We did it! 9 days until we depart, and we still have a handful of things to do! We baked and cooked some meat from 9am - 3pm. Some of our bay bread was looking a little questionable but other than that everything went very smoothly!! Got to make some “savory bannock” (just took out the sugar). The gals also finished putting on the last of the jerky in the dehydrator! All is going well :)
Since we will no longer be bringing a gun on our trip… we replaced the gun safety training with a paddle on the Sauk River. It was a great opportunity to get familiar with river features and incorporate some new paddle strokes into our practice. We worked on eddying in and out, ferrying, and maneuvering around rocks. For most of the girls, it seemed like it was their first time being introduced to some of these concepts, and the Sauk was the perfect place to start! Can’t wait to see them tackle real whitewater on the Missinaibi!
Jerky day was a success!! This was a record time finish. This was also the first time we had the entire crew together, finally, wahoo! In 24 hrs, the jerky will be ready to be put in the dehydrator, which will kick-start the rest of our food packing. During our morning, we had to discuss some unfortunate news… Manitoba is on fire 🔥
Not good. So we had to make some last-minute route decisions and found that the Missinaibi River would be the safest and most feasible to plan in the amount of time we have until departure. As sad as it is, everyone was super optimistic about our change, and I am so happy everyone is still pumped for trail! Baking Day is our next big thing on the agenda, start thinking of your baybread flavors!
It’s been a while since some of us have been on trail, so remembering our knots took a little refreshing! We did a quick lesson during our second meeting, and everyone did pretty well—most people remembered their knots pretty quickly. We went over the square knot, bowline, double half-hitch, and taut-line. Hopefully, soon we’ll get to practice our tarp skills and see what everyone remembers from that too!
We also went through our route and collected UTMs for each of our campsites, then practiced using compasses. Since bushcrashing requires solid navigation skills, we made sure to practice setting bearings on the map. Compass skills are easy to forget, but everyone did awesome!
At our next meeting, we worked on organizing and packing our kettle pack. It was way easier without bug bars and TP! We went through the kettle pack inventory list to make sure we had everything we needed, we got a brand new stove this year! I also showed the girls our new water filtering system that we’ll be bringing along, along with our platys. We’ve even added an old-school alarm clock to the kettle pack—I’m not the best at waking up on time, so I’m hoping guide of the day can use it to help get everyone up in the mornings.
The last thing we did was go through some gear order form items—those who ordered boots got to check out the new version! The new Astrals dry way faster, so that’s a win.
selfie w/ Julia!
We finally got to meet as a full crew on Sunday evening! It was exciting to finally kick things off! It was the first time many of us had met in person, so we spent some time talking about crew expectations and what our trip goals are. We also spent some time talking through our route and laying out some maps. It was helpful to get everyone on the same page early and start building a sense of shared responsibility.
After the meeting, we got out on the water with the Johnson Crew. It was a solid first paddle and it was fun seeing our crews try and work together. The girls got to help some first-year crew gals get more comfortable with paddling.
We also went over our schedule and key dates, which helped give a clearer picture of what’s ahead. We leave in 27 days! Overall, it was a productive and got everyone excited for what’s to come….
Mega Paddle
Welcome to the Miller crew blog page. Please check out the calendar and posts for updates about our trip preparation.
My name is Anna Miller and I am so excited to guide you gals on Far North this summer! This will be my fourth trip with the program, can’t wait! My first trip was in 2022, 2023 I did the Middle Track, and in 2024 I guided a trip on the Bloodvein River.
I am finishing up a Community Health degree at Montana State and will be graduating this spring. In my free time I like to ski, go to concerts & live music events, and cook meals with my roommates.
Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns, happy to answer!
