Recent content by Dana

Since getting my MR Explorer, which I mostly paddle solo, I've come to prefer bow high and heeled, Canadian style, sitting in the bow seat facing aft. If the wind picks up I move to my knees and forward as necessary.

Many years ago a friend and co-worker was getting into whitewater kayaking. He carried his kayak around in a Triumph TR-8 with the boat stuck down into the passenger footwell and extending out back over the trunk (with the top down, of course) but that's another story... Anyway, he went down...

Got back to the cabin after doing stuff with my wife, including lunch with a couple of beers... it was nap on the couch on the porch or get outside, and it was just too nice a day to be slothful. The colors are just starting to turn. Of course the beavers had blocked the bridge again, so I...

I use a tent plus a gore-tex bivy sack. The bivy always gets used, the tarp goes up if I'm expecting rain. I think my tarp is 5x9 or thereabouts. The bivy takes care of any rain that might blow under the tarp. It's a lot less claustrophobic than a tent... why immerse yourself in nature just...

For me, no tent, but I don't camp in bug season. Tarp, ground cloth, and bivy sack. Sleeping bag according to weather. Thermarest NeoAir 'cuz I'm getting old. Trangia-style alcohol stove.

It's not actually speed that matters; it's (neglecting the effects of bow rise with speed) the angle between the boat's centerline and the direction of motion. In aerodynamics we call this the "relative wind". Picture a canoe moving straight forward, and you're looking straight down at the...

This is a canoe that needs to find a new home, though that new home may be a funeral pyre... This is a big boat, twenty feet long and 43" beam. In rough shape... it belongs to a kid's camp and it's been ineptly repaired over the years (and fiberglassed, whether over the canvas or directly on...

"It's the right thing to do." But I'm glad it's not me that's doing it... :ROFLMAO:

One more "final" tweak: I used the standard 32" contour seats from Ed's when I rebuilt the canoe, but since then I've gotten really into Canadian style paddling, sitting in the bow seat facing aft... and sitting off center to heel the boat means I had the wood seat frame jammed into my butt...

Today I had company on my paddle.

Mine didn't break at the scarf. One inwale broke at a drain notch near but not at the midpoint (I omitted the centermost notch because I didn't want to compromise the scarf), and one outwale broke near the ⅓ point at a tiny wormhole. Regardless, bending them into place was not easy. If I ever...

@Erica, I came into this thread late, but you have me captivated! Suggestion: compile this into a single article and magazines will pay you for it. Most of the magazine articles I've sold (sport flying, a similarly niche market to canoeing) started as forum posts.

A gray day after the rain passed, but so quiet and still that paddling was a joy, I stayed out for a couple of hours just paddling in circles for the sheer pleasure of it.

And a year later, the final touch:

In Harriman State Park (NY), many lakes were created by damming small streams, none of them navigable AFAIK, to create lakes for recreational purposes (and a few reservoirs). This is what it looked like in 1893: In 1910, it looked much the same but there were more houses: The Park was...