new old guy from Fl - pic heavy

[deerfly]

Howdy gang,

Name is eric, Fl native and kind of all around sportsman my whole life, predominately fly fish both salt and fresh water and bow hunt with traditional gear last 20 years or so. Have canoed a lot over the years too, but lately getting more into it for the paddling more so than as a means to get somewhere in order to do something else when I get there. You guys call it tripping I call it hunting and/or fishing, tripping was something we did in the late 60's & early 70's

I've done canoe lining trips in interior AK bow hunting for moose, a drop off float hunt too with rafts, but that's a little off topic here. Fish and hunt from/via canoe quite a bit all around Fl for many years. I've been poling a canoe for years as well while sight fishing for gamefish on the shallow salt water flats and estuaries, but that's a bit different from you guys idea of poling rivers. Threw a hodgepodge of pics in so you can see what I've been up to.

Recently have a couple buddies trying to coerce me into doing Watertribe Everglades Challenge next year, which is about 300 miles in 8 days. Anyway, not quite sure I'm all in yet, but will need to up my game and gear. Kinda close to pulling the trigger on a Swift Shearwater both for the event and because a big solo should suit my normal escapades hunting and fishing more efficiently than my Algonquin 16 paddled solo. In researching what ever I could find on the shearwater I stumbled into your camp here and decided to introduce myself and hopefully learn something too. - eric

 

[Boreal Birch]

I seem to remember being on that interior AK river, of course they maybe all look a bit alike. Welcome to the Forum

 

[latremorej]

Nice photos! Welcome

JASON

 

[deerfly]

Boreal, yes those interior Alaska rivers do look a lot alike. That's the Chena middle fork, we put in off the hot springs road and lined up river about 20 miles over 8 days and paddled back camping along the way. Very doable DIY moose hunt, char fishing or just nature watching, assuming you have the paddle craft available. I happen to have a very good friend that lives in N. Pole outside of Fairbanks. When ever I want to hunt or fish up there all I need to do is show up at the airport. He has all the necessary hardware and local knowledge. I return the favor when he has an inkling to thaw out in Florida and I take him fishing or hunting feral pigs, etc.

 

[latremorej]

Boreal, yes those interior Alaska rivers do look a lot alike. That's the Chena middle fork, we put in off the hot springs road and lined up river about 20 miles over 8 days and paddled back camping along the way. Very doable DIY moose hunt, char fishing or just nature watching, assuming you have the paddle craft available. I happen to have a very good friend that lives in N. Pole outside of Fairbanks. When ever I want to hunt or fish up there all I need to do is show up at the airport. He has all the necessary hardware and local knowledge. I return the favor when he has an inkling to thaw out in Florida and I take him fishing or hunting feral pigs, etc.

Now that's a good trade!

 

[yellowcanoe]

Loved the pictures! We paddle Florida for a month each Feb. This last one was beastly hot for us. Have paddled most of the documented routes in the Glades but not the Challenge.. You will want a full cockpit cover for the Shearwater.. I am not sure it will get past the judges.. Sea Winds and hard decked canoes are preferred.. But its worth a try... I have done the outside route in an open canoe just fine but recreationally ( ie was able to pull off when the seas got rough!)

Next year we may try overnighting on the Withlacoochee River.. This summer we are headed to Alaska, Yukon and BC with canoe

 

[deerfly]

thanks and definitely on the cockpit cover! I've been in enough snotty weather in small craft and canoes over the past 50 years to know what I'm in for in that regard. Although I don't do it for a living anymore I was a licensed 100 ton captain as well. I've raced 35-40' sloops across the gulfstream to the Bahamas and back, down the east coast to from Ft Lauderdale to Key West, helped deliver sailboats and yachts to and from the islands, dealt with broken through hull fittings in 10' seas and sportfished and spearfished free diving all over hell and back through my home region. I have all the skin cancers to prove it. Actually proposed to my wife while sailing through tropical storm number 1 in 1991 on our way to Bimini in a 35' Cal. Took us 19 hours to make 51 miles and we sailed at night. She was throwing up the whole time, Omaha girl, no sea legs, but she still said yes!. Our second date was out gigging frogs on my airboat. Still not sure what she saw in me. Didn't want to get into all that on canoe forum

Anyway, the Krugers and what not just don't suit what I do 95% of the time and I'm not in it for the technical paddling aspect either. So I need to find the best balance in a solo canoe that I can paddle steady at 5 knots or so for hours at a time and still have a 100lbs or so of gear capacity be it 10 days worth of fresh water or 180lb hog. If I do the challenge it wouldn't be to compete with anyone but myself. I'm too old for that level now. Just completing the trip would be more than enough, even if it takes me 9 days.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Have you met the Buckleys in ENP? He has a Mad RIver Monarch.. So do I .. Amazing how maneuverable it is.. Even the Nightmare and the Labyrinth and the Wood are not hard.

Looking at the Watertribe rules you just need enough water to reach the next checkpoint. Chokoloskee to Flamingo ought to be doable in three or four days.. extra gallon or two of water. My concern is that the officials won't allow the Shearwater. Its a fine canoe capable of the task but I think the officials fear people wont wait out bad weather and go for it. For sure the Monarch and ilk is a little more seaworthy under adverse conditions.

That said it might be fun to do the trip on your own! Hang the rules and the race!

Now end of debbie downer. My hubby and I did trips in the Everglades this year but just short ones.. We both are not fans of loading that Monarch up seven feet onto a pickup for short trips. I took a RapidFire instead and a Nomad ( another big touring canoe just a tad smaller than the Shearwater)

 

[deerfly]

No Title

lol, no I don't know the Buckleys, but this guy in the link below is one of my close friends and is one of the Watertriber's I mentioned in the intro post.

http://watertribe.org/microtom/a-unique-mad-river-monarch/

Tom has done the EC challenge twice I think and the FL Ultimate once. When it comes to endurance paddling Tom's the real deal. Tom and our other mutual friend Ron who paddles a Kruger and I are trying to finalize a paddle trip in the next couple weeks right now. Probably something in the 10K islands north of ENP. No doubt I'll be trying to keep up in the Algonquin 16... One of my other passions in life is fly fishing for tarpon with the season upon us now and I have a potential conflict that I'm trying to resolve so I can finalize the paddle adventure.

I welcome the advice though and is why I joined, keep it coming. It didn't take me long poking around here to see the level and knowledge of the members. But you have to keep in mind with me its far more important to have a solo canoe that I can toss a dead pig, deer or a half cord of firewood into than to be more compliant or better suited for WaterTribe events. Compared to most on this site I'm probably more of a ham-n-egger when it comes to the technical paddling stuff, but have been around all type of water craft enough to know there is no perfect anything for anything either. Its all a matter of balancing compromises or learn to avoid or toughen up and over come them when needed. An oft repeated refrain from Dad in my formative years was if you're gonna' stupid you better be tough. So my life has been a balance of surviving ignorance, have had a few close calls, but so far so good...

Anyway, I agree the monarch would an excellent perhaps better choice for the EC challenge, and my friend Ron has mentioned that many times already, but for everything else I do and plan to do, not so much. If I planned to do more WaterTribe events I'd probably get a sea wind. But given the time required to train and prepare I can't see that happening because I'd have to sacrifice too many other things I love to do.

Another thing is I stand up to fly fish in a canoe a lot. Somewhat atypical requirement in a solo, but is an important factor to me. So I'm trying to find the balance between load capacity, sea worthiness within solo friendly dimensions that I can stand in to cast or pole as conditions warrant. At the moment the Shearwater appears to be the best option. Still on the fence between kevlar fusion or carbon fusion though. Both laminates are both probably strong enough for what I do around these parts, but will probably err on the side of Kevlar unless someone can convince me the impact or puncture resistance is not different enough between them and go with carbon for the weight savings.

Bottom line is I'm not the type to have or want several canoe's each suited by application. I don't do that with guns, fly rods or longbows. Very much a died in the wool minimalist when it comes to this sort of thing. So I'll most likely only own one solo and one tandem at any given time and when ever they come up short on the water I'll have to make up for it in brawn or stupidity like I usually do.

 

[Boreal Birch]

Deerfly........
I was guessing that it was the upper Chena drainage, I spent 39 years working for the Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game doing fishery management work. I have a lot of hours counting spawning salmon on the Chena from the back seat of a Super Cub at 300 feet and in boats and hip boots. I didn't want to mention what my guess was just in case you wanted to keep your hunting grounds to yourself. By the way I believe the fish that you are talking about would be Arctic Grayling and not char as I don't recall them being in the Chena.
I am about 15 miles farther out of Fairbanks than your North Pole friend.

 

[deerfly]

No Title

yup, Boreal you're right, grayling and Chena too! I was typing and not thinking for a change... The times I've been there we've seen pretty good numbers of grayling, nearly every deep pool seemed to have a few when we bothered to look, but they seemed to have a case of lock jaw most times I've tried fishing for them. It was mostly just filling in time midday, not particularly serious effort. I've only heard about the salmon in there, they're long gone by the moose rut. My buddy brought plenty of silver fillets, halibut and shark steaks he caught in the spring down south of Anchorage, so we ate good.

As far as the honey hole thing, no worries there either, appreciate your sensitivity too. Thing is there aren't many secret spots any more, especially where a bush flight isn't required to get in there. Still, we saw some nice bulls in those drainages. Had a couple close encounters too, but not close enough with a longbow and got winded. One was tending a cow and the other wasn't responding to our calling, neither actually, so I ended up having to try stalking them both, not easy in the world they live in. We stumbled into a grizzly cache too, luckily the owner was no where to be found. Snapped a few pics and got the heck out of there.

Awesome experience up there, trying to plan another float trip in a couple years when my son finishes college. What a magnificent place for a career though. I was in my late 40's on the first trip and was actually kind of sad it took me so long to get there. My buddy was stationed at the base in the mid 70's and never went back home in Minnesota except to visit. Another reason I want my son to get a taste while he's young. I think if I was there in my early to mid 20's I'd still be there too...

 

[yellowcanoe]

Eric I totally agree with your boat choice. But the powers that be at the Everglades Challenge may not. Just have a plan B if they put up a little fight. I did a late March trip N of ENP once and found the heat and the bugs quite the challenge. Being Northerner 80 is a daytime high in July, not in March for me,

Those Arctic paddlers.. some have never met a BUG! Compare your southern and northern bug experiences. I'd be interested.

 

[deerfly]

YC, you're absolutely right and I've had that very discussion with my buddies a few times already. Right now I'm of the mindset that if they don't like my setup I'll just follow along and take pictures for 300 miles, a determined reporter of sorts.

Although it would be nice to be officially part of the event, I honestly don't care whether I'm in the race or not. Its more of a personal thing and I can do it any time of year I want anyway.

Actually, part of my tentative training and practice plan is to run each major segment 60 miles or so, over a few long weekends through the year, maybe more than once as time permits. I know most of the route first hand from fishing all over the place since late 60's and having been an avid snook and tarpon fisherman most of that time I'm pretty familiar with all the major gulf passes too, which is were the trouble will be for paddlers in less than ideal winds and tides.

I may not be an avid high tech paddler, but I do have a lot of time on the water in these parts and under all sorts of conditions from glassy calm to terrifying. My biggest concern isn't sea and weather conditions or my paddle stroke, its more about the time required to build up my physical conditioning to be able to average 4-6mph for 8+ hours a day in a loaded canoe against the elements. If I'm not able to get through some of those practice segments feeling good enough about things, then no challenge until I think I'm ready.

The cool thing is it's something to shoot for and work towards.

 

[Grandpa Paddler]

Deerfly, I had to chuckle at your topic title 'new old guy from Florida' My Dad lived in Florida 25+ years and after many (many, many) trips down there, decided there were just way too many people there, my kids tell me I'm old (and I guess I am) but I feel young when I'm there visiting my stepmother and stepbrother. Anyway, glad to have you on board, lots of great people and knowledge here!

 

[deerfly]

GP, thx and glad you got a laugh! There are too many places in FL now with too many people packed into very small areas for sure. We moved out of S Fl many years ago to a rural part of the state for the same reasons you mention. About the time the locals think the population can't get any worse it does. I have too much saltwater in my blood to leave tho, just have to drive a few hours to fish and play on the water where I used to be minutes or an hour away. Still lots of great places to fish and hunt, just need to know when and where to go...

 

[yellowcanoe]

Every once in a while I think of small winter house in Cedar Key or environs.. Also rather fond of the center of the state around Sebring..( but would need a horse there)

 

[Robin]

My parents retired to Fla and lived there 25 years. Whenever we would travel away from the route 19 corridor to go somewhere I would admire the farmland and forests we passed.
My dad would say "Who would live here, nothing around here (as in mall-Publics-golf course-restaurants with early bird specials)

 

[deerfly]

Yeah, Cedar Key is really nice, personally I would much prefer over Sebring, still somewhat small and isolated. Lots of water to enjoy, salt and fresh and lots more within an hour or two drive in any direction. Goethe forest 12-15 miles inland is a massive area laced with horse back trails if you're into that. Sebring is nice too, obviously more land locked, still plenty of lakes nearby, Kissimmee river to the east or Peace river to the west for long continuous paddling with camping options along the way. Several areas north of Cedar Key along the big bend region like Horeshoe Beach, Suwanee, Steinhatchee and Keaton Beach would make for great snow bird havens too, but don't tell anybody I told you about any of this.

 

[Grandpa Paddler]

My parents retired to Fla and lived there 25 years. Whenever we would travel away from the route 19 corridor to go somewhere I would admire the farmland and forests we passed.
My dad would say "Who would live here, nothing around here (as in mall-Publics-golf course-restaurants with early bird specials)

Robin,
Your Dad and my Dad must have been cast from the same mold. He loved Florida! His idea of roughing it was ringing twice for room service.
Jon