I used to take a walkie-talkie / radio combo that would pick up weather reports in some areas of the park, but it's been years and I have no idea what may have changed with the transmitting power (if anything) since then. My inReach mini lets me pull a weather report when I want one, and that works anywhere. 

Personal experience says unless you are tripping along the corridor it is really not worth talking one. Better off with a decent little AM?FM radio. Reception was a little spotty on Big, trout, LaMuir and Hogan. No problem on Big Crow and South. East, North. and West side I got nothing. 
The funny thing is sitting on the island on Hogan one afternoon, I was not able to get the weather, but on the same radio I was able to tune in Toronto and Barrie. Sat there looking over Hogan listening to what a mess the 401 was in. 

My experience with weather radio in APP was:  I was barely able to pick up a signal on top of a hill on Crotch Lake.  I wasn't able to pick up a signal on Lake Traverse.  I've since stopped carrying a weather radio.

IanTendy wrote:

Hi folks,

My trip partner just picked up a solar powered weather radio because last Canada Day we got caught up in some pretty nasty weather that surprised us.  

I'm wondering if anyone has tried to pickup the VHF or FM bands within the park.  The weather station puts out a tiny amount of power, so I don't know how far it'll go.  If it works, yay.  If not, it's not the end of the world.  Maybe it's something to try on the higher parts of portages.

Let me know if you've had any luck with weather reports.

Thanks,

Ian

I know the exact storm you're referring to Ian, I got caught up in that too.
I have taken some valuable lessons away from that storm.

We were on Misty and I woke up around midnight to take a pee and there was some thunder and lightning in the distance; it seemed quite far off. But I mentioned to the guys that would should probably through the fly on just in case it headed our way, then we wouldn't be woken up to rain drops falling on us.  I am certainly glad we decided to put the fly on!

If I remember correctly it was MAYBE an hour later and we were woken up to wind and rain like I have NEVER before experienced in my life. The tent was being blown sideways, like a scene out a mountaineering movie!
All of a sudden my friend on the far side of the tent says holy S***! A branch just fell on the tent!
I turn on my headlamp and look over and the vestibule is pushed in and right beside him.
We give it a little bit as it was absolutely pouring out. I threw on my rain gear to go out to move the branch.  I got out and looked at it and I honestly couldn't believe what I was seeing. The top of a neighboring tree had snapped off and was RIGHT beside the tent, pushing in on the vestibule.



The above photo was taken the next morning after the three of us rolled the trunk back about a 1/4 rotation so that it wasn't resting against the tent anymore.



[img][IMG]http://i66.tinypic.com/2dt0zuf.jpg[/img][/img]
The above photo is where the top of the tree came from.

There were trees down all over the site.




The canoes had been blown down the beach.
They were left on the beach, upside down. I'd left my fishing rod propped up against one.



They canoes were in the red circle location when we went to bed.



 and they were found on the rocks in the purple area the next morning.

My rod tip was broken off and there was a small scratch/indentation on the bottom of the pack boat, but otherwise no damage.  I am so impressed that the my tent withstood the branches from the tree without so much as a rip, puncture or run in the fabric!

We just happened to have a rented satellite phone with us, as my one friends wife was expecting a baby the following week and he wanted to be available should we need to leave early.
It was really nice to make a quick call to the wife and kids to tell them that I loved them and to quickly check in on the weather.

Due to the weather that day we decided to change our plans since we were getting a LATE start due to the winds not really dying down enough to paddle (what we were comfortable with) until around 10:30-11:00am so we also called the Kearney permit office to check availability on some other lakes and because of the long weekend we were told they were all reserved and decided to stay put for another night where we were and head out early the following morning to make it to our Day 3 location on David Lake.

When we got to David Lake we spoke to the people leaving the campsite and they had gone to bed on the Friday night without the fly on their tent. They got woken up by the downpour on them, apparently they had an inch of water in their tent.

I took away a few things from this trip, including how precious life is. It may sound silly, but this was definitely my closest "Near Death Experience" I've ever had.  A couple feet more and it would have landed on top of my friend.

The purchase of an inReach unit to use for emergency communication and weather reports moving forward is in my gear budget for this year.

I'm not sure of your experience Ian, but where we were on Misty, it came on so quickly and so strongly.  There was nothing in the forecast that day. It completely took us by surprise.

Also, I'm sorry I didn't mean to hijack your thread!

Last edited by breed85 (2/15/2019 4:22 pm)