Ultimate Tripper

[PA Tripper]

I recently enjoyed doing the Allagash in early May immediately after ice out. Our Registered Maine Guide let me use his Old Town Tripper XL.

Weighing in at over 100 lbs, 20 ft. long and 41 inches wide it was the biggest canoe I ever paddled. Sad to see that Old Town dosen't make this canoe anymore but there are used ones out there and at least one new one for sale at a dealer here in PA.

Our Allagash trip started out with water running about 5000 cfs and was around 3500 by the end of the trip. No problems at all. Feel free to comment or ask me any questions about the Tripper XL or the Allagash.

 

[yellowcanoe]

How did you stop? Fellow Maine Guides usually report clients have trouble stopping at the campsites on the river at levels above 3750 cfs.. Especially with the moose hauling Old Town XL Tripper!

We are going back this summer.. we've done the river many times but never by the notorious Mud Pond Carry from Umbazooksus. I have not done Allagash Stream either but have explored Allagash Lake.

 

[PA Tripper]

No Title

Stopping was never a problem. We started at Indian Stream/Eagle lake and went all the way to Allagash Village. To me it seemed like the majority of the trip was lake travel connected by slow moving water; the exception being Chase rapids. The rapids and rocks seemed smoothed out by the high water. We were even able to carefully run Long Lake Dam on river left.

Stopping was never a problem; the headwinds on some of the lakes was the biggest challenge.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Ok.. That does add a bit of lake travel.. How did you like the trains?

 

[PA Tripper]

No Title

I liked all the logging history that surrounds the Allagash. The trains,tramway, old dams and all the other remnants from the logging era. Having a Registered Maine Guide team made everything more enjoyable. The logistics,local history, and the food were all great.

 

[sweeper]

We're headed to the Allagash on Sat and also starting at Indian Stream. It looks like it will be a wet week.

 

[Canotrouge]

The Xl is a nice canoe, to bad indeed that Old town doesn't make it anymore.... As for other long boat that handle quite similarly, there is the Miramichi from Esquif, and the Mackenzie 20 from Clipper canoe. The Mackenzie is a composite boat, with a bit less rocker, but it is faster on big body of water!! I'm sure Wenonah make something similar to!!

 

[yellowcanoe]

I'm not sure the Old Town Tripper XL is discontinued. Often when something disappears from the catalog and public display , the mold is still available on special request. The AWW Rangers all use the XL's for toting lumber lawnmowers, chainsaws etc and I suspect they could still get one even with the public lack of access to RX. Just a theory.

looks like a gloomy week next week...but not horrific wet. Maybe things will change.. Its been cool!

 

[pblanc]

I don't believe Old Town made the Tripper XL out of anything other than Royalex. If so, it has been discontinued, along with every other Royalex canoe made by every other maker, since Royalex manufacture has been discontinued.

 

[Guest]

I'm not sure the Old Town Tripper XL is discontinued. Often when something disappears from the catalog and public display , the mold is still available on special request. The AWW Rangers all use the XL's for toting lumber lawnmowers, chainsaws etc and I suspect they could still get one even with the public lack of access to RX. Just a theory.

I believe that the Tripper XL disappeared from the Old Town catalog prior to the demise of Royalex. The story I heard at the time was that after a reorganization of the factory OT simply didn’t have the space needed to produce a canoe that long. That may have been utter BS, I have no firsthand knowledge of the current OT factory.

I know that Wenonah and other manufacturers will consider special requests for discontinued models, but I’ve only heard of such with composite hulls. It is hard to image that, even if OT had a stash of extra large RX sheets, they would be willing to get the oven and etc working again to produce a special order Tripper XL.

I wonder if the oven and etc needed for RX construction are even still in place, or if they have been (at best) disassembled and put into storage.

 

[yellowcanoe]

No answers here but I know in the past AWW rangers have been able to spec some special features in their canoes.. all were XL's. I will ask when I go next week what they plan for replacements when the time comes. Though they are pretty good with fixing.

 

[Robin]

Royalex smoilex...as long as they still grow cedar,

20 Old Town Guide

 

[sweeper]

Very Nice

 

[yellowcanoe]

Royalex schmoyalex.. I was actually thinking that the rangers would be well served by Grand Lakers.

 

[lowangle al]

The XL is a good boat for hauling a load. I had 3 people, food and gear, plus water for a 5 day trip and it was still high in the water. It was tough to get it moving with all that weight but having a third paddler really helped.


I don't even think OldTown offered the regular tripper this year. The Penobscot may have been the only royalex canoe for 2015. I went to Cabelas for a new pack rod a couple of weeks ago and they had Trippers for 1298.00 which I thought was a good price. The Tripper I have is 30 years old and spent too much time in the sun and was deteriorating into the foam layer. When I went to buy one the salesman said they were 540.00. I took two. It was my lucky day I also found the perfect fitting Tilley hat in their bargain bin for 38.00. I figured that my canoe luck had been so good that I just bought a fully restored Old Town Yankee sight unseen last week, I wont get it until October.


Nice boat Robin, I'd love one someday.

 

[ppine]

I love the big boats, but have never paddled a Tripper XL or any other freighter. They have amazing capacity and freeboard with a load.

I just spent a week rowing a raft on a Class III run after strictly canoeing for the last 15 years or so. Rafts are great gear haulers and very forgiving. They seem clunky compared to a canoe and are in no way considered elegant. But on fast water they are very relaxing and stable. I encourage all canoeists to try a raft trip and vice versa.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Overnight raft trips are unheard of in the East aside from day trips down class V rivers like the Penobscot. And almost all river camping trips involve portaging at some point.. Or horror.. wading and dragging..
The problem is dams..

 

[Guest]

I love the big boats, but have never paddled a Tripper XL or any other freighter. They have amazing capacity and freeboard with a load.

I’ve had opportunity to paddle a bunch of big boats. The Tripper XL wasn’t one of my favorites. I’m not sure why; I find the standard length OT Tripper a fine boat, and that may have been the time, conditions or companions.

Bell briefly made the Northshore, a 20’ 6” long x 36” wide stretch limo version of the largest of the “North” series. I fully expected to like that hull and found that it paddled like a stretch limo drives. Clumsily. I don’t think it was even a “designed” hull; it appeared that Bell had simply added two feet of hull in the middle of a Northwoods. Clumsily.

I’ve paddled one of Clippers “Big Boats”, the Mariner, on occasion. Well, I’ve crewed it, as one of the middle propulsion units. That’s a really big boat that needs at least four paddlers (or 6, or 8), and the bow and stern men will be hard at work all day.

http://www.clippercanoes.com/mariner/

The Wenonah Minn 3, twenty feet of 35” wide tandem rocket, was a great lake boat. For anything else I needed to plan my turns a quarter mile in advance

http://www.piragis.com/index.php?op...duct&path=34&product_id=50&Itemid=455&lang=en

There are some others in there as well. The giant (20 foot?) Grumman square stern. Not much fun to paddle, but with my father running a kicker in the stern I had some childhood fun in that canoe.

As a big river freighter the Esquif Miramichi may be my tops. It is long (20’), freaking wide (40”), deep (16” center, 23” stems) and heavy as hell (105 lbs). It is essentially a huge Prospector, with all of the inherent Prospector design plusses and minuses.

http://www.esquif.com/en/touring/miramichi/

If 18+ feet qualifies as a “big boat” Old Town briefly made a Penobscot 186 in RX. That was a superb do-everything mid-sized freighter, and while I have little use for tandems I kinda wish I’d kept it.

 

[lowangle al]

The XL is the only big boat I've paddled but I have to think that there are other big boats that aren't as sluggish.

 

[yellowcanoe]

F=ma

m=big canoe
F=the force of the paddle
Ergo a must suffer