Paddling
Canoes are amazing. There's something about the shape, the pace, the quiet, the whole thing that I've loved since I was about ten years old. I first learned how to paddle a canoe at Girl Scout Camp Eagle Island on Upper Saranac Lake in 1972 and I've been paddling ever since. For a while I switched to kayaking but I came to my senses again and I'm back to basics. The canoe makes a great platform for fly fishing and my favorite camping trips are the ones where I load a canoe with stuff for a few days and paddle across a lake. I'm not overly fond of portaging. Go figure.
Right now I own two canoes, a lightweight solo Hemlock Peregrine made by Dave Curtis and an old wood-trimmed Mad River Explorer. I love them both. That's the bow of the Peregrine in the photo background of this page.
I live in Ithaca, NY and so most of my paddling is right here in the Finger Lakes and local streams. But my heart's in the Adirondacks and I try to paddle and camp around Upper Saranac Lake every year.
Two excellent online resources for paddlers: