Yesterday I was checking out my FB page and some of our family members had posted some pics about them going canoeing. For some reason this sounded really good to me and so I posted and asked them where they go canoeing at over here. It turns out that they do this at a place I used to go camping and tubing at in my younger days. To be honest the only time I have been in a Canoe was when I went to Summer Camp in my much younger days. But I can still remember how peaceful it was riding in those Canoes on a tranquil lake and I think this would be something I would enjoy doing even at my age now. I think this is something most of my Family would enjoy too...so I'm going to talk to all of them about it and see if we can plan a canoeing and camping trip of our own. I really used to enjoy camping in a tent, but if I did it now I would definitely need an air mattress to sleep on. Two of my daughters have nice RV Campers we could bring too. I think this would be a wonderful way for us to have some Family time together too during the cooler days this Fall. Yes, I can just see us having a good time canoeing and camping together.
Looks fun, but we have to be in something not so close to the water and has a motor..........like our 20 foot cuddy cabin.
@Babs Hunt I agree that canoeing can be a great family outing. My youngest and I canoed down the Niobrara River and camped along the way while he was in high school. He was a canoe instructor at the local Boy Scout summer camp, so he was at the 'helm' and dad just paddled. Sitting by the fire after a day of paddling, just the two of us, talking about his plans and sharing a laugh or two. Priceless... If you can, do it.
I can remember how much I enjoyed camping in a tent and catching and frying fresh fish for our breakfast...I can still taste how delicious they were. And sitting around a campfire with friends laughing and even singing songs together while one of us played his guitar. Days were spent tubing, swimming, and just enjoying each other and the beauty of nature around us. They still have places you can do these things, and I think I want a repeat of those times with my Family.
It's not a question of age, it's getting the other person in the canoe to do most of the work while you just 'LOOK' like you're doing your share! I'm only 65, still work at a physical job, so I know I could do it right now...
I canoed some while in Boy Scouts, and enjoyed it, but the canoes they had at camp were wider than the one I tried to use twenty years later. I was teaching a Basic Trauma Life Support (BTLS) class, or maybe taking a 9-1-1- dispatch course, I don't remember, but those were the only two times that I was at this little college in Junction, Texas, which would be a great place to to to school because it's a small college in a small town. Anyhow, after we finished our Saturday morning session, they drove us upstream about twenty-five miles so that we could canoe down the Llano River to the college campus, which was on the river bank. I hadn't been in a canoe for fifteen or twenty years but I didn't remember them as being particularly difficult. That didn't prove to be the case, however. After pushing off from the bank, I capsized it trying to make the very first turn, to go downriver. Then, during the trip, I tipped it over at least five times. These were difficult canoes, much narrower than the ones I had used before. They were canoes, not kayaks, but they were narrow.
I have never been in a canoe before; but I used to have a kayak when I lived in Idaho, and I had a good friend who also had one. We used to load the kayaks in the back of my little pickup, and she and I would head for one of the nearby lakes. We didn't kayak in anything with a current, and we stayed in the shallower waters; so it was not as important to be skilled as it would have been if we were in a stream or river. My kayak was one of the ones where you sit on top , and there is a depression to sit in and put your legs and feet into, so I didn't actually have to climb down inside like you do with most kayaks. This is one of the great times of my life, and one of my fondest memories, just the peacefulness of being out on the lake in the kayak and seeing fish going by underneath us.
I don't think I would be very good at riding the "rapids" at my age...but I certainly can paddle a canoe in a tranquil lake.
I'm not going to get in one if it's small like a kayak and I won't be going down river either. Paddling on a lake will be fine for me.
When I worked for Yar-Craft, we made kayaks every now and then, and the company had a couple that we could borrow. They were kind of fun on Lake Michigan. On a kayak, you could deliberately tip it over, then rock it while upside down and you could bring it upright again. There is no way that I could even sit in a kayak anymore, though.
I know myself well enough to know I cannot put my lower body into a confined space that I may not be able to get out of.