Rhode Island Canoe/Kayak Association paddler and Adventure Kayak reader Susan Engleman says this February day in Greenwich Cove, Warwick, RI, was “gorgeous—temps in the 30s, but with the bright sun shining, it felt warm and just so invigorating to be on the water.” Engleman and her paddling partner Earl MacRae had to break through the ice to get to open water. “That just made it more fun!” she says.
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This kayak trip destination is excerpted from “The East Coast’s Best 5 Places to Paddle” in Adventure Kayak magazine.
The Bay of Fundy
The Bay of Fundy is well known for having the most extreme tides in the world. With a maximum tidal range of 16 meters (53 feet) and current speeds of 30 knots, we were both impressed and somewhat nervous. For over a decade paddlers have been exploring many of the unique tidal features that form in the various river mouths. The most famous of these are the Reversing Falls located just minutes from downtown Saint John, New Brunswick, arguably one of the most dramatic bodies of tidal water in the world. We based a large part of our itinerary around these rapids and the Shubenacadie tidal bore to the north. The Reversing Falls threatened to spoil a few pairs of fresh undies, while the Shubenacadie proved to have some of the best longboat surfing we have ever found.
OUTFITTING: Committed 2 the Core, www.committed2thecore.com
This article originally appeared in Adventure Kayak, Early Summer 2009. Download our free iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it here.
Photo courtesy Flickr user mafue, licensed Creative Commons
This article originally appeared in Canoeroots and Family Camping magazine.
Penny-pinching campers and green-washing skeptics who wonder at the environmental merits of camp-specific “eco” soaps over Sunlight and Pert Plus, read on. The differences run deeper than packaging. But remember, all camp suds must filter through soil to allow bacteria to biodegrade the soap. That means no washing your dishes (or your hair, Fabio) in the lake—fill the camp sink and take it up on shore, at least 200 feet from any water.
Goat Mountain Skinny Dipper Delight Soap
No-rinse Shampoo/Body Wash
Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap
Campsuds
Sunlight dish detergent
Ivory Soap
Apple Cider Vinegar
This article appeared in Canoeroots & Family Camping, Early Summer 2011.
This kayak technique article on how to sweep turn while edging was originally published in Adventure Kayak magazine.
We sea kayakers earn every mile we travel, so we need all the paddling efficiency we can get. For turning, a forward sweep, which generates forward momentum as well as turning power, is more efficient than a stroke that has a braking effect on your kayak’s forward speed.
The power for sweep strokes comes from torso rotation, not independent arm movement. Initiate the forward sweep with your body wound up and your blade planted in the water at your toes. Keep your hands relatively low as your torso unwinds, pulling your paddle blade in an arcing path as far out to the side of your kayak as is comfortable, and ending within six inches of the stern of your kayak. Slice your blade out of the water before it touches the stern or it will get pinned against the kayak.
While the first third of the stroke is most effective for turning, concentrate on full, long sweeps, especially when practicing, to encourage torso rotation. Follow your sweeping blade with your eyes to make sure that you are actively twisting from the waist. As your skills evolve, you will naturally start to lead your turns with your head—looking where you are going, rather than watching your blade—but be sure to continue to use full and powerful torso rotation and not just arm movement.
For even greater turning potential, introduce some edging. Tilt your boat toward the side of the stroke (in the opposite direction that you’ll be turning), while keeping your head over the kayak. If you want to turn to the left, for example, think about weighting your right butt cheek and lifting your left knee while sweeping with the paddle on the right.
To balance with the boat on edge, use a climbing angle on your sweeping blade to create lift and support. This means that you hold the blade on about a 45-degree angle (power face downward) while sweeping it from the bow to the stern, effectively making it a combination sweep and high brace. Then recover the blade in a low-brace position, skimming the back of the paddle blade flat above the water, ready to supply support should you need it.
This article originally appeared in Adventure Kayak, Summer/Fall 2009. Download our freeiPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it here.
This gear review was originally appeared in Canoeroots and Family Camping magazine.
From Wyoming comes a new manufacturer with an old idea: use heavy, double-weave cotton canvas to make durable but supple outdoor clothing. Mountain Khakis’ Alpine Utility Pants are triple-stitched and have a double panel on the rear, knees and backs of the cuffs for long life. True, you don’t want to get them wet, but if day-tripping at either end of the season, these should be your pants.
$89.95 | www.mountainkhakis.com
This article appeared in Canoeroots & Family Camping, Spring 2009.
This editorial originally appeared in Canoeroots and Family Camping magazine.
The butterflies began to twirl in my stomach the moment I stepped off the train in Inverness with my wife, Alana, and six-year-old daughter, Kyla. Everyone around us was wearing knee-high, green rubber gumboots. We were dressed in low, leather hikers—typical gear for a summer canoe trip in our neck of the woods. But not for the northwest tip of Scotland.
It didn’t help my confidence when our outfitter, Russell, picked us out of the crowd the moment he arrived. Looking down at our feet, he smirked and said, “You must be the Canadian paddlers.”
The uneasy feeling heightened as we dodged sheep and free-ranging cattle on the road to our put-in at Loch Buine Moire. The landscape stretched out in front of us—a shoreline of peat bogs, heather moorland, low-lying pockets of birch and, in the backdrop, the five stunted mountaintops that make up the Torridonian sandstone peaks.
Of course, we could see little of the scenery through the rain that met us at the put-in. We pulled off our leather hikers and replaced them with the gumboots supplied by Russell. Then he sketched a makeshift manual on how to erect the new tunnel tent he had packed for us, quickly described the art of lighting a Kelly Kettle with one match and a bundle of wet heather, pointed us in the right direction and sent us on our way. It was baptism-by-fire. It gave me the jitters.
After a lifetime of canoe tripping in Northern Ontario, I love the feeling of knowing how to make myself comfortable and safe out there. But into the cold rain we went, a clan of paddlers from across the Atlantic heading into the unfamiliar wilds of northern Scotland.
Once over the portage, I did what any canoeist with experience tripping during a rainstorm would do—I looked for a clump of trees to put up a tarp and light a warm fire. The problem was, clumps of trees are rare in northern Scotland and when found, they’re likely to be in the soggiest spot around. We resorted to a bog where the standing water was only ankle deep.
Two rock mounds gave us some protection against the numbing wind and amazingly enough, I was able to light the Kelly Kettle with a single match and a bundle of wet heather. I had underestimated the tunnel tent, an amazing piece of gear that was well matched to the elements surrounding us. It formed a self-supported shelter with add-on sleeping quarters. It protected us from the rain and wind and even allowed us to cook up our first meal—bangers and mash of course. We couldn’t possibly imagine cooking in our shelter on trips back home, ever wary of hungry black bears wandering the woods. Scotland’s most dangerous land mammal is the feral goat.
Once the rain stopped, we crawled out of the tunnel tent to soak in the scenery around us. We gawked as rising mist cleared from the surrounding mountains and unveiled the stunning landscape. Kyla, with her hot chocolate, and Alana and I, with a wee dram of single malt, had found comfort in our newfound, unfamiliar canoe country.
Kevin Callan may have been out of his element, but he’s no blethering skite. Despite being scunnered by midges, he fell in love with the green hills and purple heather of his mother’s land.
This article appeared in Canoeroots & Family Camping, Spring 2012.
Blind Bird Singing Rain won the award for best Canoeing Fim at the 2013 Reel Paddling Film Festival. The film features Robert Perkins, who paddles from his house in southern Utah down the lower Colorado to discover why the water is disappearing. With insight and humor, he paddles 500 miles to Mexico. He finds the river no longer reaches the sea, but he discovers an unexpected miracle. Blind Bird Singing Rain is a poetic personal narrative about the river’s plight.
Director and Producer: Robert Perkins
The 2013 Reel Paddling Film Festial World Tour is travelling to more than 100 cities and hosted by paddling shops, clubs, schools and theatres. Click here for a full World Tour schedule.
“The ice pack was in places an ice sheet, a solid 6+ inches of ice,” Sam Crowley says of an Easter weekend paddle to Lake Superior’s Presque Isle Rocks. For more amazing ice paddling images, visit Crowley’s Sea Kayak Specialists Facebook page.
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When as many as 30,000 Canadian lakes and rivers were removed from protected status late in 2012, paddlers on both sides of the border were up in arms.
The 130-year-old Navigable Waters Protection Act was rebranded in November last year in favor of the more industry-friendly Navigable Protection Act, which now protects a mere 97 lakes, 62 rivers and three oceans throughout Canada’s almost four million square miles.
Did your favorite paddling destination make the cut? Given the numbers, it’s unlikely. Popular canoe tripping areas that have been removed from the protection of the Act include Lady Evelyn Lake in Ontario’s famed Temagami area, New Brunswick’s salmon-rich and canoe-poling friendly Miramichi River, the Northwest Territories’ famed Slave River, and Quebec’s classic tripping river, the Dumoine. The province of Newfoundland and Labrador and northern territories Nunavut and the Yukon have just one protected river a piece, so don’t expect to find your favorite paddling routes protected there.
“Waterways are less protected today than they were a year ago,” says John Bennett, executive director of the Sierra Club Canada. “If you paddle in Canada you should be concerned—your favorite destination, if there happens to be natural resources upstream, can now be exploited with much less scrutiny than before.”
The original Navigable Waters Protection Act prevented construction that could interfere with the navigation of any body of water in Canada—navigable was considered anything you could paddle in a canoe so pretty much every waterway received protection. The purpose of the act was to prevent dams and bridges from springing up without the government’s knowledge but it also became very strong environmental protection.
In late February, documents obtained through the Access to Information Act suggested that these changes might have occurred at the suggestion of big business. The Canadian Energy Pipeline Association (CEPA) met with senior officials in the fall of 2011, urging them to streamline environmental assessments and also make “new regulations under (the) Navigable Waters Protection Act” according to a CEPA slide presentation.
The Canadian government maintains that changes to the Act were made to reduce red tape for municipalities and cottagers seeking federal approval for small projects, and waterways lacking status will be protected by other laws as well as provinces and municipalities.
Bennett takes issue with that. “The Navigable Waters Protection Act was the trigger that brought the federal government into proposals that would effect a lake or river. They’ve effectively taken themselves out of environmental protection and given it to other jurisdictions.”
According to Bennett, “federal government has the ability to properly assess, monitor and enforce environmental laws. You can’t evenly enforce municipal and provincial laws across the country.
“The smaller the jurisdiction, the more susceptible it is to industry pressure,” he adds.
This story first appeared in Rapid Media’s March Paddling This Month online magazine.
A review of the MSR Whisperlite International stove from Adventure Kayak magazine.
Some things are built to last. They are items that stand out in a world where products are built for fashion, not longevity. Think of the venerable Toyota truck, or the MSR Whisperlite International stove.
Built by Cascade Designs, under their Mountain Safety Research (MSR) brand, the Whisperlite International has been helping outdoor enthusiasts cook for nearly two decades. A minor evolution from the Whisperlite stove, the International was designed with a slightly larger fuel line, and came with a second fuel jet, allowing it to burn not just white gas – the fuel used in the regular Whisperlite – but also auto gas, kerosene and jet fuel.
Using white gas, MSR says the stove will boil one litre of water in 3.5 minutes, while taking almost a minute longer when burning Kerosene. It’s worth noting that such numbers will vary based on ambient temperature, elevation, cleanliness of the stove and the pressure inside the fuel bottle.
Since being released, the stove has undergone one major set of changes…
To read the full review, as featured in the March issue of our new monthly magazine, Paddling This Month, click here.
$99 USD (without fuel bottle)
Weight – 15.6 oz (441g)
