Recent content by wjmc

I would guess Cross Lake (can't remember its new name) or Norway House. It's called a "Cross Lake Racing Canoe" in the list of canoe models here: "In Cross Lake, Manitoba there is a special canoe race dating to 1967, using freighter canoes converted to racing. These are required to be 18'...

Thanks for that - relaxing indeed. The fact that it wasn't titled: "ALONE! In Canada's REMOTE and SAVAGE Wilderness" was a welcome change from much of YouTube. As someone who has difficulty creating a recognizable stick man, I envy him his artistic talent - those sketches form a record that...

Have a great trip.

Use the gunnels? Yes I do (if forced into single blade usage). I stand with that old Greek fellow, Archimedes, on the efficacy of levers. Paddles are easily protected with whipping or some form of wrap. I find it odd that in a site where people have appealed to integral calculus to...

"Armstrong" is the name of the 1:250,000 topo map sheet 52J. All 16 of the 1:50,000 topo map sheets in the 52J area - none of which is named "Armstrong" - are listed on the map world website here: https://www.maptown.com/Canadian-Topographic-Block-052J-s/2847.htm They are also available free...

I don't know that we need too much sympathy. Many might say that the Bay really sold its soul in 1987, when it sold off all of its northern posts ( the "Northern Stores Division" - until 1943 known as the "Fur Trade Division") and essentially abandoned its 317 year relationship with northern...

An old "home movie" of a canoe trip on the Coppermine River, from Obstruction Rapids to Coppermine (now Kugluktuk) in 1970. This was one of 2 trips in that year organized by Eric Morse (a dean of Canadian canoeing and a pioneer in Barrenlands recreational canoeing) to commemorate the...

Why guess? - when I hover over the photo with my cursor, I see "Dave Yost and Mike Galt.jpg".

As well as the Weaver River, the 6 portages route north from Nemibien Lake would also take you to the Churchill - in Trout Lake - and set you up to paddle the whitewater on the Churchill upstream from Missinipe. The area north of the Churchill and east of the road has been my favourite area for...

Regulation here...

Assuming sufficient connective tissue survives this ski season, I hope to continue my usual practice in 2025 - 3 weeks in the NWT in late June/July, and a week in northern Saskatchewan in September. Like Keeled Over, I rarely use my boats when not tripping. -wjmc

Thanks, and the same to you. But I'm hoping for several more months of good skiing before soft water time rolls around again. "to every thing, there is a season"

Yes. "Yes" because I'm too slow a typist to produce a logical and balanced reply like Brian (Cruiser). I have primarily used a double blade on my northern trips (2-3 weeks) for the past 33 years. I wish I had started using one earlier. I have a background in, and received instruction in, both...

Still using my 1999 Swift Raven, where transport considerations don't demand the PakCanoe. Last weighing by an airline was 58 lbs. Listed at 52 - I assume the glass patches and epoxy weighed more than the plastic I scraped off. I regard it as sort of a "prospector type", jack of all trades...

ppine wrote - "I really like Phillip Goodwin." Me too - I have a few Goodwin canoeing prints, inherited from a former family cabin my parents purchased in the 50s. Goodwin was a prolific commercial artist and illustrator as well. I believe he was a contemporary and friend of the well known...