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[Deleted member 28227]

functionally maybe. But from a sporting standpoint you cannot replace an old fiberglass canoe.

I love canoes.

Done a dozen camping trips with canoes, hunted 40+? days out of one, hauled out ducks, pheasants, deer.

@MTLabrador I will get on my soap box on this one. Toyota Corolla, best canoe vehicle ever made. Super easy to load and unload a canoe off the roof solo.

Downsides, canoes are a pain to store, impossible if you're career path necessitates apartment life. You can't fly with them, you can easily carryon a packraft and skip the TSA disaster bigfin had to deal with on POW.
You certainly can't self shuttle with a canoe. (see below)

Canoes are open meaning all your stuff is exposed to the elements and takes up all the cargo space.

I'm pretty stingy with my gear purchase... see my 4 years of waffling about buying a new rifle, but I'm all in on a Alpacka Raft boat.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

Hmm... Good info, thanks. The stability is another benefit that interests me. My lab will absolutely launch himself out of the boat after a bird.

Definitely more stable than a canoe.

I found this article interesting.

Review: Alpacka Raft Oryx Packraft Canoe

How is it that no matter which direction we paddle, it’s always into a headwind? That was the question I kept asking after two days and 20 miles of shoulder-throbbing strokes. I was in the Boundary Waters aboard Alpacka Raft’s interpretation of the flat water canoe, the Oryx, hoping to enjoy the...

www.hatchmag.com

 

[MTLabrador]

@MTLabrador I will get on my soap box on this one. Toyota Corolla, best canoe vehicle ever made

I just need a topper for my Tundra, it’s a pain without one. I may have scrounged up a nice drift boat to use this fall. Should be a good test run on the stretch of river I want to try, but I think a Packraft is definitely in my future.

 

[Irrelevant]

I love canoes.

Done a dozen camping trips with canoes, hunted 40+? days out of one, hauled out ducks, pheasants, deer.

@MTLabrador I will get on my soap box on this one. Toyota Corolla, best canoe vehicle ever made. Super easy to load and unload a canoe off the roof solo.

Downsides, canoes are a pain to store, impossible if you're career path necessitates apartment life. You can't fly with them, you can easily carryon a packraft and skip the TSA disaster bigfin had to deal with on POW.
You certainly can't self shuttle with a canoe. (see below)

Canoes are open meaning all your stuff is exposed to the elements and takes up all the cargo space.

I'm pretty stingy with my gear purchase... see my 4 years of waffling about buying a new rifle, but I'm all in on a Alpacka Raft boat.

View attachment 159001

100% disagree. Honda Fit is the best canoe vehicle!

And you can buy a fleet of used fiberglass canoes for a cost of a packraft. The canoe will last you're entire life and your kids with minimal maintenance. You can travel way further and faster in a canoe, and you look BA in a canoe with a felt hat and wool shirt. The critters basically die upon sight, you just load 'em up.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

100% disagree. Honda Fit is the best canoe vehicle!

You’re dead to me.

 

[Khunter]

great thread. Thanks!

 

[Irrelevant]

@MTLabrador

Mule versus 14.5ft canoe

The forager is 18 inches longer, and it's tubes are larger in diameter.
View attachment 159014
View attachment 159015

SG pack, Mule, MSR Hubba Hubba 2 person, Corgi
View attachment 159016

That's your problem @wllm1313 that damn canoe is a half a century too new and too short to be useful, and looks to be made of plastic! You gotta go 17' and old enough to talk about 'nam and wood trim.

 

[Sask hunter]

Looks like a fun hunt!

 

[Deleted member 28227]

And you can buy a fleet of used fiberglass canoes for a cost of a packraft. The canoe will last you're entire life and your kids with minimal maintenance. You can travel way further and faster in a canoe, and you look BA in a canoe with a felt hat and wool shirt. The critters basically die upon sight, you just load 'em up.

Cheaper... depends. Apples to apples MSRP of a Alpacka Raft pack raft versus MSRP new canoe. A cheap canoe will be less expensive a light weight nice one will be comparable.

Craigslist canoes... absolutely cheaper.

Durability, definite canoe. Though you can send in a packraft to be fixed, if you do mess up a canoe your kinda SOL.

Further, people have done the Grand.

Faster... flat water, definitely.

Yeah I can't argue that, well maintained wood canoe, wool shirt, stick bow or a pre-64 model 70...

Now the 800lb gorilla, a canoe limits you to road access areas, or short portages. You're not doing a 50 mile pack in with a canoe.

 

[MTLabrador]

100% disagree. Honda Fit is the best canoe vehicle!

And you can buy a fleet of used fiberglass canoes for a cost of a packraft. The canoe will last you're entire life and your kids with minimal maintenance. You can travel way further and faster in a canoe, and you look BA in a canoe with a felt hat and wool shirt. The critters basically die upon sight, you just load 'em up.

All that aside, I’m really more interested in the image I’m trying to cultivate. Canoes just aren’t dope on the Gram, bro.

 

[Irrelevant]

Cheaper... depends. Apples to apples MSRP of a Alpacka Raft pack raft versus MSRP new canoe. A cheap canoe will be less expensive a light weight nice one will be comparable.

Craigslist canoes... absolutely cheaper.

Durability, definite canoe. Though you can send in a packraft to be fixed, if you do mess up a canoe your kinda SOL.

Further, people have done the Grand.

Faster... flat water, definitely.

Yeah I can't argue that, well maintained wood canoe, wool shirt, stick bow or a pre-64 model 70...

Now the 800lb gorilla, a canoe limits you to road access areas, or short portages. You're not doing a 50 mile pack in with a canoe.

Duh, craigslist or bust... who would buy a new canoe?
You can do quite of bit of fab with some time, some fiberglass mat and resin, and a sander
Further? HA! https://www.adventure-journal.com/2...grand-canyon-just-happened-and-it-was-a-ball/
Not to mention: https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2017/10/06/starkell-paddle-to-the-amazon

50 mile portage... that sounds like a challenge.

 

[Irrelevant]

All that aside, I’m really more interested in the image I’m trying to cultivate. Canoes just aren’t dope on the Gram, bro.

Nope.

 

[MTLabrador]

Nope.
View attachment 159017

I withdraw. Absolutely dope.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

Nope.
View attachment 159017

I imagine on some river in heaven Kenton Grua is raising his beer to you...

 

[Irrelevant]

I imagine on some river in heaven Kenton Grua is raising his beer to you...

A wooden dory/driftboat is also on the "someday" list.

Back to the subject at hand... a packraft is also on that someday list, and much higher than a wooden boat. But I can't think of many rivers where I would use one here in WA.

 

[duckhunt]

great adventure

 

[OverlordBear]

Great trip and awesome adventure. What a great read during the off season while stuck at the airport. Thanks Wllm1313 for taking us along.

 

[kwyeewyk]

Missed this one hunting elk last year, cool trip, funny it popped back up today as I was just starting to work on putting together something similar and scanned through it last night before bed. Didn't process how small the raft was until reading again tonight, sure love to see an overhead view of you all in that raft, pretty impressive.

 

[RobertD]

That corgi is just the absolute coolest little dude

 

[kwyeewyk]

Yeah the boat in the later pics is the Mule(green) Caribou (grey) which is a 1 person boat, the forager, which is the one we had on the trip is significantly larger.

At some point I will borrow my sisters drone and try and get some overhead pics

View attachment 187069View attachment 187070


Also... spent a bunch of time this weekend playing in my forager to escape the heat. My forager is 100X easy to reenter from the water than a canoe. I was able to jump out and swim with my dog and then get both of us back in the boat with minimal effort, and from the side rather then the end like you need to do with a canoe.

So I see where you had 3+dog in the forager at one point, but I also noticed another pic of someone in a smaller red raft, did you have multiple rafts? Guessing 3+dog+moose would have been too much! Seems like it could probably handle 2+moose, or would you recommend multiple rafts for two hunters in case there's the opportunity to kill 2 on same trip?