Category Archives: Articles

Learn about lightweight canoeing and kayaking, gear selection, important skills, and more.

Bushcraft: Making a Willow Basket

hansel_bryan_101109-25

I like working with my hands. When doing so, my mind tends to slip into the present and errant thoughts subside. I view this as good and practicing this state helps me focus during daily routines. When I’m not using my hands to create something, I get tense and nervous. I’m not sure why this [...]

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NOAA Marine Chart Converter

NOAA Marine Chart

NOAA makes its marine charts available for free to the public, but those charts come in a BSB format. If you want to manipulate the marine charts on your computer, unless you hack the file, you have to use a computer program designed to read the BSB format. To make the charts usable in any [...]

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Hudson’s Bay Company North Canoe Plans

north canoe

The voyagers of the Hudson’s Bay Company needed big canoes to transport trade goods into the American interior. The 30-foot Hudson’s Bay Company 4-1/2-Fathom North Canoe fit the bill. This 59-inch-wide canoe typically transported five bales of general trade good, one bale and two rolls of tobacco, one bale of kettles, one case of guns, [...]

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Navigation: Ranges

An example of three ranges on a chart.

When paddling, if you line up two features — artificial or natural — you have the makings of a range. A range is a type of line of position that can help you stay on course or help you find your position on the map (think of a line of position as an imaginary line [...]

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1865 St. Francis Canoe Plans

St. Frances free canoe plans.

The 1865 St. Francis 2-Fathom Canoe appears as Figure 80 in The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. It represents the typical form of a late-19th century St. Francis canoe, which, as described by Howard I. Chapelle, has high-peaked ends, a quick upsweep to the top of the stems, a vertical end profile [...]

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Navigation: Aiming Off

Example of aiming-off on a marine chart.

When you’re paddling to a destination located somewhere along a nondescript shoreline, it’s easy to miss your target even if you took an exact bearing. There are lots of reasons why this might happen, some of those reasons include wind or current pushing you off course, lack of attention, slight inaccuracy in your compass reading [...]

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Experiential Values in Lightweight Canoe and Kayak Travel

Skin-on-frame kayak and kayaker ready to hunt.

In A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold argues cultural values make and feed a healthy culture. For outdoor sports, he outlines three types of experiential values that provide nutrition to the sporting culture. These values apply to the modern lightweight movement as well as they do to the hook-and-bullet sports he writes about. Awareness and [...]

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Fram Museum 1888 West Greenland Kayak Plans

Fram Museum 1888 West Greenland kayak.

When I visited the Fram Museum in Olso, Norway, I fell in love with a West Greenland kayak displayed as part of the Fram collection. The kayak is Fram number 176. Native Greenlanders built the kayak in 1888 for one of arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen’s colleagues after Nansen’s successful crossing of the Greenland icecap (Sea [...]

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Fram Museum Kayaks and Kayaking Gear

Kayaks in the Lofoten Islands.

In 2008, I visited Norway to kayak and be a tourist. The trip started in Oslo with visits to the museums. Then we flew north to kayak in the Lofoten Islands. After the Lofoten Islands, we kayaked in Aurlandsfjorden near Flåm. The scenery was stunning the entire trip –  it’s the type of place that [...]

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Free Walrus Kayak Plans

Free Walrus sea kayak plans.

In 1921, Norman L. Skene surveyed the 1921 Peabody Museum’s Southwest Greenland kayak. Taken by the lines, he drew up plans for a westernized version, which he named Walrus. For the Walrus, he widened the boat to 22 inches, lowered the deadrise and designed a larger cockpit. Construction changed from bent ribs and animal skin [...]

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Understanding Magnetic Deviation

Two compasses showing magnetic deviation.

Magnetic forces contained within your kayak can cause your compass to read an incorrect bearing. This type of error is known as magnetic deviation. With 1 degree of compass error, over a mile, you’ll end up about 92 feet away from your destination. If your deviation is extreme like shown in the image, you could [...]

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Free Plans: 1921 Southwest Greenland Kayak

Free kayak plans 1921 SW Greenland kayak

In 1921, Norman L. Skene took the lines off of the Peabody Museum’s Southwest Greenland kayak. Those lines, drawn by Howard I. Chapelle, appear as figure 207 in The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. The kayak is similar in length and width to the 1883 Southwestern Greenland kayak with a few differences. [...]

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Manitou River Kayaking Trip Report

Kayaking through a sea arch at the Manitou River.

If a kayaking trip included one arch, one cave and one waterfall, I’d call it a winner. By that definition, the trip from Sugarloaf Cove to the Manitou River on Lake Superior wins the world championship. During the 11 mile round-trip, you will paddle past three arches that you can kayak through and many others [...]

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Free Kayak Plans: 1883 Southwestern Greenland Kayak

1883 Southwestern kayak 3-D plan view

The original survey for the 1883 Southwestern Greenland kayak appears in The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America (Figure 206). Howard I. Chapelle, the surveyor, writes that this kayak represent one of the last southwestern Greenland boats of the old style, a style characterized by a strong sweeping sheer at the bow and [...]

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Susie Island Kayaking Trip Report

Kayaking past Susie Island.

A great kayak day trip should have interesting landscapes, open-water crossings, nice places for lunch and a chance of surprise. In my book, it should also be remote but easily accessible. On Minnesota’s northshore of Lake Superior, the trip from Grand Portage through the Susie Islands to the Pigeon River includes all those features and [...]

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