I'm going to post a series of polls asking how many miles a day you do while tripping. Each poll will be for a specific style of paddling: Canadian style tandem, hit and switch, etc.
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Poll: How many miles a day do you paddle when solo in a tandem canoe?
- Thread starter Art D
- Start date
I paddle tandem canoes solo with my canoe dog Jake. We travel 6 or so miles a day until we reach “base camp”. There we process a fair amount of fire wood, set up the lean one as well as a tarp and get comfortable. While at base camp we travel several miles a day exploring the surrounding area … fishing, ridge top climbing, wood gathering, hiking, paddling every bay, creek, inlet in our area exploring it completely.
Bob.
Bob.
Wow. I have always paddled with fit people. We used to try for about 15 miles on flat water. The wind can change everything. A week long trip in the Bounday Waters was about 85 miles with one lay over day. Wind and portages made for a challenging trip.
Mostly I run rivers and then 20 miles a day is pretty normal. A long day might be 30 miles. Sometimes we have paddled over 35 miles in a day.
Mostly I run rivers and then 20 miles a day is pretty normal. A long day might be 30 miles. Sometimes we have paddled over 35 miles in a day.
He did say this is for solo paddling a tandem canoe so I imagine that would shave on some mileage.
Alan
I hope folks notice the poll asked only about paddling solo in a tandem canoe. It's been a very long time since I did an actual trip in my MR Explorer, but when I did they were all either day or overnight trips on whitewater rivers. I'm sure most were over 10 miles, which isn't much on any swift river.
I hit 7-10, all my trips in Canada required portaging so that would take away from my paddling miles.
When race training, it varies, depending on where the team decides is a good training route distance for the day. I should say that it has often been voyageur canoe training, with 6 or 7 paddlers in a 28' canoe. Could be a favored 20-35 mile route on flatwater lake or a mild downstream river. A tandem (C2) training day might be up to 20 miles. All of that is race mode hit and switch paddling with a bent shaft carbon paddle. When I paddle solo for race training I have a favorite 12 or 16 mile route. Sometimes when I am at my camp, I willl paddle up to four 3-mile loops around a small private lake in a day.
When solo race training or recreational tripping solo I do up to around 10 miles/day, depending on where i go, without doing H&S, as I prefer paddling on the same side for long periods using minimal control strokes before switching to the other side for variety and muscle tone. When not racing or training, I often bring along a straight blade wood paddle and like to paddle the Canadian stroke, or any of several other control variations.
More to the extreme, I, (solo or with my team) will often paddle the Adirondack Cannonball-90, paddling the entire traditional 90 mile canoe route all within a single day, usually takes about 19 hours total.
The maximum ever was 165-200 miles each 18 hour (maximum allowed by the rules) day on the Yukon River races with strong current.
When solo race training or recreational tripping solo I do up to around 10 miles/day, depending on where i go, without doing H&S, as I prefer paddling on the same side for long periods using minimal control strokes before switching to the other side for variety and muscle tone. When not racing or training, I often bring along a straight blade wood paddle and like to paddle the Canadian stroke, or any of several other control variations.
More to the extreme, I, (solo or with my team) will often paddle the Adirondack Cannonball-90, paddling the entire traditional 90 mile canoe route all within a single day, usually takes about 19 hours total.
The maximum ever was 165-200 miles each 18 hour (maximum allowed by the rules) day on the Yukon River races with strong current.
7-10 Miles for me. On multiday (usually around 4 weeks) wilderness trips in NW Ontario I plan to cover 10 Miles a day in 5 - 6 hours travel time. That includes portages, triple portaging in my case. I paddle a tandem canoe solo, single blade, Canadian stroke on still water.
Wind is always a factor. For example: on my last trip one day I had to paddle on a lake against a stiff headwind in choppy water -> 5 Miles in about 4 hours, stopped because I was too tired to keep on paddling, another day I covered 18 Miles on a lake in a leisurely manner in 5 hours.
Wind is always a factor. For example: on my last trip one day I had to paddle on a lake against a stiff headwind in choppy water -> 5 Miles in about 4 hours, stopped because I was too tired to keep on paddling, another day I covered 18 Miles on a lake in a leisurely manner in 5 hours.
I put 3-5, but mostly because that's just about as far as I need to paddle any canoe to get where I want to be (St Regis, mostly). I've pushed, and it's not fun. Once I get "there", I like get camp set up, stay in the same spot for a few days, and paddle day trips from that camp. And that's assuming a loaded canoe, not empty day trips.... those can be longer, but I usually dawdle, fishing and photographing as I go, with occasional shore excursions.
My trips have been lake travel. Due to "life" events it's been a few years since I solo tripped in my NC Pal. My favorite first day destination was about 10 miles with three 1/4 mile (double carry) ports at which time I was exhausted. Good thing the campsite was 1/4 mile from the last port. Once with a 4-5 mph tail wind I opted for a site 16 miles and two ports away and got there about 2:30 in the afternoon. With a moderate head wind on the way back it took two days to return. I would compare my paddling to a loose version of Canadian style. My gear totals about 90 lbs and my canoe is 48 lbs. I have had lower back issues since 2000. After my first solo trip I thought about cutting some weight till I realized that I would still need to double port.
You made me break out the conversion chart km to miles. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I voted 7-10 but I'm sure it would vary depending on the trip. I like Bob's idea above about only paddling 5 or 6 miles and setting up a base camp and doing some exploring. Most of my trips almost all of my paddling was done to get somewhere. Recently I've been doing a lot of recreational paddling for fun and exploring and would like to do more of that on trips, it's more fun.
If you use up all of your paddling energy paddling between when you break camp and when you get it set up again you miss the best paddling of the day, early morning and late evening. All trips are different though so we do what we need to do.
If you use up all of your paddling energy paddling between when you break camp and when you get it set up again you miss the best paddling of the day, early morning and late evening. All trips are different though so we do what we need to do.
In my earlier days when I only had tandem (C2) canoes, first a grumman 17', then a woodstrip 16', one or the other was my only tripping choice with sufficient ballast for level trim. My favored daily paddle day routes took me long distances, mainly on Stillwater Reservoir or other similar large long distance waterways. Years later when I started racing and no team partners were available to train with, I stil paddled in one of my C2s. But now I have a number of solo canoe choices in my fleet and a tripping paddle day is also automatically a training day with longer diistances still being common.
I just chose 2-3 miles, but only because that was the closest choice to zero.
I don't paddle solo in a tandem...ever.
Ever since I built my first solo boat, I only paddle solo when alone or when the group has an odd number of paddlers. (or is that a number of odd paddlers?)
If in a group, and the numbers work out evenly, I'll paddle tandem.
I don't paddle solo in a tandem...ever.
Ever since I built my first solo boat, I only paddle solo when alone or when the group has an odd number of paddlers. (or is that a number of odd paddlers?)
If in a group, and the numbers work out evenly, I'll paddle tandem.
Has there ever been a part two? On this forum you might get more responses as there are many dedicated solo boat paddlers (personally 6 out of 8 and I haven't used the tandems for solo since 2004).
You're right, of course: Canada treasonously switched from the distance measurement of their U.K. queen in 1977. Perhaps I should administratively change the distances to units common to Canada, the USA and Europe. I'm thinking of light years.
Modern measurements like miles or kilometres are not appropriate for a paddling site, they should all be done in "pipes".
I think I remember that USA was also going to change to metric back then, but bailed out.At 62 I have learned and lived with both and find myself using both at different times and circumstances. Though I do use more and more metric lately, (though a 4 X 8 sheet of plywood is still 4' X 8', except the thickness is now in millimetres ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).
Still off topic from the OG poll, portages in rods is another difference we have. We use metres which I like because it translates to other activities with distances. interestingly I know an older gentle man who was a game warden and in all of his notes the portages are in chains, which are not the same as rods. Then there's the pronunciation of portage..........
all in good fun.The older I get the slower I go. Now 7-10 miles is more like it.
