Thank you for your service.
Agreed.
You have sharp eyes Tom.
I doubt many people noticed, or knew the significance of 2TIMER.
BOB
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Why does it matter how and where city folks, or any folks for that matter, spend their money? Maybe some people don’t want to invest in a boat and gear or don’t have room to store it. Maybe they just want to get out on the water and enjoy the outdoors paddling and a rental/livery is a good way for them to attain it.
When I greet paddlers on the water, I don’t give a thought to where their boat came from or how much they are spending to get back to their car. It’s just nice to see like minded, hopefully nonjudgmental folks on the water.
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Well said
On the Suwannee River here in Florida there is a RV camp ground on the rivers edge. They have an outfitter. But we have often gone 8 miles up the road to the Hwy 51 bridge. Put the boats in, gone down stream and taken out 6 miles later at the camp. Then we go up to the RV pick up the bicycles and ride up to the ramp and pick up the truck. Look for that kind of arrangement.
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If you have paddled some rivers like BOB has you would understand. Especially when they throw their trash around.
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What in the world does that have to do with someone renting a kayak instead of buying one?
Littering and how people spend their own money are totally unrelated
Your knickers are tight bud. Some one… Some 1000’s is more accurate on weekends. They need their own waste management company. Don’t you have something else to do?
Renting boats is business and sometimes it is volume related. Up here we have no Uber no services no cell services and any shuttles you have to mostly do on your own save for a couple that operate on the Allagash. User numbers are in the dozens rather than over a thousand a day.
I don’t think city folk have a monopoly on littering. I don’t see anything wrong with anyone wanting to rent a boat and have a livery pick them up or how they spend their money. None of that rant had anything to do with a solo paddler’s return to one’s car. It is unfortunate that a simple pleasure like paddling a boat has to become maligning stereotyping.
You are missing the point, but I am not going to argue it. It’s completely unrelated to the topic of this thread
i’m retired and more than once I have thought about getting a trailer and offering a service where when you pull out you call me and I come haul you back to your car. I think I could handle 4 paddlers at a time.
Might be a way to make a little money and meet other paddlers. Like Ubber with a trailer.
Sure some law would get in there and make it a non starter.
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That is something that a lot of outfitters offer.
In today’s litigious society, I would be worried about liability. Carrying paying passengers without the right insurance is a great way to lose your house if you get in an accident as your car insurance may not cover you, not to mention property damage concerns with expensive boats.
Aside from all that, if you don’t have the trailer already, I bet you would be hard pressed to make enough to pay for just that purchase price, unless you are in a very busy area
Thanks for reminding me of the real world we live in. You are correct there would be no real money to be made after all the expenses required to do it all legally. Likely no money ether way.
I doubt even doing it for free would be risk free in today’s world.
I have been shuttled on bike trips and I think this was the formula. Determine how much you need to charge per mile of your driving. I believe our last pre-COVID shuttle the guy was charging $1 per mile. Last I heard driving a car cost 50 cents per mile (thats what our company reimbursed us 5 years ago) so his gross profit is 50 cents.
Note the mileage is not how far you drive the customer, it’s how far you drive from your driveway and back. Unless you live directly on the route the driving distance is > twice the shuttle distance.
I have no way of knowing if the guy had a CDL or what his insurance looked like.
Short trips, you can hike back to your car which sometimes is nice with forest preserves or river trails. Longer trips like my annual 95 mile, I use a rental one way moving truck to haul all the gear and some people. You can also think about leaving a bike at the end and peddle back for car.
Cross country hang glider pilots do this all the time - have a dedicated driver to pick up one or more pilots and gliders. They don’t know, necessarily, where they will land - finding them was sometimes a challenge! Rivers are more limiting.
I have used google to search for individuals that are available for spotting downstream. Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace might also be a option. Also, local blogs and paddling clubs will share information. Outfitters or local paddling stores will have bulletin boards with posting for spotters. I’ve pondered building a trailer to handle 4 kayaks or just registering with Uber to specialize providing rides for paddlers near local sites. I would have to arrange liability insurance for vehicle for business.
And now you can use an electric scooter, onewheel, etc…if that floats yer boat.
By early afternoon, 50% of these people will be drunk, stoned, or both.
We only canoe on weekends when the weather is not conducive to swimming, mooning people, pissing in plain sight, boom boxes on 10, turning over canoes and kayaks on purpose; no matter who runs shuttle.
You have to be crazy to go out on this river on a holiday weekend. You could accomplish the same goal as most participants by putting on a bathing suit, and getting into your kid’s “kiddie pool” with a paddle, 12 pack of beer, and getting “blitzed”.
When the St Louis and Kansas City crews head for home on sunday afternoon, the bottom of the river is carpeted with Bud and Bud Light cans. Gravel bars are all trashed. A sorry lot of drunks!
Canoe liveries didn’t do any favors for people interested in fishing, paddling, viewing wildlife, photography, camping, family get togethers or introducing young kids to the river.
P.S. I think I know a little more about Missouri rivers and what occurs on them than the average paddler on this board. I have been canoeing on those rivers since 1946, and am still doing so.