Defeating the Off Season Blues

Part of loving the great outdoors in central Canada is figuring out a way to deal with winter. Since we primarily do hiking, backpacking, and canoeing, winter is definitely our adventuring off season. Winter in Manitoba has a lot of days that are -35C to -45C with the windchill. Going outside for long periods of time when it is that cold has a lot of risks involved, especially if your start sweating or get injured. Because of this, we generally don't go out much other than a couple of cross country skiing trips, and maybe to do some snowboarding.

Not going out often leads to what Roslyn calls the Off Season Blues, and it seems to happen to everyone that normally hikes but can't get out for long periods of time. We've worked out a few ways to help keep the Off Season Blues away.

Take a Vacation

This one is a bit of a cheat, but one of our strategies is to travel. You don't need to go very far, and the vacation might even just be to a cabin or a weekend to snow shoe or go skiing. But having something to look forward to will help keep your mind off of the wait for warmer weather to get outside again. If you can afford to, getting out to do a trip somewhere's warm will help a lot.

Plan Your Next Trip

We spend at least 2-3 nights every week reviewing places to go on long weekends, or to take a longer vacation on. Once we get a couple possible trips that we like figured out we plan out the cost, itinerary, and logistics of getting us and our gear to the trail, hiking the trail, and getting back. We probably review 2 or 3 potential trips for every long weekend and our couple weeks worth of vacation. Planning all the trips helps us learn more about what options we have for adventures, we keep our minds occupied with what is coming, and we get to look up a bunch of new information about the places we can potentially go.

Research New Gear and Techniques

There's a lot going on with backpacking, canoeing, and other adventuring equipment. Lots of new materials, small companies trying out new designs to find better, lighter equipment. We like looking for new gear to try out as our stuff wears out or needs replacing. We also watch a lot of video and read blogs on other people's adventuring experience. Watching other people let's us learn from their mistakes, learn new to us techniques and skills, as well as scratching that itch to experience the outdoors.

Try Out Winter Activities

Even though winter is harsh, trying out winter activities helps since it gets you outside! We try to get out to do some short hikes, and are starting to get into cross country skiing more. Exploring the outdoors in the winter is leading to some new and exciting experiences and hopefully we will enjoy it enough to turn winter into the On Season!

All in all we are looking forward to the 2020 adventure season while trying to make the best of Winter. Let us know what you do to occupy yourselves during your activities off season.

Two Person vs Three Person Tents

There's lots of discussion around the "Big Three" pieces of hiking equipment (tent, sleeping gear, backpack), but rarely have Roslyn or I found anything on the differences in what the size of a tent means when two people are using it. Having used a three person tent for all of the summer of 2018, and a two person tent for all our backpacking in 2019, here's some discussion on the differences.

Ease of Use

Three person tents are easier to use. Setting up two person or three person tents is about the same once you've practiced with your tent, but sleeping setup and gear storage is much easier in a three person tent that in a two person tent when you have two people sleeping in it. With the three person tent, there's enough room for two people and all their gear to sit inside the tent with some space left over, and you don't need to worry about organizing your stuff very much. With a two person tent, the entire floor space will likely be taken up with the sleeping pads being used with a bit of space left at either the foot or head of the bed.

What this means in practice is that in a two person tent you will need to be comfortable with the person you are sharing the tent with. Any slope in the camping area will mean the two of you are sliding together during the night and getting pretty close. You will also need to either sleep with your feet on top of your backpack or keep your back pack in the vestibule, along with quite a bit of other gear you would normally keep inside if there was room.

Roslyn and my setup with our two person tent has each of us put our backpack, shoes, one water bottle, trekking poles, wet clothes, bear spray (my side only), sit pads, and some other small items in our tent vestibules. In the tent we only have our sleeping pads, sleeping bags, clothing and other items in our dry bag, and electronics. We also hang some damp clothing inside the two person tent hoping it will dry off. If we have the three person tent everything except shoes goes in the tent.

Keeping organized with a two person tent will help a lot. Roslyn and I have laid out exactly where everything goes and make sure to always put our gear in the same spot. This also helps with packing up the tent in the morning and gets us out on the trail faster.

Weight and Packability

Two person tents weigh less and pack better. Our two person tent weighs about 3.5 lbs, while our three person tent weights about 7 lbs. The two person tent takes up less than half the space that our three person tent does in a backpack. The smaller size means we can do 4 day trips with our 30 litre backpacks instead of needing our larger 55/65 litre packs. The smaller size also lets us split the weight more evenly because we can divide up the food/fuel/cooking gear better instead of the tent taking up the space.

Setup Location

Two person tents are easier to find spots to setup. This is due to the smaller foot print that a two person tent has compared to a three person then. On well maintained trails with designated camping spots this may not be a big deal. On more rugged trails, places that get very busy with limited scramble sites, or in densely treed areas, having a smaller foot print has helped us get more tents in or get our tent into a nicer spot our three person tent would not fit.

Overall Comfort

Three person tents are more comfortable overall. The extra foot print size and head room in a three person tent makes stretching out, getting dressed, packing and unpacking much easier and less cramped. Being able to spread out a bit more while sleeping also makes the night much more comfortable.

Given the above four points, Roslyn and I have decided to have both a three person tent and a two person tent. When weight isn't a factor on canoe trips or car camping trips we opt to take the three person tent since the major downsides of weight and packability are moot. For backpacking trips we take our two person tent because we would rather cut out some weight and make the trail easier for ourselves at the expense of comfort at camp. Everyone has a different set of priorities though, so I hope that the above will help you come to a decision on what size of tent to choose.

Epinnette Trail Day 2

Just finishing up the last of the 2018 hike posts. New hikes and content coming up after this!

Date: September 16, 2018

Length: 21.6 km

Elevation: 200 m

Time: 8 hours 6 minutes

Day 2 of the Epinnette Trail dawned early and dark. We woke up around 6 am and slowly struggled to get going. The skies were over cast with a light rain, so we packed up most of our stuff then moved it all into the cabin that was about 40 feet away. In the cabin Roslyn heated up some water for a morning tea to try and warm up while Joel and I went back out into the rain to pack up the tents.

We started out around 7:30 am, which was pretty good considering the less than ideal conditions. On the way out we managed to get one decent view over the valley. The rest of the morning was spent trying to remain dry while hiking through the drizzle. Unfortunately, Joel was pretty fatigued from the day before, and Roslyn's knee was hurting pretty badly by the time we reached out break spot about 11 km in.

After our lunch break, the going got even slower as we tired out even more. The cool rain was not helping since we we couldn't get our muscles and joints warmed up and limber. We ended up taking another brake in the first cabin with about 2 km left to go. Luckily a group was just leaving and had the wood stove going, so it was pretty warm. Roslyn had to help Joel lift his legs up to elevate them because his thighs wouldn't work.

All in all, the trip was worth doing just because it got us out hiking. Joel is planning on coming on some more trips with us this summer, so at least we didn't scare him away from hiking!

Reintroduction - Taking a Year Off

Last year around Christmas we were attempting to start up a Facebook page and really get into our YouTube Channel. Unfortunately, we had to take nearly a year off of the blog and YouTube Channel while purchasing our new house and getting it renovated as it was just too much to manage all at once.

Since the last post here, we covered another 500+ kilometers in 2019. We were out every long weekend and many regular weekends either hiking or canoeing, trying out best to enjoy the Canadian outdoors during our short Summer season. I am planning on posting here once per week again on Tuesdays.

Here are some of the posts I plan on coming out with over the next few months:

- Planning for a long distance trip you have to travel to. After going to Kootenay to backpack a section of the Rock Wall trail and completing the West Coast Trail I have some advice for hikes you need to travel to.
- Gear reviews - Roslyn and I each tried out a new set of shoes, a new back pack, and a new tent this season, so you'll get some feedback on those
- Trip/Trail Reviews - Like I said above, we covered 500+ kilometers of trail last summer and I've got plenty to say about them

Roslyn and I are going to try getting more into the blog and YouTube channel again in 2020 and hopefully it works out for us. We will have a new video up every second week starting Thursday January 16.

I hope everyone had a good 2019 and that 2020 turns out just as well!