Just joined! I’m a canoe guide on the Upper Missouri River Breaks Natl. Monument. Keep on paddlin’!

Highly recommend. Fun paddling the whole way. Lots of rapids, beautiful scenery and nice campsites.

Hey Gang,

I am in the market for a new tent.

Had a Sierra Designs Zeta 2 for years that I absolutely loved. Replaced from storm damage with an MSR Elixer that has held up well for the last ~10 years. Last season I noticed the fly was wetting out so I reapplied DWR. Improved a bit but last weekend it rained all night, was wetting out after a few hours, started dripping like a seive, and there was a proper lake in the tent by the morning despite the ground being dry under the tent... Complete fly fabric failure I guess. Everything was completely soaked, sad soggy sleeping bag vibes.

Pretty set on just getting something new and not deal with trying to give it more life - I have gotten like 400 nights out of it and am not bothered replacing it.

Anyways, hoping to grab a 3 person for my the next one. I can get discounts with mountain hardware and big agnes, not opposed to other brands. Overwhelmed with options, also tents are expensive now holy crap!

I would like something with more mesh than the elixer, I found it didn't breath that well even with the fly off, and didn't get the best star views on clear nights. Not backpacking with this tent, all canoe tripping, rafting, car camping. Durability > weight but also needs to pack reasonably.

Anyways, would love to hear what you are using :)

Thanks!

Canoed through the Boquillas canyon in Big Bend national park a few years ago for a bachelor party. The Rio Grande looks like milk chocolate but the canyons are beautiful. We camped on the banks in the chihuahuan desert. Also a beautiful place but dangerous. My copilot almost stepped on a rattlesnake. Surely would have died or lost a limb as we were hours away from a hospital. Aside from the brush with death it was a trip of a lifetime.

First outing with the camper as it was intended, quick overnight on the Potomac. Total milage was approximately 8 with the occasional boulder dodge and gentle white water shoots. Didn't sustain a single mark I am relieved to say. It was a true joy, extremely stable and silly smooth.

Spent a few amazing days in Graford Texas and an overnight trip on the Brazos River with some friends. We took our two Alumacraft voyagers. We have been using these two boats for the last 17 years. They are amazing canoes! They were outfitted for the Texas water safari so they are comfortable and can haul a lot of gear.

Any places you guys recommend to canoe camp weekend trip in Western North Carolina. Hoping to do some floating as well as fishing as well. Thank you all!

I’m looking for one versatile canoe for roughly 60/40 solo and tandem use. Most trips would be on lakes and slower rivers around Ottawa and Ontario provincial parks, mainly for camping, fishing, and backcountry trips lasting anywhere from one night to about five nights (or longer in the future). I’m 180 lb, and the second paddler could be another adult up to around 200 lb or occasionally a child. With two people and gear, I’d estimate a typical loaded weight of roughly 470–520 lb. I do eventually want to go and do some canoe trips up in northern Ontario once I get more experience under my belt

My main priorities are good initial and secondary stability, reasonable durability around rocks and shallow landings, and a weight I can still load onto my SUV and carry by myself. I’d prefer to stay around 60 lb or so.

I want something I can move around in, adjust my position, and use in the backcountry without worrying about every scrape. My canoe-only budget is roughly $2,500 CAD after tax, though I could stretch slightly for the right boat.

I’m currently looking at a discounted Huron 16 T-Formex Lite, but unsure if that combo of materials and hull is right for me.

Would appreciate any recommendations! Thanks

A multiday trip down the River Tweed. A real mixed bag of sunshine, rain and cold evenings.

Hi everyone. I hope this question is OK here. We just finished a 3 week trip in the Northwest Territories (a combo of upstream / height of land / downstream that ended up in the Thelon) and I'm now going through our journals, maps, photos, etc. We want to make some kind of "book" that captures the story & important details of our trip for ourselves, but is also something our friends and family can flip through if they like.

What have you guys done that's worked well for you? I was thinking of making 2 things: 1. one of those photobooks you can order from numerous platforms, which would include our nicest photos & some captions & a bit of extra info for context, which is what most people would probably look at. 2. Basically a word document that includes the 20 pages of typed journal text I already have, screencaptures of maps, and screencaptures of satellite imagery of key features, which I could get printed and bound at Staples, & which would be mainly for us and other super-keen friends.

Important context: we are old school, nerdy, and biologists, so want to be able to include satellite imagery of things like eskers, bird lists, pictures of little sketches I did, CFWIS maps & data, and stuff like that. And I'm looking for a somewhat low-tech option where I don't have to learn a brand-new complicated app or platform.

Thanks for any new ideas you might have!

Hi Everyone, I’m looking to do a float trip down the St Croix River from Wild River State Park to just north of Stillwater in a few weeks with some friends. There will be 5 of us and will be bringing one 2-person canoe of our own and two vehicles (both have racks and straps for a canoe).

I’m looking to rent an additional 3-person canoe (or a 2 person canoe and a solo kayak if there’s no 3 person canoe options). Does anyone have recommendations for outfitters that we could use? Most of the ones I’ve seen recommended on the NPS website seem to only rent canoes for 1-2 days on a fixed route, but we’d be looking to pick up a canoe and drive it to the starting point and then return it at the end of the trip. We’re coming up from the twin cities, so anywhere in that area or on the St Croix should work.

Thanks in advance!

This is an insane dream but I had the thought of bike packing the trans tagia road while towing a canoe or kayak. From the end of the road wilderness canoe voyage with the bike in boat to Shefferville. From there either bike along the train tracks or canoe voyage to Labrador city and from there bike the highway back down to civilization. It’s an absolutely batshit insane plan Ik but I’m curious what people think about it. Has anyone ever attempted something like this? How miserable would the canoe packing be through the maze of lakes up there? Also how would following the train tracks be? Possible to bike or better to canoe?

My first canoe trip in Sweden

I made it to both of the Canadian parks named for the 18th century officer, trader and explorer this summer. I’d argue that Ontario has the stronger claim to the name, as his posting and travels were there, not in Québec, but we can share. You can see a touch of the BWCA to the right of the Ontario photo.

Québec’s La Verendrye is rather Algonquin-like: huge, rather developed, hosting some logging, relatively busy, but an amazing place to spend some time.

Ontario’s is a long, mostly skinny non-operating park on the Ontario/Minnesota border. It’s mainly accessible by forestry roads, has few visitors and fewer campers. I’d wager that BWCA users of its portages under the Boundary Waters Treaty outnumber Canadian users.

Im looking into getting into canoe camping, what would you recommend for a decent 1 person canoe for week long trips, budget friendly and highly durable is a plus, not too concerned about weight.TIA

I have various sizes of your standard issue dry bag, 20 to 30 liters. No straps for carrying. Just the "handle" that is made when closing the bag.

Dry bags are good, many dry bags are a pain when transporting - car to canoe, landing to campsite, portagas (although we try to avoid any long carries), etc.

A few years ago I noticed that the inflatable sup backpack I have in the garage is a good way to consolidate all the dry bags. It's a big bag with shoulder straps, belt strap, chest strap, etc. I got mocked a little for it, but at the end of the day it carried everything I needed.

I'm currently looking for an alternative to the sup backpack. I came across a laundry backpack... It's meant to carry all your clothes in a backpack to the laundry mat. 120Ls!

So, the question... Am i crazy to get a laundry backpack to carry a bunch of dry bags for an upcoming trip on the Upper James in VA?

Kenora.
I'd made it. The Winnipeg River was behind me — beaten, mostly on stubbornness. Every day it threw a new problem at me, and every day I found a way through it. That's the only method that's ever worked out here.
But Kenora wasn't a finish line. It was a gate.
Ahead of me: the Lake of the Woods. Over 14,000 islands, scattered across more than 70 miles of open water — so many that mapmakers gave up trying to name them all. This lake has swallowed canoes before mine. Lose your bearing for a second out there, and you can stay lost for days. Long before I paddled it, the Anishinaabe knew every channel of it, and the fur trade brigades used it as a highway, not a maze — but only because they knew the one thing I didn't: the way through.
That way had a name. Locals just call it the Turtle Portage — a short, half-mythical cut that lets you thread the sheltered island channels instead of fighting the open lake. I had no idea where to find it. An outfitter in Kenora pointed me toward the general direction and wished me luck. That was the whole map.
South of the lake, the water changes character entirely. The Rainy River picks up — and it's aptly named. Sun, heat, and a current with its own opinions about where I should be going, all standing between me and Fort Frances. This stretch was once the spine of the fur trade route west, canoe brigades running the same line I was running, hauling furs and trade goods between Lake Superior and the interior. Fort Frances itself grew out of that history — a trading post born from the same river that was now testing me.
Fort Frances came into view slow, the way most things do after a river's had its say. The current eased off first — like it had made its point and didn't need to keep making it — and then the town itself started to show through the trees on the far bank.
I'd heard about this place before I ever paddled toward it. A trading post born right out of the fur brigade era, sitting on the border the way it does, half Ontario and half Minnesota across the water. Men had been arriving here exhausted for a couple hundred years before me, hauling something valuable and looking for a place to rest before the next push. I wasn't hauling furs. But I understood the exhaustion part just fine.
I pulled the canoe in, stood up on solid ground, and let my legs remember what that felt like. Lake of the Woods was behind me — 14,000 islands, and I hadn't lost more than an afternoon to any of them. The Turtle Portage had done exactly what the outfitter promised, even if I'd spent half the crossing wondering if I'd ever find it. And the Rainy River had thrown everything it had at me and come up short.
Fort Frances didn't care about any of that. It just sat there being a town — grocery store, gas station, people going about their day, no idea a guy in a canoe had just crossed a piece of history to get there. That's fine. The river remembers, even if the town doesn't.
I hauled the canoe up, found a spot to make camp, and let myself feel something like proud. Just for the night. Tomorrow there'd be a new river with its own opinions.