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Charlie Wilson tuned me on to the outside lean years ago when he worked for Placid Boatworks. Most of my canoes respond well to rapid turning around sharp river bends with this method. Charlie explained it as presenting the shape of a banana with the hull to the water, which carves your canoe...

In some areas, specifically the Eastern High Peaks Wilderness of the Adirondacks, to be legal you must use a commercially made certified bear resistant hard side canister. Ursack bags and other flexible soft bags of the like are not legally acceptable, although those are useful protection in...

It is very possible to J-stroke with a bent shaft paddle. It is not quite as efficient or pretty as with a straight blade, but it does work. It is tough to do an effective Canadian stroke, but it can be awkwardly attempted. You can't do the Indian box silent stroke with a bent, or any other...

To me, nothing says "newbie" more than observing a paddler wildly switching paddling sides with lots of splashing as the canoe zigzags while making little obvious progress in determined direction of travel. A few loud curse words complete the picture. Only slightly less activity sccreaming...

Everyone knows the old adage of "how do you eat an elephant? - You do it one bite at a time. Approach high adventure or difficult activities the same way. Just make it to crest the next hill, or the next bend in the river, then look for the next one just ahead and do the same.

For many years I was an instructor for an 8-day BSA trek leader guide certification training program. Before coming to the course, prospective students (typically of college age) were given a questionnaire about their perceived abilities and experience. The natural tendency is to exaggerate...

Time to get back to the old yearly trip, now that the dam is competed (again). I have been there nearly 50 times, including 30 years every June while instructing an 8-day trek leadership certification program for BSA high adventure guide training. Plus separately my own personal solo trip nearly...

i totally agree with Gumpus above. It makes no sense to me to attempt that configuration. Plus, how would you securely attach the sponsons below waterline? if your motor gives you any advantage in any speed all, the force of water drag will llikely rip the sponsons off. If only one is lost...

I know of at least one voyageur canoe team (7paddlers) who purchased two weeks worth of self heating MREs for the Yukon 1000 mile race. Not the only bad decision they made in their sad showiing.

As the saying goes, "getting old is tough, but it sure beats the alternative". A day after an aggressive uphill mountain bike ride, I was picking blueberries but not tell where my left hand was without looking at it and it felt like I was lifting 50 pounds. My wife noticed my face droop and...

I have raced a 34' carbon voyageur canoe, a 28' cedarstrip voyageur canoe, each with 7 paddlers, and 23' C4 canoes on the Yukon, all with fresh cherry snacks in front of my bow navigation seat, I think this photo is from the 34' voyageur. If you think that looks choppy, you should have seen the...

I believe that "can't" is mostly a state of mind, less of a physical limitation. I'll never compete again the same way in canoe races as I once could like those who I paddle with and against who are half my age, but as a member of the "Gold' Club" due to my number of entries in the annual...

For the first 35 years of its running, the Adirondack 90 mile canoe race required a PFD to be on board as a legal requirement, but actually wearing it was optional unless the race director required it be worn due to weather conditions. Now that the NFCT has taken over running the event...

A dear late friend of mine who shared with me 30 years as instructors of BSA guide trek leader training, we often bantered together about strange and humorous training scenarios. When I would discuss with the students about how to wet foot properly and safely load and get in and out of their...

I find that may be difficult for the gut to accept nutrition in infrequent waves, particularly during high energy requirement long distance paddling race events. As I have said, I provided main meal (breakfast and dinner) high calorie dehydrated meals for my team during marathon Yukon River...

If you are going with cans anyway, Dinty Moore, or any other hearty soup, or evn a pouch soup mix cn be made much more hearty and filling with a handfull of couscous during a boil.

I know nothing of commercial trip planner. I do my own route planning. So I went old school and made my own process. For the Yukon River Canoe races, I use Google Earth as relatively accurate, within a couple of years, since the river tends to change its exact route to some extent every year...

When I was paddling on the Yukon River, my pit crew chatted for a while with local First Nation folks from the Tlingit tribe. They said, that unless a sow and cub felt threatened, a bear is most likely only interested in taking your food. But when a moose shows interest in you, it most likely...

I have used SPOT gen1 and gen2 devices. We were required to have and correctly operate them during the Yukon Canoe races. I dscovered an important fact about their operation. If you press the "I am OK" button to send a location signal out, it may take a couple of minutes tor it to actually...

So many many years ago, my dad took me into the woods on a with him on a favored loop hike where he likes to hunt. i was way too young and small to hunt and could barely follow him, but it was the beginning of my love of traveling in the Adirondack back country. At the edge of a freely flowing...