Next summer I am planning on a three week trip with my son canoeing on the Northern Forest Canoe Trail in Maine. And I have a technical question about the boat we want to purchase for the adventure.
The paddling will be on rivers with up to Class II but mostly quick water and Class I. Much of the trip will be spent on lakes with long stretches of open water. I am sure that wind is going to be an issue especially on the several moderately long open water crossings we will encounter. Good tracking is important as well as reasonable maneuverability.
There are going to be several portages, some of them quite long. We plan on carrying most of our food with us and restocking only occasionally along the way. While we will be using wheels on many, if not most of the carries, there will be times when I will be carrying the canoe over rougher ground where carting the boat is not possible.
I think that whatever we choose should be fairly rugged. Even though I am careful when near shore and am reasonably skillful as a white water paddler it is only inevitable that we will run into or over something. I will surely be dragging the canoe over at least a few beaver dams and perhaps a sand bar or two.
Even though my son is only 10 he’s a pretty good partner, he’s been in canoes since he was three and has a respectable command of paddle strokes. We will be doing some sit and switch on the flat water and will have straight blades with us for the river sections.
Here’s my question, what color canoe should we purchase. Have a great weekend.
Red
I have a 17’ Nova Craft Prospector in red that sounds perfect for this trip.
http://www.adventurecanoe.com/forum/topic/im-ordering-a-nova-craft-prospector-canoe
it tracks pretty well, handles class III rapids easily and even in royalex lite seems tough enough for what yo described.
It’s not Kevlar light but I can carry it easily.
James
http://www.adventurecanoe.com
White
nice photo!
you should enter that
Agree, you should submit it for PoW
Great color and action. Your eye moves around a lot. Lots of things to look at and wonder about …
not what color, but what shade
of GREEN! If you're going Royalex,anyways.
Reason being is the Evergreen Krylon Fusion sprays much better than the Red, which clogs a lot easier.
Photos not his to submit, ye' skimmers of English verbiage.
Insufficient Info for Technical Answer
What color are your PFD’s?
Doesn’t sound like you have much risk
of destroying the boat, so get something 50# or lighter for the portages.
Yellow, of course.
It’ll be easier for the rescuers to find… wiseacre!
Its possible
If the Allagash or the Moose are in their bony moods.
The Frenchmen of the area just take off their berets, scratch their heads…and mutter about “zou weeel be walking out” then laugh it up when faced with a Kevlar boat…
Destruction is not likely. If you want to paint the boat I suggest rock color. Just in case you do lose pieces, we dont want visual pollution.
This year there was a canoe available on the installment plan. 1/3 down for 1/3 of the boat. Continue down river… next third down for the next part of the boat… etc.
A sectional canoe!
As the guy said…
When I found my 1965 Chestnut Pal it was painted green.
I am partial to red canoes;I told that to the guy doing the restoration on the Pal.
I asked him for his input on color.
His input, “There’s them that paddles green canoes, and there’s them that paddles red canoes”.
The Pal is red.
Pick whatever color you like.
BOB
Freakin Wheels??
You going off roadin’ or paddling?
Just after you get over the border in Maine a Real Maine Spruce Root or Real Maine Granite will total the rim on your wheels. Then you get to carry the wheels or Litter, and there is a fine for Littering in the Great State of Maine.
The Official Canoe Color in the State of Maine is Green. There is no other color. If you have a red canoe, go to Canada.
I suggest you get a real wood canvas canoe. Portage it, paddle it, make field repairs if necessary and your son will remember it and tell the story in 2090.
Heron Blue
I think Bob likes that color, also.
Well, I’m assuming they wouldn’t run
rivers that are stupidly low, and my Kevlar tandem, at least, can handle rocky class 1-2, loaded, and get such a light scuffing that a coat of yacht wax will make it look new.
Wreck the wheels?
On rock or spruce roots? Not if you use the right equipment. Big ol' balloon bicycle tires will will roll over anything (we've got a cart with wheels like that which has hauled two deer at a time over stumps, logs, and jagged boulder fields of Baraboo Quartzite more times than I can count). I expect that the tiny wheels on store-bought carts are a different matter.
You know, balloon bicycle tires on those old-fashioned WIDE rims would be "historically correct" to use with a wood-canvas canoe!
Maine is green
Red canoes are faster. Green canoes are quieter.
Regardless, canoes in Maine should be pine needle green.
Not the needles of a red pine, but of a white pine.
canoe color
Green is great if you don’t want to be seen.
Red makes for great pictures, but you can’t get to heaven in a red canoe.
White hides scratches well.
Yellow just isn’t right. Thats a kayak color.
Red boats are faster
But everybody knows that.
Portage carts work pretty well on roads but the jeep track up along the Rapid river can trash even the best if you haul a tandem for two guys who don’t pack light.
it may be either that
or walk 62 miles.
Yah sure everyone has a Ray Rietze
with them.
Seriously there are sections that you will be grateful for wheels…the two mile long Northeast Carry along a road.
And places you will curse them…the Mud Pond Carry…