A Blog About Being Prepared!

Let’s talk about being prepared for your trip!

I am not new to the outdoors, but I am relatively new to kayaking and hiking. I have had quite a few adventures already and only a couple of mis-adventures, but we have learned from our mistakes and want to share them. How about a list?

1.) Food

Being active outside means you need food and water. Most of us know to bring refillable water bottles, but you can usually find a small store to buy something to drink if you forget. Food is a different story. My friend Lauren and I were out in Brohman a few weeks ago and did not think to pack a cooler for the day. We just figured we’d find a Meijer (this *is* Michigan, after all) and pick up some veggie dogs and find a place to make a campfire. Why not, right? Well I tend to forget that some towns are small enough that they do not have a Meijer and most mom-n-pop grocery stores do not carry veggie hotdogs, vegan burgers, tempeh, or any of the other meatless products that I eat. Lauren and I found out the hard way and had to change our plans. Being flexible meant that we could still have a fun day, but it would have been nicer to just pop open the back of my car and pull out the cooler and some vegetarian food. So make a checklist! I do not take my food selection for granted anymore.

2.) Directions:

I am usually very good about planning my route ahead of time and making sure that all of my addresses are saved into my GPS or pointed on my map, but I occasionally forget to bring my road maps with me because I rely on my GPS. That is a mistake. Alex and I tried to find McCarthy Lake for almost an hour one day and had quite a misadventure because of my lack of directions. The GPS put us on the wrong section of road and I could not put in the address because the roads were largely unnamed. We were in Manistee National Forest, so there are not homes nearby and often the dirt roads do not have names. Well, I put an intersection address into the GPS and it seemed right at first. Then the GPS made me drive through a field to reach a little-traveled two-track. I did it because we had all-wheel drive, so why not, right? Yeah, the “road” that I was on went over a stream with a “bridge” that I was supposed to drive over. No way! I will post the picture and you will see why that was not possible/safe/realistic. It was made of a few trees dating back to, psh, like the year 1800 and the boards weren’t even nailed down! No way, TomTom! We had a good laugh and had to reverse my car all the way up the hill and find a place to turn around. We gave up on McCarthy Lake after that and went to our next destination. I mean, we had to laugh about it! What else can you do? Nothing. There is no point in being mad. If I had been more meticulous with my details and planning then I would not have had any questions about where to go. Plus, this was when I found Elbow Lake by accident, which is my favorite place to kayak.