Solo expedition build

[Jim Dodd]

Alan,
Great to hear that you're back and had a great time!! I didn't realize that your dad was posting too...
Can't wait to hear all about the adventure and see the photos. (there are photos, I hope!)
I suppose it will be pretty tough to get back to the "normal routine".

DITTO !

I'm guessing it was tough not to try and paddle when you climbed into the drivers seat of the car ! HA !

Get some rest ! I'm sure the drive home was exhausting .

We are patient .

Jim

OH ! If you have time for the Spencer Fair, there is an awesome cedar stripper in the Creative Living building. Built by Bill Horton. His first. Super !

 

[Alan Gage]

My full fledged trip report is going to be a while in the making but I figured I could give one on the boat.

It was designed and built specifically for this trip to run class II rapids, handle lots of lake travel, travel upstream against potentially strong current, and carry at least a month worth of supplies and a dog. I'm happy to say it surpassed my expectations and that I couldn't be happier with it. If I had to do this same trip again next year I don't believe there's anything I would change with this boat.

It could have been more maneuverable in the rapids when loaded but that would have come at the expense of open water performance. It could track a little harder on the lakes and be more wind resistant but those would come at the cost of moving water performance. It seemed to strike just the right balance, at least for my style of paddling.

The extreme flare in the bow allowed me to tackle water bigger than I expected. It took some pretty big haystacks to put more than a splash over the bow. We paddled in some very strong winds from every direction on open water and I was impressed by how the boat handled them.

The sliding seat and adjustable foot brace allowed me to change trim accordingly and kept us moving along. The narrow pedestal made switching back and forth from sitting to kneeling quick and easy on the fly. I was a little worried about seat comfort after having to switch to the smaller seat but I had no issues and after a few days I ditched the foam seat pad because I found it more comfortable without it.

I thought speed was impressive for a boat capable of carrying such a load. Before leaving I tested the sprint speed and got it up to 6.2mph. Just .1mph less than I could do with my Bell Magic and Barracuda. On the trip, fully loaded, I was able to achieve 5.8mph in a sprint and on more than one occasion I needed every single bit of that speed. Actually there were times I could have used just a hair more. Never again will I say sprint speed is meaningless for tripping since you can only sustain it for short periods of time. It made a big difference on this trip.

A leisurely cruising speed was about 3.7mph. Kicking it up a notch, but still maintainable all day, though a good workout, brought it up to 4.3mph. Anything much over that was temporary. This is pretty much identical to what I get with a 10 day tripping load+dog in my Bell Magic.

Best part of the trip was when heading downstream and I passed future Alan paddling upstream. He gave me a big thumbs up and hollered across the river "no rudder needed." There are times it would have been nice to have but we got by fine without it and I think it would have been more hassle than it was worth dealing with it on the many portages.

Some glamour shots:

20150817_001 by Alan, on Flickr

20150819_002 by Alan, on Flickr

P8220124 by Alan, on Flickr

The halfway point - Lake Winnipeg:

20150830_005 by Alan, on Flickr

But it wasn't all sunshine and roses (actually, you'll notice very little sunshine in those pictures). One rainy evening I walked by the upside down boat in camp and reached down to wipe a leaf off the bow stem. It turned out not to be a leaf at all be exposed wood!

20150905_001 by Alan, on Flickr

There was a little showing in the stern as well:

20150905_002 by Alan, on Flickr

Decided I couldn't continue in that condition so tomorrow would be a rest and canoe repair day. I hoped the weather would change so I could set the canoe in the sun and dry the wood out before trying to repair. But I awoke to overcast and intermittent drizzle. Nothing was going to dry out on its own that day so I had to resort to more drastic measures.....a canoe roast!

20150905_003 by Alan, on Flickr

I slow roasted the canoe, alternating stems, about 3-4 hours and then, since the rain had quit, I let it sit another couple hours before repairing in the afternoon. Some people take along chairs or booze as luxury items. I carry nitrile gloves, syringes of epoxy, sand paper, fiberglass, carbon, and peel ply:

20150905_010 by Alan, on Flickr

After a quick sanding:

20150905_008 by Alan, on Flickr

20150905_009 by Alan, on Flickr

I was using an alcohol stove on my trip so I could use some denatured alcohol to wipe things down before applying some bias cut S-glass and peel ply:

20150905_011 by Alan, on Flickr

I used multiple smaller pieces of peel ply and cut some pleats in it but it was hard to get it to smoothly follow the contour. I didn't have enough to cut it on the bias. After a few minutes I wiped up the runs with more alcohol and after allowing it to setup for a couple hours to begin setting up it was back over the fire to kick the fast setting epoxy into high gear since it was now late afternoon and I planned to hit the water in the morning. Ambient temps were probably in the 50's that day so I couldn't rely on it to fully cure by itself.

Next morning the peel ply came off and things looked ok for a field repair. I can touch it up, and add some extra reinforcement, this winter:

20150906_001 by Alan, on Flickr

I believe upstream travel had caused most of the damage. Staying tucked in close to shore trying to catch small eddies and dodge the strongest current when paddling up swifts and small rapids made for lots of banging into submerged rocks or being shoved into exposed rocks by shifting currents. I was also not babying the boat and while I tried to treat it with respect there were times it was dragged and pulled over the rocks.

At the end of the trip I asked my canoe, "What was your favorite day of the trip?". She replied with, "This one:"

20150828_004 by Alan, on Flickr

Very proud of my girl.

Alan

 

[Canotrouge]

Wow, impressive trip, and great job on the repair, I would have use ductape cause that is the only thing I bring!!

 

[Jim Dodd]

That's a good start ! It actual answered a lot of my questions ! One ! Will I try and duplicate your trip ? Not in this life time !
Great Review of the canoe ! If you build them, you can fix them ! Good thought to assemble a repair kit !

Loved the map ! I'm scared ! I guess I'll stick to my lazy river.

Planning to do my hull tests soon.

Glad you are back !!!

Jim

 

[memaquay]

Interesting! How many layers of glass did you have on the stems? I put brass stem bands on all my canoes, they take a beating, but they do serve a purpose other than looking good. The pics of your canoe have me thinking of another build this winter, even though I swore I would take this year off.

 

[Alan Gage]

I would have use ductape cause that is the only thing I bring!!

I thought about that too but considering I still had a couple weeks to go, and seeing how badly the fiberglass wore, I figured I should get a bit more serious about it.

Good thought to assemble a repair kit !

I put a fair amount of effort into getting it assembled so it was actually kind of nice to be able to use it. Biggest problem was how to carry the epoxy. I wanted syringes to make measurements easy so I filled a couple up with resin and a couple more with hardener, one of fast and one of slow. That way I could choose my setup time or mix the hardeners for anything in between.

But how to carry the loaded syringes without them accidentally being depressed and making a gawdawful mess? A nalgene bottle seemed perfect but they weren't tall enough to carry the loaded 45ml syringes I was using for resin. I needed a long and skinny container but I kept coming up with short and fat. Finally found that nalgene makes a 48oz water bottle with the same diameter as the 32oz. I ordered up one of those and it was perfect. Just enough length for the syringes and then I stuffed in some gloves and shop towels to keep things from rattling around. Around the outside of the bottle I wrapped some gorilla tape of a couple different widths as a way to carry my repair tape.

Loved the map ! I'm scared ! I guess I'll stick to my lazy river.

It was a real eye opener for me. I quickly realized anything I'd ever ran in my life was small potatoes. It was fun to expand my boundaries and I can see how whitewater could become addicting.

That day certainly wasn't normal but it was fun. For many days it seemed like there were no runable rapids, just widely spaced III, IV, and V's with the odd class I or II mixed in. Then for about a day and a half it looked like the map I pictured with lots of I's and II's in quick succession. Downstream it was a long, fun, and exciting day of mainly scouting and running with few portages. On the way back I used the same campsites at the top and bottom of this section, it was two long hard days of cussing and portaging.

How many layers of glass did you have on the stems?

I don't remember for sure. The entire hull got a full layer of 6oz. E-glass and then below the water line got a layer of 6oz. S-glass. The stems got one or two more layers of S-glass over that so I'd guess 3-4 over the areas that wore through. In hindsight I probably could have been more careful and maybe avoided the need to repair but I thought with that many layers of S-glass it wouldn't be a problem for one trip.

Alan

 

[LF_tripper]

Hi Allan, great to have you back. I bet the Bloodvein, Gammon solo trip memories will last a lifetime. Amazing trip, and it was cool to see your progress, although I often wished you would "spot" your location more frequently. I thought I had a pretty good idea of what you were thinking with that Aikens marker. BTW, the boats from the lodge are 2' or more larger than any other lodge in the area because of the heavy water on that lake, and I was told to never go directly across no matter what because of the potential. I cut across going west a stretch about 2.5 kilometres at the crack of dawn last year.

I have a few questions for you if you don't mind:

Did you check out the Artery pictographs? The Aikens pictographs?
Was there clients at the Artery lodge? In june a fine group from Fargo met me at the portage with the rails for the boats and insisted that I stop at the lodge and have a lunch of pickerel and wild rice. They also insisted in carrying my gear across the portage. That made my day.

Did you see the swans at Bushie lake? I got pictures of trumpeter swans with cygnets there, which proves that they are breeding and are making a solid comeback. I saw quite a few swans north of Sasaginnigak as well in the secluded lakes on the Leond route.

Did you see the new dock at the lodge at Wapeskapek on the Gammon? I flew out of there last September. Did you stop at the St.John's cabin at the St. John's rapids? There is a plaque with my father-in-law featured on it that is quite the work of art. There is also a guest book that you can make an entry and sign.

How about that portage on the north side of the cauldron east of Wapeskapek? I found that to be quite spectacular.

Did you get tired of the thundering water and the portaging? I did, and I only spent 2 days on the Bloodvein from Artery to the Sakakoneekum portage. I put the maps away on the Bloodvein and paddled until I heard a roar and saw the eagles that mark every rapid, and looked for the portage. I enjoyed that, but 2 days was enough for me.

Congratulations on a well done trip, a fine canoe, and a good dog.

Next time you are up this way you should do a Manitoba put in and leave a day to visit with us Manitobans.

 

[Guest]

My full fledged trip report is going to be a while in the making but I figured I could give one on the boat.

Best part of the trip was when heading downstream and I passed future Alan paddling upstream. He gave me a big thumbs up and hollered across the river "no rudder needed." There are times it would have been nice to have but we got by fine without it and I think it would have been more hassle than it was worth dealing with it on the many portages.

Alan, I thought about our rudder discussions a good deal while watching your SPOT locations and agree that it probably would have been more hassle than it was worth. Not just for the portage factor. This description of your upstream work would have made a rudder impractical in that guise.

I believe upstream travel had caused most of the damage. Staying tucked in close to shore trying to catch small eddies and dodge the strongest current when paddling up swifts and small rapids made for lots of banging into submerged rocks or being shoved into exposed rocks by shifting currents. I was also not babying the boat and while I tried to treat it with respect there were times it was dragged and pulled over the rocks

Rudders are great for unobstructed open water, but in other guises the hassle is having something hanging off the stern where I can’t see it, especially when working close in to shore or eddy hopping, when my attention is focused on the bow and maintaining an eddy position.

Hearing that clang of metal off rock is not a good sound, and is an easy way to damage a fairly fragile apparatus. The audible clang off rock is actually preferable to hooking it soundlessly on branch or brush. At least I don’t have to untangle rocks.

Question about the “Ooops, that’s not a leaf” damage – Do you think that was from impact or from multiple abrasions?

She finally looks like a canoe with tales to tell.

We should probably shun you for a week so you can turn your attention to the trip report. No pressure, but I’m expecting one for the ages.

 

[Alan Gage]

Hi Allan, great to have you back. I bet the Bloodvein, Gammon solo trip memories will last a lifetime.

I think it was the neatest thing I've ever done in my life. Hard to explain how good it felt out there.

I thought I had a pretty good idea of what you were thinking with that Aikens marker. BTW, the boats from the lodge are 2' or more larger than any other lodge in the area because of the heavy water on that lake, and I was told to never go directly across no matter what because of the potential. I cut across going west a stretch about 2.5 kilometres at the crack of dawn last year.

I was pretty nervous about the crossing going into it. I camped about 45 minutes from the lake the night before and decided rather than tackle it first thing in the morning I'd wait until mid-morning to see what the wind/weather were going to do. As usual the day started off calm and soon after sunrise a little wind picked up and held steady. Skies looked good so I went for it. Wind was from the NW and after entering the lake I paddled up the west shoreline a little to allow me to cut across kitty corner, with the wind partially to my rear, rather than broadside the entire trip. Paddled out to that row of islands to get a better look at the waves and crossing and decided to just go for it. Some rollers but not bad. Took less than an hour to cross.

I have a few questions for you if you don't mind:

Did you check out the Artery pictographs? The Aikens pictographs?

I saw some of them but didn't go hunting. I had the Bloodvein pictos marked on my map. I went into the Gammon with no information at all other than what was on the topo so I didn't know where any were or if there even were any. By far my favorites were the ones I stumbled across when I wasn't paying attention to the map. Just paddling along the rock face and suddenly they'd appear. I enjoyed the one with all the hand prints, don't remember exactly where it was on the Bloodvein. It was one of the "suprise" sights. I don't think I'll mark their locations in the future. Having a general idea of where they are or on what lake will be good enough and make it more of a surprise to find them.

Was there clients at the Artery lodge? In june a fine group from Fargo met me at the portage with the rails for the boats and insisted that I stop at the lodge and have a lunch of pickerel and wild rice. They also insisted in carrying my gear across the portage. That made my day.

Was this the lodge on Lower Artery, below the rail portage? If anyone was using it I didn't see them, though they could have been out fishing. I chatted with a few friendly fisherman and was also surprised my how many wouldn't return a wave from 50 yards. They must have been visiting New Yorkers.

Did you see the swans at Bushie lake? I got pictures of trumpeter swans with cygnets there, which proves that they are breeding and are making a solid comeback. I saw quite a few swans north of Sasaginnigak as well in the secluded lakes on the Leond route.

I saw one swan at Bushie and quite a few other pairs along the Bloodvein. Don't recall seeing any on the Gammon but after a month my mind started to forget where I saw what. I saw a pair both times I went through Kautunigan Lake.

Did you see the new dock at the lodge at Wapeskapek on the Gammon? I flew out of there last September. Did you stop at the St.John's cabin at the St. John's rapids? There is a plaque with my father-in-law featured on it that is quite the work of art. There is also a guest book that you can make an entry and sign.

I had to look up that lake name as it wasn't familiar but once I saw the picture on the map I recognized it. Sure looked big enough to have a name but my topo map didn't give one. That was one of the few days I was running with a tail wind so I was riding small white caps down the center of the lake. Didn't get very close to the lodge.

I didn't know the cabin existed until I met a couple guys in a tandem canoe on Lake Kautunigan that told me about it. They said it was just upstream of the first lake I'd cross on the Gammon so I was kind of keeping an eye out for it and was surprised when I never saw it. When I got up home I looked up which set of rapids was St. John's Rapids and couldn't figure out how the heck I could miss that cabin until I finally remembered I never stepped ashore, I lined up the left side. How did your father-in-law get on the plaque?

Did you get tired of the thundering water and the portaging? I did, and I only spent 2 days on the Bloodvein from Artery to the Sakakoneekum portage.

Absolutely. I love peace and quiet and camping next to rapids for 2 or more weeks about drove me insane. Worst part is white noise causes my brain to make up music. It's like there's a distant concert on the far side of the river so I can just catch the general tune, enough to tell what type of music it is, and a muffled voice with no distinct words. Just about every set of rapids brings out a different tune. It just repeats over and over and over. Never felt more like a looney toon in my life.

Congratulations on a well done trip, a fine canoe, and a good dog.

Thanks!

Question about the “Ooops, that’s not a leaf” damage – Do you think that was from impact or from multiple abrasions?

I think mostly from impacts with abrasions aiding and abetting. There were some pretty hard hits on jagged rocks at pretty high speeds. Mostly when during upstream travel in unclean water where you never knew which way the current was going to shove you. I can't completely discount abrasions since the stern was worn too, though not nearly as bad, and it should mostly be seeing abrasions. It took the brunt of the dragging though.

Actual trip report is getting closer. Finally found some video editing software I like last night. Now I just need to get a new OS installed on my computer and find an extra few dozen hours to spend in front of it.

Alan

 

[Guest]

By far my favorites were the ones I stumbled across when I wasn't paying attention to the map. Just paddling along the rock face and suddenly they'd appear. I enjoyed the one with all the hand prints, don't remember exactly where it was on the Bloodvein. It was one of the "suprise" sights. I don't think I'll mark their locations in the future. Having a general idea of where they are or on what lake will be good enough and make it more of a surprise to find them.

I have looked for and seen petroglyphs whose location was noted in guidebooks, and enjoyed none more than the ones I have stumbled upon, including some early cowboy glyphs on the Green in Utah and an extensive box canyon panel in Arches that the Park doesn’t publicize.

Somehow finding it own my own seems more special.

Absolutely. I love peace and quiet and camping next to rapids for 2 or more weeks about drove me insane. Worst part is white noise causes my brain to make up music. It's like there's a distant concert on the far side of the river so I can just catch the general tune, enough to tell what type of music it is, and a muffled voice with no distinct words. Just about every set of rapids brings out a different tune. It just repeats over and over and over. Never felt more like a looney toon in my life.

I hear you. I hear that constant aqua-tune gurgle. Part of my reason for being there is the quiet; the bird cheep, the WTF was that rustle in leaf litter near camp, even the insect buzz. When there is a constant sound of rapid waters I feel like one of my senses has been overridden with white noise.

Constant wind has the same auditory deprivation, but it also wears me down physically over time.

I think mostly from impacts with abrasions aiding and abetting. I can't completely discount abrasions since the stern was worn too, though not nearly as bad, and it should mostly be seeing abrasions. It took the brunt of the dragging though.

Dynel. Or maybe some layered combination of Dynel and S-glass. Dynel on top, S-glass underneath, or vise versa? I’ve not seen a skid plate done that way, but it makes sense.

Actual trip report is getting closer. Finally found some video editing software I like last night. Now I just need to get a new OS installed on my computer and find an extra few dozen hours to spend in front of it.

Dammit. Must shun Alan until the trip report is written.

(Once the trip report is posted shoot me an e-mail about SW real estate possibilities. I do have some info)

 

[Alan Gage]

(Once the trip report is posted shoot me an e-mail about SW real estate possibilities. I do have some info)

Now that's what I call incentive!

Alan

 

[Mihun09]

Sorry to drag this out of the archives, but I would like to know, if you can remember, how much pigment you used. How much resin for the exterior and corresponding pigment in oz's?

Thanks

 

[Alan Gage]

This is where I got my pigment:

http://www.uscomposites.com/pigments.html

They say 4oz does one gallon. I went through a little over 4 oz. Wanting to keep the color consistent I started by mixing 2 oz. of pigment with 1/2 gallon of resin and used that until it was gone. After that I mixed up smaller batches at a time not knowing how much more I was going to need. I'm sure the colors weren't exact for each batch but good enough you can't tell the difference when a scratch goes through to another layer. I always made sure I had enough mixed in one batch to do at least a full coat.

If I remember right there was a couple month span between using pigment out of the jar and it had gotten a little goopy by then. So although I wasn't out I ordered fresh since I didn't quite trust it.

I put on a lot of fill coats trying to fill the weave on that external S-glass football, especially the edge. On a normal build I would have used considerably less pigment. I think 4oz. would be great plenty.

Stripperguy did red and it didn't cover very well. The off white that I used looked pretty solid after 4 coats (1 wetout and 3 fill). Not sure how other colors do but I believe red is known for not covering well.

Alan

 

[Mihun09]

Red is mostly clear these days which is why it takes so many coats to cover anything. Usually if you did a grey first the red will cover more evenly.

Was your pigment a paste?

 

[stripperguy]

Mihun,
What color are you planning to use?
I used 4 oz of liquid pigment for a gallon of resin. Resin and pigment from RAKA. I had at least 3 pigmented covering coats on top of the pigmented wet out. It was almost opaque enough, but I could never get the "pop" that I thought I should, even after an automotive clear coat.
But the pimmented resin does hide the accumulation of scratches in the Interlux paint that I ended up using.

 

[Alan Gage]

Was your pigment a paste?

Liquid but fairly viscous. I was able to measure it out using a syringe.

Alan

 

[Mihun09]

Mihun,
What color are you planning to use?
I used 4 oz of liquid pigment for a gallon of resin. Resin and pigment from RAKA. I had at least 3 pigmented covering coats on top of the pigmented wet out. It was almost opaque enough, but I could never get the "pop" that I thought I should, even after an automotive clear coat.
But the pigmented resin does hide the accumulation of scratches in the Interlux paint that I ended up using.

Not exactly sure at this point, off white, champagne, antique white, light cream, a white going over to yellow. I did see the colour Alan used from US composites. I may just experiment with ceramic paints (acrylic) I have here to see if it will work as they are available, less expensive and I can mix to my hearts content. I will likely do a test sample this afternoon and see how she sets up. I know West says most any "powdered" pigment will work but the place I got the resin sells a paste pigment for West. I have only 1oz each of white and yellow so likely not enough for the exterior coats. I do plan to put the seal coat down as a clear finish to avoid any chance of getting white spotting on the interior.

Still need to sand this weekend.

 

[Alan Gage]

Brought the canoe back into the shop this week to tidy up the stem field repairs from last summer. I sanded them smooth, filled in the rough spots with thickened epoxy, and added dynel for better abrasion resistance in the future. Krylon's 'Ivory' spray paint, which I had laying around the shop, was a pretty close match. I also cleaned and sanded the bottom of the boat, filled the worst of the scratches with thickened epoxy, and used up the dregs of my WR-LPU, which was good for two coats.

20160403_004 by Alan, on Flickr

20160403_005 by Alan, on Flickr

Thanks to Mike and Pete for all the skid plate tutorials.

Alan

 

[Alan Gage]

I was not overly impressed with the water based spar varnish I used on this hull originally. Even months after application it would still absorb water and turn that bluish cast water based finish has. When in this state it also felt a little soft when I'd scratch at it with my fingernail. Then 5-10 minutes after drying out it would be clear and hard again.

Because of this I was quite surprised to find plenty of varnish still firmly attached to the bottom of the hull. I assumed it was long gone after my Bloodvein trip but even after a couple rounds of sanding it would still appear as annoying little gummy balls every time I'd wipe down the hull with alcohol. I won't be using it again but I've got to give it some credit; it was pretty persistent.

Alan

 

[Jim Dodd]

The Bloodvein looks like it's up for another trip !

Nice job on the Dynel ! Puts Kevlar felt to shame for looks !

I just thought , now you have two canoes, that are Ebony and Ivory !

Thanks for the update on the varnish.

Jim