Look What We Did to Our Nice Canoes

Boys Trip 2006 035
Originally uploaded by OzzyC.

Per our tradition, we took our boys trip over Memorial Day weekend. For several years we have been travelling staying in Nicolette Forest in northease Wisconsin, for a few days of whitewater kayaking. This year, we decided to get back to our roots and do some canoeing. Greg and I took things a step further, and rigged up the Nice Canoes we built a couple of years ago as a makeshift catamaran. Greg, being engineer-boy, calculated the dimensions, measured the sail, and determined where to put the various parts. It worked surprisingly well -- for one day. The boat was structurally sound, but anything that directly related to the sailing aspect was woefully under-engineered. Stay tuned for the complete story... its quite a ride.

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Our Annual Diversion

You may recall from a post I made around this time last year that a couple of friends and I make a yearly boys trip, which consists of canoeing, kayaking, camping and whatnot. (Whatnot = drinking) Last weekend we had our 2007 trip.

This years trip took place on the Namekagon River in Western Wisconsin, and it was one of the best trips yet. The current was smooth but fast in the beginning, with a surface so calm that you could see reflections of the foliage off of the river in certain places. The air temperature was a few degrees cooler than in my neck of the woods, but it was still comfortable. The water temperature was also cool, but not frigid. We had a short downpour the first day... a warm spring rain. The water was clear enough to see the bottom and we had some mild rapids on our last day. 2007 will undoubtedly go down in history as one of our best trips ever. Over the next few days, Ill post some of the highlights.

For those of you who cant wait, heres a slideshow of the trip.

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A Brief Diversion

You may have noticed a lack of recent posts about our boat project, and if you think its because we havent done anything lately, youre right. You see, its almost time for our annual boyz trip pilgrimage. Every year over Memorial Day, Greg, two of our friends from high school and I go on an extended trip. The trips have varied tremendously over the years... sometimes we do long, self-contained downriver canoe trips, sometimes we do whitewater kayaking, occasionally more than the "core four" of us will go. Our trips have varied from three days to a week, and we have hit too many rivers to count. We started out taking these trips over Labor Day weekend, but changed to Memorial Day a few years back when we figured out that the water levels are generally higher this time of year.

This year, we will be travelling to North-Central Wisconsin and doing a self-contained island-hopping lake canoe trip, utilizing the canoes we built a couple of years ago. To add to the adventure, Greg and I are temporarily converting our individual canoes into a catamaran sailing vessle. Were going to a brand new area, doing a variation on our trip that we havent really done before, and trying a new feat of engineering. This should explain the lack of progress on the main project. Weve been planning the trip, and working on the rig that will convert our paddle-powered canoes into a wind-powered catamaran.

If you’re interested in some of the history and stories from our various trips, here are a few links for you to check out…

From earlier posts in this blog:
How it all Began; A Quick Sidenote:
A Well-Deserved Vacation
Pictures of the Canoes

From posts on my other blog:
Commemorating a Practical Joke

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