How Much Dough

[Boatman53]

I hear you Alsg. I built this for my mother in law. Heading to Norway next week for the second part of her memorial.
Jim
sorry for the thread drift

 

[Rob H]

I just did a rough tally with best price used to replace what I take and stopped adding at $4800.00 Canadian, not counting the luxury stuff. A $100.00 here and there over the years sure adds up quick.
Paid $1400.00 for the car to haul my as and other assorted stuff to the put in. At least we now where my priorities are lol

 

[Iskweo]

I was just thinking the other day how much Gucci gear I actually have. Paddles and PFDs can ring up an awful amount, my hat is worth $100 for gods sake.Raven paddle, North Face tent, Tilley hat, Fleuger fishing reel, and dont even think about the sleeping pads and down sleeping bags. That is just scratching the surface.

My pondering was caused by prepping for a trip to White Otter Lake near Ignace in a week with three university students who are operating on a shoestring budget. It should be fun. I met them on a local forum and we met to do planning.

I wont even begin to delve into the money tied up in my barn full of w/c canoes.

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

Reminds me of Mastercard's "Priceless" ad campaign. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKXIKeBVF0E

 

[yellowcanoe]

OK what is the age of your car and how much did you spend for it? Are your canoes worth more than your car? I will bet NONE here have fancy new cars.
2009 Forester 133,000 miles.
2012 Honda Ridgeline 156,000 miles.

No car is dead till 300 K miles or more.

If I have no car payments I see no problem buying canoes at all..

 

[Black_Fly]

Shhhh... don't remind the customers lol (I've been a farrier for over 20 years)

Did the same thing for a while when I first moved to Wyoming. My back will never be the same.

 

[Iskweo]

2002 buick century 290k km
2000 F150 230k km
into both for less than $5k....at least double that in canoes and we wont even start on the garden tractors

kayaks are becoming a new passion

 

[Gamma1214]

YC: Not to continue the thread drift but you seem to know us pretty well. Daily driver is a '94 Ranger w/ 273,000(ish) miles, nice car is a 2000 Expedition w/ 210,000 miles and the toy is a '79 CJ5 w/ 250K. Most expensive (by far) was the Jeep ($1800 in 1986 and currently undergoing a frame up restoration).

Now, to be fair, I don't have much in canoeing gear either (only one canoe & 3 yaks so far for a total of $1500ish). I'm just transitioning from backpacking to canoe tripping but I will spend far more on quality outdoor gear than on a vehicle (with the exception of that CJ5 but let's not go there)

 

[Guest]

kayaks are becoming a new passion

Nothing wrong with that.

Just like a golfer doesn’t head out on the course with only a putter, we have canoes, canoes with spray covers, hard decked canoes and kayaks. Each of them has an application in which they excel above the others, from day tripping small twisty streams to lake tripping to open tidal bays.

 

[lowangle al]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's canoes are worth more than their vehicles. Some times you have to buy different boats just to find out what you like. I never would have thought I'd prefer to paddle 18 footers to smaller boats and that's solo.

Like Odyssey said earlier, it's about value. It would be hard to find a less expensive activity that brings so much for so little. I think I saved a lot of money when we used to go camping every weekend for the price of a tank of gas and some groceries.

 

[yetii]

I don't know the total cost of my canoe gear. It's also kind of hard to separate what is canoe gear from what is just the things I've purchased for myself that I enjoy. EG - hiking boots - definitely get used for canoeing purposes, but I also enjoy hiking on the weekends.

Here's roughly what my tripping gear costs:
Canoe - roughly 2300
Paddle and back up paddle -225
Drypack - 110
tent - 30
sleeping bag - 30
sleeping pad - 60
fishing gear - 200
camp stove - 40
axe/saw/multitool - 120
headlamp- 85
pfd- 60
small food pack - 30
misc small gear - 200
Which brings us to a total of $3490. My logic is somewhat inconsistent in that I use my multitool all over the place but felt the need to include it in the list. However, the various clothing I bring, I don't feel like I need to throw in there.

You can probably tell, some gear I don't care about "quality" on, whereas other gear, I don't skimp out on.

Here's the good news: Each trip I take, the cost I have to allocate to that trip decreases!

 

[stripperguy]

YC: Not to continue the thread drift but you seem to know us pretty well. Daily driver is a '94 Ranger w/ 273,000(ish) miles, nice car is a 2000 Expedition w/ 210,000 miles and the toy is a '79 CJ5 w/ 250K. Most expensive (by far) was the Jeep ($1800 in 1986 and currently undergoing a frame up restoration).

Now, to be fair, I don't have much in canoeing gear either (only one canoe & 3 yaks so far for a total of $1500ish). I'm just transitioning from backpacking to canoe tripping but I will spend far more on quality outdoor gear than on a vehicle (with the exception of that CJ5 but let's not go there)

It's a Jeep thing, other may not understand.

Here's my CJ5...built not bought. Not a restoration by any means, but extremely simple and capable, nearly unstoppable.

View attachment REEg0M0qADK7dsEYkJUzN_qnxJYrjBPTraRietht51K3MGKwNAx3ELiXSkv24k-4SGTWJK8PN9UzljwnzACDK32T32dQrjiQdJjY

Talking gear costs, any of my boats cost me $600 or so to build. MDB's Swift, however, cost us $2,300.
My paddles cost me $25 and some left over strips to make, been using some of them for 25 years.
Sleeping bags...$230 and $100 for 0 degree and 30 degree down
Sleeping pad $100 Neo-Air
Big Agnes solo tent $200
Kelly Kettle a gift worth $80
Osprey pack a gift worth $240
and the list goes on...

As for vehicles, it's quite a bit different for me than most of you.
My SIL is a registered car dealer here in NYS. As such, he (and me by extension) can bid on and buy insurance wrecked vehicles. Usually at a small fraction of their repaired value. You would not believe how minor the damage is to total a vehicle these days. BTW, all theft recoveries are totaled, by definition, damaged or not. I happen to have a unique set of skills, honed over a long period of time that enable to fix nearly anything.
I have bought and repaired Jeeps, pop ups, motorcycles, trailers, motorhomes, you name it. Some are kept for a few years and sold for profit. Some are sold immediately for profit. Some are just to rare of a deal to part with, so they stick around. I'll not part with my 2010 Triumph Bonneville, nor my 2005 LJ, and of course my CJ is part of the family, but all others can just pass through, leaving a little (or sometimes a lot) of dough in my pocket as they go.

 

[Stumpknocker]

My neighbors are constantly trying to get me to go on cruise ships with them. Week long cruise for two I'm guessing might be $3,000.00? They take two or three a year.

I send them a text when I'm out on a one to two week canoe trip, just to let them know that I am on my type of cruise. I might spend $200.00 total and I know I am having way more fun than if I ever went on one of their type of cruises.

They think I'm crazy (and they might not be wrong), but I sure am happy.....

I did pay a lot for my truck. Bought it new in 2001. It cost 3 times more than the first house I bought in the early 1970s. Still driving it with 369,000 miles on it.

 

[sweeper]

OK what is the age of your car and how much did you spend for it? Are your canoes worth more than your car? I will bet NONE here have fancy new cars.
2009 Forester 133,000 miles.
2012 Honda Ridgeline 156,000 miles.

No car is dead till 300 K miles or more.

If I have no car payments I see no problem buying canoes at all..

4 cars, newest 2 are 10 yo, 13 and 16. All Std Trans. That's 49 Car Years. And my fleet + gear is worth almost as much as them, add in the tools, way over.

 

[lowangle al]

Whatever the cost is I don't think I could have a better time or a more satisfying one, even if I had unlimited funds to do whatever I wanted to, now that's value. I feel truly blessed that I love canoeing.

 

[Guest]

Here's roughly what my tripping gear costs:
Canoe - roughly 2300
Paddle and back up paddle -225
Drypack - 110
tent - 30
sleeping bag - 30
sleeping pad - 60
fishing gear - 200
camp stove - 40
axe/saw/multitool - 120
headlamp- 85
pfd- 60
small food pack - 30
misc small gear - 200
Which brings us to a total of $3490.

I know the approximate value of our total family gear collection, having added it all up for insurance purposes, but I never thought to calculate what I take on a solo trip, which would be different on different trips. Least gear-costly would probably be a long weekend warm weather trip near to home. Cheapest possible version:

Boat: Might be a rehab; a freebie or something I bought cheap - $200
Paddles: Used carbon Camano, custom length, $150 (thanks NT), freebie rehab straight shaft.
Dry bag: Couple heat sealable DIY’s, couple smaller Sealines - $100 tops
Tent: Generation II Hubba Hubba that REI outlet was getting outa here dirt cheap. Wow did the new ones got stupid expensive. $140 or so, including a gear-shed I rarely use.
Summer sleeping bag: another get it outa here discount, a 30/50 down flip bag - $60. Or just a couple blankets from home, $0.
Sleeping pad. Yeah, there’s some coin there, like $150. Sleeping comfort is king, I am not skimping there.
Stove: Jet-boil - $80 now, maybe $60 when I bought it.
Knives, saws and axes: Dang, that one runs to some money even without axes and saws. $200+ to replace what knives I carry, and all I usually do is spread peanut butter and cut salami.
Lights: LED ($12), LED backup ($4), Amber fingerlight ($9), two Luci-lites ($20 each). WTF, I don’t even like illumination that much other than for reading. This is starting to get pricey.
PFD: Dammit, I was trying to get off cheap here. $145 to replace. Worth every penny for fit and comfort.
Hard-shell food packs: Back to weekend trip cheap, a lab-used freebie Cur-tech drum or two. $0
Misc small gear. Crap, easily another $200.

Add a tarp: Old (wonderful) Campmor parawing, maybe $60 at the time. Add clothing: Even on summer trips, a UV hat with neck drape, maybe some quick dry/UV garb. Watershoes. Good quality polarized sunglasses. Monocular. Chair. Rain gear?

Sumbitch, it’s close to 2K as cheap as I might go short-term local in good weather. But I wants what I wants, even for just a few days.

Off season or long trip distant from home, maybe add a spray skirt, or actual decked canoe. Spray skirt/cockpit cover, better spare paddle, winter sleeping bag & clothing, blue barrel, better dry bags, Tundra tarp, sail, definitely full rain gear & hat, Mukluks, dromedary bags, water filter, axe/saw. . . . Jeeze Freaking Louise that added up fast.

Still not a downer to contemplate. Even when I put out a family four-pack everything in our kit has been accumulated and refined over time for personal comfort and convenience preferences, and I wouldn’t go any other way.

I’m not a skinny tubercular Nessmuk light-packer, but even he wrote “We do not go to the green woods and crystal waters to rough it, we go to smooth it”. Modern gear smooth as can be brutha Nesssmuk, you woulda loved carbon fiber and sil-nylon.