First canoe trip of the season

[kerry]

First canoe trip of the 09 season today. It was a joint trip sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Canoe Club, Poudre Paddlers and the Rocky Mountain Sea Kayak club. 54 boats paddled the South Platte river from Evans to Kersey. It was running about 400cfs. Beautiful day. First picture is mislabeled. That's the put-in in Evans, CO. Other two pictures are my wife in the Yellowstone solo and my daughter standing beside the Tripper.
Canoeing is become a geriatric sport around here. Looked like they opened up the nursing homes for a day on the river.

 

[Colorado David]

Funny observation. I love canoes and have a special place in my heart for cedar strip boats. I joined The Wooden Canoe Heritage Association and get the magazine. My wife flipped through the magazine and said it looked like I'd joined and organization populated by old nerds.

 

[kerry]

There's was an absolutely gorgeous cedar canoe on today's trip. I didn't have a chance to talk to the owner but it was non-traditional, more like a dory than a canoe with a Y stern.

 

[Nullifier]

Your wife has great taste in solo canoes.

 

[kerry]

Yes, the Yellowstone is nice. Pretty popular too. There must have been 3 or 4 of them on that trip. There is one problem with it. I like to be able to switch back and forth between kneeling and sitting depending on the conditions and also just for variety. The OE seat is too low for that. It's too hard to get your feet under it and it could easily entrap a person. So I raised the seat, giving enough room for a person's feet underneath. But now the seat is too high for comfortable seated paddling. What I need is an adjustable height seat that can be easily moved up and down. I think I once saw some notched aluminum side panels on a canoe that allowed a seat to be moved up and down into three or four different positions. If that system could be easily adjusted while floating in the boat, it might be a good solution.
One of the other Yellowstones on the trip had a pedestal in it and that would solve the foot trapping problem but I have found that most pedestals put an odd torque on the knee joint because the don't allow your heel to naturally go under your butt when kneeling.
I think there was a guy on the trip who paddles the Everglades Challenge. Didn't get a chance to meet him but I seem to recall a picture of him on a website with an outrigger canoe or kayak set up for that race.