"I've only seen one stripper canoe in twenty years of boundary waters travel. I never even see them on cars. Are there so few of us?"

My first reaction to this was, "I saw six of them one year in the BWCA and the owners and I had nice, brief conversations about them". Then I thought about it more and realized that in all the other years I've gone I've seen only one or two and then probably only on cars.

There are certainly enough builders and owners out there. I think many have the fear of wrecking their boat that they worked so hard on. Some think that strippers are heavy because they're made of wood (not true, in fact they rival kevlar). But mostly I think it's because folks opt for outfitters, either because of the distance to canoe country for them (and don't want to haul stuff that far), don't want to damage their stuff on canoe country granite, or like the comprehensive packages (canoe, food, gear)and planning outfitters can provide.

It'll be interesting to see what others think.

In reply to: Re: Wooden Ships on the Water ... Anybody Taken a Cedar Stripper into the Wilderness? posted by Mark on August 12, 1999 at 08:47