV lap blanket. It packs down to the size of a softball, and is hot sun handy in the canoe over bare legs and feet (hate sunburn on the tops of my spring pale feet).

ImageP5030961 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Or in tree-less coastal or desert camp where there is no shade.

ImageP5101059 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

There is a different clothing requirement in hot-weather everyday public appearance. Not just no-shirt, no-shoes, no-service, and I’m not about “keeping up appearances”, but going to the local country store in a Speedo and tank top, no one wants to see that.

Although, I do routinely visit there in fall and winter wearing shop spattered overalls and fuzzy purple lined Crocs. Love those insulated winter Crocs. Overalls too.

Other “swimming” venues are not as freshwater refreshing. Swamps and marshes are yucky. Coastal bays are salty. On a surprisingly warm off-season paddling trip in the Everglades a Florida friend was anxious when I went in for a dip.

We had seen plenty of bull sharks while paddling, and as I floated around in the Gulf he assured me that the shiny beer can I was holding inches from the water was a wonderful lure for a shark or barracuda.

“It’s hot; I’ll take my chances. You should come in, it’s great”. It was wonderful, despite being near bathtub temp water.

His recommendation involved me sticking feathers up my butt, so as to look even more like a big, pink, juicy treat. I had no feathers, and so slowly finished my beer. Admittedly now a bit WHAT-THE-HELL-WAS-THAT leery when some fingerling nibbled at my feet or legs.


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PostPosted: August 26th, 2022, 7:35 pm 
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I get a charge out of looking at the posters home locations.
Talk about variance in temp and also humidity!

For me hot is above 28 C and humidity at lower temps 55 percent.

Global warming is making me look at real estate in Newfoundland/Labrador. We are proceeding there tomorrow for a month. I simply cannot live in temps further south than I am now .. Even my current location in Maine is getting too hot for too long. We used to have 3 days every summer month above 30 now its a whole week.

Alaska/BC is looking good too.


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PostPosted: August 26th, 2022, 8:03 pm 
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55% humidity sounds lovely!! In fact, my air conditioned office is rarely that low.


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PostPosted: August 30th, 2022, 9:27 am 
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Location: Sunny Wasaga Beach
Mike McCrea wrote:
wotrock wrote:
remogami wrote:
can put on a layer to escape the cold. can't take off your skin to escape the heat.


But the lake beckons!


No trunks while swimming, but some minimal garb in canoe/in sunny camp is a good thing. A scorching weather butt-naked (operative word) trip down Boquillas canyon in my 20’s demonstrated that some parts of the body that have never seen the light of day will sunburn easily.

I’d rather be a redneck than a redass. Any kind of quick-dry shorts will do; the zip-off long pant leggings have never worked satisfactorily for me.

I do have a lightweight, quick-dry, UV protective sun shirt, with long sleeves that can be rolled up and held button closed. A most near and dear piece of clothing, would buy again. r


Other “swimming” venues are not as freshwater refreshing. Swamps and marshes are yucky. Coastal bays are salty. .


A few comments: I try to avoid skinny dipping in Cdn lakes----pike and muskie,eh? Not quite bull sharks but might be painful given their tendency to bite wiggly things.

I gave up on zip-offs years ago but they are still the most common whenever I shop for quick dry pants. Have you ever seen anyone zip them back on?

On hot summer days I wear an oversized white cotton dress shirt that I got from Goodwill. When dipped in the water it takes longer to dry, which is a good thing on hot days.

We try to avoid shallow, weedy, marshy campsites.

We did a guided trip on the Rio Grande a few years back with an outfitter from Maine. The water was silty and too warm for a good swim. We did pass some 'good ole boys 'fishing'( Sitting in the shade in their rafts/zodiacs drinking beer and watching their bobbers---- propane empties----anchored in midstream) who, when we commented on how hot it was, declared the water was 'maighty cold'. The Yankees in our group that that was hilarious. We did cross the border into Mexico a couple of times to swim in the cold clear water flowing in from the mtns.

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PostPosted: August 30th, 2022, 9:29 am 
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littleredcanoe wrote:
.

Global warming is making me look at real estate in Newfoundland/Labrador.


I assume you know the area fairly well from previous trips. If not, send me a PM. I grew up there.

and make sure you get some fresh cod while you are there----mmmmm

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PostPosted: August 30th, 2022, 3:27 pm 
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Wotrock wrote:

"pike and muskie,eh? Not quite bull sharks but might be painful given their tendency to bite wiggly things."

I never worried about vicious fish (or snapping turtles) while swimming near the campsite, but leeches are a hazard that should be taken seriously.

I never had one actually attach itself to me, but have seen a couple in the water that seemed to be headed my way. Not by any means in a swamp either: in rocky shallows in a fairly clean lake.

I'd be surprised if these nasty things aren't "way down upon the Swanee River" too, Mike.

Down there I would think Copperheads and Water Moccasins are the main creatures to look out for when swimming.There are non-poisonous water snakes up here in Ontario. Although I've seen them in the water while swimming, I've never been threatened or bitten by one then. I did come across a water snake on a trail once when I was a kid and made the mistake of picking it up like I would a Garter Snake. The water snake was more muscular and it twisted its head around and gave me a good nip -- it was a great learning moment for me.

-JF-


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PostPosted: August 30th, 2022, 6:50 pm 
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johnfrum wrote:
Wotrock wrote:
"pike and muskie,eh? Not quite bull sharks but might be painful given their tendency to bite wiggly things."

I never worried about vicious fish (or snapping turtles) while swimming near the campsite, but leeches are a hazard that should be taken seriously.



leeches are nasty buggers. but after years of terror of the thought alone of a big leech fastened onto me, no longer do i fear the leech. my fear has recently promoted, to a different type of leech, which appears to have fallen from a planet onto ours, and has no business here frankly, let alone attached to my inner thigh, as i exit the crystal waters of georgian bay, to read a relaxing book.



Image


Image


no, i did not have this on me, but my beautiful silver salmon did, on the nottawasaga river, which swam up to me from the bay.


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PostPosted: August 30th, 2022, 8:17 pm 
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That’s the stuff of nightmares right there.


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PostPosted: August 30th, 2022, 9:44 pm 
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Hot, cool... Just love being out there. As a school teacher, I can really only do extended trips during the hot months. The heat can be heavy but that's the beauty of being on the water. I just jump in. At those times I remind myself that we live in a country where it's sub zero for nearly 8 months of the year and I'm grateful.

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PostPosted: August 31st, 2022, 8:13 am 
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johnfrum wrote:
Wotrock wrote:

"pike and muskie,eh? Not quite bull sharks but might be painful given their tendency to bite wiggly things."

I never worried about vicious fish (or snapping turtles) while swimming near the campsite, but leeches are a hazard that should be taken seriously.



-JF-

Ha---that was a bit of a joke. :P

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PostPosted: August 31st, 2022, 8:18 am 
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remogami wrote:
johnfrum wrote:
Wotrock wrote:
"pike and muskie,eh? Not quite bull sharks but might be painful given their tendency to bite wiggly things."

I never worried about vicious fish (or snapping turtles) while swimming near the campsite, but leeches are a hazard that should be taken seriously.



leeches are nasty buggers. but after years of terror of the thought alone of a big leech fastened onto me, no longer do i fear the leech. my fear has recently promoted, to a different type of leech, which appears to have fallen from a planet onto ours, and has no business here frankly, let alone attached to my inner thigh, as i exit the crystal waters of georgian bay, to read a relaxing book.



Image


Image


no, i did not have this on me, but my beautiful silver salmon did, on the nottawasaga river, which swam up to me from the bay.


We live on that river. I have seen salmon jump to try to shake off those parasites. BTW, apparently they are considered a delicacy by royalty

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PostPosted: August 31st, 2022, 8:55 am 
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Location: Freeland, Maryland USA
Double score, you caught two fish; one salmon, one lamprey

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamprey


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PostPosted: September 27th, 2022, 9:45 am 
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Otter Mel wrote:
This past weekend (Friday to Sunday), I went on a short trip with my brother (one tandem canoe) and of course this was THE hottest weekend of the year so far!
This was the first time I went in July/August since 2001, I normally canoe in May and September/October, so it's been years since I went in hot months.
The heat and humidity was stultifying and crushing, paddling with wet water-dipped hats, frequent stops for water.
We slept in individual tents totally naked with dripping sweat all over on top of the pads, never used the sleeping bag (my tent was full mesh), no breeze, just heat and mosquitos at night.
Portaging up hill was brutal, panting like a pack of dogs, pouring sweat, completely soaked in perspiration!

So do you like such canoeing people, eh?


That pretty much reminds me of a lot of the canoe trips I did in the 70'sand 80's at canoe camp except the naked part obviously, we just wore bathing suits lol.. You left out massive swarms of mosquitos at night. Sometimes all you could hear was the loud hum of mosquitos trying to get through the mesh.


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PostPosted: September 30th, 2022, 3:13 pm 
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WestcoastWaterWalker wrote:
You left out massive swarms of mosquitos at night. Sometimes all you could hear was the loud hum of mosquitos trying to get through the mesh.


I do not trip with a screen house, just a rain tarp. If the mosquitoes become unbearable at dusk I’ll throw in the towel and retreat to the bug-free confines of the (2-person) tent, especially on solo trips where I tend to retire near dark to read in the tent anyway.

That frantic CO2 sensing skeeter hum at the tent mesh does not bother me. I just chortle and say “Hey, several of your squad mates managed to infiltrate while I climbed inside. Wanna see their smushed bodies? BWAHAHA”

A dawn get up and get out is a different story; I gotta get up. I gotta get out and pee. I need coffee and breakfast, and, egads, there is no escape. Sometimes it is a very fast breakfast.

The most uncomfortably buggy night/pre-dawn I ever spent was sleeping in the back of the tripping truck while parked on a friend’s New Hampshire lawn. Planning to leave early the next morning to drive to Maine I had stupidly left the cap door open for much of the day, while we visited and played gear show & tell.

Sometime in the wee hours a swarm of mosquitoes, trapped under the cap, became ravenous. A literal cloud of them awoke and began swirling zuubbb-zuubbb-zubbbb. A cloud in each corner of the cap roof, taking turns strafing me for a blood meal. It was insufferable and, after trying to encase my entire body under the sleeping bag, I finally gave up at 4am, got in the bug-free driver’s seat and continued my travels, cab windows wide open to blow the last of the pesky companions out. I may have relocated a few across State lines.

My NH friend got up at 5:00am, made me a cup of coffee for the road, and walked out to find my truck already gone. That was a lesson; sleeper cab cap door kept closed.

I relearned that lesson a few years later on an off-season Adirondacks trip. Beautiful weather, zero bugs, and it was a warm night last night, let’s open the tent vestibules and doors and let the de-moisturizing breeze flow through.

I did not sleep alone that night. “Oh hello large wolf spider”. I like spiders, the ones in my shop have names, and if I swat a fly I feed them. None the less, “Out you go little friend”, unzipping the door and shuffling said spider out while heroically humming

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISWOrI0WaLs

Back to my book and minutes later “Oh, wait, you had a companion?”, now wandering across my sleeping bag. Gently out with him/her too. After finding and relocating the third one I was just “Screw it, I need to get some sleep. I won’t bother you, you don’t bother me. Deal?”

I have become increasingly anal about keeping any sleeping quarters closed.


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