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What are you paddling?

I paddle a Wenonah Rendezvous in Royalex to paddle rivers and creeks and a Nova Craft Pal in Kevlar Spectra for lakes and portaging.
 
A beat up SR Q17 - which I love - and my one solo was in a SR Tranquility - so next time I'll buy one.
 
Wenonah Rendezvous in RX for rivers and a Wenonah encounter for for lakes. My wife and I are still renting tandems for our BWCA trips until we find the right one to buy.
 
At home (LA), i mostly paddle a homemade stitch and glue Eureka 155, which i've shortened by a foot to 14.5'. it's a little tippy, but fine for my flatwater stuff. There's a large lake (Toledo Bend) that i paddle on sometimes, and if i'm feeling lazy, or the wind's up, i will rent a large alumimum canoe from the Army rec center there, instead of loading mine up. They also offer moonlight paddling on the saturday night closest to the full moon, and when i go (not very often), i rent a kayak there.

On that note, i prefer a canoe over a kayak... lighter for a given length, more cargo room, easy access, easier to portage, and you can move around, stretch, kneel, sit, stand, whatever... my back isn't as young as it used to be, and i can't sit in the same position for very long.

When i get back home to upstate NY, i usually borrow a cousin's Old Town wood and canvas (well, now it's dacron). It's light (about 50#) and about 15' long. i love it. there's just something about a wooden canoe.

On a couple other trips in the Adirondacks, i've rented a couple Placid Boatworks canoes (Spitfire for my daughter, Rapidfire for myself) due to the portaging issue of that particular trip. My daughter and I were also fighting a lot in a tandam canoe at the time, and i wanted her to do her own work. That, and some aging, seem to have cured her. This past summer, we did 4 days on Low's Lake in the Old Town, with no fighting. I think she gets it now.

I'm currently working on a masters degree (plus my normal job), and will finish in December. My next big project will be a roughly 15' cedar strip canoe. i'm stuck between the Ranger, Bob's Special, and Freedom 15 (all found on Bear Mountain Boats' site). I believe all 3 are what is called a "prospector" design.
 
Hi I'm paddaling a 10' 6"" Hornbeck double paddle canoe. Weighs in at 16 pounds. Also have a 70 lb Royalex Allagash. Too heavy after back surgery last year. Hornbecks are great boats and come in a variety of lengths.
 
I have a 16 foot Pakboat canoe. I have access to my Dad's old 17 foot aluminum canoe. I have a Current Designs Storm, a Wilderness Systems Pungo 12, a Pakboat Puffin II, an Advanced Elements Advanced Frame and an Advanced Elements Dragonfly, and a garage sale boat that was $50 and is red. Oh, and a Wave Sport Project 62. My favorite is the Pungo.

Pringles
 
I have been using a Wenonah Prism for 20 years. It has served me well and after all those miles we fit together like a glove. I took Farmer's Wenonah Encounter out for a short paddle and found it to work very well for me. The same feel as my Prism but even more stable. Another advantage is that there is enough room that I could kneel in the front section and easily paddle up a narrow winding stream against the current, imagine "front wheel drive."
 
My go to canoe is an Old Town Camper 16', it's light weight and has a decent glide.
Old Town Discovery 148, a nice canoe but a little more weight
Old Town Anger Kayak 10' nice to fish from with a nice open cockpit.
When it comes to fishing i prefer the canoe, kayaks are fun but the canoe provides more utility.
 
My wife and paddle a 16' (tandem) prospector by Nova Craft in a Royalite layup. It's been a superb tripping boat, but as I'm getting older, I'm on the lookout for a lighter boat.
 

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I have been hooked on wood canvas canoes for a while, and my 16' Chestnut Pal has taken me on many wonderful trips. I can not put into words how much I love this canoe. Maybe that's what makes the open canoe so wonderful, it takes you places and always looks so nice along the journey.
I took this picture a couple of years ago in Woodland Caribou Provincial Park on a solo trip.

I had just retired from 40 years of trucking and now the pace had slowed, I remember resting after a somewhat long portage and staring at my canoe...thinking why I punished myself with all that extra weight yet happy that I shared such a wonderful place with a canoe that meant so much to me.
 
I have to add a Wenonah Cascade. While I would not like owning this beast of a truck of a boat (literally!) it took my husband and I down over five hundred miles on the Yukon River, a very special place. Sometimes its not the craft but the where. We saw lots of rafts left on shore by those who literally floated the river!

I can't wait to get reunited with two of my wood canvas canoes the day after tomorrow!
 
I mostly paddle my home built DY Special, 16'8" and 31 lbs, I really like that hull for nearly any water...
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I also have an 18', 40 lb stripper tandem that few want to paddle, it's a little lively...here's most of it on Round Lake Stream

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I also had a 17', 38 lb stripper of my own design that was a dream to paddle in any water...sadly, that boat is no more after a cross current swamping on the very same Round Lake Stream...here it is after 28 years of abuse and on it's final day.

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And My Darling Bride paddles a 14'6" Perception Tribute Airalite...'bout 34 lbs she loves it, but I don't enjoy carrying it!

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Also have a 13' Mohawk XL solo for wavy water, too heavy for me to use much...
Through the years have been a plethora of strip built canoes, guideboat, sailboat...many have gone on to a higher calling, some were sold, one was even raffled!!
 
Stripperguy,
In your Hitchins Pond photos there ia a picture of a log church and mill. Where are those buildings located??
Regards,
Dave
 
Dave,

Those photos were taken on the way home from Hitchins Pond, at an abandoned amusement park, formerly called Frontier Town.
If ever you get the chance to roam around exit 29 of I87 (on the way to many ADK locations) you should do so.
I went there as a kid in the early 60's, and can still remember the stage coach robberies and sheriff shoot out. We spent about 2 hours fumbling around there and it iwas an eery experience, I clearly remember some of the spots from my youth...do a search and you'll see plenty of photos of the place in it's heyday. It was one of the 1st theme parks in the US...I have many more of those photos, but not too many folks are interested in that kind of ghost town! I am fascinated with those type of places...we went to Asbury Park at it's worst in the 80's, someday people will be paying money to tour the old manufacturing sites that used to be Schenectady and Utica!
 
For the last few years I have tripped exclusively with my Nova Craft Pal in kev. spec. It has been all over WCPP, the last trip for 32 days, the BWCA, lakes of Northern Wisconsin and the southern part of the Wisconsin River. For a bigger guy, the Pal is a marvelous solo.

Bob.
 
Dave,

Those photos were taken on the way home from Hitchins Pond, at an abandoned amusement park, formerly called Frontier Town.
If ever you get the chance to roam around exit 29 of I87 (on the way to many ADK locations) you should do so.
I went there as a kid in the early 60's, and can still remember the stage coach robberies and sheriff shoot out. We spent about 2 hours fumbling around there and it iwas an eery experience, I clearly remember some of the spots from my youth...do a search and you'll see plenty of photos of the place in it's heyday. It was one of the 1st theme parks in the US...I have many more of those photos, but not too many folks are interested in that kind of ghost town! I am fascinated with those type of places...we went to Asbury Park at it's worst in the 80's, someday people will be paying money to tour the old manufacturing sites that used to be Schenectady and Utica!

My now 25 year old was selected as the deputy for the stagecoach ride. I have a highly cherished photo of him holding a gun on the robber, Wonderful memories. Great sadness when it closed a very few years later.
 
I also solo paddle a Nova Craft Pal in Kevlar Spectra. I use it in the BWCA. Around home in rivers and streams I paddle a Nova Craft Bob special in Rx. Dave
 
Add another Nova Craft Pal in Kevlar Spectra. Any way to minimize the scratches and gouges? It got pretty beat up this season between WCPP and BWCA.

I have a Wenonah Rendezvous in RX for the local rivers and creeks.
 
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I got no bad gouges so far (lucky I guess). Most of my scratches are below the water line. I Wish I would have got a two tone like Bob B's Pal. Wouldn't show as bad. I think I might paint the bottom beige at some point. I installed 3" KeelEazy strips on my boat this year. I'm sure that helped some. Not happy about the appearence. Even though I heated it and got it to lay down smooth at the time, later it wrinkled on the stems. Dave
 
Hi Rippy! Great to hear from you, little bit by little bit the old gang reassembles. I'm reminded of an old WW2 film; these guys were in a submarine and the thing sunk. The only way out was using a Momsen lung, the surfacing scene was at night and one by one members of the crew popped to the surface to be congratulated on making it. Although in our case we weren't sunk so much as scuttled. Anyways, it's good here.
Early in June I came within an ace of buying a "zombie shooter", remembered our discussion about all that. Couldn't find any supply of quality ammo, seems to have dried up?
Maybe we can find old rockenpoler and send him through the sheep dip of political correctness, I still miss his posts. I wonder if Steve from Idaho made that trip this summer? He's sure had some great trip reports.
Best Wishes, Rob
 
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