Woodlands Canoeing: Pleasure Paddling on Woodland Waterways

By Rick Sparkman

A recreational canoeman in his native Texas, Rick Sparkman thought he knew all about the sport when he moved to Nova Scotia in 1981. The swift, cold rivers and streams of his new home adjusted his thinking in the most personal way: he got dumped. That's when he started learning to paddle in earnest. Woodlands Canoeing explains the fundamentals of recreational canoeing in the woods of the Maritimes, New England, and anywhere else where the waterways are small, the water is swift and at times shallow, and canoeing varies with the seasons. It's a guide to safe, comfortable recreation for those who already canoe a little and want to know more, as well as for people experienced in canoeing on lakes or on the more predictable rivers described in other canoeing books. Woodlands Canoeing outlines the advantages of various kinds of equipment and describes canoeing and camping techniques in words, photos, and drawings, mixing practical information with anecdotes drawn from Sparkman's years of family canoeing. Throughout, Sparkman concentrates on having fun, even when the expected summer shower becomes the tail of a hurricane or the canoe has to be inched over rocky shallows where only a few days earlier there was plenty of water. Keeping warm, dry, and well fed are crucial to Sparkman's pleasure, and Woodlands Canoeing contains hints for packing, instructions for making camp, and recipes for delicious and satisfying meals. Because of the region's volatile climate and variable water conditions, Sparkman has learned how to canoe delightfully in all weathers, and in Woodlands Canoeing he passes his hard-won knowledge along. An enthusiastic winter canoeist, he even explains how to achieve this feat safely and — believe it or not — in comfort.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Goose Lane Editions
• Release date: Sep 30, 2011
• ISBN: 9780864926128

Rick Sparkman

Rick Sparkman is a professor of business administration at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Readers of Eastern Woods and Waters will recognize the clarity of his writing, his joy in canoeing, and his sense of humour.

Book preview

Canoeing

WOODLANDS CANOEING

Pleasure Paddling on

Woodland Waterways

RICK SPARKMAN

© Rick Sparkman, 1998.

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any requests for photocopying of any part of this book should be directed in writing to the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency.

Published by Goose Lane Editions with the assistance of the Canada Council, the Department of Canadian Heritage, and the New Brunswick Department of Municipalities, Culture and Housing, 1998.

Edited by Laurel Boone.

Cover and book design by Ryan Astle.

Printed in Canada by Transcontinental Printing Inc.

10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

Sparkman, Rick, 1944-

Woodlands canoeing

ISBN 0-86492-234-5

1. Canoes and Canoeing. I. Title.

GV783.S62 1998      797.1’72      C98-950066-7

Goose Lane Editions

469 King Street

Fredericton, New Brunswick

CANADA E3B1E5

www.gooselane.com

This book is dedicated to the memory of my mother,

Janet Waterhury Sparkman.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Woodlands Canoeing would not have been possible without the support and understanding of my wife, Jan Sparkman. Most of the events recounted in this book occurred while I was paddling with Jan, with our children Danny and Katy, or with the other Fat Boys, Danny, Dave Sagorka, and Patrick Murphy.

Words alone are inadequate to describe canoeing and camping. Drawings are by Peter Matheson. Photographs are by Peter Hope (PH), Clas Larsson (CL), Karen Coldwell Newton (KCN), and myself (RMS), with an archival photo from the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (PANB).

Scott Hennigar, an outdoor skills instructor at Acadia University, and three of his students, Adam Kilcollins, Alexis Currer, and Casey Gallagher, gave up their time to model for photographs. Special thanks to Alexis and Casey for floating in the cold October water long enough for Clas to shoot the canoe rescue sequences.

My career as an outdoor writer would have been stillborn had not Jim Gourlay, editor of Eastern Woods and Waters, encouraged and ultimately published some of my early efforts. Portions of this book have appeared in different form in his magazine.

Much of the credit for the finished book must go to my editor, Laurel Boone, who pounded the rough edges off my initial manuscript. Finally, I would like to thank Julie Scriver, Susanne Alexander, Ryan Astle, and all the people at Goose Lane for turning the finished manuscript into a book.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. ORIGINS OF THE MODERN CANOE

2. CANOES AND PADDLES

Canoes

Paddles

Carving Your Own Paddle

3. CANOEING EQUIPMENT

For the Canoe

For the Canoeist

Other Personal Equipment

4. TANDEM PADDLING

Four Strokes That Will Get You Across a Lake

More Strokes for Versatility

Keeping on Course

Rescues

5. SOLO PADDLING

Solo Canoes

Paddling Position

Some New Strokes

6. CANOEING WITHOUT A PADDLE

Poles

Learning to Pole

Lining

7. THE PORTAGE TRAIL

Carrying Your Canoe

Carrying Your Gear

8. CANOEING WITH KIDS

9. DRY CAMPS

Tarps

Tents

10. FIRE AND FOOD

Building a Good Fire

Cooking on a Fire

Cooking on a Stove

Miscellaneous Good Advice

11. MOVING WATER

Assessing Your Route

Handling Your Canoe

12. CANOEING AROUND THE CALENDAR

Fall Canoeing

Winter Canoeing

Canoeing From Ice Out Through Summer

13. NOT ROUGHING IT

Bibliography

Index to Illustrations

INTRODUCTION

I learned to paddle a long time after I thought I was an accomplished canoeist. This got me into a little bit of trouble when I moved to Nova Scotia. Canoeists go through three stages: knowing they do not know how, thinking they know how, and knowing what they know and don't know. The second stage is the one which causes the problems.

I thought I learned to paddle in Texas. It is a great state: oil wells, huge ranches, and a long tradition of cowboys on horseback. Canoes, however, are irrelevant. Most of the rivers can be forded and they never were used for transportation. I was taught the J stroke. Everything else was wrong. I ran some rapids which I thought were really something, but looking back, I realize they were mostly straight shots. I dumped lots of times, but the water was always warm; only a Texan thinks 60° water is cold.

All would have been well had we stayed in Texas, but we moved to Nova Scotia and bought a canoe. I did, after all, know how to paddle. My wife, Jan, and I took a long weekend trip in Kejimkujik National Park our first spring. The canoe was heavy, so we started running rapids instead of taking portages. I was, after all, an experienced white water paddler. We made the first set of rapids with luck or perhaps divine intervention — the Lord does look after fools on occasion. We hit a rock and capsized in the second set of rapids — even the Lord’s patience has limits. In the end, no great harm was done. We lost a wool shirt, a hat, and a good paddle, and ruined a pair of binoculars, but it could have been a lot worse. The good news was that I got out of stage two. I still did not know how to paddle, but at least I knew it.

Hitting that water in Nova Scotia in April was the beginning of my education. I knew I wasn't in Texas any more. I was in the northern woodlands days after ice out. The difference was not the technical level of the water itself. The rapids which got us was no more difficult than many I had run successfully in Texas. The difference was in where, and when, and how long.

The northern woodlands stretch from the eastern tip of Nova Scotia westward to somewhere around the 100th meridian. The area includes the northern states from New England to just west of Minnesota and the southern portions of Canada to the southeastern corner of Manitoba. Ecologically most of it is classified as either Northern Hardwood Forest or Great Lakes — St. Lawrence Forest, depending on which book you read. The portion I paddle is sometimes labelled the Acadian Forest. This is a forest of red and white pines, red, white, and black spruces, and giant eastern hemlocks hundreds of years old. Hardwoods include red oaks, red maples, sugar maples, yellow birches, white ash, and what is left of the elms. The most important tree is the white birch, without which birch bark canoes could not have been built and the modern canoe would not have developed.

During the spring runoff, this forest has its share of wild, adrenaline charged rivers studded with rocks capable of smashing canoes out from under the most experienced paddlers. But that is not what Woodlands Canoeing is about. This book is about how to safely travel its thousands of lakes, rivers, and brooks. The canoe has been used for woodland transportation for hundreds of years and is still the best way to experience this beautiful terrain. With a little knowledge and the right equipment, it is possible to go where you want to go, when you want to go, for as long as you want to go, any time between ice out and freeze up. Woodland canoeing is more of a vacation than a sport.

My upset in Kejimkujik would probably have been the end of my canoeing, except that we lived on a lake and I liked to fish. We had a canoe and a good otter-tail paddle. I tried to sneak up on the trout with the J stroke, but the paddle made too much noise splashing in and out of the water. To control noise, I started moving the paddle slowly and stopped bringing it out of the water for the recovery. The power and steering phases of the stroke were the same as in my normal paddling, except slower. The recovery phase was a knifing action through the water, with the paddle rotating in my hands and the entire shaft out of the water to avoid making bubbles. Since the blade never left the water, I could easily hold the canoe against puffs of wind to stay in position for rising fish.

I thought I had discovered something, and I guess I had, but it had been discovered before. I later learned that my stroke is the Indian stroke. I invented a lot of other strokes which turned out to have names already, as well. When I first started inventing my own strokes, I thought I must be doing something wrong because nobody had taught me to paddle that way. Over time, I got used to my trial-and-error methods. I learned by kneeling in the canoe with the paddle in the water. I would try to figure out how to make the canoe do what I wanted it to do and then try it. If it did not work, I tried something else.

I never learned anything while I was trying to remember what I was supposed to do. I only learned when I tried to understand what the paddle and the canoe were doing, and that is the point of this story. Books, videos, and instructors are helpful, but only to a point. They are much more efficient than trial and error for learning the strokes.

You should learn the strokes, but, more importantly, you should understand them. Know what they are supposed to do, and why, and how. Understanding requires hours with the paddle in the water.

We all know people who have done something (driving, dancing, cooking) all their lives but are not very good at it. Canoeing is no different. If you want to get good at it, you have to work. If you work at it, you can be a fairly decent paddler in about 50 hours, 50 hours with the paddle in the water. You will be halfway good in 100 hours. That sounds like a lot of time, but what else can you learn to do in two weeks? When will you be a excellent paddler? I guess when you know all you need to know. How long does that take? I'll let you know.

CHAPTER 1

ORIGINS OF THE MODERN CANOE

A family eating breakfast at a canoe camp beside a misty river on a frosty November morning is continuing a tradition older than recorded history. Materials have changed, but a canoe has remained the best way of travelling through the woodlands of North America for at least a thousand years. The modern canoe, like its birch bark ancestors, is designed to be easily paddled and easily portaged making it ideal for exploring our rivers and lakes.

The birch bark canoe is probably the most highly developed water craft ever built without metal tools. It requires no permanent building forms and can be built any place where materials are available. The process starts with the selection of a suitable white birch tree, one at least 15 in diameter for a 13 canoe. The bark should be between 1/8 and 3/16 thick and pliable enough to be worked without splitting. Although modern builders generally fell the tree before removing the bark, the bark was originally removed from a standing tree. Before metal tools were available, canoe builders cut the bark with stone axes and peeled it off with moose rib spudders. They felled cedar trees for sheathing, ribs, and gunnels by burning through the base of the trunk, and they split the wood to the appropriate width and thickness. Finally, they shaped the pieces with a crooked knife made from a beaver tooth.

To the woodworker of today, birch bark canoes seem to be constructed backwards. The bark is laid out on a level building bed free of rocks and roots, where it is folded into a loose envelope and the ends are sewn closed. This skin is held in place by stakes driven into the ground while the canoe is built inside it. The sheathing and ribs are forced into place to stretch the bark and give the canoe its final form. Spring tension from the ribs holds the canoe together.

Making a birch bark canoe, St. Mary’s Reserve, New Brunswick. PANB

We will never know for sure who built the first birch bark canoe, but we do know that it was made in North America, probably in the woodlands of what is now Atlantic Canada or New England. The aboriginal people of Siberia made elm bark canoes. Photographs of an elm bark canoe in the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in St. Petersburg, Russia, reveal a crude craft with widely spaced ribs and large gaps in the sheathing. The bark was crimped to produce a boat shape, not cut and sewn like the bark on birch bark canoes. Similar elm bark canoes were used in North America well into historic times by the Iroquois and other tribes outside the range of the white birch. Spruce, walnut, chestnut, cherry, and perhaps other barks were also used to cover canoes, all of which were crimped, not sewn.

Historians theorize that this type of canoe later developed into the birch bark canoe encountered by the French and English when they arrived in North America. A major improvement in building technique was required to achieve the finely tensioned birch bark skin over even sheathing and closely spaced ribs, and it is thought that a foreign influence may have been responsible for this change in technology. Some historians note that the ribs and planking of historical eastern birch bark canoes make them more similar to Viking ships than to Siberian or even western Canadian bark canoes. They have concluded that aboriginal people may have adapted Viking construction to their native materials. Although we cannot be one hundred percent sure about the development of the eastern birch bark canoe, we do know that the woodland tribes of northeastern North America would have seen Viking dragon ships about a thousand years ago. They would certainly have recognized their superiority over crimped bark canoes. If Viking ship construction inspired the birch bark canoe, it would have been invented in what is now Newfoundland, the Maritimes, or New England.

Wherever it originated, the birch bark canoe played a major role in the woodlands before the arrival of European explorers. Each tribe developed its own designs to meet the requirements of its region and lifestyle. The Mi'kmaq, for example hunted, fished, and travelled by canoe on inland rivers and lakes as well as along the North Atlantic coast and in the Bay of Fundy, salt waters which are still considered dangerous. They developed four distinct types of canoe: flat-bottom inland hunting canoes 9' to 15' in length; semi-rounded river canoes 15' to 20' long; well-rounded salt water canoes 18' to 24' long; and war canoes similar to river and salt water canoes but built for speed.

These designs had specific uses, but Mi'kmaq canoes could also be versatile. For example, in the 1830s the Glodes, a Mi'kmaq family living on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, built a 20' canoe which they took from near Liverpool, Nova Scotia, to Montreal and back again the following spring. This one canoe carried the family on small inland streams, large lakes, the Bay of Fundy, and the St. Lawrence River, and they carried it over some rough portages.

It is worth noting that the Glodes made their trip at a time when European technology dominated transportation, but the only way to travel the brooks, rivers, lakes, and ocean bays of the woodlands was by canoe. Technology has come a long way in the last 170 years, but if you and I were to retrace the Glodes' route tomorrow we would still have to use a canoe. Birch