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My brother toured Nova Scotia last summer. I have long been thinkig about planning a trip soon, maybe this fall after the '90. I keep getting tourism emails from there after I inquired last year. Guess I am glad I did not commit quite yet.

Nothing hard about using an efficient method of paddling, clearly the easy way for me and many others. . I fully realize that one can pry off the gunwales all day long if. you wish. I simply have a different very workable experienced method that has nothing to do with "just showing that I can"...

We each year have a single loon family residing on our small private no motors allowed lake. Early in the season they are skittish, as expected, and I understand they are very frightened of low flying large birds overhead (e.g., bald eagles that we may have around here). For that reason, they...

I remember well in the earlier days of the Adirondack 90 mile classic canoe race, especially when rounding a particular highly wind exposed point on afternoon windy Raquette Lake, a number of pro boats would be seen having capsized. Thankfully the prime track was close to shore, so no real...

A 10.5 foot Hornbeck has taken me on frequent trips well off trail to many remote Adirondack ponds, and on a 185 mile cross-Adirondack SW to NE diagonal trek from one side to the other and beyond with all gear and food I needed for a full week. Wind and waves on the larger lakes (including...

Unless in a crowded space, a draw on the opposite side is usually preferable to a pry. Rather than a direct paddle to on hull pry, an onside “push away” stroke can be done with a push-away figure-8 stroke when necessary, without touching the hull, similar to a figue-8 draw in reverse. in close...

More than 95% of my marathon canoe races see me as the bow paddler, nearly all in a voyageur or C4 canoe. While cruising open water, I set the cadence, as most bow paddlers do with hit and switch as called by the stern paddler, who controls overall direction of track. I occasionally provide...

While true bear protection is necessary both for the health and safety of the camper, but perhaps moreso for the protection and life of bears. As the slogan goes: "a fed bear is a dead bear", eventually too often the case. In most cases, the protection you need is from the destructive power of...

The answer for me is absolutely never does my paddle (straight wood ottertail or carbon bent) ever pry or touch my canoe in any manner unless it is laying inside the hull, when not being used. My solo power stroke with vertical shaft, both hands "stacked" over the water, goes from the catch in...

I don't know about which year might be a record, but it was quite intense during the 2009 Yukon 1000 mile canoe race. Smoke on the river began while we were still in the Yukon. Although this photo of a pyrocumulous cloud in which a nearby fire was forming its own thunderhead was taken just over...

I've mentioned this before. For the first ever Yukon River 1000 mile race in 2009, the race organizers required that each racer must begin the race with 20Kg of food on board for each paddler!! You could not count the weight of water to make dry food edible. An externally unsupported race by...

My brother, a professsional hot air balloon pilot and racer, lived on that lake in the 1980's.

I've used the tubular webbing method on all of my cars since I installed it on my first Subaru in 2004. Many hundreds of miles to tripping, races, and training sessions through the Adirondacks, and thousands of miles to the Yukon and return. No damage ever occurred. When not holding down a...

There are a few paddle maker sponsors, but also more than a few makers of solo-rec size canoes. The northernforestcanoe.org now operates the annual 41 year old Adirondack 90 mile classic canoe race, but has been in charge only since past 3-4 years, and also a few other races in NY and New...

I'll add an additional advantage of long blade wood paddles, otter, voyageur and the like, especially if they are finished with thin knife slicing edges. If when cruising you favor the Canadian/Northwoods correction stroke, as do I, with underwater recovery, these paddles are what will give the...

Thankfully GRB remains in Canton, NY. Gene and John Newman manufacture exactly equivalent performance paddles, Always have been generally a fair bit less expensive than ZRE. https://www.grbnewmandesigns.com/paddles-and-accessories

Make that argument to Charlie Wilson, not me. Two sets of gunwale stops properly firmly placed both in front of and behind the widest mid-point of most canoes positively prevents the canoe from sliding or twisting not only side to side, but also neither forward nor rearward. Properly tightened...

I believe the advantage of the long blade ottertail is, in expert hands, the leverage applied at the tip is useful for certain maneuvers.

Charlie Wilson has been heard several times saying that a stern tie down is not normally needed unless you are in the habit of speeding in reverse 70mph down the highway. I don't usually think I need a rear tie-down, except when I carry a C4 or voyageur long boat.

If you want to paddle single blade, then you would have to enter the canoe C1 race class in a pro, stock, or open class canoe. Talking the Adirondack 90 mile race here, but other races generally follow the same ACA guidelines. You may also enter a non-competitive race class that is open to...