So my favorite pastime is canoeing and fishing various rivers around where I live. I love all aspects of this sport, Calm water lazy days, fishing , Whitewater. All of it! Anyway my ultimate goal is to float an entire river that runs through my city. On the map it looks like it's going to be about a two to two and a half week trip. The river flows through several cities along the way so the longest I would be out of "civilization" would be about 3 days I think. I would plan to hunt and fish for my food but use the cities as my safety net if things don't go well. So has anyone here ever done anything like this? Im still trying to decide on the best type of gear to take due to space restrictions on a canoe. Clean water is main concern right now. Id like to be able to pull this off this summer so any help or input would be greatly appreciated! And if your in central east coast USA and this sounds like something for you, pm me and we can talk about it. Oh and if you are a canoeist in general and Want to share a story id love to hear it! Happy paddling blades!
that sounds awesome man. I'd be down for something like that. I use to have a canoe, it was a Grummans 13ft that was pretty rare and sold it when I moved. I'm thinking of purchasing a kayak next
Hell yes man, I only have one kayak. It's good for solo fishing trips but it hurts my back after a few hrs. Do you do Whitewater?
whitewater looks intense. Chicago has nothing to offer other than the giant wakes the barges make in the Chicago river lol. I haven't kayaked enough to do any whitewater. one day tho!
I was in a kayak for about 2min, first time actually paddling anything, and I hit a class 2! Assholes I was with decided not to tell me it was coming. But I now have little fear of rapids and I have loved it ever since! Class3 is the most I've ever done tho.
I love canoeing/kayaking and go on trips every year or two. You can read one of my trip reports from 2009 here... Trip Reports
sometimes you just gotta bit the bullet and drive out to the adventure! It's not uncommon for me to go on a 5 or 6 hour ride every few months for a thrill!
thanks for a good read! I didn't get all of it read but most of it. Did you write all that yourself? Do you do that for every trip?
I write trip reports that are worthy of telling. Sometimes not much happens, but because I go solo I usually have wildlife encounters so sometimes I have a trip report worth telling. Yes, I write the stories myself. Certainly not professional, just for fun and share with people that may enjoy reading them.
Awesome. I thought about doing kinda the same thing but I was gonna do like a simi documentary type thing and just record a little as I go. How do you carry water with you on long trips? The stuff is just heavy and takes up so much space im not sure the best method for this. Im thinking about loading my kayak down with water and food and just pull it behind me. Im plenty experienced in weekend trips or overnighters just new to the week+ type trips.
I carry one water bottle and fill up as I go. I have a Katadyn water bottle with a carbon filter, but to tell you the truth, I always drink water straight from rivers and lakes. Hasn't killed me yet. Get water from the middle or deeper part of lakes, you can do this while paddling across them and from running water in streams, rivers etc. I get water from shore at my campsite if I am going to boil it for cooking or coffee. Boiling your water will kill anything. There will always be dirt and stuff, but hey you're in the wilderness, suck it up.
Good advise man, ima have to look into a carbon filtered water bottle. I've never heard of those before. The river I have in mind has a ton of contributory streams and creeks so it is chocolate milk muddy for the majority of it. Will the filter still work, for the most part?
I love canoeing! Been canoeing/kayaking since I was old enough to get in a boat. My family own 2 canoes, 2 one man canoes and a couple kayaks as well; and since I grew up right next to a river I've been able to boat as much as I wanted for the majority of my life. I've paddled most of the rivers in WNC and some others. Biggest rapid I've ever hit is a class 4, but I used to paddle 3's on a weekly basis. Me and a bunch of my friends from high school used to go on these all day river trips, with coolers fully stocked and more then enough smoke. I've had some of the best times of my life on the river. On my cross country road trip odyssey I plan on taking this summer I'll be bringing my kayak with me, and who knows what kind of water I'll find out West I've also done a fair bit of sea kayaking (which is a must do if you ask me, paddling from island to island, slicing through waves with a salty breeze at your back is pretty much perfection). As far as your trip goes, that's a great idea, but I have a few pointers. As far as water goes, I wouldn't drink straight from the source. Sure, you'll get away with it most of the time, but being stranded in the wilderness with some kind of terrible parasite is a pretty dangerous proposition. I would recommend either boiling or using water purification tablets, then using a filtered water bottle. If you do drink from water, make sure to do it from white water, and try to drink from the froth at the top of a rapid (disease carrying particulates are heavier, and reside lower in the water generally). Also, make sure to bring a GOOD tent (and don't smoke anything rolled inside, the embers will burn holes in the bottom of your tent, this is the voice of experience talking), backup rations, a knife, emergency money and MULTIPLE BACKUP LIGHTERS. EDIT: Oh and don't forget your preferred intoxicants. Cheers!
Not sure, i think so, the filter is designed to keep out pathogens like giardia and cryptosporidium. But I have drank muddy water before and it tasted fine, just a bit gritty. lol
I'm glad to see gc has at least a few paddlers! man id love to do some more/ better Whitewater but I would need a better kayak first. And thanks for the camping suggestions. I always have a waterproof box with me that I keep my lighter, wallet, and anything else important in. But as far as having a good tent goes, man I do the hammock and tarp thing! Lol, I like it better than sleeping on the ground so hey, why not? As for the water, im still not sure what Im going to do...but you guys have giving me some excellent feedback and some things to think about for sure!
Picked up a back roads map not to long ago and it's got tons of info. Have a few routes planned already for the spring and summer. Might have to make my own thread to keep track.
I have a tarpon 140 fishing kayak that will carry me through the lakes and rivers in north eastern ontario. One day I hope for it to be my primary source of travel. I want to get a canoe also but their a little pricey for a decent one and I spent a pretty penny on my yak, need some overtime lol
Good call, I love camping with just a tarp for protection, its all you really need. Just make sure you have enough waterproofing for your gear as well as yourself. Oh, and strapping everything into the canoe is never a bad idea.