Guest Blog: Jon Babulic On Safety In The Backcountry

Here’s another great write-up from Jon Babulic at Backcountry Custom Canoes (check out his other post about Finding a used canoe) that was originally posted on the Ontario Backcountry Camping Facebook page. This post has been shared with permission and is a great primer on safety in the backcountry…

How to SAFELY execute every backcountry trip if you are new or newish.

I’ve read a pile of comments on this group lately. Most of them are well intentioned, some I’d call elitist and unqualified fear mongering. I don’t generally jump into these discussions, I assume that folks who are keen enough to read this aren’t the idiots that will make the news this season. Frankly, I find these discussions overly complex.

I’ll qualify this post by saying I’ve been tripping in the backcountry mostly in Northern Ontario for around 40 yrs, I started when I was around 7 I think. In that time I’ve averaged something like 25 nights a year (maybe more, I’ve had some really fun years). So I’m probably around the 1000 night mark. I also spent 8 seasons I spent in remote tree planting and forestry camps. I’ve never had a bad trip or anything I’d describe as a disaster. I have had an uncomfortable hour or two. My business card says canoe maker, so I spend most of my life contemplating how to have fun in the backcountry with a face full of sawdust. I mostly like backcountry canoe trips, it’s the easiest thing from my perspective, but if you can dream it up, I’ve likely tried it.

You only need to know how to manage TWO things. Even if you are lost, you will be found eventually if you can manage these TWO things.

1/. DEHYDRATION. If you don’t drink enough water you make shitty decisions that likely lead to most of the crazy stories you read on Facebook. Even the most logical level headed person does dumb shit when they are dehydrated. All the best trippers understand the value of deliberate over-hydration. If you look at tree planting as sort of an extreme example of pushing yourself in the backcountry the folks who drank the most water, made the most money and partied like rock stars on the day off. This is really important when it’s cold too. Drink enough water and the only consequence is you pee a lot. If you want to test this theory watch a dozen YouTube videos, the ones that have all the drama are usually dehydrated, the ones that freak out when they misplace their Nalgene bottle are the good trippers. Also wear a hat.

2/. HYPOTHERMIA. Getting too cold is a problem. It can kill you. And you don’t have to get wet to have it mess you up. It leads to poor decisions (that can be compounded by dehydration) Everyone gets cold. Understand your cloths and have dry ones to change into, how to light a fire quickly (so like with gas & a bic and enough wood to warm you, not a fancy #bushcraft technique because it’s too slow). When there is the potential for me to get cold I bring a good saw and a proper axe that can split wood, the rest of the time I don’t bring the axe. I alway have at-least a half a dozen lighters spread through my gear and a few in my pockets. There is a big debate in the paddling community about dry suits, I think it’s really dumb discussion .. you must to have a plan if you get wet because it will make you cold. The plan should start with avoiding it, so I paddle closer to shore in November to reduce the risk, and if I did fall in I know how to get safely to shore quickly and how to light a fire to get warm fast. The get warm fast concept is super important. This fire /dry cloths thing also works in the rain and the snow to. Also, wear a hat.

The critical gear is really just a barrier between you and these 2 universal risks that helps with making managing them easier and more fun. The better you are at managing these two things the less gear you actually need to execute a safe trip, but you should always have a hat.

So here’s how to safely explore the backcountry if you are new. YOU and EVERYONE on the trip must understand how gear relates to these two things before you go. That means packing together and talking about your plan (You can even do this on Zoom). This should include everyone having their own map and knowing how to use it. Even kids need to know the plan. My dad has 60+ yrs of backcountry canoe tripping experience, lately he’s been doing a lot of solo photography canoe trips, we do a gear walk through every year to make sure his trips fun and easy and safe. He has lots of good hats.

All the incremental learning that happens through fuck ups are minor if you approach it like this. This risk of doing the trip becomes minimal and the good parts of the experience far out way the occasional discomforts. If you are warm and hydrated you can figure a way out of virtually every other problem, if you aren’t, you can’t. Let me put it bluntly, if you can manage the two things above there is no need for a dry suit or a two way GPS for the vast majority of trippers and trips. There isn’t even a need for a 4000$ canoe, although they help in reducing portage dehydration so maybe?

Now a pile of people can comment about not wearing a PFD (even though the risk of drowning can be eliminated by this), or that I didn’t mention a first aid kit or a fire steel, or even food, or bears, but I figure if your new and reading this you’ve done an at-least a cursory amount of research you can figure that stuff out without being preached at by me. Ultimately, I trust that you know YOU are responsible for your own safety and the safety of the folks you are with.