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Post by lenapej on Jan 7, 2022 15:46:58 GMT -7
Our small group got together for a late season trek on new years weekend, we were on the Current River in southern Missouri. The weather was rather warm on the first day, and it was a perfect day for floating, we did not see a single person on the river which is unusual as the Current is a very popular river, which is one of the reasons for the choice of that time of year. For those who may be curious about our boats, I was using an aluminum canoe painted to look like birchbark the brown one is a wood slab boat similar to a ships boat, and the white one was made by my brother from a pattern online, none I'm sure are period correct but it's what we got! Because of a large percent of rain forcasted for that night and most of the following day, we decided to combine our shelters and make a large wigwam. The weather people must have not been drinking quite as much as normal, because they sure called it! it rained all night and most of the next day, and as the weather was supposed to get really bad the next night we decided to pack up and head out in the rain,... btw we found out wool is king in wet weather!
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Post by brokennock on Jan 7, 2022 17:10:31 GMT -7
Awesome. I really like that brown "slab" boat. Thank you for sharing.
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Post by spence on Jan 7, 2022 20:52:02 GMT -7
Well done. Color me green. Thanks for posting.
Spence
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Post by hawkeyes on Jan 8, 2022 5:24:27 GMT -7
What a joy! Thank you for sharing.
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Post by Sicilianhunter on Jan 10, 2022 6:23:04 GMT -7
LenapeJ, EXCELLENT JOB as usual !! Thanks again for the pics and keeping those of us still trekking, inspired!! I'm about to get a float trek planned here pretty soon myself and I had the same idea of painting a modern canoe with a faux birchbark scheme. Sometimes, it matters more that you're out there DOING IT to the best of your ability rather than having everything perfectly accurate, besides, it gives you something to keep improving on. If I'm not mistaken, I see Nathan Jeffery along with you!! Glad he made it out with you as well
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Post by lenapej on Jan 13, 2022 16:15:04 GMT -7
LenapeJ, EXCELLENT JOB as usual !! Thanks again for the pics and keeping those of us still trekking, inspired!! I'm about to get a float trek planned here pretty soon myself and I had the same idea of painting a modern canoe with a faux birchbark scheme. Sometimes, it matters more that you're out there DOING IT to the best of your ability rather than having everything perfectly accurate, besides, it gives you something to keep improving on. If I'm not mistaken, I see Nathan Jeffery along with you!! Glad he made it out with you as well Thank you sir! as far as the canoe goes I am to the point that I am so sick of leaky wooden vessels, that I don't care too much about the boat/canoe being PC. Lol Yes, that was Nathan, was glad he was able to make it down...I think the fact that it was minus 20 up there and around 50 here might have had something to do with it! lol Good luck with your float trek, they are a lot of fun!
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Post by hawkeyes on Jan 13, 2022 16:53:42 GMT -7
There is a fella that makes replica birch canoes from actual birch at one heck of a premium... He also constructs fiberglass birch replicas which are AMAZING... Was able to go trekking down the Mississinewa river in Indiana with a friend's vessel. I'd absolutely love to have one but cannot justify the price... I've looked for an old aluminum craft to do as the aluminum one you have there but can't find one. I've contemplated modifying my Old Town canoe as a fun project just because.
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Post by lenapej on Jan 15, 2022 11:04:18 GMT -7
Agreed, most birchbark replicas are way out of my price range. My canoe is quite old and heavily used and is rather wide and squat which makes it rather hard to paddle, I have looked on the net for used fiberglass canoes and can be had for a few hundred, and are of a better shape, all one would have to do is give it a paint job.
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Post by hawkeyes on Jan 16, 2022 4:57:02 GMT -7
Certainly the price and the upkeep on a real birch canoe are a real turnoff.
A dugout is an idea but just not a pheasible project I'd want to take on.
I'd be interested in seeing more images of your painted canoe, what type of paint did you use? Any faux tar lines at all?
Think the going rate for one of those fellas fiberglass birch replicas is 2k off the bat... They are indeed beautiful but that's a hefty price which cannot be justified.
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Post by brokennock on Jan 16, 2022 7:45:52 GMT -7
The other issue with a dugout in my head is transport, or lack of it. To me it is a build in place boat that stays on the body of water it is primarily used in. The only one I have experience with was too heavy and cumbersome on land to be regularly transported to different places.
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Post by lenapej on Jan 16, 2022 11:54:03 GMT -7
Brockennock, your absolutely right on the dugout, according to my experience and research on dugouts, you cannot man handle them at all you need a trailer and need to keep them under water when not in use. Hawkeyes, my canoe is aluminum, so after some research and looking at photos of real birchbarks, I cleaned the canoe and then gave it a lite sanding, then sprayed it with a rust-oleum, self etching primer, then gave it a coat of paint, but was not pleased with the paint as I had a hard time finding anything close to the color that I wanted, so I decided to try using a minwax wood stain on parts to resemble the different colors of birch and it worked pretty well, though it fades, and I have to reapply about once a year. I also used some black paint and some stain to make the small stripes/dots that are on birchbark. I used a roofing tar in a caulking tube to imitate the pitch on the sides and bottom of the canoe, I then replaced the aluminum cross bars with wooden ones and called it good. I had planned on taking thin strips of wood along the sides of the canoe, at the top, and then wrapping with rawhide or leather, but decided against it as the canoe is already heavy and as I mentioned I have been thinking of getting a better one. Here are a few more photos, I don't have any good, up close ones.
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Post by hawkeyes on Jan 16, 2022 14:38:14 GMT -7
Yes, a dugout is certainly not a transportable vessel by any means. Which is why it's not a pheasible project.
That vessel of yours looks really good! I like it!
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Post by paranger on Jan 16, 2022 14:41:50 GMT -7
Brockennock, your absolutely right on the dugout, according to my experience and research on dugouts, you cannot man handle them at all you need a trailer and need to keep them under water when not in use. Hawkeyes, my canoe is aluminum, so after some research and looking at photos of real birchbarks, I cleaned the canoe and then gave it a lite sanding, then sprayed it with a rust-oleum, self etching primer, then gave it a coat of paint, but was not pleased with the paint as I had a hard time finding anything close to the color that I wanted, so I decided to try using a minwax wood stain on parts to resemble the different colors of birch and it worked pretty well, though it fades, and I have to reapply about once a year. I also used some black paint and some stain to make the small stripes/dots that are on birchbark. I used a roofing tar in a caulking tube to imitate the pitch on the sides and bottom of the canoe, I then replaced the aluminum cross bars with wooden ones and called it good. I had planned on taking thin strips of wood along the sides of the canoe, at the top, and then wrapping with rawhide or leather, but decided against it as the canoe is already heavy and as I mentioned I have been thinking of getting a better one. Here are a few more photos, I don't have any good, up close ones. Looks pretty darned good to me. I would be happy with one like that!
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Post by armando on Jan 19, 2022 5:07:08 GMT -7
I love looking at these and living vicariously through your trek.
I thought about doing almost exactly what you did with your canoe. Even purchased a special roof rack for it.
I finally talked myself out of it when trying to figure out the logistics of working out drop off and pick up when canoeing. We've done that before when canoeing or rafting down our rivers but it is a real pain in some of our area rivers to coordinate.
Were you able to work around or avoid that? Were you trekking in rivers you could upstream-paddle on?
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Post by hawkeyes on Jan 19, 2022 7:14:39 GMT -7
Boy it would certainly be nice to not worry about the logistical aspects of such trips and the modern nagging world we return to... Be free as a bird, just hop in one's vessel and go until you decide "that's far enough"... To be truly free on the whimsical wonders of the river... Sometimes daydreaming can be a nightmare as well...
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