While I learned this lesson in a very practical way in the woods, the concept applies in life, business, and in the backcountry.

My recent trip to the Queen Elizabeth Wildlands really brought home a concept taught early on in any formal survival or wilderness education program. When you find yourself lost. S.T.O.P!

• Literally Stop!
• Think about your situation
• Observe your surroundings
• Make a Plan!

When something doesn’t look right and doesn’t feel right, it’s probably a good time to pause, level set, and figure out what the hell you’re doing. There’s no use aimlessly heading in a direction you’re totally unsure of especially when there is a true risk of becoming lost.

Saturday was rainy so we decided to take a hike and try to circumnavigate the “T” shaped lake in the middle of the image below. The QEW is mostly a wetland, so we invariably encountered obstacles that required us to push the waterproofing of our gear to the max or find a way around. The hike started at base came (the northernmost point of the path below) and we almost made it to the far east end of the lake before we hit an impassable obstacle and decided to turn around.

Now, we’d encountered some mighty unpleasant terrain getting to the east side, so we decided to take an easier path to get back. But, being a wetland, the easier path presented additional challenges which forced us to make a number of corrections. For one, our map did not shot the small lake just south of the “T” lake which we quickly encountered, and it did not show in detail how much marsh we would encounter.

We knew for a good bit of time that we were not completely certain where we were going but we were completely confident that we were heading in the direction of camp (all while traveling south west to our camp in the north!). This continued until we hit a 50-75 foot stretch of swamp that was easily knee deep right at the southernmost point of the trail in the image.

We were certain that camp was straight across this marsh and that crossing it was the right thing to do. It was rainy, cold, and going down to near freezing at night. There was little chance we’d be drying out all our gear if we got soaked and for me personally i would have been hiking back to the truck after making a river crossing.

So we stopped, figured out where on the map we were. determined we needed to travel north, stared straight at the marsh, pointed the compass right at it. Then something strange happened, the compass needle pointed straight back at us. Despite our confidence, we were traveling in the opposite direction we needed to, about to get soaked crossing a marsh that would only take us further away from camp.

A quick 180 and we were back in no time. But our day (mine for sure) was saved by Stopping, Thinking, Observing and making a Plan.

Gear review for my spring trip to the Queen Elizabeth Wildlands.

Summary:

• 2 nights – 3 days
  • Day 1 – (15 degrees C – clear) Hike in 2-3 KM, setup, enjoy evening
  • Day 2 – (5-10 degrees C – Rain) Keep things dry, attempt to hike around lake
  • Day 3 – (-1 degrees C – Snow) Pack up, stay warm, hike out 2-3 KM
• 40 lbs including 1.5L of water, 2 days of food, and 2.25L of mostly delicious wine
  • Pack was 30 lbs on the way out … Maybe I brought too much food or need to switch to lighter whiskey on the next trip.
• Used my standard old  MEC bag, I’m getting better at packing it but it’s still loaded to the brim with plenty of stuff strapped outside.
• Trip was excellent, though getting proper lost could have turned out really bad. Maybe maps are a good idea?
• Sleep was good overall … lots of wine + swinging hammock was not awesome on the stomach.

Overall category rating

5 = Exceeded all expectations; 4 = Met all expectations; 3 = worked but could have been better; 2 = mostly sucked but still worked; 1 = absolute garbage, must replace

Bag	Sleeping	Shelter	Clothing	Tools	Cooking	Food	Carried
3	3	4	4.5	4.4	3.8	4	4.2

Future Additions

• Time to finally buy a hammock – Explorer UL with Sil Hex Tarp
• More dry bags
• Need a BFK, i’m more comfortable with that than the hatchet.
• Maybe lighter rain gear? Probably not
• Sleeping bag and mat needs to be replaced.

Shared gear:

No gear brought to share for this trip, no one wanted to borrow my crappy gear. I did borrow the hammock though

Bag:

• Old MEC 60L+ Bag – (3)
  • Still don’t love this bag but it’s getting better as i learn to pack it better. Can’t beat free!
• Various dry bags for organization – (3)
  • Would be better if there were more bags and a smaller bag for snacks

Sleep system:

• Coleman 0 degree Bag – (3)
  • Much better than my shit summer bag. Too big though, needed to jam it into my bag. Also way too heavy (4.5lbs)
• MEC inflatable pillow – (5)
  • Excellent in the hammock.
• Base layer, fleece pants, Fleece pants, Toque, neck warmer, sweater, Wool socks (3)
  • I feel like i’m wearing a lot of clothes at night. Was very happy to have the toque and neck warmer on the second night. Balaclava would be a lot nicer
• Ear plugs – (2)
  • Need to re-upgrade to the orange plugs, the bulk brown ones really suck. Also, need to keep a spare in the hammock. Pukey puke made one plug fall out and hit soiled ground, was too drunk to go to bag and get my spares. Balaclava would have also solved this problem.
• Green foam pad – (2)
  • Not big enough to cover me, and yet giant on my pack. Single largest item in the pack and does not pack well as it needs to be covered in plastic. It works pretty well for sleeping on though.

Shelter:

• Hennessy Hammock Expedition Zip – (3)
  • Excellent, need to upgrade to the larger unit.
• Atlas straps – (5)
  • 10 x better than the Hennessy straps.
• Hex tarp – (4)
  • Excellent, would love the sil tarp to reduce weight!

Clothing:

• Dry fit shirt – (5)
  • Was great, no complaints
• MEC Mochilero convertible hiking pants – (3)
  • I really don’t love these pants. Bought them because Prana didn’t make a 36″ long convertible but I don’t really need the convertible pant.
• Fox River hiking socks – (5)
  • Love these things. Happy feet and quick dry.
• Salomon Quest 4D DGX boots – (5)
  • Best over budget purchase I’ve made. These things are solid. Never a blister, never wet inside. Perfect!
• PU coated nitrile work gloves – (5)
  • These things are great. Not warm at all, but almost no loss of dexterity. They didn’t need to come off even once during setup or tear down.
• Columbia compressible down jacket – (5)
  • No comment
• Wet Skins rain gear – (4)
  • Not super light, but sure happy I had it and stayed dry!

Tools:

Ok, so by the time I wrote this review I may have forgotten one or two things I packed, but I’ll get better at this … maybe?

• Fiskars hatchet – (3)
  • Ok, lets be honest this thing is great and light for a hatchet. Personally I still find I feel naked without a BFK. Will give the hatchet one more try before I upgrade to the BK7 as planned.
• Wallet and Keys – (5)
  • Why leave this in the car, people break into cars.
• Toilet paper – (5)
  • 5 Star
• Muji folding toothbrush – (4)
  • I feel I could take a lesson from my lightweight friends and cut off the handle
• Lush Toothy Tabs – (5)
  • These things are great at home and in the bush and they weigh nothing.
• Princeton Tech Sync headlamp – (5)
  • I love it personally, mostly because it has low/high settings plus a red light to maintain your night vision.

Cooking:

• GSI Glacier Stainless Steel Cup – (3)
  • Not gonna lie, I don’t love it. Doesn’t have a lid and its a bit big. It does fit on the bottom oh my Nalgene though
• BRS Ultralight Camping Gas Stove – (5)
  • Loved it! $20 straight from China and it worked like a rocket.
• 220g Isobutane canister – (2)
  • Why doesn’t Canadian Tire sell the 110g canisters!?!?!?!?
• Nalgene Everyday Wide-Mouth 1.4L – (5)
  • Ya, it’s probably too big but it carries my spare clean water.
• Empty Gatorade bottle – (5)
  • Worked great for collecting rain. Maybe I should think of a plastic bag solution to hold more rain water, would have been nicer than having to treat and drink pond water.
• MSR Folding Spork – (3)
  • It was cheap, there’s probably a better option out there … or I could just cut my freeze dried bags in half once they rehydrate.

Food:

• Backpackers Pantry Pad Thai – (5)
  • Vegan and delicious
• Soy TVP – (5)
  • Perfect addition of calories into any meal
• Alpineaire Cinnamon Apple Crisp – (1)
  • As the rating suggests … Absolute garbage, must replace.
• Mary Jane’s Farm Outpost Lentil Soup – (3)
  • This meal was somewhat disappointing. Probably because it’s not a full meal and I followed it up with the garbage Apple Crisp.
• Starbucks Peppermint Tea – (5)
  • Excellent for the caffeine free life
• Instant oatmeal – (4)
  • Excellent, 2 packages per day … I’m still a growing boy! But I do wish there was a more delicious breakfast option that was just as easy.
• ProBars – (5)
  • By far my favourite bar in the field. They’re big so they can replace a meal in a pinch but they’re not too big that you don’t want to snack on them

Items carried on my person:

• SOL Survival Kit – (4)
  • Call me lame, call me silly, call me whatever, but I love this kit. I’m far too lazy to put together my own survival kit and I feel a hell of a lot more comfortable with this in my pocket.
• Cell Phone – (4)
  • How else would i take pictures or check the time? Watch … what’s a watch?
• Stormproof matches – (5)
  • Never leave on a trip without them
• Fox 40 Shark – (5)
  • It came with a free lanyard
• Brunton TruArc 3 Baseplate Compass – (3)
  • Really don’t love this thing, but it did save us on the trip.