I'm sure this may sound silly to sea-kayakers, but.... Next summer we are going up to the Bathurst Inlet area in NWT ( 106 -108 Long , and mostly along 67-68 N Lat.) to paddle the Hiukitak River which runs about 90 miles West into the eastern shore of Bathurst, then paddling another 90 miles or so along the islands( many of which rise steeply 100-200 ’ above the water) and shoreline to reach Bathurst Lodge ( which is near the end of the Burnside River). We are real "coast-huggers " too …..I am curious if anyone has had experience in paddling an open tandem canoe on salt water. Bathurst Inlet was explored by Hood and Richardson on one of Franklin’s 19th century "exploits" . And I have read their narratives of it. I don’t know how "tidal" this area is,… it is a deep and narrow southern inlet of the Arctic Ocean. To me, it doesn’t seem as if it should be any more complex than big lakes like Reindeer Lake in NE Sask/MB. (Which we paddled 2 years ago. ) Aside from wind and waves and weather, is there anything different about canoeing on salt water. We will be using a rented Royalex canoe ( probably a Mad River or OT Tripper). We have allotted a bit more than 7 weeks to cover the distance (180= miles), especially since the Hiukitak will probably be a long series of "drags & portages" depending on water levels in early July, and weather up there is… well, we don’t paddle in whitecaps or rain..(GRIN). So…is salt water much different from fresh? *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
: [Paddlewise] Salt-water paddling in an open tandem canoe..question. > I'm sure this may sound silly to sea-kayakers, but.... > So.is salt water much different from fresh? > > I used to paddle around a good bit on the Florida panhandle in a royalex Explorer and had a blast. Of course the water was warm and dumping in the surf was part of the fun. There were no significant differences that I recognized. If you plan to fool around with breaking waves: Have a bailing bucket handy for when you get through the breakers and expect to dump on the way back in. Larry Koenig. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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