The top places you have ever paddled

[Glenn MacGrady]

Here's the idea: You have five more canoe trips in your career to return to your favorite destinations you have already paddled. They can be long trips or day trips. You can choose just one top destination, but up to five. In other words, your all-time favorite or favorites. Please tell us why these destinations or routes are so memorable, and include pictures if available.

The Sparkleberry Swamp in Rimini, South Carolina, may be my all-time favorite, as I have only explored about 40% of its 20,000 acres of flooded forests, water meadows, hidden lakes, secret cabins, and hard-to-find pine knoll camping spots.

















While I'm pondering more of my top 5 and searching for photos, please carry nostalgically on with yours.

 

[PaddlingPitt]

Glenn (and others),

I have already posted a thread relevant to your topic, on January 25, 2020, titled “Tripping Plans for 2020,” under the forum General Discussion and Advice. Please have a look.

The trip still beckons to me and Kathleen, as we have been shut out the last two summers by COVID. I’ll be 74 in 11 more days. Time is running out.

 

[Alan Gage]

Glenn (and others),

I have already posted a thread relevant to your topic, on January 25, 2020, titled “Tripping Plans for 2020,” under the forum General Discussion and Advice. Please have a look.

The trip still beckons to me and Kathleen, as we have been shut out the last two summers by COVID. I’ll be 74 in 11 more days. Time is running out.

Just to save some searching: https://www.canoetripping.net/threads/tripping-plans-for-2020.103844/

Looks like a great trip and I've got my fingers crossed for you and Kathleen!

Alan

 

[DuctTape]

For me it would be the Lake Superior Marine Conservation Area (North Shore near Rossport Canada.)

 

[Marten]

My favorite places are in the boreal forested area of Ontario and Manitoba. I have spent over a year of camping nights in Woodland Caribou Provincial Park in NW Ontario but with the recent fires those special places are not to my liking. Fortunately the last few years I have been exploring Atikaki Provincial Park in Manitoba. It is just across the boundary from WCPP in Manitoba. Very little fire damage there until you get up to the Berens River area. Plenty of routes I have not explored to keep me busy in my last years of canoe tripping. No current maps available but plenty of portages in the area. Each trip I just pick up where I left off last time. Many trip reports with GPX files over on CCR.

 

[stevet]

1. Algonquin Park—quite simply it IS canoe country
2. Juniper Springs FL—magical first half of the run
3. Licking River OH through Blackhand Gorge—not as scenic as others have posted but 30+ years of memories of paddling and friends on our local run
4. Two Hearted River MI—ends at Lake Superior where my only sighting of Northern Lights occurred.
5. Hard to pick last one but Ausable River through Mason Wilderness Tract (MI) might be it.
My list may not be as remote or spectacular as others are but the experiences/memories are as important as the scenery to me.
Apologies for throwing in #6—Paul Smiths NY where I had the most fun teaching FS for 10 years with Tom MacKenzie at his Adirondack FreeStyle Symposium….again, memories of experiences and people. Some of the people may be gone but the memories will remain until I’m gone too.

 

[Seeker]

My experience is pretty limited to a few places in TX and LA, and the western Adirondacks, so I don't really have a top 5.

But my top one so far is easy... When I die, I want the haunt the St Regis Canoe Wilderness... Kit Fox Pond especially... that's heaven. Especially in April/early May, or later, in the Sept-Oct timeframe.

 

[Mike McCrea]

It’s hard to pick just five favorite paddling places to return to. Leaving out a number of special-to-me places, perhaps more of a go-here recommendation:

Another spring trip down the Green River in Utah, from Ruby Ranch to the confluence with the Colorado. That 100 miles no-rapids stretch could easily be done in a week. Take two weeks and thoroughly enjoy it. Every paddler should make at least one trip through Labyrinth and Stillwater canyons.

P5132039 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Another trip down the Rio Grande River in Big Bend Nat’l Park inTexas, if it ever has enough water again. The Big Bend region is a long way off any beaten path, it is no one’s “stop along the way” and that’s part of the allure.

EK_0024 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Doubling down sneakily, the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers in Florida, with our old friends in the Silent Otter club, who knew sundry landowners and had keys to dirt road private gates. But they have all aged out of tripping and the club is defunct. All of my old photos from those trips are likewise defunct.

Another Lobster Lake/West Branch Penobscot trip. If I could turn on a time machine with our young sons, friends Ben and Kathy and their kids.

EK_0040 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Assateague Island on the Maryland/Virginia coast, with a sailing tailwind both in and out.

P1070517 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Can’t do much about the wind speed and direction, I did eventually learned to get the tides right.

EK_0027 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I’m hopeful for Assateague again this winter.

Those are all largely portage free trips, as is my desire these days. I would say “easy” trips, but the Green has some logistical/shuttle challenges, and coastal Assateague is often windy. Plenty of trip reports here on Canoe Tripping.

 

[snapper]

Sorry, no photos but for me, I'd return to the Okefenokee NWR in a heartbeat. Back when I was working with a college outdoor program, we visited the swamp every spring break for over 20 years. I've been back on my own a couple of times as well. If it weren't for the distance (I live in central NYS), I'd definitely go more frequently. There is just something about that place that has entered my soul and keeps me wanting to go back. After the swamp, my next favorite would be northern canoe waters be it the Adirondacks, BWCA or even Algonquin. Never have I been on a trip to these locations where I didn't feel fulfilled as a paddler and enlightened by the wilderness. What a blessing...

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper

 

[Robin]

I would say Woodland Caribou Provincial Park and Marshall Lake (northwest Ontario above Nakina, Ontario) are tied as my 2 favorites.
I studied Martin Kehoes reports in CanoeStories.com and when I retired in 2010 I made it out there for a 2 week trip. It was all I hoped for, a real wilderness trip far above my epectations.


My friend Rob Haslam (Memaquay here) helped me do the 100 mile crown land Marshall Lake circuit with maps and information, it turned out to be as enjoyable as WCPP, some beautiful country for sure.


LaVerendrye in Quebec comes in a close third, I've done some great routes there with some fine people. I have never been dissapointed.

Lows Lake in NY's ADKs has been a great destanation where I have set up my wall tent for some off season deer camps and early spring canoe in camps.


Maine has become a favorite, 4 trips in the last year and I'm finding my home.

 

[lowangle al]

That first picture from Maine is awesome Robin.

My favorite place would have to be the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge in south central Alaska. It has everything from portage heavy lake to lake stuff to large glacier lakes. Lots of wildlife and great fishing.

Also high on my list is the Tangle Lakes area in the Alaska Range. Very scenic open tundra with great mountain views. Good lake trout and grayling fishing and caribou hunting and blueberry picking in season.

The Everglades NP is a real wilderness trip that can kick your butt with wind, bugs, hungry racoons and vultures and navigation difficulties. The rewards of the beauty, wildlife and fishing and the fact that you can go there when thing are frozen up north make it a great destination.

My other favorite place is the lake in the Poconos where I have a cottage, Meadow Run Lake. You can't get more convenient then paddling out your backdoor. The lake is only half developed with lots of natural beauty and good bass fishing. A twenty minute paddle can yield beaver, an eagle, osprey or heron, deer and turtles frogs or snakes. I've seen a bear swimming across the lake, otters and just last week a monster buck in velvet swimming by lit up with the low light of the setting sun. Since I've started spending more time back East I've become very impressed with the paddling and the wildlife experience it has to offer.

I'm looking forward to doing some tripping in the Daks and the Susquehanna in fall should be fantastic. And then there is the Delaware.

 

[yellowcanoe]

I have been fortunate enough to paddle some incredible places and a favorite is hard to pick out.
1. Part of the Teslin Yukon RIver from Johnsons Crossing to Dawson City. 500 plus miles in 10 days half day paddling. The history was astounding and the concept of working wilderness was very real. There are things going on in them thar woods but still you can't rely on anyone to pick up your bones
2. Glacier Bay Alaska. Off a monther ship we spent a week paddling there among bergy bits and calving glaciers and sea life
3. The Snake River in the Yukon. Another long trip from the Duo Lakes in the northernmost Canadian Rockies to Ft Mc Pherson.
4. The Green River. Twice
5. Bowron Lakes Circuit. Image below. The wildfires made this trip surreal. We watched some burning high in the mountains.
6. Wabakimi Provincial Park.. a dozen times. Yes there be caribou and bears
7. Quetico four times
8. Woodland Caribou and I wonder what it looks like now after this devastating summer
9.The Everglades. 12 10 day trips. It gets in your blood.. I learn more about that areas eight ecosystems every visit.
10. Temagami . Algonquin on steroids
11. The Missinaibi River. again rich in history.

 

[lowangle al]

^^^ WOW^^^

 

[stevet]

Ditto! Always said I could live a rich vicarious life through your paddling experiences, Kim!

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

2. Juniper Springs FL—magical first half of the run

Juniper Springs is indeed magical and one of my all-time favorites. Here's a photo where I pulled my Mike Galt Lotus Caper about 20 yards upstream from the usual put-in to see the waterwheel.

 

[yknpdlr]

Interesting, the exact same topic came up just a few days ago on the padding.com forum. My answer is there with several photos.
My answer is the Yukon River, of course, closely followed by my homeland in the Adirondacks.

 

[Mason]

Bowron Lakes has got to be my favorite, also. I've paddled it 4 times since my first trip in 1984. On my second trip in 1988, I had just dropped off my master's thesis for committee review, so I had no commitments for weeks (months?). I dropped it off on Friday, and was on my way to Bowron on Monday (after spending the weekend with an old girlfriend!). My partner and I spent a week there (late September/early October), he in a kayak, me in my solo, and saw only 4 people, two of whom were rangers. We had shirt-sleeve weather for part of the time, and some rain, and it was the peak of fall colors. I even got a calendar shot on the Sea Kayaking Magazine calendar. The nice thing about Bowron is its diversity--large mountain lakes, glaciated river with one technical section, portages, shallow "moosey" lakes, narrow passages, and early on we had to track the boats upstream for about a mile. Later, managers realized that trashed the creek for plants and wildlife, so now its a long portage. Some pics, some of which you may have seen before.

 

[VernAK]

Yellow Canoe's experience on the Teslin/Yukon trip is worth noting. The Gold Rush relics and the history of Fort Selkirk are vivid in my mind. If your thinking about that trip, read Robert Campbell's Yukon to put things into perspective. Allow a half day to study Fort Selkirk.

 

[yellowcanoe]

here is a memory jogger for you Vern. I loved this chapel

 

[Wyo George]

I’d enjoy another trip down the Colorado through Moab. My kids enjoyed jumping in often and floating alongside their kayaks and my wife and I enjoyed the scenery and watching the kids have fun.