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Yes, just drilled through the roof bars and used fender washers as the metal was pretty thin.

These rails are 80” and made of ash bolted through the existing racks with the old hardware from my Yakima racks. I used to use rope and a truckers hitch but I’m sold on the NRS straps now. Makes the load feel really secure and I don’t feel the need for any sort of load stabilizer. I use hood...

We passed one with a canoe on our way back from Temagami this summer. Yes, the canoe was pointed up at about a 30 degree angle and looked like a flaccid airport windsock. The curvilinear canoe mounted on the back of the angular vehicle. It was a, “what’s wrong with this picture” moment as the...

The color looks great Robin. The sikaflex is a nice detail. Rob

Photo from Keewaydin Temagami Endseason last weekend. The campers have tumped up the boats as part of a skills competition. The boats are waiting their turn for a camper to flip them up, load them on the water with duffels and loaded wannigan and then paddle them through a course tandem and...

A really nice community of dedicated paddlers and instructors, many of whom travel great distances to attend. I’ve learned a lot there as well and am fortunate to be close by. You get to hang out with the rock stars of the freestyle world and it turns out they’re just regular people like the...

Paddled through the upper Cuyahoga, yes, that Cuyahoga, yesterday. Water levels were up and that allowed for paddling around sweeps in the main channel more easily. This section passes through woodlands of maple, elm, swamp white oak and the remnants of ash. It then opens up into a button bush...

Makes me wonder if a person’s eyes would see past a black rope more easily when visibility is poor?

I inherited a couple sets with the rubber tube when I bought my used Phoenix and it feels like the webbing is getting a little crunchy on them but they haven’t broken yet. The owner said they were cheaper ones she had picked and the webbing seems less robust than the loops I’ve had from Piragis...

I wrote about this situation over on the WCHA forum: “I just found out while trying to register my 1965 Old Town WC canoe that Ohio now requires that boats without a 12 digit HIN (hull inspection number) be assigned one before they can be licensed. The original original serial numbers are not...

10 days on the trail. This is the Philmont high adventure base. They pack a jaw dropping 200,000 meal packs for all the crews that circulate through the base during the course of the summer. I trust they have portions pretty well figured out but your point is well taken. Bringing along some...

We’re taking a group of scouts backpacking in New Mexico this summer. The camp had a Zoom discussion of food and cooking this past week. The food they provide aims for 3,000 calories per day. That works out to 1 1/2 to 2 lbs of food per person per day. Of course that’s as light as they can...

The Grand is indeed still grand…

I would argue that the best place in the US for canoeing is the place where you can pretty much walk out your door and drop a boat into the water in the course of a minute or two, preferably without driving. All bodies of water, be they lakes or rivers, have their own personality and that...

WonderMonkey, I ended up buying the Phoenix that Gumpus referenced. That was a boat I have been looking for for a while. I was prepared to drive a good distance for one and when the owner got back to me it turned out it was only 15 minutes away. That was finding a needle in the haystack as far...

That is a great article. It’s culturally more meaningful, informative, and tells a much broader story to see the canoe in the context from which it came rather than removed from the site. It reminds me of the quarry on Easter Island where the Moai lay on their backs partly completed next to...

Really nice craftsmanship Patrick. Those paddles look like they would be a treat to use. I’m just blown away by that quarter sawn sycamore. So gorgeous. Such a privilege to live in the eastern hardwood region. We have so many species available to work with. Rob

Check with Boatline Bay Marine accessed from Route 11 south of Temagami

Nice write up… Rob

Work has started on the removal of the Gorge Dam on our wonderful Cuyahoga river in northeast Ohio. Tentative schedule for completion is 2026. Removing the dam will reveal, ”The Big Falls” and open up a 2 1/2 mile stretch of whitewater not seen for more than 100 years. Can’t wait to see the result!