Rain!!..did someone say rain??..the canoe country in Northern Minnesota is part of the headwaters for Hudson's Bay.the warm winds from the West and the cold air off Lake Superior make for the rainy weather that i expect and prepare for on my two week solos.



one of the better things about canoe tripping is that you can take a heap of gear along if you want too.here at the canoe landing on the Little Indian Sioux River i have all i'll need for the next couple weeks packed away in two 45 pound packs.i make three trips over the portage,one with each pack and another with the canoe so i'm not overloaded.



OK!..now the "rain tips" part..first off thats how i camp,a small tent that is just used as a "bedroom" so it and everything in it is always dry and the Baker Tent shelter you see in the back ground that serves as a kitchen and "day room". it's just not the rain up north but the bugs and you really need a shelter that keeps both out.many of my fellow canoe trippers use the old "tarp over a fire" method on rainy days but they end up sitting around a smokey fire in rain suits drinking coffee.if their good at it they may have the sides of the tarp pulled down in some sort of way to keep the wind and rain away.



with my Baker i have a room in the woods.this one is made from Silnylon as a DIY project one winter.my Wife did the sewing after i did the lay out and cutting.at around four pounds with the lines and some stakes i don't even know it's in the pack.two weeks worth of biscuit,pancake mix and Tang is just about as much.



if and when the wind changes the door flap can be adjusted so the wind and rain go over the top and not into a flat "barn door" and blow so hard that it pulls the stakes and leaves the shelter flapping from the lines.



now the survival part.inside warm and dry i can sit out just about anything,i have had to retreat to the tent a few times when the storm was really bad.i dropped the shelter over the packs inside and held it down with stones and hung on inside that bomb proof Atko while some really world class storms passed over.not having to make a tent or some sort of tossed together shelter out of trash bags means the chance of hypothermia is just about zero.it also means i can travel in the rain knowing that when i make camp i have dry clothing and sleeping gear in water proof bags and a shelter that i can kick back in and have hot cups of tea and warm up,just running a stove in that shelter will make it warm and cozy.



now i will say that every time i pull into a camp i don't have the time or space to get the shelter up so survival idea number two comes into play.."be prepared"..where have we heard that before?..in the Army it was "[censored] poor planing"--so on-- anyway for those moments i make sure the cook kit with the stove inside along with tea,sugar and the making for hot cocoa are right on top.in the last photo i have done nothing more than hit camp and dive into the tent,after stripping off my wet rain suit and boots and whipped up a cup of hot tea with lots of sugar and snugged into my sleeping bag while that rain you see in the first photo pounded down.