Things I never thought I'd do.

[lowangle al]

As I have gained experience and acquired information there are things that I now do that at one time I would have thought to be impractical or just plain wrong in my canoe tripping world. I am listing a few here and hope others will list theirs, if they have any.

The big one is paddling a tandem boat solo from the stern seat. There are reasons why not to do this, but there are also reasons that make it right.

The next big one is how I hold my paddle. At one time the only way I held my paddle was with the upper hand on the top of the grip. Now I find it very comfortable to paddle with my upper hand on the shaft, either with both palms down like a kayak paddle or with the upper palm facing up like you would hold a broom or rake. I do this to help with hand fatigue or to make my paddle perform like it was shorter.

I never thought I'd fall in love with or would ever own wood canvas boats. Thanks to this site my w/c boats have added more to my paddling enjoyment than I could have imagined.

Paddling standing up. Not that I gave it much thought, but at one time I never knew it existed as a 'thing".

Using a canvas tent as opposed to a modern synthetic one.

I am sure there are more that I'm missing, anybody have some of there own?

 

[Odyssey]

[h=2]Things I never thought I'd do.[/h] 1) Slow down. I thought about slowing down, and even for a time convinced myself I had slowed down, but however I talked the talk I just couldn't walk the slow walk, so to speak. All too often I'd pause, take a deep breath, smile at the sun, and then plow onwards trying to get done whatever I was convinced couldn't wait. Paddle round the next point, portage the next trail, make the fire, make the coffee, set up the tarp...I'm still working on this and am succeeding little by little. When I do manage to it almost comes as a revelation, my rediscovering what's to be gained by slowing down and walking the slow walk. The fire will be lit, the coffee made and the portage crossed, all in good time. That point to paddle round can wait till we get there.
2) Finding value in comfort. Mostly my body does the talking here and I've learned to listen. "No pain - no gain" has been replaced with "No pain if you do it right".
3) Small fires. Not only have they gotten a lot smaller and fewer, but I spend less time with them. That's the beauty of a small manageable fire, it can be so easily temporary. A good deal of the time I'm stepping away from the hearth to be cloaked in darkness under the stars. I do love them still, but nowadays I choose mindfully when I really want to light a fire. It's no longer an integral part of every camp.
Good thread Al. Makes us think.

 

[martin2007]

I never expected...

...38 years ago that I'd meet and marry Lisa, a wonderful woman from Tahiti, a woman of the tropics who early in our relationship embraced the pleasures of "northern" canoe tripping and didn't mind too much the cold Canadian winters...

I never expected...

...that after many happy years of child-free happy-go-lucky marriage I'd become the father of two sons and__yes!__get to experience with them the joys of canoe-tripping in the summer and skiing in the winter. Never enough, of course. Some of our best times, and also some of our most challenging times with them started happening several years ago after I first retired from my teaching career. The years pass too quickly. I'm learning to cherish what's past, but prefer to keep the focus on the future. I admit that I'm still hoping for more...

I never expected...

...that this past summer on our first trip back to Tahiti in 21 years I'd finally get to paddle a solo outrigger racing canoe (OC1, Tahitian "va'a") in the lagoon. An honour, because while Tahitians are generous to a fault, they, for good reasons, do not normally "lend" their boats __fine lightweight craft custom built to each paddlers' size and weight__(va'a canoe racing is THE national sport of Tahiti and they are powerhouses!) I got to watch Canadian teams from Alberta and B.C. compete against the world's best. Humbling, too. I felt so fortunate to be given a fresh perspective on what paddling can be...and now even more stuff to dream about...

I never expected...

...natural skeptic that I am, that I would be so easily seduced (it must be the timing!) by the idea of owning and paddling an inflatable standup paddle-board, an object that had always seemed to me a silly kind of fad, something that for years held no real appeal apart from the paddles themselves which I'd been using to standup-paddle in my canoes. But a narrow, exposed-to-the-elements, overpriced 'board'? Of course, once begun, I very quickly grew to love it!

I never expected...

...that I'd carry on wilderness trips something called a "SPOT" device,

and I certainly never expected...

... that I'd end up owning far too many canoes and folding kayaks...too many, that is, to give each its proper due, even if I'm lucky enough to be paddling for decades more.

"Decades more"? Well, I'm doing my best to temper my natural skepticism with a little optimism...

 

[Bob B.]

Interesting thread ...

One of the biggest things I thought I would never do - similar to Odyssey - is slow down. Early in my paddling journey I think I equated a successful trip as how many miles I explored, and how fast I did it. It was fun, exciting and a great challenge. But Wilderness conditions like weather or huge bolder gardens slowed me down and I felt a little defeated if a trip took longer than expected or mileage was not completely covered.

Along the way I discovered rest days are awesome. I really like fishing and exploring the area around a base camp. Tripping with my dog has really helped me discover the thrill of exploring the timber as well as the water around a base camp. I love having coffee, watching the early morning develop with my dog at my side. Slowing down, completing camp chores, slow paddles rubber necking, all things I never thought I could really appreciate, but now look forward to doing.

Twig stoves. At first I found them to be a gimmick. Now, I use them to cook under my tarp. I use them to heat my Lean Plus 1 from CCS on cold mornings. I burn longer sticks at night for a low camp fire if I do not feel like a larger campfire in the evenings ( happens often). Twig stoves are a very important part of my kit now.

Taking care of my body is a big deal. I think I used to believe I was bullet and fire proof. All the bumps and owies ... I am paying for the sins of my youth now. I have to be careful with knees, shoulders and elbows. I knew it would suck getting old - I just figured getting older would not happen so quickly.

Bob.

 

[Guest]

paddling a tandem boat solo from the stern seat.

I find it very comfortable to paddle with my upper hand on the shaft, either with both palms down like a kayak paddle or with the upper palm facing up like you would hold a broom or rake

I never thought I'd fall in love with or would ever own wood canvas boats. Thanks to this site my w/c boats have added more to my paddling enjoyment than I could have imagined.

Paddling standing up.

Using a canvas tent as opposed to a modern synthetic one.

Al, we may be the yin and yang of paddling.

I’m uncomfortable in the stern seat solo, paddling with most of the hull out in front of me, especially in any open water wind and wave. heck, I don’t much like the bow seat backwards. To that end I have installed solo center seats, but not really “center”. My sweet spot for the seat is 10 or 11 inches back of center hull, further aft than on many dedicated solos.

My wrists hurt just thinking about the broomstick hold. But then one wrist hurts using a single blade in the usual grip. I’m 90% double blade, so there’s that.

I have never owned a wood canvas canoe. Or a stripper. Likely never will. If there is ever another canoe in my future it will be a lightweight vacuum bagged composite that weighs 40 lbs or less.

Paddling standing up would quickly become swimming upside down. I’ll stand (very briefly) if I need to boat scout. I tried standing & poling; nope that’s never gonna happen, although it would be comical to watch.

Canvas tent. There at least I have had some. Sil-nylon, with two vestibules and some mesh walls all the way.

Ain’t we a pair?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZla--A1s5w

Slow down
Finding value in comfort
Small fires

Brad, yes to all the above.

I’m so slow that on some base camp days I may never wander further than 100 yards from camp. Especially solo, when I can sit quietly and let the fullness of the place come to me.

In camp or in the canoe I’m all about comfort. Two-person tent, just for me. Nice thick sleeping pad. Decent sized tarp. Full sized camp chair with wind block and sun shade accessories. Day hammock for lounging, reading, looking and listening.

All of my boats are outfitted to be the most comfortable seat in the house. Foot brace, back band, knee bumpers and other minicel or padding. Sometimes on bankside leg stretchers I get back in the canoe to sit in comfort, look at the map, eat lunch, etc. It’s like a Barcalounger, and everything I want is at my fingertips.

Small fires. Or, as often when solo, no fire. An evening fire is not the same without companions and I tend to bed early when solo. The one exception is the fire-in-a-can thing, mostly because I can light it with the flick of a Bic, put it out just as quickly with the lid, and don’t need to gather or process wood.

If I want a fire, at any time of day, almost anywhere, the FIAC gets lit.

To the original “Things I thought I’d never do”

I stupidly never thought I’d find a 50 or 60 lb canoe too heavy, and now own a bunch of them. I should have taken CEW’s advice years ago “If your back is getting stronger, buy plastic. If not, buy composite”.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

Whitewater. I never thought I'd do anything beyond class 2.

Al, when I stand, I am almost always using a pole - even when I'm paddling. I tried using a typical SUP paddle a few years ago, but didn't find any advantage with it. Last year, I had an opportunity to try this paddle while standing, on the local river with a mixed group of paddlers that included one SUP.....

https://halagear.com/product/river-carbon-hs/

The shape of this blade made a world of difference. It made using the paddle instead of the pole a worthwhile change, feeling natural with really good control. This paddle would actually allow me to do things while standing that I can't do so well with the pole. Just gotta get past the price.

 

[memaquay]

Ummmm...., I kissed a chestnut and I liked it?

 

[Canotrouge]

Polling is one of them, I don't think never would be the right term, but sur don't think I would use it as often as I do now(not that often but way more than in the past). Using a campfire tent or wall tent on trips, one of theist thing that happen to me, dang I like the ease of getting in and out, the fact that I can stand in to change....
Cook on fire only, not even bringing a gas stove anymore.

 

[Gamma1214]

Live past 30... As the old adage says: "If I knew I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself"

 

[yellowcanoe]

Basecamp for five days
Its so hot and the bugs are thugs that once set up we dont want to move
Tent plus Nemo bug shelter

 

[Iskweo]

Poling is on my list of ' gee thats different " kind of stuff. I tried it last year and will be fabricating a pole this summer.

Owning a fleet of antique wood canvas canoes. And by fleet, I mean a bunch in need of repair...lol. That is a passtime that was not really on my radar. It turned out to be very rewarding. On a similar note, building strippers is a fairly recent concept as well. Oh, and Martin, I was very happy to take one of those " too many canoes " off your hands.

Being 60 years old and retired is not something I had given a lot of thought to either. Then one day it just happened.

Never in my wildest dreams did I contemplate living in Manitoba. dang its cold here.

Having friends scattered all over the world was a surprise.

Christy

 

[lowangle al]

Slowing down is something I've been working on the last few years. It seemed for every activity I do I make a mental note of how long it will take and try to adhere to that. That's fine if you need to be back by a certain time, but if not I found it takes away from the pleasure. Now when I hike, paddle, or ski I don't mind just slowing down, especially in a beautiful spot. I am more likely to explore something that catches my interest and I will even stop to eat a snack. After I read Odysseys post the other day I went out for a ski. I went about 6 miles, climbed 1000 feet and had some fantastic downhill runs in great snow. I was back at the car in two hours, I had plenty of exercise, loads of fun but felt like I could use some more time outside. I thought about Brads post and decided to stay out there but to slow down and take some time to stop and look around. I ended up putting in another 2.5 hours.

Now when tripping I don't mind staying at a campsite for a couple of days, in the past I'd come up with any reason to move on.

Christy, congrats on your being retired. I'm also 60 and sort of semi retired. The other day I was getting ready to shovel my driveway and I was tired before I even started. This prompted me to coin a new word in the English language. Pretired, the state of being tired before you have done anything.

 

[dougd]

With all the back problems I have these last two years gets me out on the river for an overnight here and there and it's just nice not to be in a hurry. It's nice to sit up late in front of a small fire and wait for the moon to come out, watch the birds flying at water level, listen to a beaver who is trying to tell me to get the heck outta there. All is good.

Trips are a different tale though, need to get from point A to point B. Been poling for twenty plus years and love it. Wish sometimes I would switch over to a canvas tent, we had a Sears one when I was a kid camping with the family, two roomer! Mice ate that up and it weighed a ton.

The one thing I never thought I'd do in the canoeing world is to have an offer to take over a canoeing website. Perhaps one of the best things I've done yet. It's like running rapids without scouting first. Never know what's around the next corner!

 

[Guest]

With all the back problems I have these last two years gets me out on the river for an overnight here and there and it's just nice not to be in a hurry. It's nice to sit up late in front of a small fire and wait for the moon to come out,

I’m thinking a compact twig stove might be just the ticket for a wee bit of wood flame to evening stare into mini-fire, without excessive wood processing or clean up. Too bad you are ineligible for a raffle prize.

For your back problems a re-built Bell Rob Roy would do nicely to resolve your laze around camp overnighter boat weight issues. I’ll keep an eye out for you.

The one thing I never thought I'd do in the canoeing world is to have an offer to take over a canoeing website. Perhaps one of the best things I've done yet. It's like running rapids without scouting first. Never know what's around the next corner!

You really should have scouted that rapid first. Oh no, there’s a gnarly McCrea ahead. Stop now to scout, or the mail lady gets it.

Back to “never thoughts”. I never thought I would use a double blade. I used naught but a straight shaft single for 20 years. I could swing a single in the stern of a tandem Grumman all day long, and easily overpower the bowman when I wanted them to coerce them put some umph into their headwind stroke.

And then I got a Pack canoe, and loved that low angle double-blade motion, even using a beastly heavy 3 ½ lb Mohawk DBCP.

Screwed up a wrist in an accident, seemingly for life, and came to love double blade action even more, leading to UL carbon doubles. You should get you one ;-)

One of the beauties of paddling and tripping is the acceptance that, however you are still getting out there, in and with what, at least you are out there.

I’m watching my TV, and a man comes on to tell me that I can’t be a man ‘cause I don’t swing the paddle like he. Hey, hey hey, as Jagger said

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrIPxlFzDi0


I get plenty of satisfaction. That’s all that matters.

 

[alsg]

I'm so late to this game that I think everything related to canoes and canoe tripping falls into the "I never thought I'd" category for me.

 

[Guest]

I'm so late to this game that I think everything related to canoes and canoe tripping falls into the "I never thought I'd" category for me.

I have another “Never thought I’d. . . .”

I never thought I’d find this much pleasure in rebuilding old boats, or in doing repairs and outfitting.

“Old boats” to me are 70’s and later Royalex and composite hulls, not the wood/canvas repairs and stripper builds other folks here do, those are well beyond my ken.

Even so, every hull presents a new puzzle. I don’t do crosswords or Sudoku; those boat puzzles help keep my mind sharp.

What’s left of my mind anyway. Maybe sharp-ish. Wonder what I’ll eff up on today?

 

[Chip]

I'm like alsg--everything about this is something I didn't ever expect to be doing.

It was 1999 when a friend invited me on a "wilderness" river trip. I remember saying, it sounded cool, but seemed like a lot of trouble. How about we just go out to the Shenandoah for a weekend. My friend just shook his head. "It's not the same." We decided it would be a good idea for me to learn to paddle white water. So, most every weekend for the next year I hooked up with a bunch of DC-area paddlers. Formidable canoeist and guide book author Roger Corbett took me under his tutelage. And in 2000, we made that river trip. On about the third day it hit me how cool it was to be out on a river in the North Maine Woods, and I was hooked.

Never expected to pole a canoe. Never expected to own solo canoes. Never expected to own, paddle, and be able to roll kayaks. That's off topic but it grew out of canoeing, when I tired of all the driving that comes with whitewater paddling if you live next to the Chesapeake. No matter whether it's canoe or kayak, I love wilderness camping, something I never thought I'd do.

 

[memaquay]

Hmmm.......I never thought I would experience spiritual enlightenment and an escape from the sordid human condition........and I never did, on a canoe trip or in real life. But I did have some wicked hangovers on canoe trips, which I totally expected, but hoped not to have. I never expected that the interwebs would become a large part of my canoeing experience, and that I would meet many new friends, several of whom have shared hangovers with me on canoe trips, which they perhaps never expected, lol.

Lately I have begun to wonder if my real canoe tripping days are numbered, and I never expected that. But hey, that's what square sterns and motors are for, ain't life grand?!

 

[Odyssey]

4) I never thought I'd actually own a canoe. It was so seamlessly easy just to rent canoes for our family vacations. A Mom and a Dad and 4 kids with all our gear required two rental 16' Prospector types picked out and placed at dockside ready to go. Completing the rental package PFDs and paddles measured and grabbed, pile in the rental boats and off we went. We always travelled as light as we could, so that meant minimal everything. No extra doodads Dad had to carry. One tent. No sleeping pads. A very basic kitchen kit of 3 pots and 1 fry pan. Not enough forks and knives to go around, and spoons were pure luxury. Don't take any of "the good cutlery" from home. Lord knows we don't have enough of that. I thought we had enough and it oftentimes felt like we had it all.

And then I started imagining things. Imagining what it might be like with more, lighter, better gear. And who knows? Maybe even a canoe? All those gear upgrades took years, and funny enough the canoe finally didn't happen until Mom and Dad became empty nesters. The kids never minded, they enjoyed the trips, whatever however wherever we went, so long as it was a canoe trip, with all the requisite (mis)adventures. Smokey fires, swimming, leeches, wolf howls, moose in the lily pads, mice in the packs, scraped knees, sore muscles, sleepy minds, spooky stories, late nights, early mornings...and all too soon we were returning our canoes, paddles and PFDs to the rental hut; the kids would be skipping to the van singing their ice cream songs while Mom was wishing for a hot shower. Dad was straggling behind pondering canoes, thinking how cool it would be to actually own one.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Never thought I would wimp
out in heat entirely and do day trips and sleep in a bed in a trailer and shower and say 7 miles is enough
Maze of mangrove tunnels spiders on your face big black ones forcing our way through ( hadnt been cleared since Irma) filling the boat with leaves and twigs
It was nice to get back to camp and drink half a gallon of lemonade ice cold
Joel the Halfway Creek loop awaits your guests
Start at thecBig Cypress end
The EC end is blocked