Poll: How old were you when you got YOUR OWN first canoe (and what was it)?

[GeoBoy]

We started going up to Bar Harbor in the mid 90’s on vacation and would go out with a guide on the ocean in sea kayaks. We would occasionally stop in and check out the Hornbeck canoes on our way up to hike in the Adirondacks. Then in 2010 i was doing research on pack boats and read about Joe Moore building the Placid boat Spitfires, stopped in late September liked his boats and bought 2 new Spitfires. Great canoes.

 

[Riverguy]

I was in my early mid-30s. Got an Old Town Camper. Love that canoe.

On our maiden voyage, my then 4 year old son and I saw a bald eagle, a painted turtle smaller than a dime, and a water snake that fascinated him the most. If that canoe could only talk... it saw my children grow up. It has taken me through the Okefenokee and as far south as Whitewater Bay in the Everglades to as far north as Rock River on the VT-QE border. An alligator has jumped over it and I have slept under it. Four family dogs have enjoyed it. My grandson took his first paddle in it.

I still have it and hopefully will for some time yet.

 

[Curlymoe]

When I retired at 64 I started doing easy to moderate hiking trails around Lake George area in the southern Adirondacks. When it started getting hot on those July day hikes I decided it was time to get out on the water. Started looking at kayaks and someone told me about ultra light kevlar canoes being made by Peter Hornbeck in Olmsteadville. You mean I can get a boat that I can carry up to the ponds? I hadn't been in a canoe since the family Grumman decades ago, so the price of a kevlar pack canoe seemed crazy. Eventually stumbled on a well used 16lb Slipstream kevlar "Wee Lassie". My first canoe and pretty much the end of my hiking career except for snowshoeing.