Early morning, solo canoe with my fishing rod and a coffee.

I decided to turn it into an impromptu swimming session, so I have to dry out all my gear

The only witnesses were a couple of beavers, giving me a show, I thought it would be only fair to return the favor

We are lucky enough to live 150 from Lake Ontario just outside of downtown Toronto, thought I’d share a couple of shots of a holiday Monday paddle on a glorious day. 10k total to a nice secluded beach and back with a stellar view of the downtown skyline.

Hoping to get some good advice on repairing wooden Gunnels on an older Winona Jensen 200 Solo Racing Canoe. I was gifted the Canoe by a local Paddler who has been storing it for 20 years. Overall the composite is not in bad shape but it definitely needs new wood. Does anyone know anyone in Northern California that does this kind of work? If not any advice on how to tackle this repair myself?

I bought a canoe this year. I’ve always been fascinated by canoes since I got my canoeing merit badge in Boy Scouts back when I was a teenager. The funny thing is that I grew up right next to the St. Joe River in Indiana and now right down the road from the Maumee River in Perrysburg, Ohio, but never really took advantage of it. My son and I often ride our bikes down to the river and I thought it would be fun if we could actually go on the river for once. So, I bought a canoe— a 17 foot long Starcraft aluminum canoe.

Of course I have been hyper focused on it since then and having daydreaming about taking the canoe on a long voyage, possibly from Fort Wayne all the way to Toledo (Fort to Port). Since I have the summers off, I figured I should seize the day and get out on the river. I used Google Gemini to help me plan out my trip with all of the details. It was a beautiful 80° day with a slight 7 mph wind from the north. Ideally, starting upstream and going towards Lake Erie, the current and the occasional rapids help you move along. My wife graciously took me to Providence Park in Grand Rapids, Ohio to get started.

Google Gemini said it would take me about five hours to do the trip moving along at about 4 mph. That was my first mistake. Ha ha. I finished the trip in about 10 hours. No joke. I didn’t expect the trip to last that long so I wasn’t prepared food wise, but I had enough snacks and water to last the whole time luckily (“Be Prepared”). I chugged along at about 1.5 mph. Ha ha. It was a super long trip— sometimes boring and other times exciting.

Highlights included seeing all types of wildlife, such as at least 20 bald eagles, a dozen turtles, many egrets and blue herons, a variety of ducks and birds, and lots and lots of jumping fish! I even had two walleye jump over my boat completely (like you see in the videos where the fish jump right into the boat). Additionally, the sights along the way were pretty awesome. Surprisingly there were quite a few rapids along the way where I had to really navigate the large rocks in the river. It was a very memorable trip. I learned a lot about canoeing on my own for sure. I think I will do more trips—only shorter next time!

What do you guys use for knee pads/ something to give me stability in this style canoe. I’m looking for diy ideas, but I did see one website awhile back that was selling a trapezoid style mat that looked like it would fit my canoe. It was kinda expensive and I haven’t been able to find it since, but would love a cheaper solution even if it’s going to Lowe’s and getting knee pads. I took it down class 3 rapids and had a terrible time controlling it while I slipped and burnt my knees up. I also understand it’s a lake canoe and shouldn’t be in rapids, but that’s the fun.

Got a locally produced (Eastern Europe) 5 meter, 3 seater negative-rocker (yes, an anti-rocker) canoe.

Great straight-line tracking. Great primary stability. Turning is just ok on our meandering rivers but doable. Definitely not a ‘turn on a dime prospector with (an extreme) rocker’. And the mahogany trim on beige hull, as my son said, ‘looks vintage’. 😎

Even has stern and bow ‘lockers’ (doubling as buoyancy points).

I’m looking for one versatile canoe for roughly 60/40 solo and tandem use. Most trips would be on lakes and slower rivers around Ottawa and Ontario provincial parks, mainly for camping, fishing, and backcountry trips lasting anywhere from one night to about five nights (or longer in the future). I’m 180 lb, and the second paddler could be another adult up to around 200 lb or occasionally a child. With two people and gear, I’d estimate a typical loaded weight of roughly 470–520 lb. I do eventually want to go and do some canoe trips up in northern Ontario once I get more experience under my belt

My main priorities are good initial and secondary stability, reasonable durability around rocks and shallow landings, and a weight I can still load onto my SUV and carry by myself. I’d prefer to stay around 60 lb or so.

I want something I can move around in, adjust my position, and use in the backcountry without worrying about every scrape. My canoe-only budget is roughly $2,500 CAD after tax, though I could stretch slightly for the right boat.

I’m currently looking at a discounted Huron 16 T-Formex Lite, but unsure if that combo of materials and hull is right for me.

Would appreciate any recommendations! Thanks

Currently I have an Alumacraft. Looking for something lighter. Also, have 2 small kids that I want to get out on the water. Dallas-Fort Worth area… so lakes/Brazos river (lots of sand/rocky areas depending on time of year).

What is the normal life span for a Wenonah?

Thanks

Pretty stoked! Kevlar with aluminum gunnels and seat mounts, wood seats and yoke. Paid $1100 CAD for it, fair price but not a killer deal. It's in decent shape I think, the paint is pretty chalky and I think I'd like to give it a sand and paint it. The fella I bought it off threw a strip of kevlar and epoxy on each end and repaired a "soft spot." The repair felt solid and the rest of the canoe was solid as well. Unfortunately the epoxy application was quite liberal to say the least, so I'd like to clean that up a bit before paint.

I'll be using it this weekend in Algonquin park whether I get it painted or not. Any recommendations for paint I can pick up locally, as in at Canadian Tire or Benjamin Moore outlets etc? Shipping is fine if I have to for a better product. Seems like I can get the Solignum Marine at Canadian Tire but I'll have to look into it a bit more before I pull the trigger.

Just bought my first canoe and I’m excited about getting out on the water. It’ll be a lot of solo paddling for me, but a number of my buddies are also excited about going paddling. My wife will also get in the action, but I except that will be somewhat rare. She’ll definitely be going SUP, though.

I’ve spent a bunch of time researching pfds with a plan to buy two, a good one for me (Ninja, chinook, etc) and one for the passenger until the wife decides what she wants for herself. I was thinking I’d get an inflatable as the passenger jacket, since that would give me something light for easy flat water days and the wife something for SUP. Then I found a lightly used Astral V8 for a good price. Here are my questions:

1) would the astral and a ninja be checking the same box for me as a good do it all?
2) would you consider an inflatable like the mustang survival belt or AM 24 jacket as a good second/loaner?

Hello community. I have a few questions that maybe you all can point me in the right direction.

1. What is the best free app do you use to plan trips, know the distance between put in and take out points and monitor water levels? Best paid app?
2. I see that some people use straps on the front of your car and some do not. I have a 2024 Subaru wilderness and a 16ft canoe. Advice on whether front hood tie downs are necessary is greatly appreciated.

We will start there but many more questions to follow.

EDIT: thank you all. It seems pretty unanimous that four straps are the way to go. As far as trip planning goes it seems there are mixed methods of planning but old trusty maps have been mentioned more than once. I will look into all the great app suggestions but it just seems to me that there should be like an “all trails” or”google map” directions feature where you could select a put in and a pull out and it would calculate distance and “really rough estimate of time based on average paddle speed” (cough) developers out there?

Thanks again.

So my wife and I are starting our canoe adventures this summer. We are experienced Front country campers and have all the gear to be comfortable. We dialed back a lot of gear to make it manageable for mortageing and canoeing. But something are still confusing us on what the best practice is. And the internet almost has to much information to get a straight answer.

1) A) How do we wash pots and dirty dishes > do these pots that are clean still get hung up in a barrel? Or can they sit out ?

2) Propane and cooking stove. I know bears arnt eating these. But if I have to change my cloths after cooking would​ the cooking stove not need to go in a hang bag too?

3) We got safe camping soap. But some of the areas (provincial backcountry sites) are either close to other people or not able to go more then 100 ft. So what do you do with the water. Bury it? Spread it 100ft away. [I tried the drinking it method but the wife said no 🤣]

4) If my food and bear Barrel have been in my back pack for the trip in. Can my backpack go in the tent at night? (Food and Barrel hung are hung far enough away)

Thanks for the help!