When I reflect on the people I've met along the way, Hugh Stewart is one of the few who have inspired me, and who I've looked up to as experts of the canoe.
So to Hugh’s point on judgement, I was on the trip with him where we went about 600 miles north from Reindeer Lake, manitoba/saskatchewan then a few hundred east to the Bay. About 90 miles of portages in that escapade. Anyway, this is one of the 3 “aw-shits” of my life. The 2 cent version of my background was I was an experienced tripper and a whitewater canoe and kayak instructor in the US. So we were about 2/3 into the trip, going downriver (there was a lot of upstream work in the early part of the trip) through a bunch of little riffles, etc that maybe required some ferrying. We got to a spot late afternoon (keep in mind in August that far north the sun doesn’t really set) that had a bit of a ledge that cut across the whole 'river. We scouted it and decided it was best to carry around it or line the canoes down the opposite shore. Keep in mind we had all our gear and food in the canoes and there was no “rescue” short of a helicopter or plane from somewhere. We had been windbound probably 15 days at this point in the trip so we had already shot a caribou to supplement rations. So my bow paddler and i set off to ferry across and I’m looking at this drop and none of the considerations I’ve just laid out are in my head. I’m tired. That’s bad for judgement. So I’m looking at a very clean drop between a couple rocks, maybe 2-3 feet, pool below and I say to myself, that’s a no-brainer. For me, who usually paddled solo with no critical gear in my boat, yep it’s a no-brainer. But i have a bow paddler who is not a whitewater person, i have critical supplies in my boat so it’s heavy (but our wood-canvas canoes were built for tripping with loads), and we’re in the middle of nowhere. And there is a white wolf who has been following us down the river which should have been an omen to me. Anyway, I decide to run it. I tell Julie ( no complaints, she was a stalwart and hard paddler) to paddle hard into the drop kand once we drop, reach way out and pull us through the wave and out of the drop. It’s a ledge so the hydraulic is going to want to punch us backwards and I’m not looking for a fun surfing experience. Two boats had already ferried over and were portaged down below the drop but on the shore 30 yards away from my chosen slot. They were yelling at me to ferry over and at the same time scrambling to get their boats in the water. Did i mention this is very far north and the water is cold even in late summer. We line up nicely and hit the tongue perfectly to glide right down the drop. As expected, a very nice wave. This is all new to Julie and she freezes. It’s mostly froth where I am so I can’t crank a power stroke to push us forward so we more or less stop, mid-drop, on the curler. I’m paddling like mad to push us but at this point we’re almost standing still, taking on water like a bathtub. We do break free and slowly sink as we float into the pool. It’s chilly but not too bad. The gear is floating nicely. The other boats get to us and grab the gear. We sort of ferry over to shore and then drain the boat. Needless to say we camped at that drop that night. I was completely embarrassed by my lack of judgement. No gear or food was lost because we kept everything watertight, but it just shows you that even experienced folks do stupid stuff when tired. Be careful out there.
I have a 14.5 foot Langford prospector with keel built in the early 1960's. Excellent shape, been dry for 15 years. Don't know what to do with it. Any thoughts?
When I reflect on the people I've met along the way, Hugh Stewart is one of the few who have inspired me, and who I've looked up to as experts of the canoe.
Keep up the great work Mr. Stewart, humanity needs more like you!
So to Hugh’s point on judgement, I was on the trip with him where we went about 600 miles north from Reindeer Lake, manitoba/saskatchewan then a few hundred east to the Bay. About 90 miles of portages in that escapade. Anyway, this is one of the 3 “aw-shits” of my life. The 2 cent version of my background was I was an experienced tripper and a whitewater canoe and kayak instructor in the US.
So we were about 2/3 into the trip, going downriver (there was a lot of upstream work in the early part of the trip) through a bunch of little riffles, etc that maybe required some ferrying. We got to a spot late afternoon (keep in mind in August that far north the sun doesn’t really set) that had a bit of a ledge that cut across the whole 'river. We scouted it and decided it was best to carry around it or line the canoes down the opposite shore. Keep in mind we had all our gear and food in the canoes and there was no “rescue” short of a helicopter or plane from somewhere. We had been windbound probably 15 days at this point in the trip so we had already shot a caribou to supplement rations.
So my bow paddler and i set off to ferry across and I’m looking at this drop and none of the considerations I’ve just laid out are in my head. I’m tired. That’s bad for judgement. So I’m looking at a very clean drop between a couple rocks, maybe 2-3 feet, pool below and I say to myself, that’s a no-brainer. For me, who usually paddled solo with no critical gear in my boat, yep it’s a no-brainer. But i have a bow paddler who is not a whitewater person, i have critical supplies in my boat so it’s heavy (but our wood-canvas canoes were built for tripping with loads), and we’re in the middle of nowhere. And there is a white wolf who has been following us down the river which should have been an omen to me. Anyway, I decide to run it. I tell Julie ( no complaints, she was a stalwart and hard paddler) to paddle hard into the drop kand once we drop, reach way out and pull us through the wave and out of the drop. It’s a ledge so the hydraulic is going to want to punch us backwards and I’m not looking for a fun surfing experience.
Two boats had already ferried over and were portaged down below the drop but on the shore 30 yards away from my chosen slot. They were yelling at me to ferry over and at the same time scrambling to get their boats in the water. Did i mention this is very far north and the water is cold even in late summer.
We line up nicely and hit the tongue perfectly to glide right down the drop. As expected, a very nice wave. This is all new to Julie and she freezes. It’s mostly froth where I am so I can’t crank a power stroke to push us forward so we more or less stop, mid-drop, on the curler. I’m paddling like mad to push us but at this point we’re almost standing still, taking on water like a bathtub. We do break free and slowly sink as we float into the pool. It’s chilly but not too bad. The gear is floating nicely.
The other boats get to us and grab the gear. We sort of ferry over to shore and then drain the boat. Needless to say we camped at that drop that night. I was completely embarrassed by my lack of judgement. No gear or food was lost because we kept everything watertight, but it just shows you that even experienced folks do stupid stuff when tired. Be careful out there.
Solid video hugh
awesome video would love to learn from under someone like this
Absolutely! One of the reasons I decided to share the video with everyone. Hugh was an amazing person to speak with.
I have a 14.5 foot Langford prospector with keel built in the early 1960's. Excellent shape, been dry for 15 years. Don't know what to do with it. Any thoughts?