Recent content by eckilson

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...

I have Garret Conover's book - best how-to on lining that there is. In terms of the ice, I'm not sure there was much we could do other than get to shore and walk around it. We definitely hadn't packed for a portage. Here is the ice – about a 1/2-inch thick and going on for a far as we could...

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...