The Piper Clan bought a canoe this morning - I feel so Canadian!

[Northern Piper]

Nice family sized, fairly stable canoe (as these things go, of course ). Plus, bought a little cart for it, wheeled it down to Wascana Lake, and spent an hour paddling about. Came ashore at the boat landing in front of the Legislature, loaded it up and wheeled it home.

Lovely way to spend a summer morning.

[Baker]

That sounds like a lot of fun. I've only been in a canoe once, on the nice, quiet Red Cedar River in East Lansing, Michigan.

[Ibanez]

Nice, how heavy is it ? The amount of money I've spent renting them, I'd have a couple bought by now.

[Muffin]

Make and model?

[Chimera]

What kind? Aluminum? How long? How much does it weigh?

What kind of paddles did you get?

Always interested when people get canoes.



For roughly 20 years I've owned a feather weight 17' aluminum. It's only 57 pounds. I don't even know if you can buy them like that anymore. It has no flotation built in (part of the whole keeping the weight really low thing), so if it swamps, it's going down (no messing around in this canoe!), and I once watched the wind pick it up and blow it end over end out into the lake from where we had it on shore. Unfortunately, I have nowhere to keep it in my current apartment, so it's been hanging up, unused, in my sister and BIL's garage for 3 years now.

For paddles, I have a couple of regular ones for other people, but I have a custom made bent paddle for myself. Something like this one, but mine was made by a guy in Wisconsin. For those who don't know, the bend goes forward so that when you're at greatest pull, it is straight up and down in the water.

[NoClueBoy]

Duck (duct) tape will fix that for ya.

Handyman's Friend.

Keep yer stick on the ice


--------------------------------------------------------------------

I won a 16' red Budweiser canoe way back when. Had a heck of a time getting it home from that company picnic. Sold it to a beer stuff collector some weeks later for more than double my weekly wages. I was happy. He was happy. I honestly think the canoe was happy.

I love canoeing, but I just rent one where ever I go. I don't have anyplace near here that I would want to canoe in, but a lot of nice places about 2 hours away.

[Spoons]

Sounds like a great way to spend a summer morning!

[Kenm]

I hoped you checked the weather for tornadoes before canoeing in the lake.

A hundred years isn't that long ago.

[Indian]

OP,

I feel so Canadian.

You meant Canoeian, I think. :-)

[RalfCoder]

Originally Posted by Baker

That sounds like a lot of fun. I've only been in a canoe once, on the nice, quiet Red Cedar River in East Lansing, Michigan.

<hijack>
Baker, I'm sitting about a half mile from the site of the old canoe livery on the MSU campus. When were you here? </hijack>

I don't have a canoe yet, but I have the plans for one sitting in the workshop in the basement. If all goes well this winter, a nice cedar stripper will emerge from there by spring.

Hmmm... the phrase "cedar stripper" conjures up images of a scantily clad lumberjill who moonlights on her day off, doesn't it?

[Le Ministre de l'au-delà]

From here, Northern Piper, it's only a short step to Prime Minister.

(Link to a 1994 essay by then former Prime Minister Pierre Eliot Trudeau, featuring one of my favourite quotations - "Travel a thousand miles by train and you are a brute; pedal five hundred on a bicycle and you remain basically a bourgeois; paddle a hundred in a canoe and you are already a child of nature." )

[billfish678]

Congrats. Make sure to do an internet search for local/regional paddling clubs. Lots of good info and knowledgeable people out there if you look.

Since Canada is known for cold water, and for the purposes of what I am about to link to, never gets "warm", here is a video you need to watch regarding the dangers of cold water.

Yeah, hypothermia is a big danger. But the bigger danger is that cold water means you can't swim for shit even if you are a "good swimmer". Wear those PFDs! around less than warm water for sure!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1xohI3B4Uc

[Northern Piper]

Originally Posted by Muffin

Make and model?

Yukon Clipper; fiberglass; 70 lbs.

yes, pdfs are essential - we'll be taking the Cub in it, so everyone wears a pdf, including Mommy and Daddy.

So far, no plans for any major open water or rapids adventures - we're starting with shore-hugging on lakes, since Mrs Piper is learning as we go.

[Muffin]

Originally Posted by Northern Piper

Yukon Clipper; fiberglass

Last time I saw my neighbours they were driving off with one of those on their truck's roof for a week long canoe trip.

[Le Ministre de l'au-delà]

Originally Posted by Muffin

Last time I saw my neighbours they were driving off with one of those on their truck's roof for a week long canoe trip.

I hope that was less than a week ago...






a three hour tour; a three hour tour...

[Muffin]

I received a SPOT email from them today, so all is well. They're hardy types who are comfortable roughing it in the cold and wet, so barring serious injury, I expect that any delays would not bother them. I'm taking care of their bunny, so I hope they return, for I wouldn't know how to explain to it that it's family is no more. Then again, I can't explain much of anything to the bunny, 'cause its a bunny.

[Northern Piper]

Bunnies is goooood eatin'.

Just sayin'.

[kushiel]

Originally Posted by billfish678

Congrats. Make sure to do an internet search for local/regional paddling clubs. Lots of good info and knowledgeable people out there if you look.

Since Canada is known for cold water, and for the purposes of what I am about to link to, never gets "warm", here is a video you need to watch regarding the dangers of cold water.

Yeah, hypothermia is a big danger. But the bigger danger is that cold water means you can't swim for shit even if you are a "good swimmer". Wear those PFDs! around less than warm water for sure!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1xohI3B4Uc

Just the thought of touching the water in Wascana Slough makes me shiver!

[Northern Piper]

Hey, since the Big Dig it's been much better!

[Chimera]

Originally Posted by Northern Piper

Yukon Clipper; fiberglass; 70 lbs.

yes, pdfs are essential - we'll be taking the Cub in it, so everyone wears a pdf, including Mommy and Daddy.

So far, no plans for any major open water or rapids adventures - we're starting with shore-hugging on lakes, since Mrs Piper is learning as we go.

Nitpick: pfd. Personal Floatation Device.

Unless your family really is going out with .pdf files for safety.

[kushiel]

Originally Posted by Northern Piper

Hey, since the Big Dig it's been much better!

I moved here after the Big Dig, I don't even wanna know what it was like before!

I was spoiled though, lived near Spadina in Saskatoon.

[kayaker]

Cool thing about canoes and kayaks is that, especially when purchased used, you can paddle it a few years and then sell it for what you paid.

[Mona Lisa Simpson]

My son is going for a week of canoeing and kayaking day camp on False Creek starting Monday. If he really likes it it might become a family thing.

(You know, now that I live on the other side of the country and getting involved in paddling won't involve me you know. actually meeting Muffin, or any of at least a dozen people that we know in common. I kid, I kid, but the irony did strike me. Also the fact that I used to practically be able to see Boulevard Lake from my house, but now I have to travel further...)

My son spent 2 hours in a kayak on Canada day (it was supposed to be a 20 minute demo ride?) and loved it, so he is getting a week of daycamp. Watching the Olympics didn't hurt his enthusiasm either.

[elbows]

Just back from a week in the bush north of North Bay, where I was doing some canoeing. The weather was not always ideal, and the water was cold, but it was still awesomely spectacular.

Congrats to your whole family on a excellent purchase that will bring you years of fun and memories.

When you're deep in the bush, traveling by canoe, and there isn't another soul, for miles and miles, you do feel especially Canadian, or I do anyway. Moreso when the weathers less than ideal, I think. It always makes me think of the Voyageurs.

[gardentraveler]

I haven't been canoeing since I was in college (like Baker on the Red Cedar in East Lansing, in a canoe from the old livery that RalfCoder mentioned above). Don't know why we didn't go more often. I noticed the other day that they have a livery at one of the parks downtown; guess I need to investigate and get some friends together.

Hope the Pipers have fun for a long time in the new canoe.

[BrotherCadfael]

My wife and dog and I have been canoeing quite a bit these last few years. You've just bought it, so you won't want to buy any accessories for a while, but, when you do, may I recommend a bent paddle? You'd be amazed how much of a difference it makes.

[Muffin]

Originally Posted by Mona Lisa Simpson

(You know, now that I live on the other side of the country and getting involved in paddling won't involve me you know. actually meeting Muffin, or any of at least a dozen people that we know in common. I kid, I kid, but the irony did strike me. Also the fact that I used to practically be able to see Boulevard Lake from my house, but now I have to travel further...)

You've probably heard me or put in a noise complaint about me -- for the first decade of dragon boat racing in TBay, I was the asshole in a power boat on Boulevard spending the day shouting out over the water through a megaphone.

[Muffin]

Originally Posted by elbows

Just back from a week in the bush north of North Bay, where I was doing some canoeing.

Which lakes?

[Mona Lisa Simpson]

Originally Posted by Muffin

You've probably heard me or put in a noise complaint about me -- for the first decade of dragon boat racing in TBay, I was the asshole in a power boat on Boulevard spending the day shouting out over the water through a megaphone.

The asshole? Out of many,... you call yourself The Asshole? Think mighty highly of yourself, don't you?

Actually they never bothered me from home. I noticed the dragon boat races more when I worked at the LPH. When I worked nights on that weekend I would usually go sleep at my parents. (Air conditioning and significantly up the hill)

[elbows]

Lake Temagami, it's a big lake.

I go every year. I am overwhelmed by the beauty, each and every time. Sometimes we go out for a midnight canoe if the moon is bright and the lake is calm. Spectacular.

[Muffin]

A truely lovely lake.

One of my favourite August rivers is the Temagami River downstream of the lake. Gorgeous country.

[hogarth]

Next stop? Grey Owl's cabin!

[Northern Piper]

Well, the paddles were made by the Grey Owl paddle company, so that's a start.

[Muffin]

A vid of a couple of paddles being made at Grey Owl in Cambridge: http://youtu.be/38OJzihHcm8

[Attack from the 3rd dimension]

We took the kids canoeing this summer for the first time, including a drop down a dam chute that swamped the canoe. Despite being Canadian, and living near a big river, this cultural event took place in Aubeterre sur Dronne in France. Made me feel like a voyageur.

[Mona Lisa Simpson]

My son loved kayak day camp. I was reading fun facts on the http://fcrcc.com website. The area he was learning to kayak was basically the birth of Canadian dragon boating. He wants to try that next.

The high SPF sun screen worked well for him, except he generally had sunburned knees. (And butt rash, from sitting in wet bathing suits all day, except I am not supposed to talk about it. Fortunately I know from diaper rash, having seen more cases than the old lady who lived in a shoe. Or Mrs Duggar. Just usually on adult butts.)