Show us your canoe or kayak

[CruiserTrash]

We made long weekend trip to NC and planned on running a easy section of the Chattooga River on Friday. Our plan was to drop off boats on the SC side just off hwy 28 and leave the FJ60 at Earl's Ford on the GA side. Access to Earl's Ford requires a creek crossing, mild rock climbing and another 4WD obstacle or two. Downed trees were blocking the road to Earl's Ford. So we went looking for another river to run.

LX450 and FJ60 loaded up with 16' Mad River Legend and 14' Mad River TT boat.

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We settled on a 5.5 mile run on the Tuckasagee River. Put in was below a bridge in Dillsboro, NC with the takeout in an established site along US 74. This was nice river, good flow (probably TVA controlled) with a frequent series of shoals and class II water. I paddled the Mad River Legend, a solid Royalex boat, while @cruiserinsanity and his girlfriend were in the 14' Triple Tough boat, heavy and flexy. The left the river with a hatred for this boat.

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In our drive to the Tuckasegee we passed through the Nantahala Gorge and we saw where there were a couple trailers of whitewater canoes for sale. On our return we stopped off to check out the boats. The for sale sign had call Nolan and a phone number. So we called. Gavin was interested in a canoe saddle seat and that opened the conversation with Nolan. I asked if Nolan would be interested in trade, the 14 Mad River tandem for a one of his canoes. He said yes. We picked out a boat and did the swap. On the side of a barn was Whitesell Canoe sign. The boat we selected was a Whitesell Descender.

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Back at the Air BnN Gavin looks up Whitesell boats and, as it turned out, we were talking with, and did a canoe swap with Nolan Whitesell, the designer and manufacterer of these whitewater boats. He did some very amazing white water runs when he was active.

@cruiserinsanity lady friend was like "nope" when the camera came around haha

Cool story about meeting the maker of those canoes though. That's some REAL stuff right there: just a highly talented dude selling his wares by the road.

 

[peesalot]

Mr. Case in Oregon has a very nice boat, thanks for posting folks, enjoying the photos.
Roughly how lbs of gear do you pack ? ( For 1 person, say 4 or 5 days ). This is everything, water, food,gear, misc....

 

[Godwin]

Yesterday I covered about 20 miles on the Pea River in SE Alabama. Boat is a 14' Mad River Freedom solo, a nice light Royalex boat that paddles well on this flat water river or can handle mild white water. I wanted to see this piece of the river as I'd never been on it and with current low water levels canoeing was the only way to do it.

 

[Paddler Ed]

When I used to guide on the rivers, the Freedom solos were very popular as a loaded river leader boat with the smaller guides; as I'm 6'3 and was about 85kg back then (which is what 3x 35km white water trips a week would do for you), I'd generally run a 15' or 16' tandem boat solo. The guides who were in the 5'8 and under range tended to get the smaller boats (14' or solos).

I did play with them a bit, but just found them a touch too small for my approach for paddling (the longer length was better - always a smidge faster than a shorter boat, and having to get from the front to the back of the group between rapids, speed counted!