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I'd like to thank Kestrel for replying to this thread a few weeks back and bumping it up. Otherwise I may have missed out on reading one of the best trip reports I can remember! What an epic trip, with very good descriptions of what it is like to be living in nature instead of just with it. I...

I regret not being able to join you all on this one! Usually I can take a day off on short notice, but not this time. It looked like a fun trip!

A comfortable chair is a must for me. The only time I took less than a full-sized chair was when I packed a tripod chair (it still had a seatback, but no arm rests) as part of an ultra-light 5 day trip that included the Mud Pond Carry. Man (at least this man) does not live on water alone. So I...

I don't think there is any ice left in RI...not that there ever was much this year. I imagine things are similar in most of CT, and certainly in SE Mass.

Expecting 1-2 inches of rain tonight and tomorrow, with some winds. Normally a nothingburger, but this will be enough to flood everything again...there's nowhere for the water to go. And the temps: 46, 39, 56, 21, 19...RI weather be throwing temps out there like the daily lottery numbers.

My immediate canoe tripping dreams involve retirement so that I have more time to do it! I have a little less than 3 years before I can retire (at age 59, which is pretty good), so after that, river gods willing, I'll be able to focus on some of my bucket list trips, like the BWCA, Voyageurs...

That is a real good price, and I think you will be happy with that boat. To get back to your question about the oil-canning, I'm not even sure if the hull is warped or not. It just appeared to be in one of the pictures in the way it reflected the light. It could be totally fine. If not, you...

2-3 inches of rain or more overnight and warming temperatures pretty much got rid of the 7 or so inches of snow we got last Sunday. Oh well. More rain this weekend, then perhaps some snow coming up next Tuesday. It's a good time to stay off the rivers in RI...they're mostly in flood now. Again...

I have a 1989 Rx Explorer that is in worse shape than that one! It's tough to tell if those are surface scratches or true cold cracks. If they are cold-cracks, I agree with pblanc...some G Flex and maybe a fiberglass patch will be a strong repair. That bottom hull is not in bad shape at all...

I'm with Gamma on this. I dress generally for the season, and if there is some question I stick my hand in to feel how cold it is. If it is a big enough lake that there could be a thermocline, I take that into consideration.

Well, probably the oddest thing I have seen on a portage was this weird, rotating foam sculpture I passed on the Mud Pond Carry in Maine. I also found a sandal hanging in a tree, but that is probably par for the course on this portage. And finally there was that day on the portage from...

As one without a ton of storage space, I tend to gravitate towards the generalist hulls. Also, I'm cheap, and don't buy boats just to buy boats, even though I am lucky enough to have the funds to do just that. So, I have two Mad River Explorer 16', one Kevlar for most of my paddling needs and...

Up here in New England, there aren't too many predators like alligators to worry about in the water, so our dog goes for frequent, supervised swims. That keeps her cool. When that isn't practical, such as when we are on the water for long open water crossings or on rivers without many good...

I have a Hemlock SRT in Expedition Layup. It has also gotten an extra layer of carbon cloth and new gunnels & seats as part of a repair from an accident I had playing in floodwaters in 2013 (it got wrapped a bit in a pile of trees), so it gained a pound from that, but still only weighs in at 42...

I've never thought of a spray deck for my SRT, and only once or twice have I taken on any significant water over the gunnels...both times in heavy whitewater drops while loaded with camping gear. The SRT has a lot of freeboard, but even that has its limits. I have had it in significant waves and...

In the fall of 2014 my group was camped at Jaws on Churchill Lake, where we had arrived earlier that day under sunny, calm conditions. After we set up, we were entertained by several thunder storms that passed to our south. One of our group, Jim, decided to take a hike up to the dam and ranger...

My first-ever encounter with a moose was also my closest, and one I'd like never to repeat. I was camping with a scout troop in Maine when I was in my late teens, and had gotten up early to do some bird watching off of some forest trails. While searching the canopy for some tiny dang warbler, I...

Thanks, Glenn. Yeah, it does not seem to be a popularly run river, perhaps due to its proximity to other more well-known quality runs and maybe it's dirt road shuttle route and half-mile lake paddle to the take-out. I did find it listed as a trip offered by a local outfitter, which tells me that...

While randomly "watching" a playlist of my favorite canoe trips while trying to fall asleep amidst a blinding full moon last night, one theoretical trip I have yet to do intruded on my thoughts. It was a trip I thought to do 4 or 5 years ago, but never had a chance to look into it and it sorta...

I've paddled many miles in both canoes and kayaks, over all sorts of water, day-tripping or loaded down with a week or two's worth of gear and food, and the only time I would prefer a kayak over a canoe is in large open waterbodies on windy days or for whitewater playboating (but only because I...