Freya Hoffmeister - Goddess of Love to the Seas

Circumnavigation of North America by Kayak

I successfully used your Critter Gitter units in 2024 in the Canadian Arctic from Cambridge Bay to Kugaaruk. From Cambridge Bay to Gjoa Haven, we were two people, two kayaks and one tent with seven units. We mounted them with the velcro band on 30 cm long sand tent pegs. Besides a few false alarms, there were no (polar) bears around to deter, but we were happy to have them as a safety measurement.

From Gjoa Haven to Kugaruuk, Max Lautenbacher joined in as a third person with another kayak, another tent and four more CG units. Those eleven units covered our mutual camp area okay. I was not the one installing them, but I heard no complaints from my paddling partners. And they were working: In that section, we got four or five times warned by the CG's from polar bears which were approaching our camp. We could deter them successfully and in time with additional shoutings and warning shots. Here is at least a picture of me behind my shotgun, the CG unit (a little hidden) and the polar bear who is already retreating. Everything was perfect in 2024. The only "imperfect" thing was my lack of feedback to you...sorry!

In 2025, I did not continue from Kugaaruk but rolled up my northern section of my North American circumnavigation from New York to Black Tickle in Labrador. (Un)fortunately, there were no bears around to deter, and we did not need to carry the Critter Gitter units.

But this 2026 season, on the section from Black Tickle to Nain in Labrador, we expected to get some bear visits in camp, but (fortunately), it was only black bears and no polar bears. Anyway, we got at least warned from two too-curious black bears approaching our camp. Those bears, after being startled by the noise and flashes of the CG, finally ran away without extra shouting or shots, and I rather took pictures of the intruders. One is even sitting down in front of the device LOL!

This 2026 season, we had twelve units available for two large tents and two kayaks. To save mounting time in the evening, we taped the CG units to the tent sand pegs instead of using the velcro strap. But the waterproofing bungees (silicone bands) did not like the storage together with the slightly sharp-edged bungees (silicone bands) and they broke one after the other.

We tried waterproofing them with plastic bags which worked two nights well, the third night there was too much condensation collecting inside the bags and the units started to beep by themselves, one after the other. Maybe the plastic bags were too large and my paddling partner closed the zippers on the bottom end too much.

Anyway, we swapped to protect the switch (and any other sensitive areas already before anyway) with a stripe of Gorilla tape which we could easily lift to operate the switch, which worked well.

However, in 2027, I would like to switch back to bungee weather protection. We plan to use a piece of self-sticking velcro on the CG unit and on the sand tent peg for easy installation and neat storage of the units (without the sharp-ish pegs which broke the bungees all-too-easily) in a lock-lock box and storing the pegs separately in a bag.

As we will be three kayaks and three tents in 2027, and paddling in highly-polar-bear-populated area in 2027 from Nain around the Torngat National Park to George River or even to Kuujjuaq, I like to stock up with another six units to have 18 units available (6 ech fit neatly in a lock lock box).