Tuesday, March 31, 2020

The Pack Canoe

Canoes, too, are unobtrusive; they don't storm the natural world or ride over it, but drift in upon it as a part of its own silence. As you either care about what the land is or not, so do you like or dislike quiet things--sailboats, or rainy green mornings in foreign places, or a grazing herd, or the ruins of old monasteries in the mountains. . . . Chances for being quiet nowadays are limited.     
John Graves

Paddling has become more and more of an interest, maybe even a lifestyle.  Not flashy, but as Graves points out, "unobtrusive."  Guess that quietness appeals more to me now than when I was younger, a product of the years moving faster and me wanting to be more deliberate, not to miss anything.

"Paddling a canoe is a source of enrichment and inner renewal." -Pierre Trudeau

I have spent far more hours in kayaks, both sea and whitewater boats than canoes, but paddling is paddling.  A friend told me years ago while cruising across a large lake, "now what can compare to this?"  A valid question and one I need not answer at the moment. Silently sliding across the water with only the dip of a paddle cutting through the surface is in itself that "inner renewal" I...we, so need.

 My only canoe, up to now, is a 30+ year old vintage royalex Old Town 174. A beast.  Almost indestructible, it shows it's age more from sitting for years in the sun cracking it's hull, than abuse from use.  I'd used it in my younger days for duck hunting and I wonder now how I ever manhandled it myself.  It's 85+ pounds and with duck gear it's no wonder I skip using it.  I've repaired it and just hold onto it for occasional use.

Another friend mentioned that his ideal canoe would be an Old Town Pack.  It's a 12', 33 pound solo boat.  Light and easy to maneuver-fun to just dump into a small lake or river.  Granted, this friend has made 2 cedar strip canoes, which are beauties, so him even mentioning this so called Pack model caught my interest.

As this story goes, I happened to recall my photographer friend Ras once mentioned something about that very boat.  It wouldn't hurt to inquire and in doing so, found out yes, he did have one-stowed under the back deck, dusty and dinged and what he called a "bear chew toy."  Hmmm, It needed some healthy repair and after a second of negotiation, I could have it, just use it again and give it a second life. Deal.

Now this little boat has some pedigree.  It had been oil-canned on the Boris Brule, abused and used and earned it's wounds from some of the best water around.  Up to the Huron Mountains, the Big Two Hearted River, The Fall, Whitefish, Wolf, Iron, White and Ontonogon Rivers.  That is some fine pedigree for any canoe.  Okay-worthy for some restorative work, or at least getting it floating again.  As it was at the moment, that wasn't realistic.

Off to Rhinelander last fall-a great excuse to visit Ras, be in the northwoods and pick up the boat.  It hadn't seen daylight for a while and when I dug her out from the underside of the deck, I could see why it was referred to as a chew toy!  It seems royalex must be tasty-at least to one bear, as the stern was pretty much chewed off (you'll see below).  The bow, not to be outdone, also had inherited a cold crack, from gunwale to keel.  A surprise injury Ras wasn't even aware of.  No matter, the price was right and I needed a winter basement project.   I'd never done this kind of repair, but it could be something fun along the way.

The cold crack

Chewey

 So this would be a learning experience for sure.  Lots of deep dives into canoe and kayak forums to figure out what to do. Royalex isn't made any longer and is basically a sandwich of a foam core between ABS plastic.  Strong and tough and it can take a lot of pounding.  Repairing it, well, there seemed to be a lot of opinions, but few exactly-the-problem-I-have solutions.  The cold crack should be straight forward. Clamp the split together after cleaning it out and use G-Flex epoxy.  The gaping hole, just might take more ingenuity...



Cold Crack

Drilled stop hole

Trimming the chew hole


Once some preliminary work was done, how to make as perfect a stern as I could.  One thought was fill the inside with spray foam, then trim it back with a file when dry.  Tried that, but I didn't want sheets of fiberglass over the intact hull, so I pulled the foam out.  Next option, make a paper mache mold of the bow, since they were the same shape, and then use it on the damaged end by fiberglassing into it. 


Paper mache mold

positioned mold on stern

Second attempt to get smoother fit over hole

Preliminary glassing



The stern hole was going pretty well.  I added more layers of fiberglass and G-Flex on the inside and just epoxy on the exterior. Sand, more epoxy, repeat.  I probably spent more time than needed getting it smooth, but I did want it to look good and float.  Not every imperfection was taken out, but it would be satisfactory after the first few scratches when used.

Bow deck removed

Cleaning up the crack

Beveled & ready for glue
Aliment and clamping

G-Flex epoxy fillet
 I altered between painting hunter green again or going crazy.  Painting royalex isn't easy and no one seemed to have an opinion on what would work. The ABS is already colored, so the original boat isn't painted, but exposed royalex needs something to protect it, so paint it would have to be.  I settled on Krylon Fusion spray paint-it's supposed to be more flexable on plastics, so because I needed a bunch of cans, I went with a wild scheme.  Having read lots of pacific WWII books in MS, I always loved the "dazzle" camoflage paint used by warships.  My plan was to base the paint pattern roughly on the USS Yorktown.  Of course they used grays and blues, and I wanted more camo-type colors, so I opted for green, brown, gray ivory and black.  This whole paint process took a long time, but it was at the start of the corvid 19 crisis (by crisis I mean by the time anything was being done about it....3 months late!) so I'd have time.  The only sketchy thing was going to Lowes to buy paint-at this time, I really didn't want to be wandering around in a big box store.

Taping the pattern was time consuming...I decided the best way was to paint a color on one side, let it dry and then do the opposite side.  Then go to the next color, the next side, and on and on.  Each color took about a day to prep, tape, paint and re-tape the adjacent blocks.  The Krylon worked well and I chose to use satin finish paint, which looks good.

The woven seat was rotted so I replaced that and the thwart and bought some Old Town decals to make it look official.

Laborious tape process

New hardware

Stickered up

Dazzle Camo



The final step was to add kevlar skid "plates" which are just kevlar cloth pieces epoxied on to the bow and stern.  I'm not sure I'll beat this boat up much, but they will help on rocks and other rough surfaces.  At this writing, the kevlar is curing and the "Chewy" will be ready to hit the water soon. ("Chewy"...really?  I guess a boat should have a name, and it fits even if a bit dorky)



 Fin

The Year in Pictures (2019)

BRSF, North Settlement Road, heading to the "Office"

So this post is WAY overdue.  When I've done a YIP, it's usually in December, but since my absence from the blog, I never got around to completing it except for pulling some images into a folder.  As in the past-these are some of my favorites. Some hold up as good photographs, some as a reminder of a good time or place.  Little matter, these just represent why I love photography.




Red oak Captured. Trow Drain, BRSF

I have been servicing Snapshot Wisconsin cameras since my Ho-Chunk wildlife technician days in 2015. Over the years, I went from working 20-30 cameras down to just 3 personal ones now.  One of my original sites, ELKBR 178, is part of the elk grid and buried deep back in the forest.  It's always been my favorite as it's captured just about every species we have....except an elk.  Last winter, we had little snow, so it lead me to explore another route to the camera.  We had lots of ice, so the lab and I ventured down a mile or 2 of ice on old 1930's era drainage ditches.  We made it safely in and back and was a unique perspective of how diverse this state land is.



Trey; Sweaty Yeti Fan

Lake Michigan, Jacksonport WI

BRSF, Brockway Road

Dike 17 Wildlife Area, BRSF, Upper 17 Flowage. 

The Dike 17 wildlife areas is one of my favorite places to work on the job.  Not always glamorous wildlife work mind you (tearing out beaver clogged tubes in mid-July) but still, it's always beautiful and something is always happening there. Waterfowl, wolves, bear, elk and other fun wildlife.


Coldwater Canyon, Wisconsin Dells

Paddling the Dells was one of the most unique experiences I've had.  Coldwater Canyon took my breath away.  So unique, so quiet.  The paddle to get here is a bit harrowing through the "Narrows" as tour boats passing make for sketching kayaking (yes, I was a bit scared).  Hard to believe the entire Wisconsin River squeezes down to a narrow passage just in view at the entrance to this side water.


Bobcat Track,Clark County Forest

"Wind Lake" Lehr North Dakota

North Dakota has a special beauty and I always love being there-worth the time and effort.  The prairie has a special place in my soul.  Harsh, unforgiving and insanely beautiful at times.  Ice covered most of this on the late October morning.  Hunting stools would have to be recruited to bust it for dogs and decoys and ducks.


Hammer Down Inn with Grant and corndog

Wind Lake, Lehr North Dakota. Morning Ice

Wazee County Park, Jackson County elk

Reed Farm, Clark County Wisconsin at -5

Mara. Town of Hewett Wisconsin

BRSF, Morrison Creek at Oxbo

Fatbiking the Sweaty Yeti

Calf Search success with Meghan

Jackson County Forest, Potters Flowage

Monday, March 30, 2020

A Country Walk



I'd hoped to find something...anything to make pictures of today-I mean, the sun was finally out after 3 days of constant rain, mist, cold wind and dreary news.   I needed something to clear the sky out and bring back a breath of fresh air.  Mudders donned and a happy lab charging out the door, I headed out with the iphone 11pro-my go to camera for knocking around. (I'm finding it quite capable).

A lot of ground wasn't covered, but then again, it's about what you see, not how much you look at.  The stone house was covered pretty well, so I moved onto the old rust scattered around nearby.  Then onto the Reed Farm for one small picture and one from Cliff's farm next door.

 No masterpieces here, just a diary of the 'hood.  Sometimes you just gotta press that shutter the first time and let 'em keep coming.





Kleine Farbe












Reclaiming the Stone House



Just a quarter mile down the road is a dilapidated stone house.  Under part of it's facade and added on at some point in the long past, is the original log building.  The ground is slowly taking it back as it sinks into it's own lower level.

I've made countless pictures of this small building over the years.  I walk or drive past it all the time.  The story goes that it was once a small cheese "factory" and it used water from springs located on our land and the farm next door.  Looking at aerial images from the 1930's, this area was bare except for a few trees.  All farmland with a spattering of small homesteads.  Wooden and clay cisterns dot springs within 400 yards of where I now sit.  Those springs apparently provided the water for making cheese in this tiny place and still continue pumping out water to this day now draining away into a swamp.

I have no idea when anyone last inhabited this shack.  There is a 40 acre farm field nearby and  old rusting machinery scattered about, so I'm sure this was also the farmhouse.  An empty silo still stands just behind as a marker of what was once here in a different time.

Homey interior




Sinking back into the ground

2021-The Year in Pictures

 The year in pictures or my favorite ones of the year.  A yearly disclaimer, these are my favorites blended with ones I feel are good images...