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Why and Where do you pole?

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I don't pole, or at least not yet, but I could be convinced to try it.
Here is a fun K Callan/Maine Canoe Symposium video that pretty much says it all...
...but there's so much more to be said and shown by all you polers out there I'm sure. Why do you pole and where?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfqOp0oJ9pc
 
Huzza! Stand Tall and carry a big stick
I see many familiar faces. One seems lo live with me
Great pic of Dot and Gil Gilpatrick.
Google Lisa DeHart and poling.
Shes the chick with the stick
Man I cant believe its less than two months to MCS!
Moose Pond isnt ideal for poling but at least there is roon for new polers to avoid whacking each other
Its quite fun to watch or be in class
But a little dangerous when we share the same launch
Y? No shuttle and you can see
Stand up! we got Maine Guide paddles for that if you must have a tail!
Moose Pond right now Moose Pond is the home of Maine Canoe Symposium
Oh. the Rockstar Harry that is has two bionic hips
 

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To make my shallow local river usable to me.
No shuttle.
Get to stand up and take weight off my derrière.
Find out what that SUP craze is about.
It's exciting, especially if your balance is not the best.
You should try it!
 
To go up place no others really go... Combination of polling and lining/tracking.... I'm not really good at it yet cause I don't do it enough, but I want o do more, I really need to to try snubbing( I think that is the term)
 
To be able to get out on local creeks when the water levels drop and I want to spend a couple of hours on the water without driving too far. The view is great while standing, especially on narrow streams. I figure it's a good way to maintain a sense of balance as age creeps up and heck, it's just a lot of fun.
 
Huzza! Stand Tall and carry a big stick
I see many familiar faces. One seems lo live with me
Great pic of Dot and Gil Gilpatrick.
Google Lisa DeHart and poling.
Shes the chick with the stick
...
A few years ago she did the whole St George Canoe Race with a pole. Very impressive. She didn't go back up to the start, but she could have.
 
I have tried it on and off for a few years. Getting upstream on a small river was fun. My first attempt was at a group poling event here in southern New England. It was a disaster, it was early spring and I fell in, and then it got worse. After that I kept my poling to myself, never really got any good at it and now I'm done with it, not enough strength or balance anymore.
Wish I had started at it earlier, it's a great way to get into seldom visited areas.

And of course I made a video.

https://youtu.be/k0muMUmyo30
 
I did a class on the Assiniboine last year. I need a flatter bottomed canoe for that but I did really enjoy it.
 
My first attempt was at a group poling event here in southern New England. It was a disaster, it was early spring and I fell in, and then it got worse. After that I kept my poling to myself

Isn't that the truth. My disasters always happen in front of an audience too.
 
We polled up the bottom 10 or so miles of the Esnagami because it was either polling or walking! Being semi competent with a pole let us take a trip that otherwise would have been a fly-out.
 
The only poling I have ever done, was years ago when i lived in Northern Minnesota. We picked wild rice in Grumman canoes with the thwarts removed. One person knelt on the bottom of the canoe with a cedar ricing sticks in each hand, one stick would sweep the rice stalks over the canoe, then with the other stick gently rap them, making the ripe rice fall into the canoe. The other person would pole the canoe with a long pole with a duck bill in the end to give purchase on the muck & loon poo bottom. The poler and beater would trade jobs to give each other a break from a somewhat grueling work. The last time I picked rice we got 142 pounds of finished/ready to cook wild rice, that most we had ever pucked in a day. From what I hear from my friends that lake is no longer producing much rice.
One of the big learning curves was keeping the canoe in thick, easy picking rice. Every now and then you would see people tip over losing their hard earned rice. We always brought along dry clothes in a water proof pack in case that ever happened, luckily we never needed them, but came close many times.
Quinn......
Have you written a trip report of your Esnagami trip? If you did I must have missed it. If you have not, I would love to read about it. I have been interested in that area since I was in the sixth grade reading TRAPLINES NORTH by Stephen W. Meader. Saddly, my life's little adventures never got me to that area of the world. I do however like to hear about that area.
 
Most of the reasons have already been mentioned. I first began to pole as a way to reach some fishing holes without a shuttle. I had such a good time learning to pole, that I hardly ever bothered to fish - but kept up with the poling. Eventually, I got good enough to access a stretch of wilderness river with no upstream motorized access.

photo11280.jpg

Packing a heavier load than I can put in the solo canoe with flotation opens up another option. This is at the start of local a class 2/3 overnighter. I can maneuver through the rock gardens better when standing with the pole than I can kneeling with the paddle. A much drier ride than any of my solos.

photo11282.jpg

Our local river tends to realign its course in high spring flood years pretty often. That means new hazards that may or may not be easy to spot and avoid. I like to make my first trip up some stretches, if no one I know has done it yet, from the bottom up, to survey the damage. It's a lot easier to approach hazards safely from below than from above.

And then - poling gives good practice for surfing. And while surfing a little standing wave looks boring from outside the boat, it's mesmerizing from the inside. :)

https://vimeo.com/178066560
 
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"I pole. Therfore I am."
Often bespoke by an unstable man.
"Because it is there." I oft take that stand.
(Though my position will wobble trying to float with my plan.)

So I can rise from my rocker,
most often uneven keel.
And then I roll with the fishes,
over stepping on heel.

To slide slip the sluice.
To climb up on ledge.
Till in aggressive step-out,
I go over the edge.

To deal with the misses,
when she gives me rebuttal.
"Dear, downriver to meet me?"
"No! I'm not setting shuttle!"
 
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Well CWDH, I don't write in prose as you but I like hitting my local river and poling about a mile upstream to a beach and sand cliffs on the opposite shore just for a workout, need it these days. Other days I will take the Rob Roy, hey, it's a canoe!

Plus the positive side is no shuttle as you mention (I think). It means a solo trip and sometimes that is the best way to spend an afternoon or a week or more. I like standing tall going upstream or down but snubbing IMO is much harder to do then ascending. I've poled a lot of places and it's all part of the trip. Upstream or down it's all a good time!

dougd
 
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This isn't why I got my pole but it is what I needed it for. The pole was an efficient way to get through or over ice and much safer than a paddle. My lake had froze and thawed twice by January last year. I would have missed out on several days of paddling without it, along with regular otter sightings I enjoyed. They seemed to be less illusive when there is ice on the lake.
 

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