Where have we all paddled?

[Steve in Idaho]

California, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Minnesota, and all over Idaho.

I haven't been paddling as long as most of you, but I have plans to add more states and BC. Where should I stop between Idaho and BWCA this year that doesn't require a shuttle?

 

[Steve in Idaho]

Oh my. I have to look at a map of North America. That's the only continent on which I've paddled.

Maine (where I started canoeing every summer from age 8)
New Hampshire
Vermont
Massachusetts
Connecticut
New York
New Jersey
Delaware
Maryland
Virginia
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia
Florida
Pennsylvania
West Virginia
Tennessee
Texas
Nevada
California
Oregon
Wyoming
Minnesota
Michigan
Alaska
Canada: Ontario, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island (sea kayak)

I've had a lifetime goal of paddling all of the Great Lakes. After 73 years of paddling, I'm 20% there.

All of that and no Idaho or Utah?

 

[snapper]

Per Erica's request, on a canoe only basis, my listing is pretty mundane. That said, it includes the Adirondacks, Catskills and the Upper Susquehanna River in NYS. Lots of swamp paddling in GA and FL. Coastal paddling in SC and time spent in VT, MA and ME. I was also fortunate to spend some time paddling in Algonquin in Canada.

That's a small list compared to many on this forum but it's done well by me.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper

 

[Pseudonym]

Keeping it limited to canoe trips, and ranking the locations sequentially based on the number of trips in each locale: Maine, Oregon and Virginia. I've got some work to do.

I forgot New York (Adirondacks) and Massachusetts.

Beyond the scope of trips, I would also include paddling in Vermont, Ohio, New Hampshire, and Connecticut.

Kayaking would include Australia and Spain.

 

[SouthernKevlar]

Let's see... With open boats in the USA: South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Minnessota.

With a decked C1 (yes, I do consider it a canoe) add Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia.

In Canada: Ontario and Nova Scotia.

It's a funny thing, but in all those places the water was wet!

 

[scoutergriz]

let's see if my memory cooperates...
in Alberta the Athabasca, Bow, and Red deer, in BC again the Athabasca, Kicking Horse, and Columbia. in Ontario-- The French, Spanish, Black, pickerel, Severn, Saugeen, Rainy, Sturgeon. Moon, Credit, Niagara, Mattagami, Kapuskasing, Agawa, Montreal, Ausable, Boyne, Bighead, Beaver, Coldwater, Madawaska, Restoule , Wanapitei, Temagami, Chiniguchi, Oxtounge, Magnetawan, Maitland, Nottawasauga, Sauble, Grand, Conestoga, Sydenham, Gull, Nith, 12 mile, 20 mile, Bronte, Oakville, Etobicoke creeks and 50 or sixty more, plus literally hundreds of lakes.
Then there's the entire eastern half of Canada, Fish creek and the Salmon in the US as well as several others...
that's what happens when you spend 7 years "dirtbagging"....

 

[riverstrider]

Canoe-paddling-Central for me is the Northeast US; I've paddled extensively in all the New England States, New York (mostly the Adirondacks, but dipped a paddle in the Catskills) and Pennsylvania (a few spots here and there).

Elsewhere, I have also canoed in Florida, Tennessee, Nevada/Arizona (same trip), California and Oregon. I have plans to hit may more states when I retire.

Internationally I have canoed in Canada (Quebec and Nova Scotia) and-which may be a first-reported destination so far on this thread-Belize.

-rs

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

All of that and no Idaho or Utah?

In the summer of 2004, I was driving back to Connecticut from Sacramento, California, paddling my new Huki outrigger canoe in various places in the U.S. and Canada. One day I paddled Hosmer Lake in Oregon and was next on my way to paddle in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. I stopped overnight in one of the major cities in Idaho and bought a headlamp in an REI store there, which I still have and which is still my favorite.

I distinctly remember the vicinity of that city had flat-topped mesas all over, which I had never before seen in the East or California. I kept wondering how, geologically, those mountains could have risen from the ground with such flat tops. Then, like a reversing optical illusion, it dawned on me — duh! — that those flat tops WERE the ground eons ago, and that I was driving in the eroded channels of, I guess, the last glaciation. I don't recall what Idaho city that was.

I drove through Utah on my way out to Sacramento but had no boat at that time, as I was picking up the Huki in Sacramento. I went past the Great Salt Lake and was shocked how much lower it was since I first saw it in 1982. Now, it's even much lower still.

After paddling in Yellowstone, my next destination was the BWCA. I drove all through Montana without stopping, and that state set a record on that 44-day boat-pick-up trip. More bugs per minute smashed into my van's windshield in Montana than in any other state in the USA or province of Canada that I have ever driven in (except central Florida in love bug season).

 

[Halpc]

Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, Minnesota, Florida, Indiana, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, California (sea kayak), Mexico (sea kayak), Colorado.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

let's see if my memory cooperates...
in Alberta the Athabasca, Bow, and Red deer, in BC again the Athabasca, Kicking Horse, and Columbia. in Ontario-- The French, Spanish, Black, pickerel, Severn, Saugeen, Rainy, Sturgeon. Moon, Credit, Niagara, Mattagami, Kapuskasing, Agawa, Montreal, Ausable, Boyne, Bighead, Beaver, Coldwater, Madawaska, Restoule , Wanapitei, Temagami, Chiniguchi, Oxtounge, Magnetawan, Maitland, Nottawasauga, Sauble, Grand, Conestoga, Sydenham, Gull, Nith, 12 mile, 20 mile, Bronte, Oakville, Etobicoke creeks and 50 or sixty more, plus literally hundreds of lakes.
Then there's the entire eastern half of Canada, Fish creek and the Salmon in the US as well as several others...
that's what happens when you spend 7 years "dirtbagging"....

Wow!

More bugs per minute smashed into my van's windshield in Montana than in any other state in the USA or province of Canada that I have ever driven in (except central Florida in love bug season).

I had that experience around Bismarck SD.

I'm drawing a blank on the flat top mountains, but I'm sure it'll come to me.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I'm drawing a blank on the flat top mountains

I think I've mixed up two Idaho cities in my memory of that trip. Only Boise has an REI, so I probably just stopped there to buy the headlamp and some other stuff. The city further east where I stayed overnight, and that had mesas and plateaus near it, was Twin Falls. I distinctly remember being impressed that I was staying near the site where Evel Knievel had rocket jumped the Snake River Canyon 30 years earlier, which I had watched on TV.

Hmm . . . AI tells me that the geology around Twin Falls is not from receding glaciers, but that the flat plateaus were formed by volcanic lava flows. I wish I had studied some geology in college.

 

[Alan Gage]

Hmm . . . AI tells me that the geology around Twin Falls is not from receding glaciers, but that the flat plateaus were formed by volcanic lava flows. I wish I had studied some geology in college.

It's never too late, Glenn. In the past week I've started to study some geology (no previous experience). I've been meaning to do this for many years but never got started until now. So far I'm enjoying it very much.

And related to your Idaho experience: the best source I've found so far is a Geology 101 series on Youtube from a geology professor in Twin Falls, Idaho.