Sorry if I am going off on a tangent here, but I also suffer from intermittent bouts of tennis elbow. I find that the 'BandIT' brand elbow brace works miracles (at least for me...) and bring it along on every canoe trip, just in case.

swedish pimple wrote:

yes ,, i agree no u.s. products,, because of one person. the grift continues  ,, 
          is there a canadian brand out there???    thanks 
   
   

A Windsor-based company has caught my eye... I will definitely be checking it out:
biosteel.ca

I'm going with May 1 - fingers crossed for those of you with trips starting at the beginning of the month!

West Rose Lake?

Merganser?

Loft Lake?

I have never done this trail in the winter, but when I went in April this past year shortly after early ice-out was announced, I believe I was the only one on the whole trail for three days (bliss!). Based on how booked up the trail typically is, I was surprised. If memory serves, I didn't see too much evidence of winter camping near the lookout point, aside from maybe the remnants of one or two fires in the vicinity.  I assume that it does not get much winter camping usage in that spot. There's a great open area to setup camp a very short distance away from the actual lookout. I would think the trail can be travelled in either direction without issue, but again I have only done this (in different directions) in non-winter months. As for water supply, the Madawaska west of the lookout would be a safe bet as it's quick flowing/cascading here. I'm not confident of any other areas as I seem to recall other creeks and streams to be narrow and slow moving. Maybe someone else with more experience can chime in?
Hope this helps, for what it's worth...
Cheers,
Rich
 

Great read Bo!

Sorry to hear that your plans didn't work out as hoped, but it sounds like there were some good points during your outing plus great tales about MR WIND and an insane storm to regale your audience with. If it's the same storm I'm remembering, I actually had the thought "wow, I wouldn't want to be out camping right about now." Kudos for making the most of it.
As for the key fob incident, I can also relate as it happened to me on a backpacking trip. I knew I had it with me, tucked in a package of tissues, but couldn't find it when we were at our site. I figured (well, hoped) that it must have somehow fallen out of the hood of my pack during our lunch stop about 3 km back over some tough terrain. I was just about to make a round trip back there when something white was spotted under the low firepit bench - yup, the pack of tissues with the fob somehow wedged its way there! Huge relief after a great panic.

Cheers!