Recent content by Chip

The bike ride was after the river trip. I often wish for a bike I could fit into the canoe. That would streamline the shuttling process.

Potomac River Day Trip: Hancock to McCoy’s Ferry June 2, 2025 Paddled the Rendezvous I stopped on the way from the Western Pennsylvania Solo Canoe Rendezvous to continue my fill-in-the-gaps trips on the Potomac—paddling stretches of the river between the stretches I have paddled. A big...

You should dig into this thread, which wonders into, at length, soloizing a Penobscot. "Guest" was a user named Mike McCrea and many posts in that thread are from him. The long ones. Also, Canoetripping's "Will Derness" soloized his Penobscot, utilizing some of McCrea's ideas. So, you should...

I’ve paddled many of the adventurous stretches of the Potomac, mostly stretches with rapids, but that leaves a whole lot of river I’ve never seen. Weather and my schedule recently provided a short opportunity, so I went to Cumberland, MD to paddle. I had previously paddled Old Town to Hancock...

Often times I find myself out of step with prevailing opinion. This is the case with the much beloved MR Explorer. I don't like MRE's. I think it boils down to the v-bottom. I prefer shallow arch. I suppose other's can, but I was never able to make the MRE carve the bottom. The MRE readily...

Gumpus, are you sure that isn’t a scarf joint in the gunwale? I scrub off mud after a canoe trip. I bring a small push broom and a 5-gallon bucket. With the bucket, I dump river water into the boat, then use the broom to swish it around and loosen the mud, then flip the boat over to drain...

I always wonder about ocean crossing paddlers. The scenery doesn’t change much each day. Different conditions, maybe. But it sure seems like it would be monotonous. The kayakers must be real loose screws. Where do you take a dump in a kayak? At least in a canoe you could move around.

I have a ZRE paddle I enjoy using for flatwater paddling. The edges of the blade have become jagged. There is no identifying information on the paddle to tell me if it is a power surge or anything else, just a ZRE sticker. I have no idea if the paddle has the magic curve at the paddle tip. I...

I’d contact Hemlock and discuss. No doubt you could slap some FG and epoxy on the damaged area and it would be strong and watertight. Those are the main things, I guess. But I expect the wrinkles are there to stay, which could possibly change the way the boat handles. Maybe there is a way to...

My Wenona has spider cracks in a couple places. I applied Capt. Tolley’s to them last summer. It is supposed to penetrate and seal the cracks. Did it work? Capt. Tolley’s dries clear, so the cracks are still visible. The cracks didn’t seem to be hurting anything before and don’t seem to be...

Two EZ pass stories: Roll back the calendar to pre-pandemic years. Remember, paying cash for tolls was an option? Maryland used to charge us to maintain an EZ pass account, so my wife and I shared a transponder. Our local travel patterns didn't have tolls, so we'd just grab the transponder if...

I got some laughs out of your responses. We have some under-appreciated comedians on this site! I forgot about GPS/Spot tracking for off network travels. In the context of "share your spot with me", it slipped my mind that I had used a Spot device when traveling on the Missouri, the Green, and...

I do a lot of solo canoeing. My wife asks "where are you going, so I know where to tell them to search for your body?" The other day she learned of somebody who tracks their kid by iPhone, came home and announced "you need to share your dot with me." I told her, "That's' no good because then...

I had to do similar acclimation activities when I paddled my Encore with foam saddle. I sat on a basketball while watching TV. Best of all, if you have indoor space big enough for your canoe, was bringing the canoe in. I'd place a board across the gunwales, put my laptop on the board and sit on...

Silly question. Climate science is pretty clear: it's warmer. I'm an old-timer, but before I was, I remember the then old-timers saying it was colder when they were young. They were right.