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No one can construct as unassailable, amusing and informative a rebuttal as Glenn; it’s dang near lawyerly.
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Happy Sacagawea Day! 🧭🧑🏽🍼🪶🏞
Poll: How many years have you been paddling?
- Thread starter Glenn MacGrady
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No one can construct as unassailable, amusing and informative a rebuttal as Glenn; it’s dang near lawyerly.
I started paddling with a buddy in the Boy Scouts, with the goal of entering a popular local canoe race. That grew into a love of the sport, and for the next 30 years most of my paddling was training or racing. About 20 years ago I took my first trip to the BWCA, and then other destinations. As I get older, I'm tapering off the racing and enjoying more tripping.
I guess I got a late start being about 40 or so but 31 years of paddling has been a lot of fun!!
The "with some regularity" criteria put me in the 1-5 year category. Karen and I both had a few opportunities to paddle growing up and as we raised our family, but we never paddled or tripped consistently until 3 years ago. I think the seed for us paddling more lately was an Allagash Trip my then 16 year old son and I took in 2004. I had deer hunted for years in that region and wanted to experience that landscape at a different time of year, from a different vantage point. I wanted also to spend a concentrated amount of time with Ben who I realized would all too soon be leaving the nest. So, with little experience but a great deal of planning we put in at Chamberlin, paddled back to Telos Dam, and took out in Allagash Village 9 days later. We had an amazing trip and have lifetime memories of it. We rented a 20 foot canoe, which sounds silly now, but we appreciated the extra freeboard more than once! It was the perfect father/son trip for us. Paddling tandem as a team drew us closer together.
I started spending time alone on the water at about the age of 10. There was a flat-bottomed plywood johnboat available to me on the creek where my father took us for holiday weekends. Countless hours spent pushing my way up and down that creek, hunting for a humongous bass named Walter. I will not call this the beginning of my canoe life because you cannot call my methods of propulsion anything close to paddling.
Four years later, in my first year of high school shop, I found myself building a flat-bottomed plywood canoe. I can't say it was a huge improvement over the johnboat, but at least it had pointy ends. My teacher in that class saw to it that I had plenty of opportunities to get it on the water.
The first big financial investment in my life was again four years later, when all of my saved lawn-mowing money went for a shinny new 15' Grumman. I made good and frequent use of the lightweight double-ender for 27 years before having the wherewithal to invest in a proper solo canoe.
So doing the math, I have 50 years with a desire to mess around on water, 7 in plywood, 26 in aluminum and 18 with well-designed space age materials.
I should add, in all that time Walter has still eluded me.
Four years later, in my first year of high school shop, I found myself building a flat-bottomed plywood canoe. I can't say it was a huge improvement over the johnboat, but at least it had pointy ends. My teacher in that class saw to it that I had plenty of opportunities to get it on the water.
The first big financial investment in my life was again four years later, when all of my saved lawn-mowing money went for a shinny new 15' Grumman. I made good and frequent use of the lightweight double-ender for 27 years before having the wherewithal to invest in a proper solo canoe.
So doing the math, I have 50 years with a desire to mess around on water, 7 in plywood, 26 in aluminum and 18 with well-designed space age materials.
I should add, in all that time Walter has still eluded me.
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Perhaps the question should be modified to "When did you first paddle a canoe?".
I first paddled a canoe when I was in the scouts. Probably about age 9. The first canoe that I bought was a couple of decades later; in the mid 80's. My time in a canoe between the first time and the time I bought a canoe had gaps, big gaps. Therefore, I did not include gaps when I answered the poll. I consider the duration of my paddling experience to be from the time I bought a canoe to whenever, whatever whenever may be. I'm still active, so for me, whenever is today.
Additionally, in those early days/years of paddling a rented/borrowed canoe, I don't think I was all that concerned with technique, methods, etc. When I bought a canoe, my thought process about paddling changed immensely. Thus, that's when solid experience began, not at age 9.
And for further thought, my youngest daughter first stepped into a canoe at about the age of 3. She doesn't remember those early days. Do you count from age 3 to whenever as years experience?
I first paddled a canoe when I was in the scouts. Probably about age 9. The first canoe that I bought was a couple of decades later; in the mid 80's. My time in a canoe between the first time and the time I bought a canoe had gaps, big gaps. Therefore, I did not include gaps when I answered the poll. I consider the duration of my paddling experience to be from the time I bought a canoe to whenever, whatever whenever may be. I'm still active, so for me, whenever is today.
Additionally, in those early days/years of paddling a rented/borrowed canoe, I don't think I was all that concerned with technique, methods, etc. When I bought a canoe, my thought process about paddling changed immensely. Thus, that's when solid experience began, not at age 9.
And for further thought, my youngest daughter first stepped into a canoe at about the age of 3. She doesn't remember those early days. Do you count from age 3 to whenever as years experience?
I put 11-20... I paddled occasionally with Boy Scouts for the 5 years or so I was with the program, then took a long hiatus before building my own stitch and glue canoe in around 2007 and coming back to it.
I've been up the creek without a paddle for years...
got me a nice paddle now
got me a nice paddle now
Man, I'd love to have a photo of my 1st canoe and canoe dog.
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My daughter is on a good start, she's 11, born in october and the following may she was on the river with us.... she started paddling the following season, I made her a paddle and she used it a little when she was awake! 2 years ago she did one run on our local day trip river in our caption with her cousin that is a year older, doing eddy turns, even trying to surf.... This year was the first year where she really got into paddling stern with other people, she loves it!!
I grew up next to a slow moving river coming out of the western Adirondacks. I remember at age 12 I begged my father to get me a small rowboat. I'll never forget the day we drove to the boat shop to get my 9' Starcraft pram. For several years I had it tied up on a floating dock chained to a tree and I rowed that boat to go fishing almost every summer day to go fishing with my buddies who lived nearby. I count that as the beginning of my "paddling" days. I'll admit that I after two years of rowing, I eventually got a small outboard motor, but I was in scouts at the same time and learned the art of canoe paddling. After many years in storage I still have that rowbboat today with the same set of oars (no motor) and it still floats. Fast forward through late teens and college when I did not do much on the water.
Then newly married and stationed in Ohio in the Air Force I bought a Grumman thin skin light weight aluminum canoe for me and my bride. Ohio is so awful for canoe and canoe camping. The water is green and thick and camping opportunities are severely restricted, larger waters are full of fast motorboats who care nothing about padders. Smaller waters are shallow and small, heading through polluted towns and coal mining landscapes. I made frequent trips back home to northern NY as often as I could, carrying that canoe and heading into the Adirondacks. I learned a lot about boat control while solo paddling that 17' aluminum beast. A bit later, the wife, two kids and a dog and I all paddled and camped together at favorite campsites on an Adirondack lake. in that canoe.
Later the Air Force assigned me to a base in NY, not far from the Adirondacks and my boyhood home. I continued paddling with family and also did much solo. An old high school friend made a living building and selling cedar strip canoes. I got one of those, much lighter and easier to paddle than the Grumman and so did a couple of associates at work, where by then I was working as an civilian in the AF. My friends had paddled in the Adirondack 90 mile canoe race, an asked me if I would like to go in partners to have my canoe making friend build a 32' voyageur canoe for us. Of course. That was the beginning of my racing days, continuing until my 23rd consecutive 90 miler this past weekend. A few years into it I was invited to join a voyageur team to paddle in the Yukon races. Of course again, and I have returned to the Yukon to race 5 times since. Somewhere along in there I became an instructor for BSA high adventure trek leaders and Adirondack wilderness guides, in which I enjoy very much teaching canoeing and land navigation.
May it never end.
Then newly married and stationed in Ohio in the Air Force I bought a Grumman thin skin light weight aluminum canoe for me and my bride. Ohio is so awful for canoe and canoe camping. The water is green and thick and camping opportunities are severely restricted, larger waters are full of fast motorboats who care nothing about padders. Smaller waters are shallow and small, heading through polluted towns and coal mining landscapes. I made frequent trips back home to northern NY as often as I could, carrying that canoe and heading into the Adirondacks. I learned a lot about boat control while solo paddling that 17' aluminum beast. A bit later, the wife, two kids and a dog and I all paddled and camped together at favorite campsites on an Adirondack lake. in that canoe.
Later the Air Force assigned me to a base in NY, not far from the Adirondacks and my boyhood home. I continued paddling with family and also did much solo. An old high school friend made a living building and selling cedar strip canoes. I got one of those, much lighter and easier to paddle than the Grumman and so did a couple of associates at work, where by then I was working as an civilian in the AF. My friends had paddled in the Adirondack 90 mile canoe race, an asked me if I would like to go in partners to have my canoe making friend build a 32' voyageur canoe for us. Of course. That was the beginning of my racing days, continuing until my 23rd consecutive 90 miler this past weekend. A few years into it I was invited to join a voyageur team to paddle in the Yukon races. Of course again, and I have returned to the Yukon to race 5 times since. Somewhere along in there I became an instructor for BSA high adventure trek leaders and Adirondack wilderness guides, in which I enjoy very much teaching canoeing and land navigation.
May it never end.
When I was a kid, we didn't call it canoe tripping, we called it hunting or fishing. My dad would take me out for day trips, overnighters and and weekenders in the pursuit of fur and feathered friends. When I became a teenager, my friends and I did the same. We did leisure paddles in the summer, but serious canoeing was in order to kill something.
I was first introduced to the idea of canoe tripping for no reason when I got to Geraldton, around 30 years ago. My first 14 day trip was an adventure in heck. It was with the high school club, and the kids got up to all matter of monkeyshines. The trip leader had a very irregular schedule, such that we were often on the water till 11 at night, sometimes portaging in the dark, often stuck in one place for hours while we looked for ports that no longer existed. Wasn't unusual for supper to be served at 2:00 AM, by which time I had curled up in an army poncho under a spruce tree to try to grab an hour of sleep. On the last night, I got poisoned by some green bacon, and evacuated my bowels over the course of five hours, so much so that I saw a carrot I had swallowed whole in grade seven come shooting out like a scud missile.
I lost 25 pounds in 14 days. Jenny Craig can suck a lemon, we had the real cure to obesity.
I swore i would never do another trip. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Natural Resources had donated a bunch of aluminium canoes to the high school the week before we left for the trip. The Principal initiated a sealed bid process, whereby people who wanted them could place their bid in a sealed envelope, and the highest bidder would win. All through that hellacious trip, when kids were swinging from trees and shrieking like monkeys on LSD, I dreamed of the new canoe I would have when I got back. Well, the Principal and the shop teachers conspired to open all the bids, and then they all bid one dollar higher, and took all the canoes. The welding teacher chopped his up and sold the aluminium.
I was very unhappy when I found this out, and I was broke too, could not afford any type of canoe. So I went to the local library and ordered Canoecraft, Ted Moore's Bible. It was all downhill from there, canoe tripping and canoe building basically overtaking my life. Many canoe builds later, I find myself stuck in the garage for this entire summer, building that monster of a freighter, which has come to be known as "that Mutha F#@kin thing". In fact, I'm just on my way out there, hoping to get the inner gunwales installed today, and the seats finished up.
It's been quite a ride, this canoe thing, basically a part of my entire juvenile and adult life, 30 canoes and three wives later, I'm wondering where it will stop.
I was first introduced to the idea of canoe tripping for no reason when I got to Geraldton, around 30 years ago. My first 14 day trip was an adventure in heck. It was with the high school club, and the kids got up to all matter of monkeyshines. The trip leader had a very irregular schedule, such that we were often on the water till 11 at night, sometimes portaging in the dark, often stuck in one place for hours while we looked for ports that no longer existed. Wasn't unusual for supper to be served at 2:00 AM, by which time I had curled up in an army poncho under a spruce tree to try to grab an hour of sleep. On the last night, I got poisoned by some green bacon, and evacuated my bowels over the course of five hours, so much so that I saw a carrot I had swallowed whole in grade seven come shooting out like a scud missile.
I lost 25 pounds in 14 days. Jenny Craig can suck a lemon, we had the real cure to obesity.
I swore i would never do another trip. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Natural Resources had donated a bunch of aluminium canoes to the high school the week before we left for the trip. The Principal initiated a sealed bid process, whereby people who wanted them could place their bid in a sealed envelope, and the highest bidder would win. All through that hellacious trip, when kids were swinging from trees and shrieking like monkeys on LSD, I dreamed of the new canoe I would have when I got back. Well, the Principal and the shop teachers conspired to open all the bids, and then they all bid one dollar higher, and took all the canoes. The welding teacher chopped his up and sold the aluminium.
I was very unhappy when I found this out, and I was broke too, could not afford any type of canoe. So I went to the local library and ordered Canoecraft, Ted Moore's Bible. It was all downhill from there, canoe tripping and canoe building basically overtaking my life. Many canoe builds later, I find myself stuck in the garage for this entire summer, building that monster of a freighter, which has come to be known as "that Mutha F#@kin thing". In fact, I'm just on my way out there, hoping to get the inner gunwales installed today, and the seats finished up.
It's been quite a ride, this canoe thing, basically a part of my entire juvenile and adult life, 30 canoes and three wives later, I'm wondering where it will stop.
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Have been paddling over 50 years. I know for a fact that I have spent over 2 years of my life, camped out on rivers banks, and gravel bars. I have logbooks noting every trip & mileage covered for the past 35+ years.
Started paddling tandem with a cousin when I was in grade school.
If I remember correctly;I did my first overnight, solo, canoe trip (35 miles) when I was 15 years old.
Two ladies got me started; my Mother and her sister, who both were avid fishing women.
They typically hired an old river guide and used his old, wooden, home made, 20+ footer jon boat for fishing in the early 1940s.
I was relegated to the bilge. Fishing held absolutely no interest for me, but I was always "fired" up to go out on a river, anywhere, any time.
Taught my wife to paddle in the late 70s. She had never been in a canoe before.
We paddled tandem for a couple of years, but I schooled her in solo paddling about 20 years ago, and we still paddle solos
She is pushing 66; I am pushing 77.
BOB
Started paddling tandem with a cousin when I was in grade school.
If I remember correctly;I did my first overnight, solo, canoe trip (35 miles) when I was 15 years old.
Two ladies got me started; my Mother and her sister, who both were avid fishing women.
They typically hired an old river guide and used his old, wooden, home made, 20+ footer jon boat for fishing in the early 1940s.
I was relegated to the bilge. Fishing held absolutely no interest for me, but I was always "fired" up to go out on a river, anywhere, any time.
Taught my wife to paddle in the late 70s. She had never been in a canoe before.
We paddled tandem for a couple of years, but I schooled her in solo paddling about 20 years ago, and we still paddle solos
She is pushing 66; I am pushing 77.
BOB
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Late bloomer here. I started tripping with some regularity just last year. My first paddle was while on vacation in PEI - I was 6 and it was a 16" deep pond at some children's amusement park. Starting at age 14, I paddled at least yearly while moose hunting in QC, but it was always a means to an end - never just for the pleasure of it.
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That’s a helluva story, Mem!!
I've been tripping for 43 years but like Mem it was just fishing and camping from a canoe. I didn't become a "tripper" until I read Bill Masons "Path Of The Paddle" and got my first Tilley hat about ten years later.
I started as a kid fishing local canals and ponds in S Fl in the late 60's, but the canoe (also used little jon boats and prams) was a means to an end. Only recently, decades later, have I enjoyed canoeing and paddling for the sake of canoeing and paddling, but I'm still out there primarily to fish and hunt. I just revel in the paddling aspects more than I used to. So I voted in the 1-5 year category, but have used canoes in my out door forays for much longer...
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I started paddling on the Charles river in Newton Mass also in 1976 with my brand new Bart Hathaway sugar island decked canoe . I explored other parts of the Charles river and rivers in Concord and Walden pond and then rivers all through Massachusetts with it
JackL is Normega park where the Hilton hotel later went up with Charles River Kayaking and Canoe shop just to the south?
Charles River Kayak let me rent higher end canoes and kayaks like Epic surfskiis so I could decide if wanted to purchase them back home in Florida
JackL is Normega park where the Hilton hotel later went up with Charles River Kayaking and Canoe shop just to the south?
Charles River Kayak let me rent higher end canoes and kayaks like Epic surfskiis so I could decide if wanted to purchase them back home in Florida
Like many others, I started as a Boy Scout. Our troop rented Grummans which we bounced off the banks of the C&O canal near DC. Eventually we learned how to make them go straight, more or less. Of course there were canoes at summer camp as well.
The troop progressed to canoe camping trips on the South Fork of the Shenandoah. The first time I dropped over a tiny 6 inch ledge, I was hooked. In those days we could stop and camp most anywhere without getting busted for trespassing, One night we camped in a pasture along the river. We awoke to see a line of cattle grazing their way toward us, and broke camp in a hurry. I was always good at camp cooking. One of my best dishes was corned beef with instant mashed potatoes, cooked in the rain on a Sterno stove under a railroad trestle.
Paddling was interrupted starting in my junior year of high school by girls and college. (No, wait, there was one episode with a girl and a canoe....)
After college, one day I saw a C-1 that a guy had built in his basement. My mom encouraged me to buy it, and I have had at least one boat ever since. My house mate and I were working as letter carriers. We would go to work at 6 AM, hike around toting mail bags, and get off work at 2:30 PM. That left plenty of time in the summer to hit the river until dark. I was in really good shape back in those days.
In grad school I paddled with the university outing club, and was introduced to the streams and mountains of eastern West Virginia. Fast forward to work as a juvenile probation officer, which included running a part time Hoods in the Woods program. I even wrote a grant that enabled the probation office to purchase two canoes and a pile of camping equipment. At least a couple kids in that program were diverted from a life of crime.
I have been paddling ever since with friends, family, and a canoe club, and am now retired. This summer we had a vehicle fire that melted two canoes stored nearby. One was a Mohawk Solo 14, so that was a real tragedy. The good news is that the insurance paid for us to replace the two damaged boats. Having learned that his-n-hers canoes are the key to a happy marriage, we now have two solo boats plus a tandem for river camping. Also, there is a Grumman which is mostly used for hauling tires in the annual river cleanup. There is an 8 foot sailing dinghy hanging in the garage, and a 15 foot Chesapeake crabbing skiff under construction. I'm happy.
The troop progressed to canoe camping trips on the South Fork of the Shenandoah. The first time I dropped over a tiny 6 inch ledge, I was hooked. In those days we could stop and camp most anywhere without getting busted for trespassing, One night we camped in a pasture along the river. We awoke to see a line of cattle grazing their way toward us, and broke camp in a hurry. I was always good at camp cooking. One of my best dishes was corned beef with instant mashed potatoes, cooked in the rain on a Sterno stove under a railroad trestle.
Paddling was interrupted starting in my junior year of high school by girls and college. (No, wait, there was one episode with a girl and a canoe....)
After college, one day I saw a C-1 that a guy had built in his basement. My mom encouraged me to buy it, and I have had at least one boat ever since. My house mate and I were working as letter carriers. We would go to work at 6 AM, hike around toting mail bags, and get off work at 2:30 PM. That left plenty of time in the summer to hit the river until dark. I was in really good shape back in those days.
In grad school I paddled with the university outing club, and was introduced to the streams and mountains of eastern West Virginia. Fast forward to work as a juvenile probation officer, which included running a part time Hoods in the Woods program. I even wrote a grant that enabled the probation office to purchase two canoes and a pile of camping equipment. At least a couple kids in that program were diverted from a life of crime.
I have been paddling ever since with friends, family, and a canoe club, and am now retired. This summer we had a vehicle fire that melted two canoes stored nearby. One was a Mohawk Solo 14, so that was a real tragedy. The good news is that the insurance paid for us to replace the two damaged boats. Having learned that his-n-hers canoes are the key to a happy marriage, we now have two solo boats plus a tandem for river camping. Also, there is a Grumman which is mostly used for hauling tires in the annual river cleanup. There is an 8 foot sailing dinghy hanging in the garage, and a 15 foot Chesapeake crabbing skiff under construction. I'm happy.
