Little Explorers: Tie One On

Stories

Photo: Kinds Hands Tie Dye — Little Explorers: Tie One On

It may bring back memories of Janis Joplin, shag carpet and lava lamps but tie-dye is actually an ancient art that’s been around for thousands of years. Making your very own tie-dyed clothing is the perfect backyard or lakeside activity because, like most things that are fun, it’s messy!

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

A t-shirt or other plain white, 100% cotton cloth to decorate
Fabric dye
Soda ash
Elastic bands or string
Squeeze bottles
Rubber gloves and smock or apron
A disposable tablecloth or garbage bags and tape
Buckets or dish tubs
Sealable plastic bags
Marbles or smooth, round stones

Keep in mind that the dye will stain everything it comes into contact with—clothes, skin, hair, table tops and buckets!

INSTRUCTIONS

Prepare your station. A picnic table is perfect for this. Cover it with the tablecloth or garbage bags and tape them in place.

TIE.

Soaking the shirt in water first will make it easier to work with. Try one of these tying methods for a classic design.

Classic Spiral

Lay your shirt out on a flat surface.

Pinch the cloth where
you want the center
of the spiral to be and turn it until it’s com- pletely wound, keeping it as flat as possible.

Using your ties, divide the spiral into pie-pieces.

Bull’s Eye

Place a marble or smooth rock on the shirt where you’d like the center of the bull’s eye to be.

Place a tie around the shirt with the marble inside.

Continue to place marbles and ties for as many rings as you’d like.

Stripes

Loosely scrunch your shirt into a long tube. The stripes will run perpendicular to the tube.

Place ties as far apart as you want the stripes to be. Make sure the ties are very tight.

PRE-TREAT.

Dissolve the soda ash in a bucket of water and soak your tied shirts for 15 minutes. If your dye didn’t come with soda ash, pick some up at a craft store and mix one cup per gallon of water. This will help the dye bond and provide brighter, longer-lasting designs. Soda ash is caustic so be sure to protect yourself.

DYE.

Put on your gloves and aprons, mix your dyes according to the manufacturer’s direc- tions and fill your squeeze bottles. Squirt the dye onto the tied-off sections of your shirt.

Be creative mixing colors for a unique look. Try to avoid letting complementary colors touch—when they mix they’ll turn brown. Saturate the shirt completely without letting the dye pool.

BAG IT.

When you’re happy with your dye job, place the shirt in a sealable plastic bag and let it set overnight.

RINSE, WASH, REPEAT.

Put your rubber gloves and apron back on and remove the shirt from the bag. Rinse the shirt until the water runs clear, starting with warm and
then cool water. Remove the ties as you rinse. Machine-wash the shirt in cold water. When you’re finished, run an empty wash cycle with warm water and soap to ensure there’s no leftover dye in your washing machine.

You now have your very own, one-of-a-kind, cheerful, colorful masterpiece to wear on your next canoe trip!

This article on tie dye was published in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots magazine.

This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots Magazine.

Betcha Didn’t Know About… Canada Geese

Stories

Photo: StockPhoto.com — Betcha Didn't Know About... Canada Geese

The average lifespan of a wild Canada goose is 24 years.
While on the ground, a flock of geese is called a gaggle. In the air, a flock of geese is called a skein.
Canada geese have an enlarged bone at the end of each wing, similar to a wrist. Though unlikely, an adult Canada goose is capable of breaking a human limb with this part of its wing.
There are 11 subspecies of Canada goose. In general, they get smaller as you move northward and darker as you go westward.
Geese can cover 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) in just 24 hours with a favorable wind, but typically travel at a much more leisurely rate.
Geese fly in a V formation because it creates a current of air that makes flight more efficient and allows for better communication.
Goslings begin communicating with their parents while still in the egg and learn up to 13 different calls by adulthood. Female Canada geese have a deeper voice.
Canada geese are one of the most hazardous species associated with aircraft bird strikes. In 2009, U.S. Airways Flight 1549 struck two Canada geese six minutes after take-off and ditched into New York’s Hudson River. All 155 passengers survived the crash. The geese did not.
Canada geese have bills with serrated edges, which help them cut tough grass stems.
Loosely based on a true story, the film Fly Away Home depicts a father and daughter rescuing 16 orphaned Canada geese by escorting them some 1,000 miles from Ontario to North Carolina in ultralight aircraft decorated like mother birds. The truth? Bill Lishman spent five years training geese to follow him in flight as a biological experiment.

This article on Canada Geese was published in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots magazine.

This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Canoeroots’print and digital editions here.

Base Camp: Children, Do as We Do

Stories

Photo: Tanya MacGregor — Base Camp: Children, Do as We Do

My best memories are of adventures most parents would tell their children not to do, but may have done themselves. Like the time I jumped on a freight train to get home from university. Or the 105-day sea kayak trip through the Great Lakes never before having paddled a day in a sea kayak.

I tell my kids all my adventure and misadventure stories. Why not? It creates in them a sense of adventure and helps develop their sense of judgment. Would I do it all over again? If the answer is yes, I tell them so. I want them to know their dad was a raft guide, canoe instructor and ski patroller, and that I kissed their mom on the first date. It is a side of the 40-year-old me they don’t see on the way to the school bus stop.

Since co-starring in the film, Dougie Down the Pet—the story of a four-day whitewater canoe trip with my four-year-old son—one of the most common questions I get from fans of the movie is,

“How do I convince my mother-in-law?”

I always suggest that if you really want to go, don’t tell her until you get back.

Better yet, ask her what she really did with her parents as a child or with your wife when she was a baby. Like riding to the waterpark in the very back of the family station wagon lined with cushions from a sectional sofa. Stories like that make canoeing the Petawawa River with helmets and PFDs look rather responsible.

I recently met a very enthusiastic mother at the Outdoor Adventure Show. She was pushing a double stroller piled high with camping equipment. This was going to be their breakout year. She and her husband were at the tradeshow making plans and getting ready.

She asked me about paddling courses for her boys, asleep in the stroller. She said she and her husband weren’t all that comfortable canoeing and camping, so wanted them to receive professional instruction—

“I want them to learn proper strokes.”

I thought she was joking.

I suggested she leave the kids with her mother-in-law and take a weekend skills course with her husband—they could call it a date. They probably needed one; we all did then.

I also suggested joining a club or taking a guided family adventure and sucking every last bit of knowledge from their experienced leaders or guides. There is really no better way to learn about gear, cooking, camping and paddling than go- ing with a professional guide.

We as parents need to feel confident in order to enjoy ourselves and to pass on our love of the outdoors. If we have great looking strokes, if we can cook over a fire and if we truly love being outside and are happy there, our children will do as we do, no matter what your mother-in-law has to say.

This article on getting families outside was published in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots magazine.

This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots Magazine.

Camp Kitchens Unearthed

Stories

Illustration: Lorenzo Del Bianco — Camp Kitchens Unearthed

2012 Anti-oxidant Nut & Berry trail mix sells at Trader Joes stores for $8.99 per 12-oz. pouch and people actually buy it. Goodbye, old raisins and peanuts.

2011 Another Fork in the Trail, by Laurie Ann March, is the first backcountry cookbook for vegans.

2010 Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling, round-the-world memoir Eat, Pray, Love is adapted into a film starring Julia Roberts, which grosses over 200 million at the box office. Portland-based feminist magazine Bitch criticizes Gilbert’s message in an article called “Eat, Pray, Spend”.

2005 Following Hurricane Katrina, a sudden growth of MREs (Meals, Ready-to-Eat) listed for resale via online auctions leads to the media dubbing them Meals, Ready-for-eBay.

1994 Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics is founded. The fifth of seven LNT principles: Minimize campfire impacts.

1984 “Weird Al” Yankovic’s parody song Eat It snags a Grammy for Best Comedy Recording and reaches number one in Australia, topping the MJ original by two spots. Have some more yogurt, have some more spam / It doesn’t matter, if it’s fresh or canned / Just eat it. Amen.

1983 Michael Jackson’s Beat It tops the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks, and in just over a year Thriller becomes the best-selling album of all time.

1981 The U.S. military replaces the venerable canned C-ration with lighter MRE pouches. Flameless ration heaters are introduced in 1992, biodegradable cutlery in 1994 and vegetarian options in 1996. Thrifty campers stock up on surplus tins of Vietnam War-era beef ravioli.

1938 Developed during World War II to preserve serum for transport to field clinics in Europe, freeze-drying is adapted by Nestle for use in the food industry. Fifty years later, Bill Mason sings the praises of preservative-free, freeze-dried meals in Song of the Paddle.

1936 Jell-O launches enormously popular chocolate pudding mix; 30 years later, the No-Bake Cheesecake is an instant hit among sweet-toothed campers.

1909 The word “spork” appears in the Century Dictionary, 35 years after the first patent is granted for a spoon-fork hybrid.

1896 Victorinox founder, Karl Elsener, receives a patent for the Officer’s and Sports Knife, an early Swiss Army knife featuring large and small blades, screwdriver, corkscrew, can opener and reamer.

1884 The invention of peanut butter is credited to a Montreal physician seeking a high-protein food for the toothless and elderly. Some four decades later, pioneering peanut proponent, George Washington Carver, does much to raise the status of the underappreciated legume.

1870 Salt pork is the staple diet of French Canadian voyageurs paddling the fur trade route between Montreal and Grand Portage, leading to the derogatory nickname mangeurs de lard.

1810 In answer to a 12,000-franc cash prize offered by the French military during the Napoleonic Wars, canning is invented as a new method of preserving food. Unfortunately for Napoleon, the war ends before the process is perfected. Even more unfortunately for his soldiers, the can opener is not invented for another 30 years.

This article on camp kitchens was published in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots magazine.

This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots Magazine.

Forward Forever

Skills

Photo: Paul Villecourt — Forward Forever

The steady, hypnotic rhythm of stroking your canoe toward a distant shore eases the tension in your mind. Now, how to rid yourself of the tension in your back, shoulders and wrists! Effective forward stroke technique can lessen the strain on your body so you can paddle all day and not even feel it.

Let’s start by breaking down your stroke into the large and small muscles doing the work. Use your larger abdominal and back muscles for the heavy work of moving the canoe forward, and assign your arms to tuning the position of the paddle for a relaxed catch and recovery.

Remember, we don’t so much as pull our paddle through the water as anchor our blade and drive our torso and the canoe forward. Efficient propulsion comes from gently rotating your hips—sort of like rocking a baby in your arms but with a twist toward your paddling side. Keep your butt planted on the seat and alternately pivot your hips forward and back to drive the canoe forward. Bend your arms and turn your shoulders to complement this movement and guide the paddle from recov- ery through to the beginning of a new stroke.

At the start of each new stroke, stiffen your wrists and arms to minimize their effort.

As the stroke progresses, lower your top hand and shoulder and drive the stroke with the smooth rotation of your abdominal and back muscles. Avoid overworking your arms and shoulders; keep the paddle close to the gunwale and relax your grip on the paddle shaft.

Consider the sit and switch technique when fighting winds, or when you want some extra speed while traveling a straight course. Sit and switch balances your effort on both sides of the canoe and eliminates the muscle fatigue that comes from steering with correction strokes.

For best results, synchronize your strokes with your partner, shorten your stroke length so the paddle doesn’t pass your hip, and keep an upright posture. Switch after six to eight strokes or when the canoe begins to veer off course.

Paddle selection can also lesson fatigue and strain on your arms and shoulders.

A narrow, long blade—like the ottertail—is a great choice for distance paddling. For sit and switch, a shorter bent shaft paddle works best.

Whoever said “no pain, no gain” was certainly no canoeist. Efficient forward strokes allow you to set your sights on a distant shore and feel great when you get there.

This article on the forward canoe stroke was published in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots magazine. This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots Magazine.

Stay Sharp

Skills

It’s simple to sharpen a knife, making it both easier and safer to use. This method works with any non-serrated blade.

SHARPENING TOOLS

You’ll need a medium-grit and a fine-grit whetstone. A coarse grit stone is only necessary if the knife is badly nicked or very dull. The quality of the abrasive is more important than whether the stone is natural or synthetic. Use water to lubricate diamond stones and cutting oil or WD-40 on natural stones. For safety, your stones should be at least six inches long.

PROCEDURE

1. Dip the blade of your knife in boiling water for about 30 seconds to make it easier to sharpen.

2. Begin with the coarse stone. Raise the back of the blade about 15 degrees and cut into the stone.

To sharpen Scandinavian-style blades, do not use a 15-degree angle. Instead, hold the beveled portion of the edge flat against the stone.

3. Hone one edge until a burr appears on the opposite side—you can feel it with a finger. Then hone the other side until a burr appears. Switch to the fine stone and continue sharpen- ing, alternating sides every few strokes until the burrs are gone. Maintain a film of oil to float away steel particles that may otherwise clog the pores of the stone. Clean the stone by wiping off the surface and applying clean oil frequently to keep suspended grit from dulling the sharpened edge.

4. Check for blade sharpness. A knife is considered sharp if it will shave hair from the back of your hand. A less barbaric method is to shine a bright light on the edge. You should see no flat spots or inconsistencies.

Grit clogs the pores of sharpening stones and they become smoother over time. You’ll prolong their life if you occasionally boil them out. Simply submerge your stone in a pot of boiling water with a few drops of detergent added and let it soak for a few minutes.

Butcher’s steels do not sharpen a knife; they merely realign the microscopic teeth of the edge. A steel is handy for touching up a knife—it’s simply a coarse version of a leather strop—but it can’t take the place of a genuine whetstone.

Cliff Jacobson is a wilderness guide, Eagle Scout and the author of Expedition Canoeing.

This article on knife sharpening was published in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots magazine.

This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots Magazine.

Captive Canoemaker

Stories

Photo: Adrian Myers — Captive Canoemaker

“The lake was ours,” wrote Konstantin Schwartz in his diary, recalling the moment he and a comrade paddled out of the reedy shallows and into the gently rippled expanse of Whitewater Lake in the Manitoba wilderness. Many canoeists alone on a secluded lake have probably experienced a similar feeling.

Unteroffizier Schwartz and his companion weren’t alone, however, or free. They were German prisoners of war held in a labor camp at Whitewater Lake in the backcountry of the Riding Mountain National Park, southwestern Manitoba, from 1943-45. Most were Afrika Korps captured in Egypt after the Second Battle of El-Alamein in late 1942.

The craft paddled by Schwartz was one of an unknown number of dugout canoes built by the PoWs in their spare time. The Germans were free to canoe the isolated lake and occasionally broke away for several hours to visit Ukrainian farmers they’d befriended. Permanent escape was all but a geographical impossibility. The handcrafted canoes may have been hypothetical getaway vessels, but even if the prisoners paddled and portaged for weeks, they’d still be in the center of an enemy continent.

This rare canoeing chapter of the Second World War might have been lost if not for the recent efforts of Stanford University Archeology PhD candidate Adrian Myers. The Vancouver-born scholar has just wrapped up three years of fieldwork at Whitewater Lake and is currently cataloging and analyzing his findings. His study focus is on the PoW camp as a whole, but the canoes have proved to be a diverting sidelight.

Myers and his team uncovered six Prisoner of War-built canoes in various states of preservation.

“This was a labor detachment sent to Riding Mountain National Park for the purpose of logging. So as the prisoners came across trees that were big enough, they set them aside for recreational use,” says Myers, who has identified the canoemakers’ likely tools: a bow saw, axes, chisels, hammers and knives. Mature fir, spruce, or poplar trees logged from the surrounding forests probably provided the raw material.

In addition to the canoes identified in situ and two preserved at Fort Dauphin Museum, more probably existed. “The historical documentation mentions a flotilla,” says Myers. “They might’ve made 20 or 30.”

How did the prisoners know how to make canoes? This is a question that Myers is still looking to answer; he admits that he doesn’t have hard proof but an oral account he came across suggests the presence of a magazine at the camp.

“Could someone with no knowledge of boats just carve a canoe? Would it float and go where you wanted it to go, or not? We looked closely at the canoe in the Fort Dauphin Museum and it’s a sailing canoe with hardware—either someone knew how to do it from before the war, or they had a magazine in the camp with a picture or instructions.” Myers is hoping to unearth a publication from the period to verify the oral account. Until then, German engineering will have to be explanation enough.

Ned Morgan is a writer and editor living a short portage away from Georgian Bay, Ontario.

This article on dug out canoes was published in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots magazine.

This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots Magazine.

Tumblehome: Imagining Reality

Stories

Photo: from the collection of Don Starkell — Tumblehome: Imagining Reality

Don Starkell and I are talking in Winnipeg, as we do from time to time. He is poking my chest with the stubs of his amputated, once-frostbitten fingers.

“Never,” he growls. “I never wore a PFD on my trips because I didn’t want any false sense of security. It’s hard enough paddling coastal waters and all the hazards they present, without having to worry about a false sense of security.”

That was Don; opinionated, inspiring, accomplished…different. With his passing earlier this year from cancer, we lost a genuine paddling legend.

Don’s passion—his obsession—saw him through two particularly epic journeys in an impressive lifetime paddling resumé.

His 19,603-kilometer jaunt with sons Dana and Jeff from Winnipeg, Manitoba, to the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records.

His shorter yet fiercely ambitious three-year kayak romp from Churchill, Manitoba, to just short of Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories (he was frozen in just a few kilometers from his goal) very nearly landed him in the morgue.

Don’s journeys added two timeless books to the paddling canon. Paddle to the Amazon (1987) and Paddle to the Arctic (1995) are must-reads for any paddler looking for inspiration.

Don’s story is finding new life in 2012. In March, there was an online reunion of all of the principals involved in the Paddle to the Amazon odyssey, except Don, in a live webcast hosted by filmmaker Chris Forde. Forde didn’t hear about Paddle to the Amazon until some time after the book was published, but one read was all it took for the Toronto documentarian to begin an 11-year journey to bring the Starkells’ achievement back into public consciousness. Forde is in the process of creating a multi-layered, interactive film and website that will inspire budding adventurers for years to come.

What is it about Don Starkell that makes his life story so compelling?

For me, it is that he acted on what he believed in and drew us all along with him. More importantly, in imagining the canoe as a vessel in which to travel a north-south axis, he added a rich international complexity and diversity to the east-west fur trade axis that we all know and love. But Don did more than that.

He is one of those rare individuals who dared to imagine and to commit everything to following through. In the opening sequence of Forde’s film, Don is speaking. “I love the word imagination,” he says to the camera. “…dreams are only dreams. Imagination flowing in action is reality.”

James Raffan sneaks into the storage facility at the Canadian Canoe Museum to walk past the Starkells’ Amazon canoe, Orellana, to remind himself that anything is possible.

This article on Don Starkell was published in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots magazine.

This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots Magazine.

Blueways Here to Stay

Trips

Photo: flickr.com/jfl1066 — Blueways Here to Stay

Water trails, blueways, canoe routes… whatever you call them, designated routes with facilities for paddlers are cropping up on waterways across the country. Presently, there are more than 150 water trails throughout the U.S. alone, with more in the works. Last year, as part of the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative, the U.S. Department of the Interior designated two rivers in each state for blueway status, giving local groups direct access to federal planning resources.

Powell Forest Canoe Route

BRITISH COLUMBIA

What’s a former timber town to do when the logging industry goes away? On B.C.’s Sunshine Coast, residents and ex loggers in Powell River have taken the future into their own hands, redeveloping their forest and lake system for the benefit of canoe enthusiasts everywhere. This five-day, 57-kilometer water trail traces a semi-circle through eight lakes, featuring soaring mountain scenery, lush coastal forest, well-equipped campsites and five portages en route.

Jefferson River Water Trail

MONTANA

Two hundred and seven years ago, while on expedition to map the West and reach the Pacific, Meriweather Lewis and Wil- liam Clark paddled dugout canoes up the Jefferson with a crew of 31 aided by a 16-year-old Shoshone female tracker/translator named Sacagawea. Today, members of the Lewis and Clark Heritage Foundation are working to develop a six-day canoe trail on the Jeff from Twin Bridges to Three Forks at the Missouri River headwaters, passing through the Tobacco Root Mountains en route. At pres- ent, primitive camping is permitted on gravel bars below the high water mark.

Root River Water Trail

MINNESOTA

The 80-mile Root River Water Trail runs from Preston on the South Branch to the Lower Mississippi Wildlife Refuge. Attractive campsites along the way make it easy to enjoy a relaxing multi-day trip with opportunities to stop and explore a variety of riverside villages. The route is also flanked by a paved bike path for its entire length, making a paddle and pedal trip a fun and environmentally friendly shuttle option.

Thousand Islands Water Trail

ONTARIO

Rumrunners used the back bays and hid- den channels of the lower St. Lawrence River islands to hide from the law during U.S. prohibition. Now, those same hiding places are part of the 1000 Islands Water Trail. The trail’s nine short routes are accessible for day tripping, or link them together for an extended paddle between Brockville and the historic fort city of Kingston. Combine sections six through eight for a terrific weekend trip, staying at scenic St. Lawrence Islands National Park campsites, seeing the Ironsides heron colony, stopping off at Boldt Castle and viewing the petroglyphs at Tar Island.

Delaware River Water Trail

NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY and PENNSYLVANIA

The Delaware River stretches 326 miles from the Catskill Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. The upper section is a Blue Ribbon trout stream and provides some challenging whitewater, with public access and private camping facilities from Hancock to Port Jervis. The middle section from Milford through to Kittatinny passes through the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area with facilities for paddlers and campers.

This article on water trails was published in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots magazine. This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots Magazine.

The Ultimate Canyon Rig

Stories

Photo: Virginia Marshall — The Ultimate Canyon Rig

After my first canyon trip on the Green River’s Gates of Lodore last summer, I was hooked. This feature story began quite shamelessly self-serving. I wanted to set up the Rapid team with a killer raft rig in case any of us got the call from a friend with an open spot on a permit. Then I realized, if I’m this intrigued and excited about multi-day canyon trips and dream of the Grand Canyon, most of you probably do too.

I enlisted the help of Rapid columnist and long-time southwestern river guide, Jeff Jackson. After weeks of mail ordering from Rapid ’s partners AIRE, NRS, Sawyer, Wa- tershed and Yeti, we finally found ourselves at the put-in of our local river on a cool, cloudy spring day building our ultimate canyon rig. In this story, we share why we chose what we did, how we put it all together and what we learned along the way.

THE RAFT

The base of our ultimate canyon rig is the raft itself. We chose the AIRE 15.6R ($4,353). At just under 16 feet long, it’s large enough for multi-day trips, but still reasonable on smaller rivers. We won’t be racing or running big drops so a traditional shape and full-sized, round (that’s what the R stands for) tubes will provide a stable and dry ride. For us, this is a family raft and gear boat for raft-supported kayak trips. We ordered three thwarts for seats ($228 each), so we can also paddle-guide it. AIRE boats are light, beautifully finished and come with the best warranty in the business— if we wreck in the next 10 years, AIRE fixes it. We picked orange because it’s bright and it’s the only color not used by the rafting companies around home. Dan, Rapid Media TV’s cameraman, already calls it Punkin. I prefer Jack.

THE FRAME

When it came to the raft frame, we first considered a boutique-built custom job, but settled on something more modular. Being 2,000 miles from the Colorado, Green and Salmon, we needed the option to break the frame down for travel.

We may stern rig this boat with thwarts at the front for the neighborhood kids, and on longer trips we may add another dry box or cooler. The modular NRS frames allow for incredible versatility. You buy the frame in pieces, starting with the outer rails, and then add crossbars (88” side rails with six 66” crossbars, $517) to hang gear. AIRE provides blueprints of their rafts with dimensions that determine length and width of the frame and sizing of the dry box and cooler. Generally, it is best to go as big as the raft will allow.

THE OARS

Most people buy one nice set of oars and one set of cheap spares to be lashed to the boat and hopefully never used. After ordering our nice set of 9.5-foot
Cataract SGG oar shafts ($277.90/pair) and Cataract Magnum seven-inch blades ($143.90/pair), we received a call from the new owner of Sawyer Paddles and Oars. Peter Newport was keen to send us a set of 9.5-foot Sawyer SquareTop Dynelite oars ($729.96/pair), the most beautiful we’ve ever seen.

The SquareTop name comes from the oversized section of Douglas fir above the rope wrap that acts like a built-in counter balance. Despite the added strength of a sexy carbon fiber braid wrap, we’ll be saving these babies for deepwater rivers and hanging on the wall in the office.

CARGO

We started with the Cambridge Welding aluminum dry box ($393) that we sourced directly from AIRE. The box is 15.5”x15.5”x40” and drops perfectly between our raft tubes with an inch to spare on each side. We liked that the box comes standard with custom welded brackets so it hangs from two crossbars.

We chose Yeti’s Tundra 110 ($449.99) as our cooler, 110 being the volume in quarts. Our raft has the width to accommodate a Tundra 120 or 125, but the 110 was spe- cially designed for rafting. Yeti worked with guides to design a cooler that fits in standard aluminum frames and nests so that the frame doesn’t bump the latches and you don’t bump your knuckles when opening the lid. As far as we’re concerned, Yeti builds the most rugged coolers on the market. If we were running
an 18-day trip in the Grand Canyon we’d mount a second 110.

Duffels offer better accessibility and who needs backpack straps to carry gear 25 yards up the beach? We ordered a couple Water- shed 105-litre Colorado duffels ($149.95 each) for personal gear. As a day deck bag for hiking shoes, sunscreen and other fiddly bits, we ordered the large Watershed Tramp Mesh Duffel ($69.95), although we could have gotten away with their smaller MD ($54.95). We’ll stuff the rest of the camping gear in less expensive dry backpack-style NRS Bill’s Bags ($69.96 to $94.95).

THE BUILD

Building the frame begins with setting the outer rails in place and lying the crossbars roughly where you think they will go.

The first big decision is where to set our NRS eight-inch-tall oar stands ($94.95/pair). We centered the oar stands on the frame— the neutral position for a gear boat. If we were to have a crew of bow paddlers, we’d move our rowing position back.

Instead of a guide seat, we opted to use our dry box with a one-inch foam pad ($69) we sourced from AIRE. Jeff told us that our seat should be set so that when you pull on the oars your butt is not rolling off the back, and when you push hard on the oars you are not sliding off the front. The position of your foot rail depends on the length of your legs. After a test run, I realized I needed to come forward on the seat to get closer to the oar stands due to my short torso. I had to push the NRS custom foot bar ($134.95) forward to give me more leg extension. Once you find the right spot, either leave the frame assembled, or mark it with a Sharpie to remember the perfect spot.

The placement of the foot bar dictates the position of the forward box, in our case the Yeti cooler. We sandwiched the Yeti between two crossbars and slung it using an NRS adjustable cooler mount ($74.95).

On a custom fabricated frame, builders use aluminum checker plate to create gear or walking platforms along the length of the frame. NRS uses modular side rail racks ($69.95 each) made of marine-grade plywood topped with a no-slip protective surface. These running boards make moving about the raft easier and safer.

Ahead of the cooler, we had room to rig an NRS Campsite Counter ($245). Talk about a multi-tasking piece of gear. It’s a folding camp table, a bench in the raft and could be used as a makeshift backboard. Under the table we hung a small NRS cargo net (without straps $54.95), forming a hammock-like storage area for smaller items and bags.

In the stern, behind the dry box, we slung a large NRS cargo platform ($54.95) that hangs like a trampoline and acts as a suspended floor. This is where we’ll pile the bigger dry bags, strapped down or covered with a cargo net.

Making sure the frame was still centered front-to-back and side-to-side, we ratcheted it tight and prepared the straps. To lash the frame to the raft, we chose beefier 1.5-inch NRS HD straps ($7.00–$11.40 each). We used clove hitches to prevent slipping and so the straps remain on the frame when it is removed. We positioned the buckles so the direction of pull to tighten is toward the center of the boat. This allows us to tighten the frame on the water from inside the raft. Once the frame is secure, we used our K- Pump 40 hand pump ($160) to hard blow the raft, further tightening the frame.

For the Cataract oars, we sourced NRS Atomic aluminum oarlocks ($74.95/pair) fastened using stainless springs and wash- ers ($6.95/set) and, instead of split rings, we ordered fancy lynch pins ($1.50 each). We chose threaded Sawyer Cobra Scull Lock oarlocks ($59.99 each) to use with the Sawyer SquareTops. We double-checked that both sets of oars can be used in both types of locks and we ordered a spare of each.

The one-piece Sawyers come ready to go pre-roped and with rubber oar stops. Our Cataract SGGs took a little more setting up.

First, we installed the molded oar sleeves ($14.95 each), which protect the oar shafts when rubbing against the oarlocks. Then we slipped on the large plastic oar stops ($29.95/ pair). We put on the NRS oar tethers ($39.95/pair), which are leashes for the oars in case we blow them out of the oarlocks, and snapped on the Cataract Magnum blades. Sitting in the guide position, we measured up the oars. After one day on the water, I figured that I wanted my hands closer together. I reset the oars, leaving just enough room for my thumb knuckles to pass by one another. Finally, we added a set of Cataract counterweights ($69.95/pair), making the oars feel almost weightless. What a difference these will make on a long trip.

Before our test run, we hung our spare oars with NRS oar keepers ($19.95/pair). We installed our NRS bow line and flip lines, and clipped in our throw bag. The rest of the gear we’ll test on our first real multi-day in our ultimate canyon rig.

RULES OF RIGGING

If you open it, close it. If you loosen it, tighten it.
Pad sharp edges to protect you and the boat.
Run straps through items rather than just over them.
As much as possible, strap items individually. If one strap blows it will not compromise the load.
Rig to flip.

KEEP STUFF OFF THE FLOOR

As a general rule, suspend all gear from your frame because:

The floor needs to flex and bend over waves.
This shares the load along the full length of the raft.
It gives the floor room to move if scrubbed or wrapped on rocks
You want to avoid abrasion between cargo and the floor.

STRAP MANAGEMENT

Mount the buckles so that you can tighten the straps from your guiding position.
Keep your working areas free of excess and dangling straps.
No straps dangling longer than your palm.
Wet the straps. When rigged wet, they will shrink and tighten as they dry throughout the day.
Pack a pair of pliers to pull straps tighter or free jammed cams.

CONTACTS

AIRE / NRS / Sawyer / Watershed / Yeti

This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Rapid Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Rapid’s print and digital editions here.

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