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Best Places to Live in the US for Canoeing?

Jmharrick

Jmharrick

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Coraopolis, PA
If you could choose one place to live in the US that has the best canoeing opportunities, where would it be?

I thought this would be a fun thread, and it is applicable to me and my family as I just started a fully remote job, and I now have the freedom to live wherever I choose as long as I have internet and phone service.

Ideally for me I would have a mix of everything. Whitewater, flatwater, portage lakes, etc, and the ability to go on multi day trips close to home. I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this.
 
North Alabama is NOT the place. If that's any help.

The "River" is huge and it's either a barge channel or a giant shallow mud hole.

Any smaller creeks/streams are either an inch deep or have a thousand drunks floating them on coolers every weekend.

Not that I'm bitter about it 😄
 
While I have never paddled in the BWCA, from the trip reports here I still prefer the ADK’s.
No permits, smaller waters, great combo of history, mountains, wilderness camping and paddling.
Living here near Albany, NY gives me all the modern conveniences with the blue line just 45 minutes away.
Yeah, I’m admittedly biased
 
Tryin' said:
I would say Maine
Click to expand...
I live in mid coast Maine and it’s a really nice area to live. Lots of great paddling opportunities plus some awesome down hill ski areas not too far away. It’s easy to get to northern Quebec and New Brunswick for some more wilderness adventures. It’s too far from northwest Ontario though. Living near the Atlantic coast here in Maine is really nice.

The northern ADK’s would be a nice place to live, both the great paddling in the ADK’s and within easy reach of some excellent Canadian paddling. Algonquin and LaVerendrye, Temagami.

I think the Duluth area would be nice too, BWAC, Quetico and best of all northwest Ontario is just an easy days ride.
 
I’m biased but Maine checks a lot of boxes:
  • Canoeing history and culture (Thoreau, Wabanaki, Old Town, et al.)
  • Well established economy of outfitters and guide services: easy shuttles for one-way trips
  • Full range of whitewater classes
  • Myriad interconnected waterways and classic routes, with and without portaging. You could never paddle them all
  • Protected wilderness waterways (Allagash, etc.) and even the private-land based logging economy accommodates (prioritizes?) access for outdoor recreational pursuits
  • Finally, there are huge swaths of land that are still sufficiently remote that you can feel relatively alone in the wilderness.
If you’re a touring kayaker, and/or sailor, Maine also doubles as one of the premier destinations in the world. Using NOAA’s method for measuring coastline that includes intertidal zones (which are great for paddling) it has the fourth most coastline of any state in the country: more than California!
 
I'd probably choose north central Minnesota, a bit NW of Grand Rapids. Grand Rapids would be a nice town if you wanted some more amenities. Bemidji would be a nice town in the area too.

It's still rural with a small population.
Tons of lakes and some nice rivers.
Lots of different outdoor recreation available.
Cheap place to live (if you can find a job).
Close to Canada (and the BWCA).

Alan
 
I guess it depends on preference for wilderness but you can paddle for many weeks probably a couple of months, in the BWCAW and Quetico PP and never see or hear signs of civilization - no roads, buildings, low flying airplanes, etc. Plus so many directions to go with such short portages by and large. I don't see any possibilities nearly like that in Adirondacks. Always running into camps, roads, and buildings, leaving out the outhouses, lean-tos, bridges, and picnic tables.

Depends on how much civilation you can tolerate I guess.
 
Burlington, Vermont. If you like the outdoors, it's the best place in the U.S. to live. If you want to paddle, ski, hike, sail after work, there's all of that 45 minutes or less from downtown. Need a dose of a real city: Montreal is 1.5 hours away, Boston 3.25, Quebec City 4.5, New York 5.5.

It's 1.5 hours from the Adirondacks and 2 hours from New Hampshire's White Mountains. Western Maine isn't bad, but Northwestern Maine is the only pain—7 hours to the confluence of the Allagash & St. John and 7 hours to the entrance of Baxter State Park. The Vérendrye is only 4.5 hours away.

And, you've got internet and cell service.

The downside is that it's warming faster than any other part of the United States and you've got to find a place that is safe from flooding. (I think most of Burlington is. Outside of it, in the hills, is a different story.)
 
Depends on what age I am and what my outdoor interests are at that age.

For a change of geographic pace from all you northies, I'd now choose to live in Florida. Probably in the mid-interior from Orlando up through Ocala or Gainesville. No whitewater or extended lake-to-lake portage tripping in Florida, but there's a multiverse of fresh and salt water for infinite day paddling and some multi-day river trips.

Also important to me in older age is . . . NO COLD WEATHER. You can canoe all year long, although early morning paddling will probably be necessary in the three hot months of summer. I no longer have any interest in outdoor winter activities, if I ever did—never a skier, but I paid through the nose for my kids' lessons and rentals when we lived in the Catskill Mountains (Woodstock, NY) for eight years.

Whitewater—once my love but now jilted by old age—would still be reachable within a long day's drive, if so desired, in South Carolina and Georgia. If I wanted a Canadian wilderness trip, I'd fly there and rent, like many folks do.
 
I’d vote for northern Minnesota and not because of the BW, which I mostly avoid. But because I could much more quickly access Ontario and Manitoba. Currently, I reside in SE Wisconsin between Chicago and Milwaukee so any drive to Canada is 10+ hours for me, just to get to the border. I guess I need to be thankful that my spouse doesn’t object to my 2 annual trips to Canada, where the snow lasts longer and the beer tastes stronger.
 
There are a lot place mentioned and they all sound good or really good. I guess I like it right where I live, Windham, Maine. Although it now gets dark pretty early I can easily go canoe any time I want and on all sorts of nice lakes, ponds, the ocean or rivers. I choose where I live now, I've got it made.
 
Coraopolis, PA might be worthy of consideration... There's a decent amount of water nearby for day paddles, ADK's aren't far away, 18 hours South puts you in the Everglades and 18 hours North can get you into some lightly traveled areas in Ontario or the BWCA.

Congrats on the new job. I'll be interested in seeing where you land.
 
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