Just returned from a lovely week paddling the canyons of the Flaming Gorge reservoir area. Took both a Wenonah Wilderness and a WS Zephyr kayak. Weather was spotty, intermittent thunderstorms with scatterred periods of beautiful sunny autumn skies. And hardly a soul there to disturb my adventuring.
Wind can be a serious issue in these deep canyons thus I had my double blade along in the canoe for such an event. Never used it. When the wind would hit the 30+ mph mark I just found a get-out, sheltered up and made a cup of coffee while I watched the storm blow through. I could have fought it with the double blade but why?
During this trip I thought a lot about the double vs single blade thing and I've decided I'm going to commit to the single for one year. No double blades at all in the canoe for that period of time. I'm going to seriously focus on my offside skills and I'm going to do a deck for my boat.
Part of this is also my desire to do more tripping via canoe than kayaks. I'm so tired of packing ultralight in a gazillion little dry bags, packing and unpacking the hatches each day during the trip. I'm tired of wearing neoprene skirts and having to wrangle my camera from within the cockpit when I want to snap a scene. I want to carry a more comfortable camp chair and real food.
And I want to do this with a single blade.
Wind can be a serious issue in these deep canyons thus I had my double blade along in the canoe for such an event. Never used it. When the wind would hit the 30+ mph mark I just found a get-out, sheltered up and made a cup of coffee while I watched the storm blow through. I could have fought it with the double blade but why?
During this trip I thought a lot about the double vs single blade thing and I've decided I'm going to commit to the single for one year. No double blades at all in the canoe for that period of time. I'm going to seriously focus on my offside skills and I'm going to do a deck for my boat.
Part of this is also my desire to do more tripping via canoe than kayaks. I'm so tired of packing ultralight in a gazillion little dry bags, packing and unpacking the hatches each day during the trip. I'm tired of wearing neoprene skirts and having to wrangle my camera from within the cockpit when I want to snap a scene. I want to carry a more comfortable camp chair and real food.
And I want to do this with a single blade.