Rainy Fall Day at the Shop

The much-needed rain is finally on its way to grace our area. You might think things would slow down on a gray rainy day, but things are steady at the paddle shop. A couple of folks came in to fix their canoes. One is an old Mad River getting new seats before a trip to the Allagash. The other another MRC with a full re-rail - gunwales and deck plates.

Bob popped in sporting a 17’ Wenonah in an elegant, fitted shroud. Straight as a rail, he called it a “mile eater.” Nice boat, but that’s not why he stopped by. He’s travelling around and stopped because he saw our racks of canoes. Turns out he’s thinking about a boat to get back to playing on rivers. Something to bounce off rocks and stuff.

He’s no neophyte. Talking with him, I found that he’s been paddling and even in the canoe/kayak business as a manufacturer’s representative. Many references to Idaho, Washington, Colorado… He had just finished 80 days on the Mississippi!

“I’m not looking to buy a boat,” he says. I enjoyed the conversation as we wandered over to our rack of Esquif canoes. A 16’ Prospecteur caught his eye.

“You want to try it? We have a pond out back. Grab your paddles.”

“Really?”

The test paddle pond on a rainy day is surrounded by autumn foliage, with gentle raindrops rippling across the water's surface.

Off we went, talking canoe this and paddle that. We put him on the water and he left the dock, sitting solo on the bow seat, paddling the boat backwards. That’s what you do when paddling a tandem canoe alone because it trims, or balances the boat.

It was a pleasure to watch him play with it. You put a good paddler in a canoe, and they can make it dance. He used a variety of strokes, paddling straight with a hit and switch, on-side and off-side turns, smooth 90-degree turns with a little push, and leaning a bit.

He came back grinning. “This is just what I’m looking for.”

I gave him a great price because, well, it’s a grey day at the end of September. I love matching folks up with the boat of their dreams. We spent the next half-hour looking at his truck, scheming different ways to get two canoes on his truck along with a bike rack. Nothing seemed to work.

I said that Green River Reservoir and Lake Willoughby were beautiful places to paddle before leaving. He’s in town for a few weeks – maybe he’ll be back with a plan to put that second boat on his truck.

-John