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Poll: How old were you when you got YOUR OWN first canoe (and what was it)?

Poll: How old were you when you got YOUR OWN first canoe (and what was it)?

  • Under 20

    Votes: 19 20.7%
  • 20's

    Votes: 31 33.7%
  • 30's

    Votes: 20 21.7%
  • 40's

    Votes: 12 13.0%
  • 50's

    Votes: 7 7.6%
  • 60's

    Votes: 3 3.3%
  • 70's

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 80's

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    92

Glenn MacGrady

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We've had polls on how old you are and how long you've been canoeing, but this poll asks how old you were when you got title ownership of YOUR OWN first canoe. Not your family canoe, not your summer camp canoe, not your friend's canoe, not a rental canoe -- but your own first canoe, which you could have gotten ownership of by buying it, receiving it as a gift, building it or finding it. Also, tell us what kind of canoe it was, whether you liked it, whether you still have it, and if you no longer have it, what happened to it.

While I started canoeing at age 8, I used family canoes, friend's canoes or rental canoes until I was married with two of my kids, and about age 36 in 1980. We took a vacation to Mendocino, California, and rented a canoe on the Big River. We saw otters and had fun. It reminded me of my childhood canoeing in Maine every summer. So I decided to buy a canoe when we got back to San Jose.

My very first purchase was a Pelican Canoe from an ocean marine store, which was inexpensive. I had to put it together -- thwarts, foam sponsons and other rickety parts. I also bought a motor mount and a 2hp outboard motor, because I had visions of also recreating my motorboat youth. In those days I was lean and trim. I took the canoe to a lake, put on the motor mount and motor, sat in the stern seat . . . and the stern promptly sank into the water. What a piece of junk that Pelican was. The marine store took the canoe back, and was even happy that I had put it together for them, but I kept the motor and motor mount.

Then, I shopped in a real paddling, mountaineering and ski store, Western Mountaineering in San Jose, CA, which later became famous (and still is) for its sleeping bags. They had Mad River and Old Town canoes there, along with Hollowform and Perception kayaks. Jim Shelander had just recently become the first open canoeist to run the Grand Canyon, and he was at the shop describing how he did so in a Mad River Royalex Explorer. So, that's what I bought, a yellow one for $650.

I loved that canoe and did everything in it all over northern California -- lakes, Sierra whitewater, coastal range whitewater, poling, wilderness tripping, portaging, motoring around San Francisco Bay -- with my family and by myself. I installed a wide cane middle seat and thigh straps, built a rowing rig, had a spray cover custom made, and used both double blade and single blade paddles. I brought the canoe with me to the east coast in 1982, by which time I had a second canoe and was a confirmed single blader, and still have it. The MR Explorer was and still is a very good do-everything-reasonably-well canoe for both tandem and solo. But I eventually needed 14 additional paddle crafts.
 
17 foot light weight Grumman, I was 19 years old, one month before leaving for Vietnam. I also bought a #3 Duluth Pack and a fly rod. I still have all three. The girl I left behind is a different story, Thank God!
 
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17' Alumicraft, best friend had a car so I bought a canoe and as teenagers we would head up to the BWCA as often as possible. Still have the 40+ year old tank, don't portage it much anymore though.
 
My wife and I bought this lightweight 17' Grumman canoe (factory second) in 1972. (I was 24 years old) My buddy worked in Grumman Bethpage, LI, NY and we got a great deal. I traded it for 2 old canoes and it sits in a barn in Cobden, Ontario today.

Two things, still have the wife and I wish I still had that Chevy Nova.


Peconic River, eastern Long Island, NY 1972
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I got a Bell Magic sometime in my early 30's. I was into kayaks before that but felt bad about leaving the dog home all the time so I started researching solo canoes. Found it used in Western Illinois right across the border from SE Iowa (I'm in NW Iowa) so it was a bit of a drive but a good decision. Great boat. Put lots of miles on it and learned a lot. Lots of local paddling and used it to take my first wilderness trip. Sold it after I started building my own boats. No regrets on either the buying or selling end.

Here we are on the last day of our first canoe camping trip (10 days in WCPP).

20120828_007 by Alan, on Flickr

Alan
 
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I spent my childhood in family canoes wood and canvas and boomalum
When I was 16 I bought the other half of a spotspal cause that’s what my father wanted
I named if “the cork” for the way it bobbed and moved as fast sideways as forward

the first canoe of my own was a redwood stripped comp cruiser that I built at age 22
I always thought it was too heavy at 62 lbs but it was fast and had tons of room
that was the second stripper I built
the first was with a buddy because I had “the cork” and he had nothing

Not the best photo, but here is that buddy's truck, with our canoes on top. His 18 ft Micmac in pine, my 18'6" Comp cruiser in redwood.

View attachment bV_vPKoT4uhBk9tjrCj29UA8IuZN7XyM-MRlSFPo8BLZAs2KTC1qKW8insh97Yy-vbaJqLzIcathbJwm3rG_W0skE-icy22D7AIl

And here's that same cruiser, 15 years later, with my daughter paddling stern and my nephew in the bow...

View attachment FZO2AOdslUVaToz8aycmvOAZTMhtEGsz3BSqt4rd9s3aJvOXFfb4n_Nfgb45JGlZV0_pHYGGlkNbTW3Jc4fl6fbB-kc3M6hc5K76
 
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It was 1997 when we sold our moose/fishing camp. I ended up taking one of the canoes that was in better shape - a 14' Norwest that weighed 75lbs:

can9.jpg
Today I just put a deposit on a Nova Craft Cronje - April 2020 delivery.
 
When I was 12 years old in 1970 I spent the summer working on my uncle's raspberry farm in BC, along with my cousin. Our job was to weigh the flats that the pickers brought in and stack them on the back of the three ton truck.

When I got home to Manitoba at the end of August I went straight to the National Store, a farm supply place, with my dad and blew everything I had made that summer on a Sioux 14 foot fiberglass canoe made by a company out of Winnipeg I believe. I spent a lot of time in that boat as a kid exploring the creek on the back forty that led into the Assiniboine River,

My son now has the canoe in BC and did some fiberglass repairs on the keel last summer. He takes his kids out on the creek in back of their place.
 
I canoed as a Boy Scout, and borrowed canoes for trips later in life, but frequent moves in the military made owning one sort of out of the question until later in life.

I MADE my first canoe, a stitch and glue Eureka 155, when I was 43 (I gave it to a good friend last year when I moved from LA to MD). A couple years later I bought an Old Town Yankee, and a couple years after that found a Chestnut Chum. A few months ago, after hurting my back moving them around, my wife insisted she wasn't going to put up with me being grouchy if I got stuck indoors, hurt, and bought me a Hemlock Nessmuk XL. So now I own three. My favorite is the Chum... about 50lbs, set up for solo paddling with a canted middle seat, I can kneel and paddle it almost all day long... but the Nessmuk is SO much easier to load and unload onto my car, portage, and make distance with.
 
My parents gave me the family Old Town Otca in 1986 when they were moving from California to Oregon. I lived in a second story apartment at the time with absolutely no place to store a 17 ft canoe, so a brother in Oregon stored it in his garage for me for a year until I could drive out from Louisiana to get it. I found a first floor apartment that could accommodate a canoe and hauled it from Oregon to Louisiana on my Ford Escort the following summer. I still have the Otca, though it has been serving as living room decor rather than paddlecraft these days. A year after bringing the Otca to Louisiana I bought a used Old Town Tripper to have something that I could take out without worrying too much about getting scraped up. That was the beginning of my canoe collection.
 
Me and Scooter survived the 18' flood-of-record on the Pemmigewasset, in what - 1998? That's when I lost the Mad River Duckhunter that I had bought for my wife. I found a 16' Mad River royalex Explorer in the want ads to replace it, my first. I named it the Handbasket for one of Gary Larson's cartoons in which someone asks "Why am I in this handbasket and where are you taking me?" I taught myself to pole in it, I rigged it for sail, I traveled thousands of miles with it. I regunwaled it many times, and as many new seats. I finally wore it right out and gave to a young fellow who loved canoeing a couple of years ago. After patching the hole of course. It's still out there, making miles.
 
I purchased my first canoe, a used 15' aluminum, from Bob Lander's Canoe Livery in Narrowsburg, NY when I was 15. It was 1968 and my sister painted it forest green and then added lots of colorful flowers. Hey, it fit with the times. I actually "commuted" to work with it sometimes, paddling down the Delaware to get to my job at Lander's campground. One of my parents would come down at the end of the day and shuttle me home. Lots of great memories with that canoe. I picked it up for only $150.00 and sold it ten years later for $125.00 so I could have money towards my first We-No-Nah tandem; a Jensen 17'.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper
 
We were headed up for a hike about this time of year on Rattlesnake Mtn over Squam Lake NH and drove passed a sign that said "Factory Canoe Sale". On the way out I made the turn to the 'Factory' which turns out to be a long shed. We bought a prototype build of a 16' Kevlar Ranger Canoe. Nice paddling canoe but way too much flex in the hull that was spider cracking the gel coat. I sold it a few years later at a big loss.
 
In 1996 I was 38 years old and that is when I bought my first and only canoe, which I still have. It is a dark green kevlar Mad River Explorer, with ash gunwales. Over the years I made some changes to it. I added a kneeling thwart, a walnut Teal contoured yoke, contoured cane seats with new Mad River brackets. This canoe looks just like the canoe I dreamed of owning ever since I was a kid.
 
...
Then, I shopped in a real paddling, mountaineering and ski store, Western Mountaineering in San Jose, CA, which later became famous (and still is) for its sleeping bags. They had Mad River and Old Town canoes there, along with Hollowform and Perception kayaks. Jim Shelander had just recently become the first open canoeist to run the Grand Canyon, and he was at the shop describing how he did so in a Mad River Royalex Explorer. So, that's what I bought, a yellow one for $650.

Hey, I bought my first tent at Western Mountaineering in ole Saint Joe (a Eureka Timberline 2). That was quite the neighborhood back in the day. Saddle Rack, Hip Hugger Go-go entertainment, Paramount Imports, Race St Fish & Poultry, ...

Didn't buy my first canoe until ~12 years later, an Old Town Disco 164 at the Old Town factory store. It had been in a minor altercation with a forklift. Maybe that set the pattern for me being open minded about ugly boats.
 
I paid 45 bucks for a leaky aluminum boat when I was 17. It was short and stubby and looked like birch bark. I used it at the lake where my girlfriends parents had a cottage and got some nice bass out of it. I left it at their cottage about 40 years ago. I now own property at that lake and see a canoe that looks like it could be it in a yard two doors down from the old GFs place.
 
My first personal canoe was a 17'ish(I don't remember exactly the specifics) it was made like a wood canvas but instead of the canvas was fibreglassed, made in Village Huron in Quebec, bought brand new something like 28 years ago... It was a good boat, but I didn't really know what I wanted. Moved up here with it and at the time I was paddling more flat water and speed was my goal... so I sold it and bought a Clipper Solitude (It might have been a trade actually) paddled that solitude for a while and then sold it to a friend and don't remember after that what came first but I know I borrowed a few boats in the meantime, I paddled mainly marathon doing short local races.... Ho yeah I bought a Clipper Jensen J-193 brand new that turned out being so bad I returned it to Clipper and found a used Crozier that was fantastic... Sold the thing cause I lost interests in racing, I regretted it to this day!! Not long after that it was all about tripping and whitewater paddling.
 
Similar to Glenn, bought my first canoe at age 36 (1990), after a great deal of research I bought a Mad River Explorer (Royalex). Prior to that I had used the family w/c Lakefield but I was destroying it as I started running rivers instead of pretty much exclusively flat water tripping. Still have the Lakefield and did use it once about 15 years ago.

I still use the Explorer for the rare tandem trip and did use it as a solo (with custom spray cover) for about 5 years in the early 2000's until I started "collecting" solo boats.
 
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