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Free Kayak Plan: Southern Alaskan Baidarka Plans
The Southern Alaskan Baidarka appears as figure 179 in Edwin Tapppan Adney and Howard I. Chapelle’s The Bark Canoes and Skin Boat of North America. This is the only tandem kayak in the book, and the only known style of kayak that was built with more than one seating position — sometimes baidarkas had three. Chapelle notes that this kayak has the stern like the Kodiak kayaks but the hull and bifid bow of the better known Aleutian boats. The original boat in the Washington State Historical Society and Museum is damaged. John Heath took the lines in 1962 and corrected for the damage in his plans. This by far…
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Tarptent Cloudburst 2 Review
In early 2009, I traded a Tarptent Double Rainbow for a Cloudburst 2. For various reasons, I didn’t like the Double Rainbow, but I wanted to try another Tarptent before I wrote off the category. Tim Smith, the owner and founder of Jack Mountain Bushcraft School, says “It takes four nights to own a shelter.” But, I think it takes slightly longer to really know how a shelter performs. I need to see how it performs in hot humid weather, rain, cold, wind and more before I really know how to rate it. I usually like to spend 30 nights in a tent or under a tarp before I write…
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Simplicity in Wilderness Travel
A trend in ultralight-speak is defining “simplicity” and its meaning within the context of personal relationships with wilderness travel. A couple of examples: Ryan Jordan writes on his blog about Wilderness Simplicity, Flexibility, and Power: I love Brent Simmon’s recent post about flexibility and power in the context of iOS Apps, and especially, his brilliant observation that …flexibility is just a tool to use exceedingly sparingly, only when it substantially increases power. There’s a lot of meat in this statement, with direct relevance to trekking, and trekking gear. Now, it depends on how one might define power. Traditional definitions might equate power to speed, or distance. A more thoughtful person…
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Free Canoe Plan: Têtes de Boule Hunting Canoe
This is the third and last Têtes de Boule canoe that appears in Edwin Tappan Adney’s and Howard I. Chapelle’s The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. Its 11-foot length falls between the other two and seems to combine attributes of a modern-style solo tripping boat and a pack canoe. At the 6-inch waterline, the canoe displaces 360 lbs, which means a boat built to 40 lbs can carry 320 lbs. and still have 6 inches of freeboard. Like the other Têtes de Boule canoes, this one has high ends, a flat bottom and rocker that rises near the ends. The ends are narrow, but slightly less so…
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How to Calculate Canoe Seat Positions
After you build a canoe hull, possibly from PaddlingLight’s free canoe plans, and trim it out with thwarts, gunwales and a yoke, you need to add seats. Historically, few canoes had seats built into them — the paddlers either knelt or sat on gear. While that’s still practical, it’s much more comfortable to sit on an actual canoe seat. If the canoe plan didn’t include seat positions, then you need to calculate that position yourself. Luckily, with a little high-school level algebra — and you thought it would never come in handy — calculating a canoe seat position is painless. Canoe Seat Position Calculations Part of canoeing and seamanship is…
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Navigation: How to Use a Compass
When paddling, you use a compass to determine or identify courses, bearings and headings. Because the deck of a kayak or the workstation in a canoe is small, limiting the number of instruments used for navigation speeds up the process and reduces the chance of losing an item overboard. A baseplate compass combines a protractor with a bearing compass, and it fits inside a lifevest. Learning how to use one simplifies the process of navigation. Parts of a Compass Index line: Read the bearing in degrees at this line. In the images, the index line read 43 degrees. Direction of travel arrow: This points towards the bearing. Use the arrow…
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Free Canoe Plan: Têtes de Boule Two-Fathom Canoe
The Têtes de Boule Two-Fathom Canoe appears as Figure 103 in Edwin Tappan Adney’s and Howard I. Chapelle’s The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. It looks like Adney used this canoe as one of the two canoes he based model number MM 98 on. The model appears on page 62 of John Jennings’ Bark Canoes: The Art and Obsession of Tappan Adney. Figure 101 in Bark and Skin is a photograph of several Têtes de Boule canoes. The Têtes de Boule were skilled canoe builders and built canoes for the Hudson’s Bay Company. They considered this 14-foot canoe a family canoe. Like other Têtes de Boule canoes,…
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Down vs. Synthetic Sleeping Bags
Over the years, I’ve heard stories about multiple nights spent in wet sleeping bags. It’s usually the precursor to an online discussion about synthetic vs. down sleeping bags. In the story, the storyteller ended up soaking a down bag, slept terribly for a couple of days, swore off down and speaks out about how down doesn’t work for paddlers. I’ve never personally experienced this. I’ve never soaked a sleeping bag. My thoughts about this story genre: The stories lack context and therefore lack impact. Without knowing the context, I assume the paddler lacked the skills needed to keep a sleeping bag dry. Beginners deserve all the info to make relevant…
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Cooke Custom Sewing Pioneer Pack Review
The Cooke Custom Sewing Pioneer Pack, part of Cooke’s hybrid portage pack series, combines the shape of a traditional portage pack with the features of a more modern backpacking pack. It has a padded foam back, contoured and padded shoulder straps, a sternum strap, a padded hip belt, four grab loops, load lifter straps and hip stabilizer straps. It is made from a heavy-duty nylon and comes in blue, red, yellow, pink and green. Dan Cooke makes every pack by hand in Minnesota (All the best portage packs are made in Minnesota). The Pioneer Pack is our primary portage pack and sees more use than my Duluth Pack, SealLine Boundary…
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Free Canoe and Kayak Plan Project
If you’re a loyal reader of PaddlingLight, you know that I’ve been modeling old canoes and kayaks from sources like The Bark Canoes and Skin Boat of North America and turning them into free plans. I’m almost three months into the project, which started on October 8th. So far, I’ve modeled 12 free plans during the project and with the holiday crunch I need a week off — that’s why you’re seeing this post instead of a new plan this week. The process for modeling one of these boats is lengthy. I put in a couple of hours on each boat with some taking longer than others — surprisingly, because…
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How to Use a VHF Radio
When paddling, you might need to communicate to other vessels. One tool that a kayaker or canoeist can use to communicate is a handheld VHF radio. A VHF radio broadcasts your message out to other boaters in the area listening to their radios. You can use VHF radios in emergencies or just to relay information. Knowing how to use one allows you to get your message out quickly, so you can concentrate on paddling. VHF Etiquette Think of a VHF radio as a direct connection to every other vessel in your line-of-sight and within your radio’s range. When you talk on it, every other vessel in the area hears what…
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Free Canoe Plan: Têtes de Boule Hunter’s Canoe
The Têtes de Boule Hunter’s canoe appears as Figure 102 in Edwin Tappan Adney and Howard I. Chapelle’s The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. I believe that Adney modeled the canoe in 1930. A picture of the model appears on page 63 in John Jennings’ Bark Canoes: The Art and Obsession of Tappan Adney. This is a slightly different canoe than I’ve modeled before. It’s only 9 feet 8 inches. There aren’t many canoe plans, let alone free canoe plans, on the market for a small pack canoe like this. Loaded to the 4-inch waterline, the canoe carries 145 lbs. At the 6-inch waterline, which Cliff Jacobson…
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Duluth Pack Northwoods Review
Duluth Pack’s Northwood pack is a burly portage pack made in the Canadian style that canoe-hero Bill Mason used and loved. It’s made from 18-ounce canvas with a double bottom. It has leather shoulder straps that are riveted into the pack. Two 36-inch long leather crossover straps secure the pack and allow the internal flaps to expand when carrying large loads. It has two side pockets big enough for water bottles. The shape is designed to fit into the contour of a canoe and it rides low. The pack comes with a 6 ml poly liner and a tumpline. A waist belt is an upgrade. I’ve owned a Northwood pack…
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The Paddles of Walter Caribou
Grand Portage National Monument in Grand Portage, Minn. marks the lower terminus of the 8-mile Grand Portage used by fur-trading voyagers to transport trade goods and furs from the Pigeon River to Lake Superior. The current fort is a reconstruction of the original fort. Inside the stockade, there’s a display of paddles built by Walter Caribou, a Ojibwe, who lived in Grand Portage. Caribou was known as a great storyteller and a good paddle maker. In the above picture, the paddles from the left going clockwise are labeled: Ladies Paddle Middleman Paddle Francis Anne Hopkins painting “Canoe Shooting Rapids” paddle. U.S.A. Paddle “Rendezvous Awards” Paddle Ladies Paddle. Cribbage board “Distressed”…
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Free Kayak Plans: North Greenland Kayak
Mystic Seaport Museum’s North Greenland kayak appears in Mark Starr’s Building a Greenland Kayak. Starr notes that Admiral Byrd, an Arctic explorer collected the kayak. He thinks it might have been during the 1925 MacMillan expedition to northwest Greenland. This kayak is much different than other kayaks that I’ve drawn. It has a flat bottom, which results from the use of three-part ribs instead of a single bent rib. It’s sides almost rise steeply from the chine to the sheer. The cockpit area looks like a bubble that rises high in a short distance. The turn of the rear stem seems subtle and almost non-existent. For a cedar strip kayak…
