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This sounds like a good trip. I might can pull it off and I'd love to see the San Juan. My summer is unfortunately getting crowded already, so this may be my only shot West until Jan. 2017. We won one Salt River permit but there won't be any water in it by the time they get there, so I believe...

The last few weeks have been wet here in central Virginia. Several days of rain in our already saturated Blue Ridge have given the creeks and rivers a nice stable base layer allowing them to maintain boatable water flows for days on end. Even higher up on the mountains. Daytime temperatures this...

Nice pics. Looks, as you say, "sporty." My goal is definitely to stay connected to my gear the entire float. For certain! And try not to break a leg hiking some couple four miles from my boat. That would spoil a nice sunny day in a heartbeat. As for the long nights, I've always liked the idea...

Each applicant puts down five potential dates, ranked in order from first to last choice. (This is true at the annual lottery and at subsequent follow up lotteries throughout the year.) And no, there is no exchanging or trading of dates permitted. This is also what they call a "weighted...

Solo venture indeed. That's the plan anyway. (I'm not opposed to others, but neither am I counting on them to see it all through.) And yes, the Colorado through Grand Canyon is indeed heavily controlled. There is no "off season," as there are for most Western Rivers. You must win a permit to...

Canooing Peeple: Well, I failed on my lotteries for the Selway, Middle Fork, Rogue and Salt, but today I won a GC launch date for Monday, January 2, 2017. A self-supported canoe trip down the Grand. And thus the countdown begins. Pretty stoked.

I hear everyone on the nutty cost of rain jackets and higher-tech gear in general. (My last canoe was I'm thinking a relatively cheap one and it cost me $1700!) And being a working-class stiff kinda guy I understand. And I remember during my stints of working the outdoor retail market (for no...

Sounds like you're looking for something pretty small, but I love Watershed bags. I believe they've got a couple "kayak" tapered tube bag types that, while relatively expensive and perhaps still too big a-round for what you're looking for, allow you to fill or deflate via air tube or purge valve...

One of the singular pleasures of paddling in an old mountain range, say, the Appalachian Mountains of ‘Merica’s east coast, comes in the form of small mountain streams that come tumbling out of the hollows and down between the hills before emptying out onto the Piedmont and meandering their way...

(Forgive me: I'm sitting at work on a snow day on a rather boring project, so this is likely to get long-winded.) But this is a great discussion that I've thoroughly enjoyed and of course I've found myself considering my paddle with a much more refined, focused and conscious effort in the last...

No Title Hey now! Lookin good. I'm hoping the Grand is at least a little sporty what with the trouble I'm going through to get a trip! Looks a little different than the ELF boating we do out here in the East. I'm hoping to have the gumption to skirt the biggest of the monsters. Some...

This topic is sort of floating away from seats, but I'd think about going the nylon route for air bags. Much lighter and more durable than vinyl. Leave the vinyl for, well, other things like records. And if you're going all out and spending the money, check out Fall Line Canoes based here in...

No Title I bag all my boats--yes, even my 17' Old Towns. What space I don't take up with gear I try to fill up with bag. Watching Bill Mason jump out of his boat in a rapid to dump fills me with anxiety. (Just put bags in it before it gets away!) And while I may leave the seats in the bigger...

Wow. Excellent. You sound like the power couple to know in terms of getting to and from desert rivers. And your line items all sound positive. Let me see who wins what around my local circles and where this group of old geezers ends up going this year and play it out from there. We play quite...

No Title I'm a big fan of the hammock, in terms of space, not having to carry a pad, etc. In some respects the hammock in the last few years has revolutionized not only possible sleeping spots but the possible rivers and streams upon which I can now spend multiple days. Rocky spits of narrow...

Hey Jag -- This sounds like possibility to me. (Hope you were serious about sharing the San Juan...) This year we've put in lottery apps for the Salt, Middle Salmon, Selway, Rogue, and of course every year the Grand Canyon. (We hail from the rocky streams of the east coast and try to get West...

YC, I suspect here that I could, but alas I shall not, argue your use of the the word "anything" when it applies to being held firmly to your crotch. We'll keep the discussion rated PG. ;) As for the sentiment of thwarts and milk crates, one of my grandest friends of the river had to, several...

Pedestals and sticks: Part of the elegance and appeal of the single blade--if the single blade can be said to stand as a sort of doppelganger to the standard "double blade"--comes in the form of efficient power. If I'm positioned correctly in the boat, I can get my stick perpendicular to the...

River, by Colin Fletcher (Knopf, 1997) In 1989, Colin Fletcher--the Walker—--at the age of 67, floated the entire length of the Colorado River, from the source to the sea. From an unnamed feeder lake of Trail Creek in Wyoming’s Wind River Range, down through the canyons, deserts...

As a solo paddler I find shuttles to be the most logistically challenging part of most trips. I always, on a trip of any length, take care of the shuttle prior to running the river. Actually getting in the boat and paddling downstream is a sort of reward for having worked out the shuttle...