Recent content by eckilson

My father... He was an avid hiker and mountain climber. He climbed Mount Raineri in 1962, and led a lot of winter hikes in the White Mountains for the AMC. As he got older he hated crowds in the White Mountains in the summer, so he decided to take up paddling. He bought a Wenonah Spirit II in...

Looks like NRS doesn't it. Not sure I would have caught it.

16-18 inches in northern RI - nice light fluffy stuff. I have a snow blower, but never checked to make sure it would start, and it didn't. May need to reassess that philosophy too. ;)

Haven't done it in a while, but on Royalex I used Vynabond for attaching vinyl D-rings and Weldwood contact cement (red can) for gluing down closed cell foam knee pads. Never had to deal with R-84 Royalite. I think Dagger Canoes used the name R-Lite. Don't know if it is the same as Mowhawk's...

I think the Wabakimi 18 looks great - beautiful lake cruiser. It is definitely going to dive into waves, but looks less likely to get blown around in the wind. 18' boats are a blast to paddle and really move. Friend of mine had a MR TW Special, and I got out with him in that boat whenever I...

Or a double blade. Kind of surprised that the opening shot of a guy in the prototype Prospector 15 is using a double blade. At least he is kneeing. (By the way, this video showed up on my Facebook newsfeed this morning - they must be watching me...)

Of the three, the 15 looks to me like a Prospector. The 16 and 17 are beautiful boats that I would love to have, but they look like typical touring boats. I love Northstar boats. If a could buy a new one it would be the Phoenix. You could easily slap the Prospector name on the B16 or B17...

My question is why would you call this boat a Prospector? To me a Prospector is deep and wide with full stems and a fair amount of rocker that is designed to carry a load. It’s usually a tandem that is a bit of a barge on flatwater, but does OK with a little current. With the full stems it...

Good deal - buy it! Mohawk made great boats, but you don't see a lot of them around here in New England. Mostly I see whitewater solos (XL13s and Probes) - those were pretty popular. I know someone who has a Solo 14 and an Odyssey (nice solo tripping boat), but I have never seen another Mohawk...

The interesting thing about these kinds of posts is that they are subjective. Each of us sets the criteria to determine what is "best". Your criteria will be different than mine, and that's the fun. For example, one of the last boats that I could ever imagine myself paddling solo is a 14'...

For this trip you need a splash cover - holy crap... I love when they climb on top of the up-side-down canoe and paddle it to shore.

As a tandem, the MR Explorer. I don't own one, but I paddle them all the time since several of my friends do. I should buy one someday. As a solo, my Bell Wildfire - 14' long, 28" wide, 2.5" symmetrical rocker. A great river boat that handles lakes just fine. Not a lot of depth, so not a lot a...

What a difference a week makes - the put in yesterday - ice free up and down the river. Oh well...

Reading these last couple of posts got me thinking about an issue we had last year regarding an outbreak of invasive Hydrilla at the headwaters at one of RI’s prettiest rivers – the Pawcatuck. If you know anything about Hydrilla, it is nasty stuff - spreads quickly and is nearly impossible to...

Don't burn plastic. It is usually easy to rinse and carry out. I'll burn paper and food waste. I did a trip a couple of years ago with a lady who didn't want us to burning anything. We agreed on the condition that she carried the trash bags. It added up. An animal got in them one night and...