Recent content by MrPoling

I was walking along the New River one snowy winter day. As i approached Lower Keeny I heard music. Faint, indistinct, drifting over the roar of the drop. I hadn't seen boats or footprints all day. Someone had left a big wind chime on a riverside tree. It was pretty surreal.

Yes. I often hear voices around small rapids. Especially in places where I expect there to be people. It's especially difficult because with the undergrowth, it can be hard to see. So you can't tell if you were really hearing people or not.

I suspect Amazon shipping is part of it. For a bulky item, like an internal frame pack or paddle, it is hard to compete. I noticed their backpacks are mostly LLBean brand. Probably because Amazon crushes them on name brand packs. I'm not positive it is all good for outdoor retailers. The...

I'm surprised, but they don't even have have paddleboards. No pfd either. No premium backpacks either. Oddly they still have snowshoes. It makes me kinda sad because the Bean catalog was key propaganda for me during the 1980s. While never as cool as the Mad River catalog, it was glossy...

Hey ErAh - I've got a kevlar-airex Lamoille, it weights a little under 60lbs. What strikes me about your comments is describing it as "stable". The Lamoille is barely 34" across. I love it, but It just doesn't fell like a stable boat to me, especially compared to something wider like the...

Yes, a great time to paddle. Discussing phases of twilight, the transition from dim twilight to darkness is fairly quick in NC. Just a few minutes under some conditions. Its easy to get caught out. Lots of beavers too.

The way waves behave in lakes that we'd normally paddle is really complicated. Without deep water and many miles of fetch ocean waves cannot form. The most common conditions in smaller lakes, even deep lakes with three miles of fetch, are smaller, slower waves that are close together. These...

I think the first thing he needed was floatation. I know it is a pain, but airbags make this better all around. There is less chance of swamp and swim, less chance of pin, less damage, and easier recovery. As for hull material, I think any hull is trash after damage like that. Sure, you can...

Clemson did pretty well in those competitions. I heard they sold the canoes to University of SC students for their Boundry Waters trips.

Oddly enough, it is our canoes that need flotation to float. Because a carbon kevlar laminate is heavier than water. But the concrete they use has stuff in it to make it fluffier than normal concrete. Just like royalex is fluffier than normal abs plastic. So it floats, even if the canoe was...

It is aggregate achievement, but I have a sinking feeling that it will take more to cement their status as a great university.

As the weather has gotten more extreme here in the Carolinas, water storage has become more critical. The major cities in NC could not exist without the large reservoirs. This century we've continued to build new, smaller reservoirs. The Eno no longer spikes after every thunderstorm because...

I've been wondering if you could use a Grumman as a backcounty hot tub. Seems like you'd have to dig a deep hole underneath it or something. One of those crazy ideas that could go very wrong.

What a great puzzle. That looks like the grinder plate from a meat grinder with a stainless bolt threaded through. Could also be a drain grate. What is it for? There might be a more common solution.

Hey Bartcanoed. Wwlcome to the site. There is paddling here, much of it mentioned above. Lumber River, Merchants Millpond, Bear Island, Fontana Lake, Congaree and Sparkleberry. I recommend Jocassee. There is clear water and 4 rivers that plunge to the lake, each with waterfalls.