I Love Paddling

Renowned Canadian canoe-builder Walter Walker of Lakefield, Ontario died on Monday.  He was two weeks shy of his 102nd birthday. Walker was inducted as the first “Canoe Builder Emeritus” in the Canoe Builders Hall of Fame established by the Canadian Canoe Museum. He received numerous awards and certificates for his work in the canoe industry. Walker’s […]

We expect the paddling season to wind down when winter-like conditions come early to the Midwest, but we were surprised to see it’s also wrapping up in far-off Hawaii.  For the inter-island racers who paddle outrigger canoes at least, the season climaxed last weekend with the Super Bowl of outrigger racing: the Moloka’i Hoe.  The 41.7 mile paddle […]

Was New Zealand originally settled by canoeists from Hawaii? It’s a possibility seen in a study of traditional Pacific Ocean canoe designs undertaken by Stanford University researchers Marcus Feldman, Paul Ehrlich, and Deborah Rogers. The trio examined a 1930s-era study of traditional canoe designs by A.C. Haddon and James Hornell in order to track the […]

According to Google Maps, it’s a three-hour drive from Moundsville, West Virginia to the state capitol in Charleston.  According to Mountain State canoeists Bryant Persinger and Ronnie Howe, the trip can also be calculated as an 8-day paddle. The retired miners and former high school classmates, as the Charleston Daily Mail reports HERE, finally paddled […]

A 180-year-old birch bark canoe has inspired a brand new birch bark canoe. The well-traveled “Grandfather Canoe” made nearly two centuries ago by Maliseet First Nation craftsmen, thought to be the oldest extant birch bark canoe on earth, has inspired the latest canoe creation by contemporary Maliseet canoe builders. As the Telegraph-Journal in New Brunswick […]

We enjoyed THIS recent Ottawa Citizen story (with photos) about a moms-and-sons canoe trip down Alberta’s Red Deer River. The Red Deer River, a tributary of the South Saskatchewan River, flows through southern Alberta’s badlands.  The group of five paddlers — a guide, two moms, and two teenage boys — floated from near Stettler to Drumheller on their 70-mile, four-day […]

Andrew Triebold and Steve Lajoie have done it again … and again … and, now, again. The canoe racing duo from spring Arbor, Michigan and Mirabel, Quebec, respectively, repeated as canoe racing’s Triple Crown winners with their victory in last weekend’s Classique Internationale de Canots in Quebec. As they did in 2008, Triebold and Lajoie this year won New […]

Most canoe campers are familiar with the BWCA, whether they’ve actually paddled in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area or not. A local non-profit, Wilderness Inquiry, is introducing Minneapolis and St. Paul school kids to the “UWCA” —  the Urban Wilderness Canoe Area.  It’s what they call the Mississippi River which runs between Minnesota’s Twin Cities.  The program works to put […]