Does anyone canoe? I've only gone a few times when I was much younger but I enjoyed it very much. Our kids are getting a little older and I was thinking it might be a great family activity although my wife claims she doesn't like it.
Love my canoe. Become familiar with canoeing and how to handle one (with or without canoeing partner/with without a full load of gear/people) in the different waters you might encounter. Having one broadside against an obstacle in moving water can flip one over like a mouse trap, losing gear would be the least of your worries if family/children were involved. I love my old 15 foot Coleman "Ram-X" and have logged a bunch of miles in it over the past 20 years. A 17 foot Old Town was my ride of choice prior to that. Safety = Fun.
I love canoeing! My parent's have an old aluminum Grumman that was my great uncle's that I take out a few times a year. I have a kayak but the canoe works better with smaller kids. My wife hates being in the canoe, she thinks it's too unsteady, so typically I let her sit in the kayak and I take our daughter in the canoe with me on lakes and slow rivers in the area. I agree with what greendohn said, there's techniques that'll make canoeing much easier and safer. There's a very small stream a mile from me that turns into class III-IV rapids after a heavy rain. I've made that run enough in my kayak that its not really a challenge, but my brother and I and several buddies started taking canoes out when the water's high. My brother and I, who both took the canoeing merit badge when we were in Scouts and learned a ton, have been the only one's to make it the entire way without tipping our canoe. It's a blast and we get a ton of weird looks from the kayakers in their wet-suits!
I've only done flatwater and would probably stick to that with the kids until they got a little older and experienced. This summer we're taking them to Moosehead Lake in Northern Maine for our annual family vacation. For those of you not from New England it's as big beautiful remote lake in northern Maine. We rented a cabin and the kids already have smores on the brain. Whenever I ask them what we should do on vacation they say make smores on the campfire and then they proceed to educate me on the ingredients of a smore.
Gonna keep an eye on this as I just bought and old but solid aluminum canoe from my 80 some year old neighbor.
That's what I have; a 16 footer. In the early 80's I used to make a yearly spring trip to the Pine Creek Gorge, aka the Pa Grand Canyon. There was usually 15-20 of us. We would head up on a Friday morning, hit the water for a few hours and then start looking for a good place to set up camp. Hit the water Saturday morning for a few hours and set up again. Sunday morning pull out where we had dropped off a couple cars on the way up. If your vehicle wasn't at the start point, it was used to get to the ones that were. Still pretty cold up in them mountains in March but the water was fast. The only water it's seen in the last 20 years is our little 1/4 acre pond. It'll last almost forever unless of course you wrap it around a big rock in fast water.
Used to do a lot of canoeing years ago, before owning a house, maintaining property, and an administrative job came along. Pine Creek Gorge is beautiful, took troubled kids horseback riding, backpacking, and white rafting there when I had a part time job as a counselor for those kids.
I have an aluminum Grumman at the pond. A 17' royalex Mowhawk in the barn. I also have a 12' sit on top manta ray fishing kayak. And hardly any time to use any of them. I have been out twice this year in the SOT. And a couple times in the Grumman.
I mainly used a conoe to access fishing locations. Conoes are perfect for waters that dont have motorized boats. Just throw enough life jackets in the boat stay close to shore if on big water and have fun.
diggin up an old post but im a big canoer. its fun relaxing and peaceful. i try and make a river trip down the taunton river in MA a bunch a times a year. paddle12 miles, camp then the next day finish out the 15 miles. its a great time!
Looks like a ton of fun! I've only camped with a canoe once when I was in Boy Scouts, but I've been wanting to do it again ever since!
its a blast. we try and keep things simple and light. 1 person tents, clothing for all weather, backup in case of a roll, a simple gas stove that screws onto a gas bottle and freeze dried packed food. so you can have a full meal with just boiling water and its tastes great! and you have to carry what you brought. those with kayaks its a little trickier. i run my canoe backwards to get more towards the middle for better weight distribution.
I'm a kayaker, and even have a free design online to build your own kayak out of foam for free. Every year we go on a canoe camping trip withmy sisters family and my own. We borrow my brother in laws dad's Grumman canoes to haul the gear and food out and camp on an island for a few days in the Adirondacks. The canoes are fast and carry a ton of weight easily. I grew up canoeing in my parents Coleman canoe, and even borrowed it from them for seven years after I got married. That canoe is still out in their backyard laying next to the pond. My parents don't use it anymore as it is very heavy compared to the foam kayaks I built for them.
Your comment got me into some google searching, is your design the "sawfish"?? I have almost enough 2" foam left over from a finished basement project and I've been wondering what to do with it. I might have to give that a try!
Yes it is the sawfish kayak, found on the instructables.com site. Sunday evening I just received a notification of the 16th hull launched. I get to use the original sawfish after work a few times a week. I'm not into fishing, but just love to explore the local lakes and rivers
Sawfish, an unsinkable, lightweight, foam kayak (23 lbs). Free DIY kayak plans, the hardware store boat here's the link for anyone interested. Some people call this a double paddle canoe.
Best of all worlds: combine woodcutting, burning, canoeing and camping! Canoes make excellent freighters for hauling firewood out of the bush. Below is a long standing dead and dry cherry tree we picked a limb off of. We also culled some sugar maple and spruce on other trips. This was in Killarney Provincial Park
That is exactly what we have for a canoe. Unfortunately, I've not found enough time over the past couple of years. I do want a kayak to be able to go out on my own. However; the canoe is great to spend sometime with the kids. Not sure the wife would bother with the canoe. She's never gone out in it.
i had tossed the idea around about going to a kayak but i just cant find more advantages for them then a canoe. i canoe alone, fish out of it, can stand fishing, hauls all my camping gear with ease, is lighter and easier to handle. at 14ft it weighs 49lbs. My friends Ascend FS12T weighs almost 80 and its smaller
