Western PA Solo Canoe Rendezvous 2024

The 16th edition of this unique event will take place in just a week or so at our usual home at Cooper's Lake Campground near Slippery Rock/Portersville PA. The website wpascr.org will provide lots of information about how to find us, who'll be coming, and all sorts of other details. Y'all come, "It's a Very Nice Affair Indeed".

I will be there on Saturday with the family. Looking forward to it.

Just a note for anyone interested. Sunday is always listed as a day of "gradual departure" but some come from pretty far away and the "gradual" begins early. Try to be there Friday afternoon or Saturday. By noon on Sunday, nearly everyone (and what's worse... all their boats) will be gone.

(BTW: Coopers is a campground so bring your tent Fri evening & make a weekend of it)

I doubt that I'll make it this year. I'm working Fri & Sat so Sunday would probably be my only opportunity (see above). Have fun.

I made it to the Rendezvous for the last two years, but plans take me in a different direction this year. I plan on being there next year though.

If you have never attended and are in a drivable distance, I would highly recommend this laid-back solo canoe gathering. Great folks to meet, great canoes to paddle and great food to eat. How can you go wrong?

For a first timer...Do you launch boats from a ramp/dock or wet entry/exit?

zekabl said:

For a first timer...Do you launch boats from a ramp/dock or wet entry/exit?

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Small docks about 2 foot wide and right at or slightly above water level.

Have fun at the Rendezvous. Paddle some fun canoes, enjoy the Freestyle events, meet some great folks, and enjoy the food. I wish I could make it there this year.

zekabl said:

For a first timer...Do you launch boats from a ramp/dock or wet entry/exit?

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there are portable docks .. Just enough to get in. But falling in is not bad as Coopers is a shallow pond.

I don't plan on falling in.

Here’s a pic of one of the docks, in case it helps anyone in the future:

Thoroughly enjoyed the event even though it was a lot of driving to get there. Paddled 10 boats in total with some of them being paddled twice. Some boats that I paddled were not on my list but they are now with an asterisk. I came close to falling in once. The platform was 1ft square, not the longer runner in the pic above. I slipped getting out, went to a knee, while the shoes took a dip.

zekabl said:

Paddled 10 boats in total with some of them being paddled twice. Some boats that I paddled were not on my list but they are now with an asterisk.

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So, tell us what boats you especially liked and why. We like first hand opinions and info.

Thoroughly enjoyed the event even though it was a lot of driving to get there.

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Glad you enjoyed it. It's always surprised me how far people travel to get there but, I suppose, it is a unique event (especially as it's not held in "canoe country".

I had the whole family at the event, including the dog, so it was an exercise in attempting to control chaos the entire time.

Some young girls offered to watch our kids for an hour. It was glorious. My wife paddled a Curtis Ladybug that she fell in love with. I imagine we’ll be on the lookout for one of those for the foreseeable future.

I paddled a Curtis Bluegill next to her and it was very pleasant to paddle. Stable, fast, responsive. It would be a perfect canoe for someone around 200 lbs to take on day trips.

I also got to paddle a Hemlock Eaglet I. I really liked this canoe. It’s big enough to hold a lot of gear, stable enough that I could stand up and fish out of it, fast enough to paddle flat water, and responsive and deep enough that I would take it down whitewater. I think I’ll have one of these in the future.

@NoelCanoeDad had some really nice looking Redfeather and Slipstream boats for sale that I wanted to paddle but ran out of time. I’d like to get to one of his demo nights and give them a try. He had an absolutely beautiful prospector that I couldn’t stop staring at.

Glenn MacGrady said:

So, tell us what boats you especially liked and why. We like first hand opinions and info.

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Here are the boats I paddled; eaglet, srt, peregrine, illusion, harmony, blackwater 15, impulse 14, rockstar, yellowstone solo and NW solo. My favorites from the bunch were the peregrine, illusion, harmony and rockstar. These are the boats I paddled 2x.

What did I like about them? With 2 to 3 quick strong paddle strokes these boats are gliding across the water effortlessly. Very little to no hint of instability paddling or just sitting on the water. I put alot of weight on the hull/gunwales when entering and exiting a canoe. These boats were solid in this regard none to minimal flex. Surprised that I could fit in some of these boats and not feel cramped.

What did I not like about them? The peregrine did not have much freeboard left so tripping in it probably wouldn't work for me but it would be a nice day paddling boat. No complaints on the SR boats..plenty of room and freeboard available. I thought the gunwale design on the rockstar could be better...not accustomed to seeing that L shape. All I could think of is slicing skin or a bad pinch on the gunwale.

The other boats; eaglet felt too big/slow, srt was twitchy and I felt it needed another 100lbs of weight to settle down, I did not fit in the blackwater 15 at all no surprise, yellowstone solo was fine liked the rockstar more, impulse 14 and NW solo were boats I wanted to try just because they were available.

What do I buy? Rockstar first then the Harmony followed by the Peregrine.

I was really hoping someone would have brought a Clipper Caribou S or Solitude to try. These are boats on my list I would like to try.

I too was there, and had a lot of fun! I attended in hope of doing the following:

• Try out as many different canoe models as possible
• Connect with other solo canoeists
• Participate in the freestyle clinic (and hopefully improve my paddling technique)
• Maybe buy some paddling gear

I succeeded at all of the above!

In addition to my own canoe (I brought my Bell Yellowstone Solo), I paddled at least 17 different models, of which 16 were ones I had not paddled previously:


Of all the canoes I tried, my favorite was the Hemlock Peregrine, followed closely by the SRT. The Peregrine gave me a feeling of confidence similar to that I experience when paddling my Mad River Independence—I felt the most comfortable and relaxed in it of all the canoes I tried—and the SRT felt like it would be the most capable solo for an extended trip.

Besides the above, the canoes I was most thrilled to paddle were the historic models, e.g. the Caper, Covenant, Dragonfly, Lady Bug, and Nomad. I’d’ve liked to spend more time in all of them than I did, but here are my quick impressions of the five I just mentioned:

• The Caper’s feel reminded me of a David Yost-designed canoe: it was friendly and fun to paddle, and its shouldered tumblehome made it feel secure when heeled. Also, it's so pretty!
• The Covenant was by far the strangest of all the canoes I tried. Having heard about how influential Pat Moore was in the development of freestyle canoeing, I expected it to turn well; in fact, however, it very much did not—rather than being playful and responsive, it felt fast, smooth, and hard-tracking (fun, but in a very different way!). The most similar other canoe I tried was the Magic—and the Magic turned better! The Covenant was also rather narrow and had very little initial stability—in these qualities, it was most comparable to the Dragonfly.
• The Dragonfly was the only model that I’d paddled previously—I tried one last summer at a Swift demo day and quickly became enamored with it, feeling like it was more an extension of my body than a boat. I didn’t get the same feeling in it at WPASCR, which I thought was curious; nonetheless, it was still exhilarating to paddle, and I felt a lot more confident/comfortable with its twitchy initial stability than I did last year. I am not sure how best to describe what the Dragonfly is like to paddle; in handling, it seemed to fall somewhere between my Yellowstone Solo (or a Wildfire) and the Illusion, but its depth made it feel more like the SRT. With the beginner's repertoire of paddle strokes I started the weekend with, it felt more responsive than the Yellowstone Solo/Wildfire or SRT, but after I took the freestyle clinic, I found those models more fun for practicing axles and posts because they are roomier at the paddling station and less tender.
• The Lady Bug felt nearly identical to my Yellowstone Solo. The differences I noticed were that the Lady Bug’s bubbled sides provide less firmness when heeled than the Yellowstone Solo’s shouldered flare (which seems like a good thing for freestyle, but a drawback otherwise) and that the Lady Bug turned just a little faster and tracked just a little less strongly (which, given its slightly shorter length, is unsurprising).
• The Nomad felt a lot like the Peregrine (as one would expect, given that they are related and very similar designs), but the two canoes were more different than I expected: the Nomad was quite noticeably more tender (though the one I tried had a rather high seat), and its plumb stems and large float tanks made it feel like it had somewhat less room for carrying gear. The folks at Hemlock claimed that the Peregrine has more bow rocker and therefore turns better than the Nomad, but if there is a difference in their handling, I either don’t have the skill or didn’t give the two hulls a thorough enough shakedown to say with any confidence that I noticed it.

Unexpectedly, after paddling so many canoes, I feel a new appreciation for the ones I already have. Going into the weekend, and knowing how widely praised some of the canoes I hoped to paddle are, I assumed that, while I very much like the canoes I own, I might come away feeling like certain other models would elevate the paddling experience and that I’d aspire to someday upgrade to them. It turned out, however, that the canoes I liked best reminded me a lot of those I already have—and in some ways, those I have now have qualities that I find more appealing than anything I paddled at WPASCR! Perhaps I have too much affinity for the familiar, and I can’t say for sure that I won’t wish for something different in the future—especially since I am hardly an expert paddler—but I don’t feel like I’m missing out by paddling the canoes I own now, and I’m glad about that!

In addition to trying out canoes, I was able to demo a few paddles, and I came home with a Grey Owl Fleetwood from @NoelCanoeDad (who has just opened a new paddling shop and was there to represent it!). Although superficially similar in design to my Wenonah Cormorant—both have similarly-sized Sugar Island style blades—I feel like the Fleetwood gives me a little more “oomph” when doing a bow draw or stern pry, and it’s also better-balanced and wonderfully smooth for in-water recoveries—which all adds up to it feeling a little more refined, effective, and fun for practicing freestyle. It’s also incredibly lightweight, which I’ll appreciate when tripping!

Moving on to the freestyle clinic: I felt like I learned a lot in a short time, which I was very excited about! I now know how to do an axle, a post, a cross axle, and a cross post and how to accentuate a turn by doing a high kneel to weight the bow of my canoe—which, while all fairly simple, feels to me like a lot of progress for just an hour of instruction! I’ll need to do a lot of practicing to be able to do those things well, but even the progress I made at WPASCR affected how I interact with my canoe and made me feel more confident in my paddling.

Last—and best—I had a lot of really nice conversations with other canoe enthusiasts. For those of you who are on the forum (as well as those who aren’t, if you see this!), I hope I’ll see you again in future years—and let me know if you’d ever like to meet up for a paddle!

Thanks for he report. Do you have other canoes that you like in addition to the Indy (FG or Kevlar) and Yellowstone?

Halpc said:

Thanks for he report. Do you have other canoes that you like in addition to the Indy (FG or Kevlar) and Yellowstone?

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I’ve liked every solo canoe I’ve tried (albeit some more than others), but the Indy and YS are the only ones I own.

In addition to mine + those I tried at WPASCR, in the ~10.5 years since I learned to paddle, I’ve had chances to try a Wenonah Vagabond (in Royalex), unknown Old Town Royalex solo, Mad River Guide (Royalex), Wenonah Wilderness (Kevlar), Northstar Trillium, Esquif Adirondack, and Swift Wildfire.

(The above is just solos, not tandems.)

I would be hard-pressed to pick a favorite out of everything I’ve tried, especially since there is a lot of sentiment attached to some of them (e.g. we had the Vagabond during the program where I first learned to paddle a canoe, and the Indy was my first canoe of my own). If pressed, it would probably be one of the solo trippers (e.g. Indy, Peregrine, NW Solo), but I also really like some of the river-oriented canoes (e.g. YS, Guide, SRT, DF).

Not sure if that answers your question, @Halpc?