A while back I bought a second hand canoe from a friend. I was thinking of getting a nice lightweight one, but the budget just isn’t allowing that right now. So here I am with this new-to-me canoe!
A friend had asked me if I had checked yet to see if it floats. Of course it floats? I saw her in it on facebook fishing. It looked great! No…no… but does it float when you dump it?
Well silly me… I hadn’t thought of that. Although I should have, because I’ve paddled heavier canoes that require float bags.
All I know is that I do NOT want to be out in the backcountry with a boat that sinks to the bottom of the lake! How on earth would I get home!?
I recently had the chance to check things out. A nice day came up with nothing to do, so we went to the local ponds and dunked the canoe!
I’m still not sure I’d trust this old thing out in the woods. The bottom is quite bendy. I haven’t experienced that before, but most of my canoe experience has been in Swift canoes or the lovely rentals at Algonquin and Killarney. I suppose it’ll be fine, but I’ll definitely be packing a canoe repair kit!
I needed to get back to the pond because I’d searched for the geocaches out there before and there were a few that totally evaded me.
We were looking a little farther up and I happened to glance over and spot a little piece of plastic poking out of this plant (which turned out to be plastic and tied to a brick!)
So that’s one that I couldn’t find before, but there’s another that just seems impossible! But it brought me back to see the eagle’s nest again, so still a trip worth taking!
How do you prepare for the backcountry?
Go Outside 