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OT Canadienne for solo

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Jan 8, 2014
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Minden, NV
Last fall I found a kevlar Canadienne in good shape, the smaller one at 15'7". I paid $250 bucks for it. After some repair work with epoxy and a fresh coat of paint it looks really good.
I have paddled it a few times from the bow seat with my dog and a cooler for ballast. The boat only has about a 32 inch beam and is lightening fast. It feels a little tender but it should settle down with a load of overnight gear. I have not done much solo paddling except day trips. I am looking forward to my first overnight, probably on the Sacramento River.
 
Sounds cool.

An Old Town Canadienne? I didn’t know they made a composite Canadienne other than the 17 footer.

Love to see some photos as well.
 
I am not much for posting pictures either, in fact I have quit taking pictures pretty much. Last Autumn I spent a month in Northern Finland, Norway and Sweden with the Sami people. My wife gave me her camera to take pictures with, telling me, "take lots of pictures" which I did. I have not even bothered to look at them, except for when my bride would ask a question about a particular place or person. No real reason that I stopped being interested in photography. it just happened. I have a chest of drawers upstairs full of a lifetime of slides and print that most likely will not get looked at again in my lifetime, and will just end up in some landfill.
I did Google the Old Town Canadienne Canoe, looked at pictures, read some reviews, found out that Ralph Frese liked them a lot, after OT stopped making them, Bell made some for Ralph, I got my thousand word worth, although with inflation it only was worth a little north of 617 words. Not a wood canvas, but a nice looking canoe that was well thought of by many folks. Even saw some words about a 16 footer.
 
Just wondering, BB, why you are happy to post words, but are reluctant to post pictures. I’m not being critical. I’m just curious about how you see the difference between the two media.
 
I may just be one of those cranky old guy's that do not embrace change. I like to read, seldom do I read books with pictures or magazines. I am really not happy posting words, but I really like most of you guys, so try to join in every now and then. Prior to becoming a member I was a long time lurker. Might go back to being one.
 
Mr. Birch, banish the thoughts of lurking, a fellow who can pen illustrious quips such as "hot grannies" needs not the help of pictures. Your words paint vivid pictures, we would be deprived if you went back to the nefarious "lurker" status.
 
My brother and his wife dropped in a few weeks back and while the women sat upstairs chatting sipping wine and bragging about how lucky they were to be married to...no wait, that last part may've been my imagination kicking in. But anyway I do remember them upstairs doing whatever they do while my brother and I sat in the basement doing important stuff, like looking through my old family photo albums our mom insisted we each have. One has a handwritten account of the most recent 4 generations. While it's always good to reacquaint myself with my genealogy I'm not all that interested in walking down memory lane. Man was I ever a goofy kid. But my aunts and uncles sure were a lot of fun. My brother picked out some pics for a family cookbook project he's working on. We spent some time reminiscing and laughing at those old days and then stuffed the cumbersome albums away for another decade, to be overlooked but not forgotten. Photos are like that. A brief glimpse of the past in a tender blink of an eye. And ourselves sitting on the carpet like we were young again my brother and I needed far more than a thousand words to express what those photos meant to us and the memories they reawakened. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder."
If anyone wants to lurk then I say let them lurk. Drifting away and then back again is only natural. But I do hope our family member Birchy decides to drop in again, to sift through and share some photos and the many thousand words they contain. At least bring the words.
 
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That Canadienne sounds great. I googled photos of it. It would be a fun tripper. Tell us - show us how it works out ppine. Please.
 
Glad to hear the responses and encouragement.
Anyone that hangs around with the Sami is okay with me.
I met Ralph Frese some years ago when visiting Chicago, when I stopped in at the Chicagoland Canoe Base. I always liked his re-enactments involving canoes.
Even though the Canadienne is less than 16 feet, the amount of glide it has is astounding. Get it up to speed, stop paddling and it goes for 100 yards.
 
Ralph Frese designed the Canadienne.

I, too, met him at his Chicagoland Canoe Base about 40 years ago. Quite an interesting guy, and what a rambling shop crammed in every nook with canoe stuff, some very obscure, right next to his equally crammed blacksmith shop. I know I bought something while I was there, but can't seem to remember what.

Canoe2_0124.jpg


The Chicagoland Canoe Base was razed in 2017 and the address is now occupied by an apartment building.
 
Yeah, I would buy stuff just so I could keep talking to Ralph about the Montreal canoes, canot du nord and his latest reenactment.
 
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Ralph Frese had a very large collection of canoe books and picture prints in his shop. I'm now thinking I bought a book from him and at least one of the three large voyageur canoe prints I framed and had hanging in my offices for decades.

I also recall a story Ralph told me.

He was a consultant for the canoes used in at least one episode of the TV miniseries "How the West was Won" in the 70's. The director wanted Ralph to build faux birch bark canoes for the episodes. Being a canoe historian, Ralph vigorously protested the depiction of birch bark canoes, because the Indians in the episode were not from anywhere near northern birch forests. They were Midwest or plains Indians, who would have used dugout canoes. Nevertheless, the director thought birch bark canoes looked more interesting than dugouts, and insisted on birch bark despite its ahistoricity in this supposedly historical drama. So, Ralph painted up some wooden or aluminum canoes to look like birch bark.
 
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