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@Alan Gage This is all really helpful—thank you! That gives me lots of ideas, and it's neat to see the various permutations you've come up with. And those Bloodvein canoes are so cool, too!

That is very helpful info—thank you! I had been thinking of using U-bolts, and was wondering what the best way to keep them from protruding would be—I like the way your solution sounds. And that is generous of you to offer to show me in-person—thank you! Perhaps I’ll take you up on that—and at...

That looks beautiful!

I’ve been thinking about DIY-ing a set of wooden crossbars—may I ask how you like yours, how you attach them to the rack, and whether you ran into any problems/challenges when designing and building them? I love my Outback and hope/plan to keep it for a long time, but starting from ~90,000...

Welcome! I’m a little ways northwest of you in the Hudson Valley.

I always transport a canoe bow forward—as @yknpdlr said, it is bad luck not to. It’s also the only orientation that makes sense for loading and unloading my solo canoes with my car/rack (my crossbars don’t stick out past the rails, so I can’t easily load the canoe from the side of the car as...

Mine comes from one of my other hobbies: photography. I have a couple of vintage camera lenses that focus using an unusual sliding mechanism (rather than the typical helicoid or cam mechanism), and when I joined a photography forum and needed a screen name, I was inspired by those lenses to call...

I’m late to this thread, but just wanted to say welcome from a fellow paddler in the Hudson Valley! Which (if either) canoe did you end up choosing?

I also use a Sawyer Squeeze and have been happy with it. In addition to the qualities @snapper mentioned (easy to backflush, affordable), I like that it can be used as a gravity filter. And it’s pretty compact—great if you do backpacking in addition to canoe tripping! Platypus GravityWorks...

I think you might’ve been on the right track with the Swift Prospector 14. Not sure how responsive it is, but it’s probably capacious enough for a dog, and I’m under the impression it’s pretty stable. An acquaintance of mine who tried my Yellowstone Solo (similar to the Phoenix) and thought it...

I fold my tents into thirds and then roll them up with the poles and stakes in the middle, but I haven’t thought too critically about why or whether that’s the best way—it’s what I learned as a Boy Scout and also the way the tents came when I bought them, and it’s always been compact enough, so...

As someone driving an older, high-mileage car myself, I don't have experience with a new one to share... But, I learned a tip from the folks at Collinsville Canoe & Kayak last year that might help: they like to place loops of paracord around the hinges of the hood to use as tie-down points for...

I was thinking of using mine just for viewing during totality (when, as yknpdlr said, it is perfectly safe to look without special eye protection), but if you wished to view the partial phases through binoculars as well, you could buy sheets of solar filter film to cut and place over the...

OP, I was poking around and found this post that might interest you (in case of confusion: it's post #12 in the thread): https://www.canoetripping.net/threads/looking-for-some-paddle-insights.124922/post-128067 That poster's comments would seem to corroborate memaquay's: As stated...

I'm planning to spend the weekend with a friend in Saranac Lake—hopefully heading up early enough and going home late enough to avoid the worst of the traffic. For anyone who's at all on the fence about getting into the path of totality, I highly recommend going for it! I drove down to South...

Haha, indeed! Back when it came with a 5-speed, too ;)

My '09 Outback with my Mad River Independence: And on the day I picked up my Bell Yellowstone Solo:

I have two dedicated solo canoes: a Mad River Independence in fiberglass and a Bell Yellowstone Solo in Royalex. The Indy was/is my first canoe, so I feel pretty attached to it and that surely colors my impression of it…but I love it! Something about the way it paddles just feels familiar and...

In that case, I don't think that yours sounds like mine, actually, but not being experienced at varnishing myself, I can't say for sure. The closest analogue I can think of for the texture on mine would be leatherette or spatter paint—it has just a hint of bumpiness (seemingly due to the...

I bought a Sanborn Clearwater a couple of years ago, and my paddle's finish resembles yours—I can feel the texture of the fiberglass weave on the blade (not sure I'd describe it as gritty, but it looks just like your photo), and there's a spot or two that it looks like the builder missed...