This past weekend, I bought and picked up a canoe on Craigslist. I drove a few hours west to pick this up, and we're pretty happy with it so far.
It is the Expedition 186 (for 18 feet 6 inches long) Kevlar canoe made by Mad River - one of the better manufacturers of lightweight canoes. With the wood gunwales, it tips the scales at 59 pounds. The wife and I both portaged it around the yard the other evening, and we thought it was pretty manageable on our shoulders.
It is narrow, but it is very stable. There are a few imperfections, but I reckon that's why we got it so cheap.
Our goal is to use it as a tripping canoe next summer in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. Backpacking is tough with kids, but canoe tripping is easier if you have the right canoe. So, this is the beginning of a few purchases to start gearing up for next summer's trip.
We took it out on the Wabash River on this windy day. We were quite surprised at the swift current. I thought this big river would be slow and easy, but we worked hard to paddle upriver to the Wild Cat Creek. We paddled a total of 1.3 miles upriver. It was a rather windy day today, so that was enough for our maiden voyage.
We stopped at a sand bar. The boys love playing and finding rocks. That's all they wanted to do, so we let them go crazy for awhile.
I'm not sure why we can't get a decent smile out of these kids.
The trip up to this point took about an hour. I think we sailed back to our landing (with the current) in about 20 minutes. We're looking forward to many more fun excursions.
