Entrance to Tom Thomson from Little Doe

South end of Crotch

It has me thinking about a site on Big Porcupine. 

It's been quite a while since I posted any video and even longer since I put together a complete trip. For me personally the transition happened because we finally got our cottage to a state where going up for a weekend in the winter is a fun getaway rather than a once or twice a year survival adventure. It's good news for me because I'm getting to spend more time outdoors and where I love to be but the side effect is that I don't have the quiet/idle time in the winter which is when I used to put trip reports together. 

Is that Kiosk end of the portage to Manitou?

McManus
 

Ragged?

Swift Fifteen wrote:

That's ridiculous. The issue for me is their plans. I have the Garmin InReach and haven't used it in several years due to the plans available at that time were for one year, plus activation fee. Not sure if Garmin has options for shorter plans now, but mine is collecting dust atm until they do.

I had to go look at the current plans. https://www.garmin.com/en-CA/p/837481/pn/010-06006-SU
There are plans labeled as "Consumer" that are indeed an annual subscription with no option to suspend. The basic is $24.99. There are also plans labeled as "Professional" that do have the option to suspend and the monthly rates start at $29.99. 

I activate and suspend my inReach for individual trips. 

 

The Cruiser will help with tracking when you're going in a straight line, but it won't turn as easily as your Osprey. 

I took another look at your target weight of 170 lbs total. That is light. You might even want to look for Cruiser 12.8. From the specs you would be close to the midpoint of the listed optimum load range. The midpoint of the optimum load range for a Cruiser 14.8 would be 210 lbs. That would still leave you fairly lightly loaded in the Cruiser 14.8 which would make you more easily blown around. 

Digging up the Osprey specs, the midpoint of the listed optimum load range for the Osprey was 190 lbs (120 - 260 lb range). The range for the Cruiser 14.8 is listed as 140 - 280 lbs for a midpoint of 210 lbs. Based on the #'s you would be sitting higher in the water in the Cruiser than you would be in the Osprey, so if having better control in the wind is a goal, the Cruiser 14.8 might not be an improvement.  I'd emphasize the "might" in that sentence because the Cruiser is a much different hull that is optimized for straight line tracking so even with a higher volume and capacity it might still handle more the way you want it to than the Osprey does.