Your best (favorite?) paddling partner...

[snapper]

In another post there were some comments regarding folks favorite paddlers which is why I'm posting the query....So, who is your favorite, or best, paddling partner?

All due respect to my wife, even she will agree it's got to be my younger daughter. If I was relegated to only one person paddling in my canoe with me for the rest of eternity it would be her. Kim is now 31 (where did the time go) but she took to it right away. Even after lots of time passes between trips, she is right back into the rhythm of it all without batting an eyelash. While her older sister is good too, as well as my wife, Kim has always shown the most attention to her efforts in the canoe. I just wish I had more opportunities to paddle with her now but she lives in Rhode Island and I'm still in central NYS.

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

snapper

 

[riverstrider]

That's easy: Mrs. Riverstrider! She's not the strongest of paddlers, and her endurance is not great...and she doesn't do cold weather or portages (for such trips I usually go solo)...but when she is in the bow I have total confidence in any water we tackle since she knows what to do as well as knows what she cannot do. We make a good team, and I have been fortunate never to experience the meaning of "divorce boat".

For those other trips when I am not paddling solo, I guess it is a tie. I've been bow paddler for two guys, my friends Jim and Mike. We've both been through some pretty long trips and (usually with Mike) experienced some pretty hairy days on windy lakes or technical whitewater. We communicate well and we seem to anticipate what each other's intents are. I don't always have a tandem partner with that sort of comfort level and it is nice when it happens.

-rs

 

[Guest]

No Title

No doubt about it; my wife. We started out in a tandem canoe shortly after we married in 1979.
She had never been in a canoe in her life until we married. We never dumped once.
We both paddle solo boats now, and have for many years; sticking pretty close together on the river.
We don't read each other's mind, but everything to do with canoeing, and camping is pretty much down to a (our way) science for us. Many miles of rivers have passed under our boats. Hassles about anything are virtually non existent.

BOB

 

[Guest]

In another post there were some comments regarding folks favorite paddlers which is why I'm posting the query....So, who is your favorite, or best, paddling partner?

There have been several. That question needs some chronological consideration. Years approximated:

Ages 6 – 15, my father. In my adolescence and teen years I paddle camped with sundry friends, but I was most comfortable and confident in the bow with my father paddling stern. Grummans and Wards Sea Kings.

Ages 16 – 28, my backpacking & cross country road trip companion Brian. I had two principal backpacking and travelling partners, both stronger and more athletic than I. The other partner was wholly terrestrial; he was great on land and near useless in a canoe. A propeller twirling in the breeze on a beanie cap would have provided more help. Still paddling Grummans and Sea Kings, now in the stern.

(There is a long chronology pause while I trip almost entirely solo in smaller canoes)

Ages 35 – 58, my family. We quickly became a practiced and proficiently cooperative unit, especially in setting up and taking down camp. Everyone eventually knew the best sequential take down order, what went in which dry bag, which dry bag went where in which canoe, etc, etc. We could put up a 4-person, 3 tent and kitchen tarp and day hammock camp or have it down and packed in the boats in well under an hour, including break time

Bow backwards RX tandems with toddlers, same RX tandems bow forwards with adolescents, and later a progression of four solo canoes or decked sailing hulls. . That became even better when my sons were big enough to tote the heavy loads.

Now, Age 58-present. Retired, wife still working, kids working (including most weekends) and the opportunities for a family week or two away are greatly diminished. There is a lesson in aging and life stages there for you working trippers with younger kids. Carpe diem.

I am happy as could be solo. But I would be hard pressed to find a better tripping partner than friend Joel. He is skilled, dependable, self sufficient low maintenance and, in our typical trip guise, little seen.

As a working guide he is especially attuned to his companion’s needs and moods, and is a quiet and considerate companion in camp, to the point that he will wander away some distance guitar in hand lest his finger picking disturb me. I do enjoy Joel’s Celtic fingerpicking, even when it is faintly wafting on the breeze. Mandolin too. Banjo more at a distance.

As a novice hermit part of that enjoyable companionship is because we often see each other at most a few hours a day. Or, on one multi-week trip, share a site every 3 or 4 (or 9) days. Soloized tandems or decked canoes that will carry a fully self-sufficient glamping load.

 

[sweeper]

Still looking, position available, have boat, will travel.

 

[pblanc]

My dogs.

Actually, my wife has relented on a long-held promise never to get in the same canoe with me ever again and is now paddling tandem with me once more. Years ago, on an overnight canoe-camping trip on the St. Croix in the upper Midwest, she called a taxi cab the middle of the second day and bugged out. On another multi-day trip in the Adirondacks she threatened to jump out of the boat on Long Lake, swim to shore, and catch a plane back to Tennessee alone.

 

[JackL]

My wife of 59 years.
She has got to be the best bow paddler a man could ask for.
She puts up with all my complaints and yelling, and when I yell too much she'll just put the paddle down with out saying word.
She is the navigator going to various paddling places, and does the mapping for all our multiday trips
She keeps all the gear in order.
In short; I would be lost without her

Jack L

 

[Gerald]

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When going tadem it was my wife of 58 years. However she retired from canoe trips 3 years ago preferring the comfort of the home bed. So from now on it's going to be solo tripping only for me. I miss her presence and my solo trips are getting shorter and shorter over time as I feel bad about leaving her alone with the responsibilities of chores around the house.

Gerald

 

[Canotrouge]

No Title

For the last 5 years it has been my daughter, she's 9 years old now!!

 

[Grandpa Paddler]

For many years it was my wife. We actually met on a canoe trip in Algonquin in '67. We had similar interests and our strides matched in spite of the big difference in our sizes. She hasn't tripped in a number of years due to health issues. I sure miss her in my canoe (and my tent!).

Now it's my sons or my buddy Dave. Sons don't remember not having or being in a canoe. Buddy Dave was a natural bow man from day 1 in a canoe He can read the water better than a lot of paddlers with many more years of experience. Sadly, Dave now lives and works in New Mexico and the boys are busy with work and families. Hence... my solo canoe.

 

[Magnus919]

I love paddling with my wife... but Otto, my miniature schnauzer, might have an edge.

 

[lowangle al]

My wife is for sure, but she's not as enthusiastic as I would like her to be. She has backed out of trips for reasons as silly as having to tend to the garden, but her time is limited. She has had neck problems and now arthritis that makes sleeping on the ground uncomfortable. I hope that as we get older and have more time she will still be able and willing to go. She is a good strong paddler though, can carry a load and is good with camp chores.

To any of you guys whose wives no longer get out with them I have a suggestion. Look for a partner who is young and strong. I took my nephew out and he could carry more of the weight than my wife. I even let him carry the boat a few times. He was way better at getting wood and tending the fire than my wife too. So if you can't have your first choice in partners there can be some trade offs in finding a new one that are pretty easy to get used to.

 

[Higgster]

My ex-wife was OK in the bow, but she never really enjoyed a canoe. I have 2 w/c boats, the position is open for the right woman.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

As Arya Stark might say: "no one".

I have never in 65 years of canoeing been on an overnight trip with a tandem canoe partner. It's always been solo.

Even on day trips, 98%+ of my time has been solo. Solo all day long on a lake in Maine as a boy living with my grandparents, who never went in the canoe, in the 50's and early 60's. Solo in my own canoes when I began buying them as an adult in 1980. My seakayak years from 1996-2004 were, of course, entirely solo -- as were my outrigger years from 2004-2008.

Sure, I've had all my family members and lots of friends and acquaintances as tandem canoe partners on day trips, but no one as a steady companion with one exception. There was a good friend in the 80's and early 90's with whom I paddled tandem a lot -- Millbrook ME and Hydra Duet -- on whitewater day trips and in slalom races.

My wife? I consider "paddle" to be an active verb. Let's say she accompanied me in a canoe on several occasions.

Dogs are a PITA in a canoe. Especially other people's.

 

[Magnus919]

Dogs are a PITA in a canoe. Especially other people's.

And here I thought it was just my dogs!

 

[goonstroke]

... I have 2 w/c boats, the position is open for the right woman.

That could be the basis for a good personal ad. What traits are associated with a w/c canoe? Attractive, traditional, natural, healthy, sustainable, balanced, responsive ... who could resist all that? (There's also heavy and high-maintenance, but that comes later.)

 

[Connecticut Yankee]

My son, been paddling with him since he was about 6 months old, he's 25 and still gets out with Dad once and a while. When I was young it was my little brother, I did the General Clinton Canoe Regatta with him on his 16'th birthday back in 1972. Hadn't paddled with him in a good 40 years, but last summer I was out visiting him in Fairfax Ca, and we did some paddling in some of the estuaries and bays north of San Francisco, after about 10 minutes we were right back in cink. His comment was , "I don't think I ever paddled stern with you before".

 

[alsg]

No Title

My son (when he will go with me). Took this guy for his first time today, and he may be my new favorite!

 

[Goontar1142]

So far I have to say anyone who can bring their own boat. Im having to much fun paddleing my canoe by myself.

 

[lowangle al]

So far I have to say anyone who can bring their own boat. Im having to much fun paddleing my canoe by myself.

I prefer to paddle solo when paddling for fun, but on a trip I enjoy the teamwork in paddling and the logistics of portaging tandem.