What got you into canoeing?

[dramey]

I grew up in Columbus Ohio. In the early 1960s, my parents rented a cabin on Tobermory, Ontario, Canada. At that time Tobermory was a wilderness with a dirt road for access. The cabin came with a boat dock and a row boat. I was either in 4th or 5th grade. My parents allowed me to go exploring around Tobermory in the row boat. This was that start of me liking wilderness and paddling a boat. I graduated high school at Worthington High School in 1969. Worthington High School’s western boundary was the Olentangy River and the school had a canoe livery. For 3 years, my gym class consisted of canoeing on the Olentangy River before ice up and after spring thaw. This is where I fell in love with canoeing. 4 years after graduation, I bought my first canoe. It was a Michicraft aluminum canoe with flush rivets and a shoe keel. I canoed in Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Texas, New Mexico and Alaska in that canoe. I went down rivers, went whitewater canoeing, canoed lakes, both big and small. I sold that canoe in 1991 and made the mistake of not replacing it. I bought my next canoe during covid. I now have 2 solo canoes and although I will not be canoeing the famous Canadian rivers, I will be enjoyinig canoe camping on lakes and various canoe trails.

 

[recped]

I don't have any personal memory but I can relate what I have been told.

I was born in late June 1954, 3 weeks later my parents loaded up their 1940's Dodge Fargo panel truck, my much older siblings jumped in while I was carried in a wicker basket. We headed off to ????, I don't know but probably to Ipperwash or Picton or Wasaga Beach. The 16' Peterborough canoe came off the truck roof, put in the water and I was deposited in the bottom. Apparently I slept through the entire event, I think that is why as I grew up I always felt comfortable in a canoe.

 

[Gamma1214]

Our Boy Scout troop had done some overnight trips on the local rivers but among my earliest jobs was the local Boy Scout summer camp where I worked as an aquatics instructor/lifeguard. I spent all summer teaching kids the finer points of boat control as I learned them/figured them out myself (as you might imagine, the level of instruction improved greatly as my tenure increased).

My attention turned toward backpacking and spelunking during college and I got out very little during the years that I was married & raising kids. As the nest began to empty, I found myself able to get out again and, one day while getting the oil changed in the work truck, I read an article about the BWCA.

In planning the trip, I joined this forum and the rest is history (as documented here). I wish I'd discovered wilderness canoe tripping 40 years ago (I missed my Troop's Algonquin trip due to work at the summer camp) but better late than never and I'll just have to make up for lost time.

 

[Neophyte]

My wife kept pestering me to get kayaks, which I did after we got a vehicle that could actually carry them. They were fine kayaks but rather boring to paddle, so we quickly outgrew them. I got my wife a nice kayak, and then discovered the world of solo canoes. I picked up a Northstar Trillium and got exactly one paddle in before I took it to the Adirondacks for a week long vacation. We stayed on a small house on a lake near Saranac Lake. My first paddle up there conditions were probably not ideal and I probably should not have been out on the water. (They cancelled the ADK 90 that day) But I had a blast and I've been hooked ever since.

Gamma I'm with you, wish I would have found this canoeing thing earlier, but glad I finally found it.

 

[Packrat]

When I retired at age 60 I started sea kayaking, I loved the experience. After about five years I decieded to buy a cheap canoe for duck huntinand it opened a new area of interest. Sold my sea kayak and ended up up with a Clipper Solitude whick I had until last Summer. Now I
am 89 and have a Clipper Packer which I intend to paddle until I can't paddle anymore!

 

[Neophyte]

Pack you are certainly making me feel better about starting canoeing at 44. I'm looking forward to 40+ more years of paddling.

 

[Erica]

When I retired at age 60 I started sea kayaking, I loved the experience. After about five years I decieded to buy a cheap canoe for duck huntinand it opened a new area of interest. Sold my sea kayak and ended up up with a Clipper Solitude whick I had until last Summer. Now I
am 89 and have a Clipper Packer which I intend to paddle until I can't paddle anymore!

Delighted to have you on board. Please keep posting. You are inspiration for me. By your example, I can look forward to almost 30 more years canoeing.

 

[stevet]

What got me into canoeing? When I realized it was easier to put the packs in the boat and go downhill than it was to put them on my back and go uphill.
But what kept me in it was that incomparable feeling of the interplay of paddler-paddle-boat-water that results in movement that can feel at once graceful, powerful, relaxing, and rewarding. There is nothing like it!