The first canoe you ever PADDLED and the circumstances

[redcanoe]

The canoe for me is more than just a tool. I romanticize it and my time on the water. No doubt part of the reason for that perspective comes from my first experiences in one.

Ahhh. To travel back in time. She had such a beautiful smile, bright blue eyes, golden blonde hair, and her sunny disposition never allowed her to speak a negative word about anyone. We went to the same school and were in the same grade, but our classroom assignments never aligned.

She lived in nearly the same neighborhood, and her house backed up to a private lake. My good friend lived a few houses away from her, and he liked to fish as much as I did. So when he caught wind that she had a canoe we could take out, our high school selves jumped at the opportunity, though neither of us had ever been in such a narrow, tippy boat.

This one was aluminum. A tandem. Probably 16 to 17 feet in length. I’m unsure of the manufacturer, but perhaps it was made by Weber because it certainly grilled your legs when the summer sun was high and your skin happened to brush against the metal.

The lake water was always an unattractive gray, so the bass were always pale. But my friend and I managed to maneuver the canoe around and enjoyed catching a few fish on our maiden voyage. However, it was the subsequent outings that I enjoyed the most. Then it was just me in the stern and her in the bow facing backwards. Me paddling around. More talking than fishing. More looking than anything else.

So when people suggest I try a kayak, I just smile and listen to the reasoning with deaf ears. Because I’d take one day in that aluminum canoe over their best 100 with their kayaks.

 

[chrisrezac]

I remember it was March 10, I think 1987 or 1988, Dante, South Dakota. Most people I knew didn't have disposable income, but my friend's Dad was a banker, and had acquired an aluminum canoe at some point in time. I don't know exactly what it was, but it accommodated my friend and I, my next younger brother, and my friend's younger brother. My friend and I were 15 or 16, and our brothers 13 or 14. We had a few exceptionally warm late winter early thaw days, and the Chouteau Creek was way up near flood stage. I remember my friend calling me to come over and do it, and I remember a little back and forth resistance still ongoing with his parents when we got there. But once we arrived, they allowed it, and his dad helped us load the canoe onto the old red Ford F100, sans muffler, and off we went. My brother and I had never paddled a canoe, but we were rugged farm kids. These weren't the days in this area of the country where folks worried about typical kids being physically fit. But we had 0 experience doing it. I'm betting our friends' experience had mostly been riding along with their parents on a few occasions. I remembered all the warnings about the swift current over the years, and a few old stories of lives lost in this creek that were often repeated to kids while fishing. And I remember the current being quite swift as we set off from shore, and a lack of ability to exercise meaningful control over the canoe. Eventually we failed to avoid getting pushed into a downed tree that heaved up one side of the canoe, and before I could put together my next thought, I was submerged in the ice cold current. I remember swimming hard towards shore, and being pushed into tree branches as I got there, which I used to pull myself out of the water. (No one had ever gone over the danger of strainers with me.) Then running along shore to help the last person get out of the creek. Then we all ran along the shore until the canoe entered an eddy and we could grab hold of it. (None of us had even heard the term eddy before. It was all just dumb luck to us.) It was quite a memorable adventure that day. It might be fair to say the first canoe I ever paddled ended up paddling me.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

It might be fair to say the first canoe I ever paddled ended up paddling me.

Chris, welcome to site membership!

Feel free to ask any questions and to post messages, photos and videos, and to start threads, in our many forums. Please read Welcome to CanoeTripping and Site Rules! Also, because canoeing is a geographic sport, please add your location to the Account Details page in your profile, which will cause it to show under your avatar as a clickable map link. Many of the site's technical features are explained in Features: Help and How-To Running Thread. We look forward to your participation in our canoe community.

Memorable first canoe story. What do you paddle now?

 

[chrisrezac]

Chris, welcome to site membership!

Feel free to ask any questions and to post messages, photos and videos, and to start threads, in our many forums. Please read Welcome to CanoeTripping and Site Rules! Also, because canoeing is a geographic sport, please add your location to the Account Details page in your profile, which will cause it to show under your avatar as a clickable map link. Many of the site's technical features are explained in Features: Help and How-To Running Thread. We look forward to your participation in our canoe community.

Memorable first canoe story. What do you paddle now?

Thanks. I've been paddling a cedar strip John Winters Osprey solo, a Wenonah Adirondack tandem, and just recently added a Swift Cruiser 17.8.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Thanks. I've been paddling a cedar strip John Winters Osprey solo, a Wenonah Adirondack tandem, and just recently added a Swift Cruiser 17.8.

Great. Nice fleet. We have members in the South Carolina coastlands and other regions, and I've always loved paddling there in such places as Sparkleberry Swamp, the Edisto River, the Four Hole Swamp, and Amelia Island. Keep us informed of your paddling ventures.