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