On expeditions and long courses there are many things we have no control over. These include, but are not limited to, water level, weather, wind, bugs, etc., and the list goes on and on.

I frequently tell our students that we are not in control when we head out into the woods or on the water, mother nature is in control. As a result, we don’t have control over most of the variables. But we are going to control what we can control.

This can mean a lot of things depending on the trip. It can mean how your toboggan is loaded, making sure to not have the weight too high so that it wants to flip over. It can mean to trim your canoe correctly on a windy day, or when there is a strong current, so you don’t get spun. It can mean planning meals for a physically difficult trip so that you have enough energy to keep up and not slow the group down.

But the most important thing to control is your attitude, as I described in a recent post about Hobo camp on the Bonaventure river trip in 2018 (Attitude Determines The Outcome).

We train hard to make life easier. We sweat the details and we are going to control what we can control. All of this is so that when we are faced with challenges on long courses, on expeditions, and in life, we can overcome them.