Hanz...my first canoe was a sportspal, those thin skinned aluminum ones, painted to look like birch bark, and lined with styrofoam on the inside. Think it was 12 feet long and five feet wide. You rOld Town Guide is a racing hull compared to the sports pal. Me and two friends ran it down a swollen river in March when we were 15. There was a tree standing upright in the middle of the river. We broadsided it, and the canoe folded like an accordion, and wrapped around the tree. We had all grabbed the branches of the tree over top of us, and as the current folded and wrapped thane, our boots were sucked right off our feet. We managed to unwrap it and had to drag it through the snow in our sock feet for about a mile to get it home. Banged that canoe out with a rubber mallet, put some roofing tar on it and kept using it for a few more years.
Waterdog - I think I would have had Fido in the tent with me. The wolves up here are incredibly bold, and they pick off many town dogs every year, usually in the winter. Dogs that are tied up outside are their favorite targets, cause they can't run away. When I snowshoe in the winter with a dog, I always carry a gun, the wolves have tried to ambush my dogs on the trail a few times.
