Recent content by Mason

As promised:

It depends on how long you need to stay dry! For backpacking, etc., I'll take a lightweight 2 layer Goretex shell, planning to get out of the rain when I can. Even washing them in non-detergent tech washes and reapplying NikWax, they're pretty marginal unless new. When I'm doing my northern...

You might be able to use a fairly conventional yoke, especially if the boat is very light. PakCanoes have 3/4" or so aluminum tubing inside fabric as the gunwales, providing very little room for purchase. However their yoke works fine for carrying the 60 pound boat. The yoke is routed with a...

No triangular head that I can see. Definitely not a copperhead. Scales appear keeled, consistent with water snakes.

Looks like a northern water snake per Dr. Google.

Not the same Monarch. The Monarch Alan brought up is the expedition solo by Mad River, used/designed by Steve Landick. Verlen Kruger used the similar Sawyer Loon.

Can't wait to see what $10,000 can buy you!

Maybe things have changed, but we filtered our water for an 11 day trip in 2000 with no problem (though slower after I gummed up the filter prior to settling). We let it sit overnight in a 5 gallon pail. Others have used alum as a settling agent.

If only homophobia didn't have different connotations......

I've had a couple of 16 Penobscots, and it's a nice river tourer, probably the fastest (i.e. most efficient) Royalex canoe out there. I've also paddled some pretty big whitewater in it: solo it's a cork. I put in a solo seat just aft of the middle and removed the others--saves on weight, but...

And then there was the school teacher up there that was killed some years back.

In contrast to Wayback, this summer's flights to/from the Horton, in a Pilatus Porter, came to $20,000 CDN!!!! It worked out to $4K US per person (4 of us) which is a lot, but seeing a $20,000 flight bill catches your attention. That's about $20 CDN per mile.

Riding with the Wayback Machine, in 1977 we flew into the Allagash (Chesuncook???), and they shuttled my car to the takeout at Allagash for $150 for the two of us and my 14' aluminum canoe . I'll take a dozen, thank you.

Brings back even more memories! I ran into W. Nealy at a state park in southern Utah back in 1980-81. I remember Whitewater Home Companion and loved his work.

I have a friend that used to solo canoe (MR Rx Explorer) part of the Owyhee on an almost annual basis (his dog is even buried there, having expired on one of the trips). I don't know the details, but it wasn't the whitewater sections, and obviously water level was critical. I've seen pix, and...