Category Archives: Paddling

Canoe Restoration 05

Ok here’s the last canoe post.  All i have left to show you is the finished product.  Mostly, because even though i did this in 2017, i still have to put the last cross-member in.  The last one needs to be remade becuz one end was rotten.  I have a piece of the ash ready to cut and shape, but we used it like you see here with just a center thwart.  When i make and install the last one i will share it here.  So u see a couple shots with the seats and the center crosspiece in. The seats are pressed cane, like a chair seat.  They looked fine, but were not.  kinda funny, i never sat on them until our annual canoe trip.  As me and Aaron sat down to paddle, we both immediately broke through the cane.  So the seats don’t look like that anymore, they r blown out.  It was quite uncomfortable, the rear end drops into the opening and your weight tries to conform yer butt into the rectangular shape. We ended up sitting on our life vests.  So when i get to the center thwart i will show you the repaired seats as well.

    

So here’s the reason to own a canoe – the trippiing in the Adirondacks!! Woo hoo –

Canoe Restoration 04

So next i treated the ash strips with a combination of Tung oil and solvent.   The “Real Milk Paint Company” makes products the way paints etc used to be made b4 the (wonderful?) age of modern petrochemicals    See this link if interested in using, btw the stuff i used was a mix of tung oil and orange solvent which now is harder to come by. So the half/half is made with Pine oil at this point.

https://www.realmilkpaint.com/shop/oils/half-and-half/

OK so anyway the ash got treated (read: waterproofed) and then I started fitting onto the boat.  First inside strips and then outer, using lots of clamps.  The black marks you can see on the upper edge of the hull are the locations of the original screw holes.  You are told to avoid using the same locations.   So with a lot of fitting the new strips were carefully reattached to the boat.  Suddenly i realized that this is a very nice design.  The wood gives it an organic trim, just enough structure and a great look.  It will require an occasional reapplication of the tung oil mix but that shouldn’t b a problem.  Also i am storing it indoors over winter (garage loft).  Also the seats and cross member are not attached in the picture, just put into the boat to make sure they will fit later.

First day trip / campfire of 2018!

So yesterday the weather was really fine.  Warm sunny spring day.  After i went to son’s house to help set up the trampoline (gulp, hope no one gets killed or maimed), came home and did most of the spring chore of returning driveway shale to the driveway (snowplowing moves my driveway) then i decided to take a day trip to the great outdoors.  Of course most of the day was spent so it would have to b short.  So the trip was just to deck.  actually it wasn’t really a day trip, better coin a new phrase:    “Outdoor interlude”

I think that’s a pretty good and honest way to put it.  Easy short and sweet. 15 feet of travel, start a fire, roast, eat.  I didn’t even refuel the fire after.  But hey, it was a great time!!

I love my Chiminea!

 

Canoe Restoration 02

  

  

OK so here we see a few shots of the hull cleanup.  The rotted pieces of ash strips still left have been removed  (Stainless screws mostly still good!)  and we got the pressure washer into action.  If i didn’t have a pressure washer it would have taken eons to clean this thing up.  Using the pressure washer it took around an hour or so.  Maybe 2.

Note that is lichen growing on the hull, along with a thick film of algae.  You know like when you hike to a mountain top, you see the lichen growing on the rock.  Ya that stuff.  so u can also grow it in your backyard if you leave something long enough in the right micro climate next to your shed.  Wonder why the ash rotted??

 

 

 

Canoe Restoration 01

Ok so here starts the tale of my canoe, or perhaps my chapter of this canoe.

Bought slightly used.  Zoom in and have a look.  Made in Vermont.  1980’s.

When i got it in 2017 it hadn’t been used in a while.  For years it was in the owners back yard upside down by a shed.  People get busy and into different stages of life and interests change.  So these folks were getting ready to move south.  Put the boat up on Craigs list

Its a 17 ft with a composite hull and Ash gunwale strips. The hull is amazing.  Impervious to water.  While the ash strips are not.  Especially when left outdoors for years.  Rain and snow, north side of a shed so never really dried out. See those things along the top edge of the side?  Those r the screws sticking out where the ash used to be.  But the hull, tough piece of stuff.  It collected water while it waited for me to start work on it.

 

 

Camp Visitor

So you saw some of our crew enjoying the lake swimming.  I went in but just for a quick dip.  But that was during the warm afternoon.

Twice in the evening we had a visitor show up.  Came without a boat.  Underwater.  No, not in a submarine.  He was a little skittish of us but was very interested in some small fish the kids were reeling in.

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This guy was huge.  Just the shell was around 18″ long!  His head about the size of a baseball.  A little frightening.  Like i said he was a little afraid of us.  But i was quite afraid of him.  I’m sure his jaws would be able to chop anyone’s finger or toe off.

And the claws – WOW.   Like an inch long, full curl and razor sharp.

The way these turtles eat is they get hold of something, won’t let go and rip it with the claws until the piece in their mouth can be swallowed.  A real dinosaur.

He let us have the day shift at the water and we let him have the evening watch.

 

Morning in the Adirondacks

So here’s a shot as the sun was just coming up:

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We had awesome weather on our trip.  Just perfect.

All sunny clear days, low humidity, not too hot or cold.  Goldilocks weather.

So here’s what u feed the hungry campers when morning comes:

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Ya that’s quite a lot of bacon – 3 pounds for 6 adults and 4 kids.  Of course we had eggs too.  When men make up the menu, for male camping trips, we don’t spare the calories.  Playing in the wild takes energy.

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Enough energy to make a new fireplace.  The site we stayed at, the fireplace was right at the waters edge.  Sounds good, but almost always the breeze comes in from the lake in the evening. So we were around the fire with a breeze blowing the smoke into our face the first night there.

There was enough rock in the first fireplace, plus more was got from the lake, that a new fireplace was made and the original was still able to be used if desired.

The pic above is the new fireplace.  We were able to sit on any side of the fireplace and move if necessary as the breeze shifted.  Note the large flat rocks around the top for putting things down on.  Great improvement.

Till next post  –

 

 

More from the Lake

As promised, here are some more shots from the recent Adirondack float trip.

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The lake thru the trees at our campsite.

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Unobstructed view, and some other paddlers way out there.

Swimmers

We had great weather and the water was warm enough to enjoy.  Wave everyone!!

 

Float Trip

Hey i’m long overdue to add to this blog. So here’s some shots of our recent float trip.  The best part of living in upstate ny is the accessibility of great places to go and camp, from our boats.  Boats u paddle, canoes and kayaks.  Where do we go?  i already told u, upstate ny.

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A view of the lake from our campsite, and lunch on the campfire.  When we head to these trips, we eat well.  Gotta keep our strength up.

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Here’s my boat.  Got it used this spring.  She paddles like a dream, (especially with the rudder in the water!).

So as usual this was a fairly good sized group as u may have guessed by our lunch shot.  We would love to bring everyone we know but:

A – that would require way too many boats etc

B – would ruin the wilderness.  we want these places to be here intact for my great great grand kids and beyond.

So anyway i will be showing u more on this trip, which was the end of June.

Later, have a great day.

 

 

WW Derby 03

This poor guy.  He capsized upstream out of our view.  but not too far away, he had probably gone at least 3 miles from the put in and done fairly well.  The people at the house u see actually went into the creek and retrieved his boat.  A little crazy, a companion had the boat fetcher by the collar so he wouldn’t wash away.  anyway our intrepid paddler walks down to where his boat was and decides he’s going to go on from there. Brave lad!

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Well he didn’t get too far.  maybe 10 feet and into it again.

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But he was unharmed, except perhaps his pride.  There is nothing to be ashamed of.  Another boat of his friends got dunked way upstream from there and the fiberglass hull was split open.  I talked with a race organizer when helping load up the broken boat.  This was maybe 2 hours after the official start of the race, and he said there were 35 boats unaccounted for at that point.  No news today of anyone hurt so that’s what is really important.

These guys (and some gals) are all far braver than i am.  i only do flat water paddling.  btw the water temp was somewhere in the 30s.  Yikees!!