Recent content by eckilson

Yup - just goes to show that just because it hasn't happened before doesn't mean it can't happen. Nothing we could have done about the ice, but with better scouting we could have saved some folks a lot of driving. Oh well...

The cold temps don't last around here - we should be back in the 40's later this week.

How many days with temps in the teens does it take to freeze a river? Based on this weekend’s experience, the answer is three. For the past couple of years, our local club has been doing a winter overnight at the Burlingame Canoe Campsites on the Pawcatuck River in Charlestown, RI. It’s been a...

It is good to take the rapids slowly and methodically – moving back and forth across the river to find the shoots and deep water channels (Bill Mason style). Sometimes, easier said than done. I guess I have 3 “Fears of Whitewater”. Fear number 1 is a long nasty swim, but I am like @Steve in...

For me, at least up till now, whitewater paddling and wilderness tripping have been two different things. I really haven’t been on a trip where the two overlap. I regularly paddle class II/III rivers solo in my whitewater boat, and tandem in my tripping boat (float bags, not gear). The biggest...

Don't remember how I heard about them, but I have ordered two sets of float bags from BPM out of the UK. Heavy weight single layer nylon bags. Raft valve is standard, top up valve is an option. Not cheap, and not sure how easy it would be to order them now with the changes Trump made on tariffs...

I prefer a Dutch oven, but also like cinnamon rolls.

Interesting - thanks. Vimeo is a primarily a subscription service, and I do pay at the lowest level. Maybe not for everyone, but it is nice not to have to deal with ad's. I also have a subscription for Flickr for the same reason. YouTube definitely shows up more frequently on search results...

I use Vimeo - joined in Dec. 2008 and have used it ever since. The first paddling video that I made in October 2008 is still posted there. I set up a YouTube account at around the same time - uploaded one video, and then never used it again. I think back in the old days you could upload...

It is a little early to be coming up with year-end totals – there are still a couple of months to go. ;) I don’t track miles, but I do keep track of all my trips. So far this year I’ve done 42 trips with 15 flatwater, 13 whitewater, 11 sea kayak and 3 tripping. My 10-year average is 54...

Wow - you have a club that is all canoes, and the club has "grounds". I'll say it again - wow! Looks like a great event.

Color scheme is called magma, which works. Also looks like fall foliage, especially this time of year.

Its that time of year when dam operators across the northeast drawdown water levels in reservoirs in anticipation of winter's snow and rain. A lot of these drawdowns are scheduled on weekends so whitewater paddlers can take advantage of the release. Yesterday was the second weekend for the...

I have both a composite (white gold) WildFire and RX Yellowstone Solo. Love them both. Back in the day (2009) when P-net had lots of open boaters, the composite vs RX Wildfire debate was pretty common. At some point Charlie Wilson chimed in with the story of the development of the composite...

When I started paddling (2005), the Great Canadian Canoe Company was located on Route 146 in Sutton, MA. It was probably located in Worcester, MA at some time before that. They were a distributor, not a manufacturer - importing canoes and kayaks from Canada and reselling them under the Great...