Canoe and camping

The popularity of the canoe, traditional craft of primitive civilizations, hasn't been dimmed by man's success in devising more rapid means of navigation. This light, highly seaworthy little boat is still the best way to traverse the inland waterways where the wilderness is deep and the fishing and hunting top-grade. With it you can reach and explore great areas of the north country, where lakes and streams intermingle at random, where the country is almost a single body of water laced by narrow strips of land. This is fishing country, game country, camping country.

Canoe travel gives you considerably more leeway in assembling an outfit than back-packing does. However, you will soon discover that there's a lot of backpacking to canoe travel, too. The portage is the ever-recurring barrier to free water travel in the wilderness country, but since few portages are very long, the carries aren't a great hardship. The usual practice is to travel two men in a canoe, both paddling until a portage comes up. On the trip overland one man carries the canoe, after lashing the paddles to the thwarts for shoulder rests; the other carries the outfit. If you're heavily loaded for a long trip, you'll simply make two or more trips over each portage to transfer the gear, which means that the amount of equipment is limited only by the carrying capacity of the canoe. Moreover, many pleasant canoe trips can be taken without making a single portage.

Canoe camping is one of the most comfortable and enjoyable of all outdoor adventures. You can pause to catch fish for the evening meal and make camp in the afternoon wherever your fancy dictates. In a pinch the canoe itself can become part of your shelter.

Planning your trip

The first thing to do is to write various state or government agencies for the maps and routes you will need on your trip. If you plan to canoe in Canada, write to the Department of Lands and Forests in the province of your choice. You can also get some good information from the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National railways, Montreal. In the U. S., your own state conservation department will supply you with information an routes (with maps), guides, where to put in and get out for a trip of any given length of time, and in many instances will locate specific camp sites for overnight stops.

Above all, don't attempt to keep a tight schedule on a trip of more than a day or two. Canoe camping should be relaxing. You can cover only so much water in a certain number of hours, and of course the weather will make a great difference in your schedule. Tail winds will move you swiftly through big lakes and over wide rivers; head winds will make you work to maintain your position. Contrary to the layman's notions, the canoe is one of the safest craft afloat. When you are properly seated in the bottom (or kneeling in paddling position), nothing short of a hurricane will capsize you. The people who get into trouble in canoes are the ones who persist in standing up, changing seats or turning around. Canoe seats can also cause trouble. The original Indian model had no seats; the occupants sat or knelt on the bottom, keeping the center of gravity properly low. The white man, however, has insisted on having seats like those in a rowboat, which puts the center of gravity entirely too high for complete security. In rough weather, with two persons supporting their weight on the canoe's bottom, the craft is virtually impossible to tip over or swamp. High winds and waves will give you trouble, so it's wise to lie over in camp in rough weather. Indeed, weather too rough for canoes is too rough for all small craft.