Steve,
Yes, swamps are great places to explore. Speaking of "old canoes" like your Grumman, I have an old Sportspal... probably can't be tipped on flatwater and draws almost no water. I have used it to go into some very crazy places including drainage ditches, flooded burned out forestland, and shallow places where the frogweed and other surface plants sound like sandpaper as you push your way through. On one particular creek where I go to see wood ducks, I invariably run this old canoe up onto sunken algae-coated trees... Lots of Great Blue Herons, bitterns and the like back in there though, so it's worth the trouble.
But, yes, the new canoe really is a beautiful thing. It is so streamlined that it just glides through the water without a sound and almost no resistance. It takes very little effort to paddle so I often approach herons by paddling to get up a bit of speed and then duck down and let the canoe glide up to them. They rarely seem to take notice of me... I suppose that they just regard the canoe as a quickly moving log floating by. This gets you in very close for a good look at them. The only shortcoming of the kevlar-carbon material is that it does resonate rather hideously when it comes in contact with rocks or other sharp objects. Sharp objects rarely leave a mark on the finish, but the sound resonates in such a way that you expect to see a great gouge when you pull your canoe out after a trip. This canoe is quite special to me though, so I treat it very kindly... (-:
Hmmm... those mangrove swamps and inland marshes sound *very* attractive... my type of paddling. And today's hiking trip to the dormant volcano sounds fantastic. I hope you'll write a few words about it to tell about the trip.
Well, gotta go. Unfortunately it's -5 F. here today so no paddling for awhile. However, the Rideau Canal in Ottawa will be open for skating very soon (about 5 miles of continuous ice), and I do quite a lot of snow-shoeing in the forest at the back of my farm, so those are good ways to while away the weeks until the water is open again.
Later,
Croc |
