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I do a lot of solo canoeing. My wife asks "where are you going, so I know where to tell them to search for your body?" The other day she learned of somebody who tracks their kid by iPhone, came home and announced "you need to share your dot with me." I told her, "That's' no good because then...

Well, I know this is a canoeing forum, and this definitely has nothing to do with canoes. But I paddled at Assateague last week and came across this wrecked, some-sorta vehicle next to the ruins of the Bunting Lodge. If you know what it might have been, I'd like to know. It looks like it had a...

Stumbled across photos taken in 2016 along the Patuxent of bank-side wheels that seriously piqued my curiosity. Back then I went as far as writing to a local historical society, but they never answered. The wheels are just upstream from a tributary named Mill Branch, and I speculated that...

My friend and I want to paddle and camp the Oswegatchie in the next few days. It's mid-summer. Do we need to worry about crowding? There appear to be quite a few camp sites which makes me think there may be quite a few people. It's been wet there, which I guess means there might be quite a few...

This post might be a longer read than it is worth. But, now that I wrote it... Steve and I paddle the same, 7-mile stretch of the Patuxent at least 20 times a year. The stretch, Bowie to Queen Anne, is a muddy flatwater with 1-2mph current, is about 15-30 yards wide, and has plenty of timber to...

I was about to leave a rest stop in Southern Maryland when an elderly couple pulled in next to me. The old woman on the passenger side must have been 80+ and slowly began to get out, and I could tell it was taking a bit to get her old bones moving. As she got out, her eyes wandered from me to...

While paddling, PPine and I both carry thermometers. This got me to wondering who carries thermometers, and what kind. I use a meat thermometer, but it's never been in the kitchen. It folds and fits into a pocket on my PFD. On the water, I was Mr. Smarty Pants telling other paddlers the water...

The knees and butt of my drysuit tend to get muddy. I remember reading one should keep a clean drysuit to extend the life of the suit. Only once a year do I actually put the drysuit in the washing machine. The rest of the season I take it in the shower. The drysuit often ends up there anyway. I...

I'm posting a photos of a derelict canoe because I'm curious to know about it. It is different than most canoes I've seen, and wondered if anybody might recognize or know anything about it. The canoe was on the wall behind the bar in a place that opened near me in 2019. It was mounted...

If anybody would like to receive a DVD tutorial on rolling (up) a canoe, send me your address and I'll put it in the mail for you.

I'd like my copy of Harry Rock's "Canoe Poling," and video of the same name to help somebody else learn to pole. If you think you might be the one, send me a message with your address and I'll put them in the mail for you.

I was out paddling on a still evening. I approached the hulk of tall, dead tree in which sat three birds. A bald eagle had the highest perch, and a pair of egrets were sitting two limbs below. I paddled towards the tree with my eye on the eagle. They almost always fly off when approached and I...

One of my Thule towers broke where the bar passes through the tower. It was a tower for the rear bar. I discovered this during tie-down of two boats. Me and the boats were due at the put in with little time to spare. I grabbed the bar and gave it a shake. Seemed stable fore, aft, and down...

Patapsco Valley State Park offered a canoe, trash-collecting, trip on June 26, 9-11 a.m. That's not much time, but the Daniels stretch is nice, and they were bringing the gear, so what the heck, I went. It was kind of a shock when the leaders (young adults from Americore) asked us to turn back...

At the time I took this photo, I was naked and drying off in the wind, thinking, this is the nicest bathroom ever. Reflecting on it now, my thinking was probably influenced by how good it felt after 7-days of desert heat and accumulated, caked-on, wind-blown dust. It's the Green River, and the...

I was cycling through Bladensburg Waterfront Park yesterday when my eye fell on a dumpster full of boats. Mostly plastic kayaks, but that’s a Disco 169 on top, cut neatly in half. A park employee in the area saw me eyeing the dumpster and assured me the boats were all too far gone to be...

Saturday night I went to the kayak club party, which included a “secret Santa” style gift exchange. I guess I’m a ”stir the pot” kind of guy, because I was determined to give a canoe-centric gift. I painted a pair of wine glasses with the CANOE guy graphic. My gift was the third to be opened...

I bought a new canoe: a Northstar B-17. I've paddled it a few times now and I like it, it's a keeper! But, really, that name? I've always called my canoes by their model name. The Wenonah Rendezvous is "the Rendezvous", the Old Town Appalachain is "the Appy," and so forth. But b-17 is no name...

Truxton Park, Annapolis, Md.

It's been a few years since I poled the canoe. Local paddling spots don't lend themselves well to poling: most are too deep or too muddy. But over the halloween weekend, I joined a group that was paddling the upper Potomac near Greenridge State Forest. I paddled that section before, and remember...