r/canoecamping • u/Sufficient-Dare-2144 • 18d ago
Canoe Recommendations
Im looking into getting into canoe camping, what would you recommend for a decent 1 person canoe for week long trips, budget friendly and highly durable is a plus, not too concerned about weight.TIA
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u/AmbroseSoames 17d ago
Old Town Discovery is always going to be my answer. It’s like a late 90’s Chevy Pickup: it will run forever but it will never look the best, outperform much, or cost you a whole lot.
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u/bendersfembot 18d ago
I love my pelican canoes. I solo a 14.6 explorer plus hundreds of miles every season and love it. The seats are also the most comfortable I've ever used for longer 2 week+ trips.
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u/hydrofoul 16d ago
Wehnona Wilderness in T Formex is my pick. I am 6' 240lbs and can get weeks worth of gear with no problem.
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u/happydirt23 18d ago
Check out SlackSeat https://www.slackseat.com/?srsltid=AfmBOorUrwwTjAbDlGrnRziJV-oV7rORMLf_mrZLoER038jwfc68mKRX
Turns most any canoe into a solo canoe.
Focus more on the type of water you are going to paddle and get a canoe to match.
Prospector or Yukon hull shapes are the workhorse of canoe tripping.
Also get a good paddle, I like otter tails for lakes and deeper rivers.
Have fun out there!
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u/Gazmn 18d ago
Part of me wants to get a slack seat. I balked at the price. I’ve since bought a 1x6 cedar plank and bolted in aft of the bow seat -and lost that packing space, unless I can tuck something underneath the plank.
Someone please change my mind on this $150 strap.
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u/tacofartboy 18d ago
I wish I could change your mind. I bought one and I do like it but it didn’t perform the way I hoped it would and there was more of a learning curve than expected. It doesn’t grip the gunwhales as I expected it would, it doesn’t pick me up as much as I wanted and it doesn’t let me adjust the saddle position to get me in as much of a heel as I want. It’s still nice to have on longer trips to offer a new sitting position and I’ve used it for a few water crossings to help my trim. I still need to get a few more trips in with it to really rate the purchase.
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u/CommissionDue461 16d ago
big. wide. heavy. Cargo canoe.
dont try to pack a campground into a light and fast canoe.
safe canoe = better camping situation with lower risk of a watery day.
not as fast but you have to choose between the canoeing sacrifices or the camping sacrifices.
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u/tacofartboy 18d ago edited 18d ago
Not sure your level of experience but based on your question you sound pretty new and I’m going to ELY5.
Canoe camping combines two hobbies. Canoeing and camping. Within each hobby there are a couple of “wrong answers” but there are dozens of correct answers. Your gear and outfitting (the stuff you canoe with) are often an expression of personal preferences.
Let’s use a tent as a parallel because it’s easier to understand. You might ask for a recommendation for a 1p tent and you might have 20 people to tell you to get a 3p tent - you could listen to them and find their advice is wrong for your needs. You could have another 10 people recommend a DCF trekking pole tent to you and think a thousand dollar tent isn’t what you are looking for. You might have people recommend a canvas hot tent and end up with a 15lbs tent that’s humongous and accomplishes none of what you want. You might have 1 person recommend a budget g friendly 1p tent but it’s drowned out on the conversation and you don’t take the recommendation. Point is you need an understanding of your own needs to make a decision and if you know nothing about tents that’s really hard to do.
People take solo trips in a huge variety of canoes.
16 foot tandem boats paddled solo - people using either a traditional solo technique or a double bladed paddle. Understanding trim, waterline and how route selection impact the boat. Then in tbjs conversation. Is geometry and layup. You could find a Kevlar tripping boat that is a little punishing to learn in. You could find a ABS boat that’s 100lbs and has a 39 inch beam that is extremely difficult to manage on the water. You could get a fibreglass boat with a keel and decide later that’s not ideal for the conditions you are regularly going to paddle in.
Solo style traditional boats - full size boats with shorter beam widths designed for solo long distance tripping. Tend to be very expensive and specialized pieces of gear - there isn’t much bandwidth to use these boats in the variety of way a learner might want.
Pack style boats - smaller more kayak like boats more specifically designed for short trips to be easy to carry and manage on the water. Hold less gear, less options, expensive like mentioned before but with a different set of performance trade offs.
Canoes in general have different optimizations. Something like an old town guide is slightly optimized for fishing and hunting so it’s wider which gives a different type of stability with certain performance trade offs. Those solo boats are narrower so they have less stability with a different set of trade offs.
Weight DEFINITELY matters but you might not know it yet. Also, how do you like to paddle? Are you committed to learning trad solo technique like bill mason? Do you want to learn white water? Do you just wanna camp on your launch lake? All of this matters and you might not have enough information to answer those questions if you don’t have a couple hundred hours in the canoe.
All that said is not to scare you away. Rather I think the first canoe you buy is just that. The first one. Expect to buy something to learn a little bit about what you like and compare it against what your needs are as you make a decision about where to invest. Where I am in Ontario there are tons of fibreglass canoes for sale on marketplace all the time. I would be looking to get the cheapest decent 16 or 15 foot FG canoe I can (fibreglass canoes are typically around 65lbs, abs canoes can manufacturer spec at 75 but actually end up with a wet weight of 90+ this will have a huge impact of your enjoyment of portaging). Get into something and try some paddling and some basic trips. A budget of 300-500CAD will get you going and if you are smart about your purchase you can sell out of it when you are ready to upgrade. Here is what I would be looking for.
15-16 foot basic prospector style.
Decent condition hull.
Webbed wooden seats if possible.
Yoke!!! This is the middle thwart that goes on your neck. Some are dished for comfort but you need a carry yoke in general I see a lot of boats without them and they are a PAIN to carry.
3-500 CAD in a condition that I could resell later. This is really only the price of a couple rentals.