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I've always measured down from the gunwhales. I guess that's not really level if the shearline is swoopy, but in a solo canoe it's near the middle anyway so close enough for gov'ment work.

I totally agree. I enjoy (and envy) the epic stuff, but I also enjoy the shorter and less ambitious trip reports. Just like a build/outfitting fail can save others a lot of grief, a frank negative TR can be really helpful, whether it's a bad place, bad weather, planning errors & omissions...

Funny, I just gave Pitt a "Wow", not knowing that it was only monopoly money. I'm sure we could tweak that formula, but it's good to keep "Angry" at zero! Anybody who's angry should sign off and go paddling.

I don't even remember what the first stumble was, but the sticky mud was the trip reports. One of the things I like about the culture of CT is that even though there are absurdly knowledgeable / experienced canoeists here, people are much more likely to express what they know and how they...

Have you considered Clipper? They seem to have several dealers in Alberta, maybe not super close but closer than Wisconsin. The Whitewater II has similar ancestry to the Minn II and would have the sort of glide you're used to (but more freeboard). Or pack light and get a Jensen 18.

I've never paddled those boats so I don't have any info to offer, but this is interesting! Sometimes you see a "measured discharge" star on a USGS stream flow graph, and I've always wondered how they do that (and it doesn't involve trained beavers!?!). A tandem canoe is a great platform for...

Call me an optimist, but I do see some hope. I was at a canoe race last weekend, and looking at the results by class (High School, Jr/Sr, etc) I count approx 35 minors. Those kids will go to college and forget about all this stuff, then move to the big city and work and slave for reasons they...

FWIW, I did a quick search and there do seem to be some carbon Werner Journeys around at online retailers. I have the green glass Journey (~3oz heavier and ~$100 lighter than the carbon), and I've been happy with it. The blade has noticeably more buoyancy than a thin blade racing paddle like the...

It's good that we didn't lose Bell. Cheers to his lawyer for negotiating a weak/short noncompete. I think Old Town is making a killing in those heavy SOT pedal drive fishing barges. Some of them are three grand, for a single layer poly hull! I don't blame them for making hay in the sunshine, I...

Sad to see, especially at a time when canoeing seems to be making a comeback of sorts. I'm pretty new to the Mad River party, but I sure wouldn't mind a TW Special. A few years ago I passed on one in very rough shape. Dumb question: what year did MR move production out of Vermont?

Congrats on the new boat. Maybe call it "Le Pack". Small royalex/tformex boats are really useful for slogging around places on the outer boundary of navigability. I'm not sure what constitutes "serious" paddling, but read this TR from @Brasenia. That's a well traveled 12 footer!

Perhaps the greatest thing about the Ridgerests is that they're still in production. How often does a great piece of workaday kit disappear in favor of more advanced (~= failure prone) successors? I recently bought another one, not sure if it's #5 or #6. While anybody can make a foam pad, the...

My go to bug juice is a lower concentration of DEET, usually 25%. While in theory a higher concentration gives longer lasting protection, between water and sweat I'm usually going to wash/rub it off sooner than it would lose effectiveness, so periodic reapplication is necessary anyway. The low...

I'm also working on it, works great downstream and downwind! I find that wildlife are often spooked by the paddle blade coming out of the water, so the visual stealthiness of the Indian/silent stroke is as helpful as the actual silence. Hit and switch or double blade semaphore action are both...

Drat. "...facilitate access to the territory in order to take the pressure off certain sectors that are currently too busy..." The wilderness is wilderness because it's hard to access. LV has been on my list for a few years, hope it's still worth it when I get up there.

Nice job liberating the original hull. I'm with dogbrain, if it were mine I'd use 5oz kevlar patches on the inside to deal with any holes/soft spots. When some rock is trying to bash its way into your chine that extra tensile strength would be very helpful. Kevlar really isn't that bad to work...

300 sorties in a couple years, that's priceless. What's sad is when a nice boat sits up in the rafters all summer.

That banding must be a clue. Is that a seam between two sections of foam at the front of the ribs? Or is the laminate more porous there for some reason? Could they have vacuum bagged with not quite enough resin, so the inside is not totally wetted out / sealed? It'd be hard to test that theory...

I spent ~US$1300 on a new Royalex Wenonah Champlain in January 2014. Mountainman in Old Forge, NY had it on dead-of-winter special. Royalex boats were starting to get scarce and I wanted a big tandem for rec racing and tripping with my daughter.

So you're saying it's like the Seine? Is that why it's called the French River? :unsure: