Sin - or- how to violate a canoe

[memaquay]

Thought I would create a new thread so Red's didn't keep getting hijacked.

So far we have double blades in a canoe, and in-water recoveries. Now, let's keep in mind that these aren't topics for bar-room brawling, but more like scholars debating transubstantiation and consubstantiation, although I guess that particular religious debate ended in millions of deaths. Well, anyway, just for fun!

For me, Angels weep every time a dirty double blade (DDB) is used in a canoe. Next on my list is trippers who portage their paddles in fancy fleece paddle socks.

 

[Alan Gage]

A cooler full of ice, water, pop, and beer. Never understood the need to bring this along. Why would you need anything other than warm water from a beat up bottle rolling around on the floor?

BTW, I think I have a present for you. Expect a package upon your return from Marshall Lake. Too bad it couldn't arrive before as it would come in quite handy.

Alan

 

[BWCA66]

Next on my list is trippers who portage their paddles in fancy fleece paddle socks.

I'd be OK with a fancy paddle sock if it were used to hide one of those aluminum shaft plastic bladed paddles!

 

[Guest]

I would never claim practical or scientific superiority of the in water recovery, but that's not the point. Flat-water solo canoe paddling, to me, is a soulful sensual experience. Yes practically, an in water recovery is easier on my arms and shoulders and, quieter, and much less attention grabbing movement for sneaking up on wildlife or being stealthy around people. Personally, I can paddler faster, longer with a double paddle, short fast cadence foreword locater stroke or hit and switch with a single blade, but would be even faster with a motor. I enjoy carrying the paddle "too far" aft so what?
Smiling Turtle

 

[memaquay]

I agree that a cooler is a sin, but sometimes you need to tempt the supplicant to bring them over to the camp of righteousness. For instance, my last three day trip with 8 people had seven coolers and lots of liquor. A couple of those folks are starting to think about doing a real canoe trip with me next year. Perhaps cold liquor is the path to salvation.

Expect a package upon your return from Marshall Lake. Too bad it couldn't arrive before as it would come in quite handy.

Hmmmm, you have me intrigued now Alan. Is it one of Satan's tools?

 

[Guest]

For me, Angels weep every time a dirty double blade (DDB) is used in a canoe. Next on my list is trippers who portage their paddles in fancy fleece paddle socks.

Mem, I agree that fancy (pricey) fleece paddle socks are ridiculous on their own, and portaging with them is beyond the ken.

But I do use paddle socks. And sometimes have them along on trips. I sleeve my paddles, especially the expensive and hard to replace custom carbon sticks, in a Remington Gun sock when they are in the paddle box in the back of the truck. There can be a lot of stuff in that box and I don’t want those paddles jiggling against another shaft for 30 hours over the course of a long road trip.

http://www.amazon.com/Remington-Silicone-Treated-Gun-Socks/dp/B006IC0UM2

$5 is a small price to pay for some protection. If I am doing a trip that involves a paid shuttle those socks have several advantages. If it is a trailer shuttle the sock helps protect my paddles from the typical cheese grater trailer cargo mesh, and from shuttle driver storage abuse when dumped amidst the stack of aluminum Mohawks or Carlisle rentals. And on a group shuttle my paddles are distinctive.

Well, $15. Three socks; two for a take apart double, one for a single blade.

Personally, I can paddler faster, longer with a double paddle, short fast cadence foreword locater stroke or hit and switch with a single blade, but would be even faster with a motor. I enjoy carrying the paddle "too far" aft so what?

I use a double blade 90% of time while on open water and have for nearly 20 years, except when sailing, where a single blade not only has rudder advantages but is less length of stick to secure when dealing with the sail.

I’d like to think that after twice the 10,000 hours said to be needed to master some practice I have refined my double blade technique. I still feel a soulful expertise with the double blade, even when I am beating hell into the wind at the edge of control and stamina.

The OMG anathema of a double blade in a canoe reminds me of people who adamantly refuse to use a rudder in a kayak. Even if the rental boat they are paddling has one and they are obviously holding everyone up with their struggles in the wind, solely because they believe rudders are a crutch that a skilled paddler doesn’t need.

To each their own. I have a paddling friend who once used a double when advantageous, but now refuses to touch one. He has become very skilled with a single blade, and manages to keep up even in open water headwinds, but he works his arse off in high winds and has had to call it a day when the double bladers had some miles left in the tank.

I’ll take whatever makes my trip easier; Barcalounger outfitting, double blade, sail. If it wasn’t for the fact that I detest small motor maintenance and repairs I might be tempted to use a motor on some trips. There is something like 10,000 miles of tidal shoreline along the Chesapeake Bay, or 500 twenty mile days. A small motor would cut my odds of seeing the best of it.

 

[Guest]

This is a fun thread. I once saw a solo canoe on shore at a wilderness campsite with a fitted cover on it! Yes, different strokes. Solo canoers and canoes are one of the most individually varied pursuits out there. I always carry a double on trips, but only as an "auxiliary engine". I never use it unless I have to. I have friends who carry 10 gallons of city water with them when wilderness tripping.
Turtle

 

[Alan Gage]

Great big ugly Kevlar skid plates!!!!

Alan

 

[yellowcanoe]

Paddle socks.. who would BUY those? How much would you pay? I do have some for transporting paddles in the truck.. They don't go in the canoe on a trip.
I'm interested cause I can crochet paddle soxks in a couple of evenings..

I might have a future career... I can figure out some personalizing with embroidery over the basic sock..

Don't ask me to do double blade socks. I did one once.. it was way too long and hard to figure out a pattern for.

Fitted cover? Of course..sometimes.. Not on portage trips for me.

Canoes have a double history and two trains of thought. For those of you that think you are purists of the single blade, you are just following the native hunter lineage derived from the First Nation.

The double bladers have the British blood.
This is such an old conflict and nothing we do can change anyones mind..

OTOH this all illustrates the many ways you can use a canoe..Anyone dare to be anti poling ? Real canoers stand tall or so I have been challenged! (Harry Rock in his 16 foot Mad River. Me in my 13 foot 26 inch wide Nakoma..Guess who is wet?)

 

[BWCA66]

I have a paddle sock I transport my favorite cedar paddle to and from where ever I am going, wife made it out of a bunch of my old favorite tee shirts.

 

[Guest]

Great big ugly Kevlar skid plates!!!!

OK, that should be a unanimous vote on abuse of a canoe.

And I regrettably have them on a couple of my canoes. Would that I knew then what I know now, and had used Dynel and peel ply.

Unfortunately I did a really good job installing those kevlar felt kludges, most of them using the good. stinky, known to cause cancer in State of California urethane resin that once came with the kits. Those fugly kevlar felt skid plates haven’t begun to lift (I beveled down the perimeter edges of the kevlar felt with a tongue depressor when the epoxy began to set) or even wear though significantly. I do occasionally spread a little excess epoxy on the visible wear areas.

Much as I’d like the weight savings and better faired stem profiles I can’t bring myself to laboriously chisel them off and do them right.

Never again.

Alan – try blasting that shrink wrap with a heat gun until the weave of the line or bungee is visibly imprinted on the heat shrink tubing. I’ve been clean cutting the bungee after that with a razor blade (or Handi-cut tool, love those things) at about a quarter inch length for bungee and at ½ inch for painter lines, and then Bic flaming the ends to form a wee synthetic ball at the end,

I do like those Handi-cut tools. There are a variety of them on the market, and they make clean and easy work of bungee or rope ends.

http://www.sears.com/craftsman-3-7-8-in-handi-cut/p-00937301000P

BTW – Do not attempt to use the tool in the manner shown above.! The wire bail will catch inside the opposing handle just short of any cutting action and you will find yourself squeezing the bejusus out of the thing to no effect.

Or so I’ve been told. I would never make that mistake, grunting as I squeezed the handles while muttering “What the f……”

 

[scoutergriz]

Hey! one of my boats has a big ugly skidplate on the bow! It has to be to cover the big ugly hole I punched in the stem.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Hey! one of my boats has a big ugly skidplate on the bow! It has to be to cover the big ugly hole I punched in the stem.

Once upon a time we installed skidplates on all our canoes. The folly was shown us when we hit a pointy rock head on in Wabakimi ( after misreading the map) and put a hole in the skidplate......Maybe two operator errors?

 

[Guest]

Paddle socks.. who would BUY those? How much would you pay? I do have some for transporting paddles in the truck.
I'm interested cause I can crochet paddle soxks in a couple of evenings..

I might have a future career... I can figure out some personalizing with embroidery over the basic sock.

Fabric embroidery would have some value added to me, especially some personalized ID or contact information. There are programmable sewing machines that will do that.

I can easily add that info onto hard-surfaced stuff, but cloth not so much. My favorite cooler is an embroidered soft side from Polar Bear.

http://www.polarbearcoolers.com/

As far as the who would buy them and for how much –If I can buy a $5 gun sock that works…..wellllll, ok, it’s says Remington, not McCrea.

Now, if it was crocheted by a little old lady in Maine that might be a different story. If it was done up with snowflakes and reindeer like a Grandmother’s Christmas sweater and passed along every holiday to another unsuspecting recipient, with the stipulation it be used until re-gifted, I could foresee a lengthy pass around game.

 

[yellowcanoe]

maybe incorporate the design right in the crochet pattern. Price would depend on intricacy.. Walmart yarn is what I have been using.. no fancy wool stuff!

no snowflakes.. Canoes.. There will be a premium if you want the canoe right side up.

 

[Odyssey]

I must need my eyes checked. I thought this thread was "Sin - Or How To Violate In A Canoe."
Imagining all kinds of Kama Sutra Canoe Positions I couldn't click my mouse fast enough. Er, well, you know what I mean.
Anyway, back on topic. I don't care much what paddle choices people make. Whatever, just so long as it doesn't become a fashion parade. I once saw a couple donned in matching gear and outfits, everything brand spanking sparkly new. Even their dog coordinated with the glam attire. Wow. I thought I'd intruded upon a photoshoot for trendy peeps. I was completely undeserving dressed in old jeans and wool sweater. Oh well. Nice new stuff is nice to have. Even I've been known to splash out on a new pair of socks (but not for paddles). But FFS don't sashay up to me in an outdoor store and ask me "Hey sunshine! What's your colour? I visualize you in something hhmmm, CHARTREUSE!!"

 

[yellowcanoe]

Color coordination IS important gents..I favor the color mud. Once upon a time when I worked at LLBean we were going to be subjects of a catalog shoot. We were trail builders. It was HILARIOUS when the fashion coordinators passed out fleeces and such in pink with coordinating hats.
Here we were to the knees in mud building causeway..
Our pictures were in the catalog but very small and focused on the service we were doing on the Appalachian Trail and not on the clothing which we had promptly reduced to the common denominator...mud.

 

[Iskweo]

If you look at my pictures from the past several years of canoeing you may notice the same denim shirt and tan pants...the only thing that changes is the shoes.Why mess with a good thing. I do try to coordinate with my Tilley though just so I dont clash. I do have woodland pattern shorts and a brown tank top that I wear on occasion when it is hot. There is always the Steve Irwin outfit too with khaki shorts and tan shirt. Fashion matters. You will NOT find me doing a dump run without shorts and combat boots let me just say.

I have been known to take city water with me on occasion, mostly frozen, to use in the cooler and then drink on a hot day...pretty awesome.

Mem, there are more coolers in that campsite than they have on the shelf at Walmart.

 

[memaquay]

Ha ha, less than last year, I'm getting through to them!

 

[Odyssey]

Rant over. I'm just packing for a trip and came across my wife's rain jacket I bought her. I think the colour is called fuchsia. Or is it hot burnt pink? Burnt fuchsia? I dunno. There wasn't much to choose from, and I knew she wouldn't want black (walking back from a thunderbox visit at night in the rain looking like Lord Voldemort). Anyway, I'm not the fashion police. For a guy who's idea of fancy socks is a matching pair without matching heel holes, I shouldn't be barking about what other people wear.
I think we should hold an un-fashion show at Marshall L. At the end of the trip. Right after the first cold beer. After all the clean clothes are either crustily on their 9th day of use, or have long since gotten up and walked outta the backcountry on their own.