Outdoor Writer & Consultant – Wilderness Guide – Custom Canoe Expeditions into the far north
Outdoor Writer & Consultant – Wilderness Guide – Custom Canoe Expeditions into the far north
Cliff (L), Larry Rice (R). Both Phoenix canoes. Yellowstone River. CCS spray covers. Bear Paulson, Phoenix canoe Cliff, Phoenix canoe. Upper Missouri River, Montana The Phoenix is a slightly larger version of the no longer manufactured Bell Wildfire/Yellowstone solo canoes. Its extra volume (I judge about 15 percent) is carried more forward and aft than […]
Cliff: Boundary Waters Canoe Area, 1980. 17′ Grumman aluminum canoe. A recent article in an on-line magazine listed seven reasons why now is a better time to be paddling than the 1980’s. I’m not sure. Except for bent-shaft, carbon-fiber paddles and my three carbon-Kevlar solo canoes—which I dearly love—I think that we had it better […]
Final portage on the Frost River that leads into Little Saganaga Lake. Correction: not a portage; it’s a rock-jumble that mixes seconds of paddling followed by seconds of lining followed by… whatever! Funny, how one’s perspective on things changes with age. Trips that are easy when you’re young become challenging with age. One late September, […]
Despite newer designs, the Tripper excels as well in tough rapids. Some canoes are blistering fast but don’t turn worth a hoot. Others dog it on the flats but come alive in the maelstrom of winding rapids. Still others compromise speed and maneuverability for “all around” performance. Few canoes master this middle ground. The legendary […]
FreeStyle canoeing is like ballet on the water. Wood-canvas canoe by Tom Mackenzie. Some years ago, I had the privilege of taking a FreeStyle canoeing class from Karen Knight and the late Tom Mackenzie–two of the world’s top instructors. There were about 50 in attendance, mostly young women in small solo canoes. Many were new […]
NOT SCOUTING A FAMILIAR RAPID Round the bend you see the dancing horsetails of a familiar rapid. Pangs of conscience tell you to check the pitch from shore before you proceed, but you arrogantly dismiss the warning and plunge confidently ahead. Then you see it—a storm-downed sapling that blocks the way. The canoe spins sideways […]
Steel River, Ontario. Mad River Explorer (Kevlar) canoe Kettle River, MN. Alumacraft aluminum canoe My first remote country canoe trip was in 1974. We began at Folliet, Ontario and cruised the Groundhog River to the Mattagami, then down the Moose and on to Moosonee on James Bay–a distance of around 200 miles/21 days. I had […]
Kayaks now outnumber canoes on almost every waterway. Why are they so popular? Some years ago, I guided a group of teens on a canoe trip in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters. As we rounded a point, a yellow kayak darted toward us. The paddler—a young woman in her twenties—flashed a smile, then poured on the coal. […]