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?

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When a new source of taxation is found it never means, in practice, that the old source is abandoned. It merely means that the politicians have two ways of milking the taxpayer where they had one before.
Mencken
You can never have too much education-me

Mel, nope, I hear ya “stultifying and crushing “. I can’t tolerate tripping in hot, humid weather anymore. Even just car camping and day tripping; for twenty some years we had an annual mid-August car camper, timed for the Perseid meteor shower, paddling and camping at a blackwater swamp river on the Maryland coast.

It was often so stinking hot and humid at night, all night, without a breath of air blowing in the swamp forest, that no one turned in before the wee-est of hours, or slept much past dawn. If they slept at all. A “refreshing” swim in a mucky cypress swamp was the last, desperate run for the river “I can’t take it anymore” resort, usually undertaken only once per plunger’s lifetime. A coating of mud won’t make you cooler for long. Invisible yes, cooler no.

I was made of tougher stuff back then, or maybe less wise. Probably both; I do not need or want to suffer unnecessarily.

I will paddle my local homeriver, fed from the bottom of a dam, only if I’m on by sunrise and off before noon in sweltering summer. That dam release water is currently (just looked) 57.5F (14.2C), and the ambient air temperature at canoe height above the water is delightful, as on some mornings is the layer of fog hanging above the water.

I’m a (late) September/early October tripper for the Adirondacks or US points north, in part because post-Labor Day, with schools back in session, greatly reduces the paddler population.

I have a “window” for my favorite barrier island paddle-in trips; not before mid-November, not after mid-March, otherwise the mosquito population is intolerable. And even those dates are pushing the envelope; we had an unseasonably warm December trip one year, and damned if those cold tolerant salt marsh mosquitoes didn’t emerge to feast. My south Florida window is narrower still.

December into early April the coastal Carolinas are usually fine temperature wise, and an easy 8 hour drive south. “Usually fine”, one off-season trip to eastern NC saw initial nighttime lows near 80F, with Carolina humidity. I ran an extension cord and fan to the truck cap, and it was barely enough.

Within a week’s time nighttime lows were below freezing. Fortunately that was a day-paddling truck camper, not a paddle-in trip; I had brought a sheet, a light summer bag, and 30f bag and, screw it, I got room in the truck, a massive 0F bag.

I used them all. I left a beer out one night and it froze.

On any trip, especially solo trips where I suspect it may still be warm at my it’s-dark, time-for-bed routine, I pack a sheet. Cheap insurance if it’s toasty and I’m semi-sweaty from securing camp before climbing into the tent. I need to settle into the tent, read in for a spell and think good thoughts

A lot of nights, even off-season nights, I’ll start off partially sheet covered ‘till I cool off, then partially open sleeping bag covered, gradually encasing my chilly parts in the sleeping bag as the temperature drops.

A sheet is a lot easier to launder once home that a sweaty sleeping bag with evaporated salt rime.

If it is so hot/humid that I need to sleep naked, in some position where as few body parts as possible are in contact with the sleeping pad, that is less a good night’s sleep and more like uncomfortable contortionist practice.

I don’t sleep well if forced to assume the downward dog position.

We trip in the summer. We normally have a relaxed pace that allows us to stop 'as needed' for a swim. We are sometimes in the water 4-5 times a day. One thing I found that makes a world of difference for sleeping: I sometimes take a dip just before bedtime to wash the sweat off and to cool down. Highly recommend it.

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Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.

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Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.

Sometimes what I've done is rather than stopping for lunch like I normally do, I stop for a proper siesta. I'll wake up at the crack of dawn, eat a protein bar and have a cup of coffee, and head out, lickety-split after the sun rises.

Then at around noon, I'll stop for two or three hours, and wait out the worst of the heat. Then get back on the water at around 3 or so and keep going until 7 (ish).

You can get some stuff done if you give yourself a couple of hours for lunch. Maybe a quick repair or two, or you'll have time to do some laundry and dry it, given sufficient sun. You can throw a line and catch dinner. You can properly bathe. I've learned there's something to be said for "living with the environment", and rather than fighting it, accepting it, and waiting out the worst of the midday heat.

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If you ate today, thank a farmer.

If you can't take the heat get BACK IN THE KITCHEN!

Canoe camping on Savant River (July 2022) + 35°C during the day 24°C at night was awful. North shore of Lake Superior days later- high of 17°C low of 4°C overnight.

What rock? (it took me a while to get that), when my kids were public school age, and through college years, our family trips were scheduled for their various “breaks”. Winter and spring breaks usually spent somewhere down south, but summer break was always a long family trip north.

It was hot sometimes, but those were northern lake trips. The water was always refreshing , sometimes nutsack shrinking, hesitating the last few inches before taking the “Oh damn that’s cold” plunge.

Coldest shock ever was the Merced in California. We had been stopping to swim our way across the west, long-hair VW bus version of Burt Lancaster in The Swimmer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY0tmQCa_Os

There was a pull off by a deep pool on the Merced, with a rope swing. A guy splashing about in the pool shouted “Come on in, the water’s fine”.

It was not “fine”, it seemed a few degrees above freezing. But I had taken the abrupt rope swing plunge, and didn’t want to let on to my two companions standing on the bank that it was painfully cold, so pretended to happily splash about saying “No, it’s great”. What are friends for?

The Colorado below Hoover Dam in Black canyon may be been colder; 20 seconds of wading our canoes around a sandy beach landing in shallow water hurt my ankles. My nether regions would have retracted to a pre-pubescent state.

We spent a lot of time submerged on hot weather family trips. My sons especially were water babies from a young age, and would spend pruney camp hours swimming and playing in any body of water.

IMG019 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Yes, when they were young we brought inflatable pool-toys on base camp trips. Even Dad enjoyed those.

Those pool toys were not especially effective paddle craft, but still fun to try.

IMG015 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Pluff mud cypress swamp cool offs needed some elevation assistance, lest you be encased in mud from the waist down. That swamp mud odor is not a recommended perfume.

IMG025 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I enjoy ocean swimming, or even (unmuddy) tidal water swimming. Feels great while I’m in the water, less so after the salt dries. And those are the trips where potable water is at a premium. Gawd bless wet wipes, or a rinsing rainstorm.

If you peruse the Ont tourist booklets you will soon realize there are just 2 types of water---'refreshing' and 'invigorating'.

Swimming is one of the pleasures of summer trips esp when out on G Bay. Even though we live in a beach town there is nothing quite like jumping off a rock into the crystal clear, albeit 'cool', waters out on the bay or elsewhere in similar conds. We try to avoid campsites with poor swimming.

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Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.

For camping, I don’t want to sweat at night. If it’s hot I don’t want a campfire, and who wants to camp without a cheerful little fire? @packetfiend, I grew up in the Florida Keys. We did the siesta thing during the summers when I worked construction. It was the only way.

After a trip last summer when none of us wanted to do anything other than stand in the lake (how can it be too hot to fish?), I swore I'd cancel for heat next time the temps are 37 degrees C. It was too much. Four of us in the tent was super unpleasant. Not to mention my son was waking up from being over-heated, which was a real health concern I didn't need in the middle of the already-bad night. The whole trip wasn't very fun (though like always, we take away some good and/or funny memories).

So, for a weekend-type trip, I say I'd cancel (but memory is short, and, let's face it, if that's all the calendar allowed, I'll probably do it again and regret it again.)

Heat happens on longer trips, and I like the idea of early starts and long siestas!

Pat.

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Learning to paddle is like learning a language:
It's easy to learn the basics, but will you be understood in a strong wind?

Pat, not just multi-day trips, I’ve had folks go suddenly south from heat and lack-of rehydration more often hot weather summertime day trips than on campers.

Kids need special drink-some-water attention reminders on summer day trips. Dogs too need here’s-some-water, drink-this attention. We almost lost Wilma, the long time companion short-haired Pointer, on one hot summer trip in tidal waters.

In hot/humid conditions everyone should be slugging water BEFORE they are thirsty. I would prefer to not inspect the color of anyone’s urine to ascertain their hydration level.

https://www.healthline.com/health/hydra ... ITLE_HDR_1

Not to be too graphic, but on desert trips I piss in a plastic coffee can, in part so I can judge how well hydrated I am.

was 30c on aug 7th on trip. will not do that again.
i'd trade 20 days of soupy hot for 5 days under 15c, every time.
it's the humidity i can't bare. no escape.

i love those days where your left cheek feels the sun hot, as by a fire at night,
and right cheek in cool crisp air.
took only a short thin fleece blanket on that trip, knowing it will be hot.
tent hammered by rain first night.
i think that rapid assault on my tent helped, conveyed a sense of motion or something,

humidity in silence is deadly for me.
even the lakes seem depressed. ducking down, flat like a warm pancake.
won't even ripple over the pebbles at shore.
can put on a layer to escape the cold. can't take off your skin to escape the heat.

But the lake beckons!

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Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.

Portaging is almost fun.
Caveats: Short Portages. Food almost gone. Coming down from Manitou to Kiosk I had five swims in the Amable du Fond River.. I was almost done after the first one but being wet made the next more bearable.. And I do mean bearable.. There were bears playing on a log swimming too.