Where Are All The Canoes?

I just returned from a 6,600 mile, two and a half week motorcycle journey from South Carolina to California, Oregon and back. Along the way I watched for canoes on cars and saw a grand total of FIVE canoes! Where are they hiding? The first that I saw was a well-used Grumman on a car in Louisiana. Next were 2 on the same car in New Mexico, travelling east on I-40, with one in a cover and blocking the sight of the canoe on the other side. The next was a green Prospector-ish canoe near Klamath Falls, OR. The final canoe was what looked to be an Alumicraft canoe in Oklahoma. I did not count the number of kayaks, sit-on tops and paddleboards that I saw on top of cars but they each far outnumbered the grand total for canoes.

I think that part of my lack of canoe sightings may be due to the fact that my travels took me through the Deep South and the Southwest, not areas known to be bastions of canoeing. Judging by the numbers of kayaks and paddleboards, self-propelled water sports are still popular. Why aren't the canoes out there, too? Are they that scarce in these regions?

Maybe I will start leaving an old canoe on my car just to say "Hi" to other paddlers on the road and make them feel less lonely.

Maybe they're on the water?

Don't know about the deep south or southwest, but Idaho and surrounding states are not exactly canoe country either. But to and from my backpacking trip last week, I saw several canoes - mostly Coleman. We just are in the very small minority here. Not too long ago, kayaks ruled. Now it's SUP. On local waters, I can sometimes count 5-10 SUPs to every kayak and 10-30 kayaks to every canoe. Quite often, I'm in the only canoe I'll see all day - even on a busy day.

That said - I'm one guy, and six out of my seven canoes are left at home when I'm paddling.

Yeah, I think it's a latitude thing. Even here in Maine the canoes only outnumber the kayaks around 44-45 degrees north (which happens to be about where I live). I just drove home from Pennsylvania and only in the last 3 hours did I see significant canoes. From license plate analysis there seem to be a lot of nice canoes garaged in Massachusetts. I'd also say that those MA vehicles seem to be more competently driven than other MA vehicles, but that would surely be confirmation bias.

There are many in the Adirondacks. Often considered like hood ornaments.
Jim

I was listening to a podcast on Southern whitewater, and a guest canoeist on the show noted the prevalence of kayaks and lack of canoes down here. He said he was once driving with his boat on top and another driver with a canoe signaled him to pull over. He expected to find out that he'd lost a piece of gear or that his straps were fraying or some other kind of semi-emergency. Instead, the driver just wanted to talk canoes. He noted that the attitude among Southern canoeists is that, since we're such a rare breed, if you meet another one, it's like "We're friends now."

It's sad, really, as there was once a really strong canoe culture in the South, especially in Tennessee, where Mohawk, Dagger, and Blue Hole were all once made in the state.

Mississippi Mud said:

I was listening to a podcast on Southern whitewater, and a guest canoeist on the show noted the prevalence of kayaks and lack of canoes down here. He said he was once driving with his boat on top and another driver with a canoe signaled him to pull over. He expected to find out that he'd lost a piece of gear or that his straps were fraying or some other kind of semi-emergency. Instead, the driver just wanted to talk canoes. He noted that the attitude among Southern canoeists is that, since we're such a rare breed, if you meet another one, it's like "We're friends now."

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I had that same exact experience here just last summer!

Oh - based on my adventure last year, I'd have to say - where are all the canoes?

They are in Ely. All of them.

Sad to say, cheap plastic kayaks, have taken over, at least here in Iowa.
Northern Minnesota, I believe canoes are still king.

Jim

Only one canoe seen on Brushy Creek today and that was mine. Fishing kayaks, SOT, plastic kayak and even a few inflatable pool toys seen. In the second pic pool toys are in the far distance. In the third pic from the dam there are 2 kayaks in the far distance.

It was the maiden voyage for the Odyssey today. Made functional skid plates from gflex 2 layers of eglass and black spray paint. Moved the seat drops from 3.5in to 2.75in with beefy 1/4x 20 hardware for more seating comfort and used that portage strap for the first time. I am very happy with the boat purchase after spending 1.5hrs on the lake today with it.

SouthernKevlar said:

I just returned from a 6,600 mile, two and a half week motorcycle journey from South Carolina to California, Oregon and back. Along the way I watched for canoes on cars and saw a grand total of FIVE canoes! Where are they hiding?

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I've noticed the scarcity of canoes across the country as well. Seems you just don't see many except in the canoeing hot spots. I was especially surprised when I moved from the Pacific Northwest (where canoes are relatively rare) back to New England (where canoes used to be fairly common) and just wasn't seeing as many canoes as I expected. Mostly kayaks and SUP boards.

The last time we drove across Canada it was a joy traveling through Ontario, where canoes were common. Same with the Adirondacks. It felt like welcoming territory.

In WI in seems kayaks out number canoes 3 to 1 if counting them on car roofs.

A lot a people have canoes at their cabin or cached on a pond on their properties. They just don’t drive around with them.

On a boatless western trip in 2021, I drove through Michigan’s UP. I saw so many canoes atop vehicles it made me think the UP was canoe Mecca. I returned with canoe in ‘22 and discovered Michigan is great canoe country.

Of course, there’s lots of great canoe country. But as the OP notes, there’s not so many canoes. I’m thinking about selling my OT Tripper and took a look at Canoes on Facebook Marketplace. There are a lot of canoes for sale and the prices reflect that there’s not so many buyers.

Take a ride through the Adirondacks…
Maybe every other vehicle has a canoe on top.
You’ll see everything from Tupperware Coleman’s , all sorts of boomalum canoes, plenty of strippers and high end production boats.

Most folks don't even know solo canoes exist, and since they paddle solo a kayak is the obvious choice. Also, canoing is more a family activity for lots of people. Mom, dad and the kids all in one boat. That describes several of my neighbors. Once the kids grow up those canoes will be neglected or sold. Plus, learning to paddle a canoe is so much harder than a kayak. So none of this is really surprising. OTOH, while out on the river last week (in my kayak ) I ran across a local guy who has exactly the same solo canoe as me. Weird.

clemency said:

Plus, learning to paddle a canoe is so much harder than a kayak

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It isn't necessarily any harder, but there definitely is a farily steep learning curve. It takes no prior experience to paddle a kayak with a double blade powering side to side. For success in a canoe, it helps a lot to find someone with paddle stroke experienced knowledge to assist newbys in learning the basics of control. Nothing is more sad than to see someone sttruggling while zig zaging in circles flailing with attempting to go sttraight with paddle flopping from side to side.

clemency said:

Most folks don't even know solo canoes exist, and since they paddle solo a kayak is the obvious choice. Also, canoing is more a family activity for lots of people. Mom, dad and the kids all in one boat. That describes several of my neighbors. Once the kids grow up those canoes will be neglected or sold. Plus, learning to paddle a canoe is so much harder than a kayak. So none of this is really surprising. OTOH, while out on the river last week (in my kayak ) I ran across a local guy who has exactly the same solo canoe as me. Weird.

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What kills me is the number of people on sit-on-top kayaks. I'm like, "that is just a less useful canoe!"

While kayaks might be a familiar site on rooftops how many of them are "nice" kayaks? Like a nice touring model or playboat rather than just some short pumpkinseed?

Imagine how frustrating it would be to be a real kayaker but when you tell people you like to kayak they all say, "yeah, me too" and they imagine you've got the same Dick's Sporting special they do.

I think I'd rather have people think I'm daffy for paddling a canoe instead of a kayak.

Alan

They've been replaced by Thrillcraft by the masses that would rather not respect nature...nor connect with themselves. The 4th holiday is in full swing here just 3.5 hrs SW of Ely and those who like the silent sports pretty much stay indoors. Saw a Coleman camper the length of a train yesterday and while getting groceries in Wallmart (not many choices here in town) saw a Coleman side-by-side for sale. Love not having lots of canoe competition on the waters but the alternative is frightening and getting more so each summer.

Thrillcraft: The Environmental Consequences of Motorized Recreation​

George Wuerthner
Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2007 - Nature - 274 pages
Thrillcraft: The Environmental Consequences of Motorized Recreation exposes the lasting damage done to our land, water, and air from the growing plague of jet skis, quads, dirt bikes, dune buggies, snowmobiles, and other motorized recreational craft that are penetrating the last bastions of wild America. The increase in thrillcraft use is responsible for wildlife habitat fragmentation, disturbance of sensitive wildlife, soil erosion, spread of invasive weeds, loss of silence, as well as water and air pollution. With more than one hundred shocking color photographs, Thrillcraft vividly documents the destruction caused by these machines on American public lands. Essays by activists, policy experts, scientists, and others support the photographs, explain the harm done by these machines, and critique the cultural foundation of this phenomenon. Thrillcraft bears witness to the mindless destruction of our collective natural heritage and offers a vision for a future when the howl of the wind or wolf can again be heard more often than the howl of a machine.
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Years ago I thought it might be smart to belong to the American Canoe Association. When I received the publication, it was nothing but kayak oriented, packed with both articles with exciting photos and extensive ads, especially geared toward crazy young 20-something whitewater enthusiasts. There was maybe a rare single low level useless article about canoes. When I wrote to the organization with my concerns, I was told that the guy who recently purchased the organization was a very dedicated western states whitewater kayaker and cared nothing about canoes. Needless to say, I quickly cancelled my subscription and membership.

Last Sunday was a typical hot southern summer day. I saw a sit-on-top kayak on top of a sedan with no roof racks. It looked like it had melted to the shape of the roof. Like it was made out of recycled vinyl records or something. I felt sad for whoever tried to paddle it.

I think the big innovation in the 1990s was manufacturers figuring out people would buy all kinds of plastic crap if it was cheap.