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You might find my story interesting and informative. Our Mad River Explorer canoe had wooden gunwales, and a Royalex, plastic hull. Plastic and wood expand and contract at different rates during times of warming and cooling. That didn’t make much difference when Kathleen and I lived on the...

The following is from my Trip Report on our Anderson River trip in 1999. Loud splashing in the river startled us awake at 1:00 a.m. Kathleen and I instantly thought the same thing—must be a bear. I grabbed for my rifle, and Kathleen reached for the pepper spray. We peered out cautiously to see...

We spent the next night at Jack Batstone's cabin on Hudson Bay. Polar bear wandered by in the morning.

We left our soggy, boggy, undulating, waterbed camp at 10:00 a.m., beneath a low sky, but no mist on the water. We ran two rapids down to Deaf Rapids, and got out to scout on river right. Very high, threatening waves throughout. From our vantage point, it looked like there was a potential “sneak...

recped's water camp reminded me of the water camp that Kathleen and I shared on the Seal River in northern Manitoba. The following is copied from my Trip Report. So, we ended our paddling day at 6:30 p.m. to set up camp on a very wet and boggy flat that undulated like a waterbed. Kathleen...

Common Mullein, aka “Cowboy Toilet Paper,” in case you thought I was joking. https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/columbiaco/2020/04/02/common-mullein-verbascum-thapsus-cowboy-toilet-paper/

Perhaps I was exaggerating

OK. Number 2: I have always said that you can never have too much rope on a wilderness canoe trip. After more than 30 years of wilderness canoeing, I am now up to about 33.6 pounds of rope on each trip. The rope requires its own, personal blue barrel. Perhaps this rule needs to be amended.

Number 1: To experience the glory and pristine beauty of the wilderness, never bring toilet paper. This actually happened to me on a backpacking trip with my stepbrother. OK.. I have been drinking. I turn over the next rule to you. Whadda you got?

If it’s a contest, I could probably come up with 114 rules, at least two of which I hope would be more than modestly humerous.

What I like best about wilderness canoeing is that there are zero rules. Zero guidelines. Zero asked for suggestions. Keep your rules to yourself.

Earl, Without actually seeing you paddling, I can not know, definitively what you’re doing wrong. I agree with Nick Pending that you should join a canoe club, and ideally take a canoe course. There are great suggestions in this thread, but you need someone skilled, to actually watch you...

Thoroughly enjoyable Steve. Great story to complement my morning tea with eggs and sourdough toast.

Clipper canoes are manufactured in Abbotsford, in the Fraser Valley, in southwestern BC. The paddler’s district is in northwestern BC, a long way from Abbotsford.

I was just going to post this story, Brad. Very interesting.

Very interesting and entertaining to see these trip reports woven together.

Great story. I might be misunderstanding, but why do you burn mosquito coil in the tent? Doesn’t your tent keep out bugs?

Definitely cloudberries. Great to see a trip report. Enjoying your writing style. Understated and self-deprecating. Even though a laudably successful challenge. Looking forward to the next Instalment.

I agree. These lists are essentially meaningless. I know people who disliked the Thelon because of its tundra landscape. Unless one has personally paddled all the world’s rivers, it is a stretch, to say the least, to rank their beauty. One also needs to clarify how beauty is determined. What...