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.
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.