Great trip report and photos. Native flora ID is always interesting to me.
I too struggled with how to post photos and the good people here showed me the way. The punctuation avoidance still takes practice, and that may be resolved soon.
We had recently purchased a 16 foot Wenonah Prospector canoe to replace our 16 foot Mad River Explorer. The Wenonah was actually a smidge shorter that the Explorer, and a little more rockered. Gear did not fit as well or as easily. Our food bucket did not fit in front of the bow seat. Plus the new and bigger tent no longer fit in the top of our canvass pack, and would not squeeze between the hulls. We had been having trouble getting everything to fit so that the spray deck lay flat. We had finally figured out where everything should go, and took this picture to remind ourselves for the next trip.
3 inches shorter, but with much sharper stems, which somehow does not compensate for the Wenonah Prospector being a little wider at the gunwales and a little deeper than the Explorer. I am impressed that you managed to fit it all in the Wenonah with spray cover (nice cover too, Northwater?)
I often paddle a soloized and spray covered Penobscot 16 on long trips and it ends up gunwale-full of gear with just me aboard. I usually test pack the canoe at home when I am carrying a full gear load, and make a sketch of where each dry bag and barrel fits best. By the time I have driven 2000 miles (or even 200 miles) I will have forgotten that home tested gear layout and just refer to my sketch at first launch.
After I have packed and repacked, and occasionally rearranged the gear load a couple times along the way I do not need the sketch, but I save it for next trip, and have kept those sketches for a variety of canoes and gear loads, so packing for another trip is easier.
(Those sketches, while valuable, are about to become obsolete; I have been making DIY custom tapered dry bags for both the decked canoe and now for the stems of open solo canoes, or even just stern of a tandem)
Ten minutes later we put back on the water. As we approached the backward-curving point in deep waves, rollers crashed off the point back toward us, causing the canoe to pitch, bow to stern. The canoe also wallowed from side to side between the crests and the troughs of the waves. We had cleared the point, and it was time to turn. I was paddling on the left, on the windward side, doing forward strokes alternated with strong sweeps. This should have turned the boat, But the canoe kept going straight, farther away from, and beyond the point. I can’t get the boat to turn, Kathleen.
What do you want me to do?
Nothing.
Our new arrangement of gear was not perfect, and we were slightly bow heavy. This caused the stern to lift just a little bit out of the water. The wind, on the left, caught the stern like a weather vane, pushing it toward shore, but pivoting the bow of the canoe out from the point toward open water and larger, breaking waves.
Again I told Kathleen that I was having trouble turning the canoe.
Again, What do you want me to do?
Nothing. I just wanted to tell you.
In fact, I didn’t want her to do anything differently. She was putting in good forward strokes that I could anticipate. I didn’t want her to do something that would add more uncertainty about my own strokes.
Now I was sterning and steering based mostly on reaction. Pitching. Wallowing. Rolling. I struggled to control the angle and direction of the canoe. I sometimes felt tempted to put in a bracing stroke when I felt that the canoe might roll over in one of the deep troughs. That would have stalled the canoe, though, relinquishing control to the wind and waves. I could have also yelled out change sides. Kathleen would then be paddling on the left, and I would be paddling on the right. I could then put in J strokes or River Js, which would more easily turn the boat toward the point than my current combination of sweeps and forward strokes. Switching sides, though, meant that both our paddles would momentarily be out of the water. I did not want that. Not even for only a second. We needed to maintain momentum.
Eventually I finally managed to turn the canoe, and the waves thrust us past the backward-curving point, where we easily slipped into the lee water behind. We got out to rest. I did not enjoy that at all, and had actually been worried that we might have capsized. There would not have been any good outcomes to a capsize.
I appreciated the description of that struggle. The hardest time I have ever had controlling a canoe was, drumroll, tandem in a Wenonah Prospector. Nothing wrong with that canoe, conditions were just beyond challenging, and would have see us ashore and making camp in any other situation. Not an option.
Tandem with an experienced bowman, lightly loaded and a little bow light, on a day long explore from camp. A fierce wind and long fetch waves kicked up and our only choice of return route took us across multiple widely embayed shorelines. Straight across would have been more direct, but the best we could manage was (try) to run diagonal to the wind down each embayment and then fight our way back out, and do it all over again around the next point.
We had the same pitching, rolling and wallowing, and even with a strong bowman at my command we were on the knife edge of control. We had a similar
What do you want me to do? Nothing, just keep paddling hard conversation, and my bowman had no idea how much effort it took in the stern to keep us upright. At times I was doing more bracing and massive correction sweeps than paddling, and if he let up on forward stroke effort we were screwed (he let up at a couple inopportune times, causing me to shout
No, hell no! Keep paddling hard dammit.
I did not enjoy it all either.
A few random observations.
Our 2001 Ford van only has 118,000 miles on it but the brake line rusted out last year (lots of salted road winter trip to paddle down south). It is something Ford E150s are noted for.
I agree absolutely about a non-squatty toilet and we use something similar when digging catholes, and a pack it out wag bag system with the same Reliance toilet seat where required. A trowel in hard ground was never my favorite tool, and I have come to appreciate this little True Temper shovel; the blade size is perfect for digging a small cat hole.
https://www.jcpenney.com/p/true-temper-ksm-real-tools-for-kids-shovel/ppr5007706896?pTmplType=regular&country=US¤cy=USD&selectedSKUId=62870770018&selectedLotId=6287077&fromBag=true&quantity=1&utm_medium=cse&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=shovels&utm_content=62870770018&cid=cse%7Cgoogle%7C004%20-%20home%20furn%20leisure%7Cshovels_62870770018&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI276T_tyX3QIV0kwNCh1BEQqBEAQYAiABEgIGFfD_BwE&kwid=productads-adid^230165333234-device^c-plaid^334559805599-sku^62870770018-adType^PLA
Hell yes I want a chair. I am pretty sure my people stopped squatting around the campfire back when we were building the Maes Howe on Orkney.
No tarp? ?Que pasa con eso (no apostrophe in Spanish)
Kudos to Kathleen for having a real book. A real thick book. Me too, always, and it better be good enough to reread. But on nice days I would be reposed in a little nylon day hammock strung between trees. A little nylon day hammock may be my favorite 1 lb, size of a softball piece of gear that sets up in literal seconds.
https://www.rei.com/product/754769/eno-singlenest-hammock
Lastly, the gear reflective question I am given to asking folks after long or remote trips. The answers are often illuminating for fellow trippers.
What worked well?
What, if anything, did not, or not to your expections?
What would you replace, alter or take differently?
