wrote on May 18^th, 2011 at 3:56pm:

Did he stand up to scout the rapids from the boat?  ;)

Jim -

No rapids on this stretch of river, just a few riffles.  However, we did encounter several deadfall that were completely across the river that we had to negotiate.  And, YES.  Tony DID stand up on a number of occasions to check out which direction to proceed.  He didn't always make the easy choice! But his balance standing in the canoe was like he was standing on a slab of concrete.  In one case, we had to manoeuvre around a deadfall that provided a gap above the water of just over a foot.  He choose to walk forward to depress the bow, straddle the 1 1/2 foot diameter tree, slide his canoe under and re-enter the canoe.  My technique was a bit less daring.  I just laid down in my canoe and drifted under!

At least this little outing gave me a chance to test out my extension to my kayak paddle.  Locally, about all I could find was an 8 ft paddle, but from what I've read, most people seem to use a 9 ft paddle from a canoe (flatter stroke, less wind-milling).  With my extension, my paddle length is now just a little shy of 9 feet.  I found I could maintain about a 3 mph rate of progress with little effort, steering was exceptionally simple and the paddle didn't get in the way as much as I thought it might in tight spots.

dd