See if you can sit in it for free for 20 minutes.
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Hopefully Mountain Man will be around for a while. It has been for sale since 4/22 for $3,150,000.
Pretty much all stores that charge a demo fee will apply it toward a boat purchase.
I hope Mountain Man survives, with or without current ownership. I don’t live up there in 'Toga but my brother does and I visit a couple of times a year and always visit both the MM shop in town and the paddle specific one on Fish Creek (where we are usually dropping our boats for some lily dipping). Last visit bought a paddle for my solo canoe and several other pieces of gear that are not easy to come by in the limited brick and mortar options within my area. With Lake George Kayak’s operation having dwindled in recent years MM is an even more important local resource (yeah, they have an EMS store at the Wilton Mall but their paddling stock and expertise is very limited.)
Old Forge is not far from my home. I used to go to MM Paddlefest almost every year. It was better when they held the event in Inlet with more vendors who I knew better. I also knew John owner of MM and shopped at his store there. But then, as I understand it, he and the mayor of Inlet got into an argument, so he left town for Old Forge, 10 miles away. After a couple of years in O.F. with Paddlefest, he began to charge a $5 entry fee to enter the fenced in grounds to visit with the vendors (in addition to a boat trial paddle charge if you wanted to do that). And all purchases went through a central MM cash register. Like me, some vendors did not like that very much and a few of my favorites stopped participating in Paddlefest. I think the grounds gate entry fee was dropped in more recent years, but if I want to paddle a certain boat I would rather go visit the builder/retailer separately to get more personal unrushed service.
I know that most outfitters will apply rental trial paddle fee to purchase, but I heard with some it was not automatic and I know you had to know enough to ask for it.
Jim good luck with the manta ray sit on top.