The Other Ten Essentials, Continued

Five More Things You Can’t Buy, From Patience to Joy

Farwell’s “The First Five Essentials” should be with everyone venturing away from home into the unfamiliar. But they’re not enough. You also should have “The Second Five Essentials” If you always have them with you whenever you venture forth, you’re not likely to find any challenge too great. That’s a pretty big return on a small investment of time and sweat, isn’t it? I think so, at any rate, and I’m betting you’ll agree.
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by Farwell Forrest | November 17, 2017
First published, in somewhat different form, on December 12, 2006

Many years ago, the Seattle Mountaineers hit upon a clever way to remind ounce-paring climbers that there were some things they simply couldn’t afford to leave behind: The Mountaineers compiled a list of must-have gear, the aptly named “Ten Essentials.” It was a very good list, too, containing — in an accolade borrowed from an early 19th-century seaman’s handbook — nothing that was superfluous, yet including all things that were useful. Not surprisingly, then, this list remains as valuable today as it was when first published, for climbers and paddlers alike. But it has its limitations. As … Read more »

The Other Ten Essentials

Five Things You Can’t Buy, From Curiosity to Confidence

You won’t see these offered for sale on any outfitter’s shelf, and you probably won’t find them in anybody’s gear list. But just try embarking on a journey — any journey — without them. Happily, though, they’re free to everyone. The only requirements? A little time and a lot of sweat.
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by Farwell Forrest | November 14, 2017
First published, in somewhat different form, on November 28, 2006

Paddlers — most of the paddlers I know, at any rate — are gearheads. We memorize whole sections of outfitters’ catalogs. We devour pages of Web copy describing whatever is newest, lightest, fastest, or coolest. We read accounts of other paddlers’ trips from back to front, beginning with their equipment lists. And this makes sense. Despite the lip service we give to the traditional aspects of our sport, its evolution is driven by advances in technology. It always has been, right from its beginnings in the well-publicized adventures of John “Rob Roy” MacGregor and Nessmuk. After all, the molded paper canoes that made headlines in the sporting press a century and a half ago were no less revolutionary in their day than the latest carbon-fiber confections are … Read more »

In the Same Boat

Getting Acquainted

Who we are, where we came from, where we’re going, and what we’re about.
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by Farwell Forrest | March 1, 1999

Nearly twenty years ago, I found myself in an Old Town Tripper on a wild river in northern Quebec. With me in the boat was a young woman I hardly knew. We’d met several times, of course, usually in the little library that served the small upstate New York town we both called home. I’d noticed that we took out the same books. So had she. It was just about all we had in common.

We’d paddled together only once before — a hastily-planned canoe trip down a stretch of the Androscoggin. What brought us together on the river in northern Quebec is a story for another day. At the time, only one thing really mattered: we were there, we were in the same boat, and we had nearly two hundred miles of river and lake ahead of us.

Well, the trip spun itself out as such trips always do. The tempo varied, but the theme remained the same. River, lake and portage. Still water and fast. Gale-force wind and dead calm. Rain and … Read more »