Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Expanding the Equipment List

It has been over a month since my last blog post and not much to report on the planning end of life.  I’ve been grappling with the departure date for the trip.  My original plan was to leave in May 2011 and paddle through the summer.  That might still happen but the depth of commitment to teaching in a liberal arts university has me rethinking the idea of a summer canoe trip followed by research on the NWU campus in the fall.
Quite frankly, my time is maximized by meeting with students, committee and faculty meetings, teaching classes, writing letters of recommendation, and the daily life of a university.  I’m afraid that if I do my sabbatical on campus during a normal semester I won’t get much accomplished in my research program because of all the distractions.  Thus, I’m toying with the idea of research all summer and then heading out on my big trip in September 2011.  The positive of that plan is that I’d have much cooler weather for the trip.  The downside is family obligations that I’d be abandoning during the school year.  Oh well, I’ll worry about it later.  As long as my but is in a canoe and heading downstream I’m OK.
As far as equipment, I’m realizing that I have lots to worry about.  I know I need a high end boat to handle this trip.  That decision is made and I’ll put the order in around the beginning of May.  But I need a way to transport it (my new truck) which means purchasing a canoe rack and anchorage system for the truck.  I also need to start thinking about dry bags and my navigation system.  So, I guess I’ll add a few items to my equipment list.  I’m hoping that I can make purchases each month as I’m growing the list.
Here’s my current equipment list
Transportation:
Canoe
Canoe deck cover
Canoe paddles)
Chevy Colorado receiver hitch
Hitch mount (rear) canoe carrier
Rooftop luggage towers
Yakima Q Clips
Navigation:
Oregon 400i GPS unit
Handheld VHF marine radio
SPOT II Satellite GPS Messenger
Compass (boater's)
Solar powered charge system
Maps of entire route

1 comment:

  1. Jerry
    Cindy and I have really enjoyed all your entries and following you down the river.
    Congratulations on a great adventure
    Paul and Cindy Williams

    ReplyDelete