At the mercy of a shuttle service?

[Oldtyme]

Since starting my new found love of canoeing I've only been on a moving river one time. Luckily my first shuttle was a campground regular. $10 to drive w/ me to launch & drive my truck back to camp.
Now I am looking into another campground / rental place and they are wanting $25 to shuttle me & canoe (and I talked them into taking my dog since "No Dogs Allowed" on their buses)
I feel it would be worth it since they are breaking the rules and would be a nicer trip (5 hours)
Now the newbie question: Are we stuck finding shuttle services to enjoy this sport solo? (I guess the answer would be yes as there really isnt any other way?? )
What's the average cost for shuttles ? Do you tip the driver? Is there another way to avoid them ? On a slower river could you paddle up & float back? Anything else I'm not thinking about?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Big Al]

I use a shuttle service from an outfitter when we do Pine Creek in the PA grand canyon. It saves so much time and let's us get an earlier start. I look at it this way. Canoes/kayaks really don't require much money to maintain. Even a bicycle has wear parts and needs constant servicing. My plastic boats get rode hard and put away wet all the time. Think of the shuttle fee as a maintenance cost. A day on the water for $25 is a huge bargain. At Pine Creek Outfitters, you never see the driver, but I'd tip him if I did.

 

[yellowcanoe]

You can always do stash the bike at the takeout and when you arrive leave the canoe and take the bike back to your car.. Of course you need to drive the car and bike to the takeout first. Add the cost of doing that.
Then you have to think about securing your paddles and boat while you are gone so they do not develop "legs". Is that a risk you can assume in your area?

We have shallow rocky rivers so poling is always an option but I don't know anything about Indiana paddling.
We use a shuttle in the North Maine Woods as setting up our own requires two cars and some 50-200 miles of driving to set it up.

 

[Waterdog]

I do as Yellowcanoe mentions. I live in PA and often bike shuttle as much as 15 miles back to my canoe. Some of the roads are dangerous though!. Unless you have a super active, younger dog, though, it may not work well for you. As my dog got older, we would do shorter river trips and just do a 4 mile hike back to the canoe, and if she was feeling lively we would do it twice. I hate bike riding though and only do it for shuttles. My bike only has one gear out of 21 that works, and if I put too much pressure on the pedals it skips. My boat and gear is always where I left it fortunately. I don't lock my bike up, and unfortunately no one has taken it yet, that b*st*rd of heavy metal is always laying just off the trail against a tree.

Or, sometimes I can convince my wife to set shuttle for me in return for breakfast in town somewhere before heading out. Than I can take my geriatric dog too!

Cheers,
Barry

 

[Alan Gage]

I've done the bike thing but most often I paddle upstream at the start of the paddle and turn around when I'm ready. This won't work on all rivers and that might not be the type of paddle you're after but I enjoy it. Keeping a 4mph average is no problem for me and our local river never goes over 2mph so it's not a big problem. I've done a couple localish rivers that have more current and some small rapids. It was slower going and required lining up some of the fast water. It was a lot of work but also fun as it forced me to pay more attention to reading the current and use the eddies to my advantage.

Alan

 

[Alan Gage]

Unless you have a super active, younger dog, though, it may not work well for you.

I trained mine to ride in one of those pull behind toddler trailers. Just a cheap one someone was giving away. I pulled off the tent style roof so it was open and put some foam on the floor for traction. She'd trot with the bike until she got tired or we came to an area with traffic.

Alan

 

[Waterdog]

Alan,

i forgot got about the cart. I couldn’t find one on the cheap last year for a 85 lb chessie so I gave up. I found one that the company said was used for a golden retriever but it was some serious cash. I wasn’t sure if the cart and dog in combination with only having seventh gear in the mountains would work. But my next dog will be more compact and hopefully I’ll have a couple more gears and I will probably tow the dog on shuttles.

barry

 

[Oldtyme]

Thanks everyone. There is definitely not a lack of shuttles around me (within probably 50 miles). Not sure I would want to leave my canoe while biking back to the truck.
However, with my new & fast Canadian canoe (haha Oh Canada!) I bet I could paddle upstream a ways. The rivers are low & slow now due to lack of rain. Would also be a pretty nice workout.
I decided to go back to the campground I mentioned above tomorrow. . There are no shuttle times and it's 1/2 the price. Nice & quiet campground & my dog is not an issue.

 

[alsg]

This is a conundrum. The best solution is to find a friend who will canoe with you so you can set your own shuttle with 2 cars. So far I have rarely pulled that off.

 

[dougd]

I'd say give paddling upstream a try. It's one of the ways in my early days I learned how to read the river/currents. Back in the day I'd put in during high water events on the local river and use the currents to learn a ferry as well as poling. Still doing it to this day, a put in, paddle a mile or so against the current and float back down with a cold beverage as a reward! Reading the river is one of the best talents in canoeing you can learn IMO.

dougd

 

[Guest]

Average cost for a shuttle? It really depends on the where and how shuttled and how long it takes and what kind of roads. Some shuttle roads are so bad I’d prefer to avoid the wear and tear on my vehicle, and the driver is presumably familiar with the hazards.

$10 for a shuttle is very reasonable, although accompanying you to the put in and driving your vehicle back does save their costs. On some long shuttles where a driver or shuttle vehicle will be gone for hours the costs rise proportionally. Same for shuttles involving really bad dirt roads, especially if they provide the vehicle.

Tipping the driver? If it is a one-man operation I figure the owner/operator has fixed the price to be worth his time and expenses. If the driver is a “hired hand” I usually tip. If the driver is personable and offers local knowledge suggestions about the river, history, rapids, where to camp, etc I always tip.

We have probably done every imaginable type of shuttle, our vehicle(s), paid shuttles using their vehicles/trailers, “haul back” shuttles where we were picked up and brought back from a take out.

I have done river day trips in semi-self shuttle mode; having a family member or friend who isn’t paddling follow me to the take out in their vehicle, leave their car (which doesn’t even need roof racks) there, ride with me to the put in and then drive my truck back to the take out and leave it there. (Two sets of keys of course).

One of the elements that comes into consideration, in any shuttle guise, is the amount of time spent going back and forth on the road vs the amount of time spent on the river. Even on trips with companions and two vehicles, is it worth hours of driving, at both ends of the trip, vs paying someone to eliminate that road time?

 

[Guest]

One option I have used is a bicycle to either get back from the takeout or back to the launch leaving the car at the end(which I prefer). I have both a mountain and road garage sale bikes I bought for 15$ ea. so I don't even lock them. I hide them if possible though. never had a problem.

 

[ppine]

Shtuttles are harder to find in the West. Mostly we do our own shuttles. I did one on the upper Missouri R in Montana that took all day. The trip was 151 miles on the water.
When shuttles are available I take advantage of them. $25 would be nothing. I would pay $50 , 75 or 100 for an overnight trip.

 

[Guest]

Shtuttles are harder to find in the West. Mostly we do our own shuttles. I did one on the upper Missouri R in Montana that took all day. The trip was 151 miles on the water.
When shuttles are available I take advantage of them. $25 would be nothing. I would pay $50 , 75 or 100 for an overnight trip.

FWIW the shuttle fees for the Green River; Tex’s Riverways put in at Ruby Ranch with a 15-passenger van and canoe trailer-load of other folk dropped off at the same time (think 1[SUP]st[/SUP] night campsite advantages of quick get-away), take out via a 20-ish person canoe-hauling Jetboat ride up the Colorado:

$165 per person
$35 per canoe
$10 per boat access fee at Ruby Ranch
$5 per person at Ruby

$215.

I’d rather not spend the hours of self-shuttle at both ends, rather not twice drive that length of washboard with my truck, and sure as heck don’t want to paddle upstream on the Colorado to Potash.

Sometimes the piper must be paid, and a shuttle service is worth whatever the cost.

 

[Chip]

Bike shuttle has already been mentioned, but there are, at least sometimes, other things to try.

I have now done shuttle by Uber on two occasions. That worked great but you have to have Uber in the area, and you have to leave your gear unattended while you go get your vehicle. In some locations, that's an issue.

Remember hitch-hiking? Almost nobody does that anymore. However,I have found that standing near a river access, wearing a PFD and holding a paddle in the non-thumbing hand, I get rides remarkably quickly, usually within first few cars. I carry the paddle for visual effect, and it makes the canoe you are leaving at the take out slightly less of an attractive nuisance. A cable, bike lock on the canoe is also helpful in that regard. Disclosure: Last time I tried this was in the Boundary Waters when fires in the BWCA forced us to come out at a location we hadn't anticipated, many miles from our vehicle. Of course the first vehicle coming down the road picked us up, it's the Boundary Waters. But, hitch hiking has worked for me other places, too.

And this is of very limited applicability, but I have twice paddled the Anacostia River and shuttled by Metro Rail and taxi. Put in at Bladensburg, Md, paddle down the Anacostia, cross the Potomac and take out at Gravely Point, Va., just off the end of the runway at the airport formerly known as National Airport. We walked up to the airport, and to get to the Metro Rail we walked through the terminal. I so enjoyed all the stares of travelers rushing to or from flights as we strolled through wearing scuzzy paddling attire, PFDs, and with our paddles and dry bags slung over a shoulder (cable lock the canoe and don't leave anything--not the most secure area). And, we got more stares from commuters on the train. The Metro stop at Cheverly is still ~3.5 miles from the put-in, so we finished the trip in a taxi. This is such a one-off solution that I include it not so much as something you'd really do but rather as encouragement to be creative in identifying shuttle options. And, maybe I'm bragging a little--it was cool.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Hitchhiking in a drysuit is interesting.. My hubby and I stood on Rt 1 in Camden ME in January sporting gold and purple and gold and blue drysuits and kayak paddles. In the summer with all the traffic from away no one would have picked us up.
In January within 5 minutes hubby had a ride in a grubby old pickup truck that had a Mad River Ski Area sticker on it. Ski it if You Can! Instantly it was a good ride.

We have hitched many years ago in the Adirondacks too. We dont in Maine as we would be waiting for days for a ride in some cases.

 

[PaddlingPitt]

I don't really consider the situation as being "at the mercy." Rather, it is a welcome "service." This past summer, Kathleen and I paddled the Yukon River from Whitehorse to Dawson City. We drove up to Whitehorse, where we left our gear and canoe with a friend. We then drove our van 525 km (328 miles) to Dawson City, where we left it in a secure parking lot. Then we hired The Klondike Experience to complete the shuttle by taking us back to Whitehorse on their Husky Bus. Total cost for the two of us was $264.18. ($198.13 U.S.) Well worth the price to have this long-distance shuttle complete.

 

[yellowcanoe]

I don't really consider the situation as being "at the mercy." Rather, it is a welcome "service." This past summer, Kathleen and I paddled the Yukon River from Whitehorse to Dawson City. We drove up to Whitehorse, where we left our gear and canoe with a friend. We then drove our van 525 km (328 miles) to Dawson City, where we left it in a secure parking lot. Then we hired The Klondike Experience to complete the shuttle by taking us back to Whitehorse on their Husky Bus. Total cost for the two of us was $264.18. ($198.13 U.S.) Well worth the price to have this long-distance shuttle complete.

Way loss than the cost including fuel of doing your own shuttle. Not bikeable and would have required two vehicles.. Not practical. We used the same Husky Bus and it was worth every penny. Now we might talk about air shuttles.. If you are doing a one way trip down a river with no road access the costs of a vehicle shuttle pales.

Only you can put a value on your trip.

 

[Guest]

A local man I paddled with just goes to the road at the takeout and starts walking back carrying his canoe paddle. he said he always gets picked up and driven back to his car. I have never tried it. I don't know if it would work with a kayak paddle.

 

[lowangle al]

I used to hitch hike when I did river trips in Ak. I would walk out to the main road and my wife would stay with the boat and gear. I don't think a random car driving by ever stopped for me. It was always another boater coming off the river that my wife would ask if they would pick me up if they saw me. If I get up that way again I will try to arrange a shuttle.