My Missus and I are on the verge of getting one. This is the first avenue I've found that'll get her involved in a more primative-type cooking, (day) camping situation. She's especially interested in fishing --- even with a 'willer-pole' and linen thread!

I can also see a canoe opening up more and wider opportunities for hunting purposes, especially on the lakes around here, which are surrounded by public ground. (Sparks and Windy may get to teach me duck huntin', yet!) Deer abound, there, too. And small game. 'Tis a place to clasp ye fowler close 'pon yer breast, fer sure!

I dreamt of getting a birch-bark until I saw the prices which were a nightmare. (And I understand why.) The same for cedar strippers. I could also become enamored with one of canvas mighty easily, but I figure I'll actually wind up with a modern-materialed one. Oh well . . .

Anyone else doing it? Got any hints?

Paddlin'sticks

Fiddlesticks. GET ONE.
I have one and love it . but i to had to get
plastic or some material but hey its still a
canoe.and they are great for hunting along the
rivers or finding a good spot for camping.
and thats about the only thing my wife will join
in with me when i;am dressed in my finest.

Here's something you might consider. This will be my summertime project, for they are very similar in weight and handling to a birch bark, nearly as fragile, and..., you can paint the material to resemble birch bark and pitch. Cost for materials is great, though you need to have the time. Just can't see using the fiberglass Coleman or Old Town in historic clothing.

Geodesic Canoes

LD

Wow, LD, those are cool! Thanks for the link.

Dick

Thanks Dave. Mighty interesting. Sorry, though, but I don't see any difference between using Old Town materials and dacron. Sometimes we just gotta do what we gotta do.

Fiddlesticks

Well I agree with Dave that the design is cool, and I really like that light weight, but a canoe is a canoe, thankfully, and hasn't changed much since it was invented. My Old Town is a plastic boat, but it is easy to forget the year and pretend I'm back 250 years ago when I am gliding along the water in it...

And Sticks, even my 16 can carry enough gear in it to make a comfortable camp for the ladies...

Sticks I have two canoes and two kayaks all by Old Town [O.T.] use to make a canoe that was done up in the birchbark pattern,thier on line check it out,might be they still do.If you are traveling by yourself and want the slickest canoe going, look at the O.T Trapper,it's my wifes,weighs 32lbs,10 feet long,narrow, throw it on one shoulder just like a passables bag and walk or run and even old guys like me cant get winded.I have a O.T.Camper 58 LBS I've dragged it more than I've carried it,to wide,heavy,long for much wood crawling,nice for two people,especially if you can get the other guy to carry it.You trade gear for mobility, but just how much gear do you need?
Don't look back,thats the past,look ahead to the future,live the moment,forgive a past wrong,your travel through life will be much easier and filled with joy.Shinning times to all.

Let me clarify...,

The difference is that the fiberglass Old Town or Coleman generally don't take paint well, so there you are with plastic red or green canoe, or if they are aluminum, make a great deal of noise, which (imho) interferes with the experience. They are heavy in the water, and handle like Coleman or Old Town canoes, and both are heavy when carried. So heavy that for the size I need for my self and one passenger (a 500 lbs. capacity or smaller canoe means me and a comparable sized friend would have to be naked & without gear - a rather unsavory visual So it's 600 lbs. capacity, or my partner better be dang skinny ), are too heavy for me to load/unload/portage if I take a day trip alone. Then there's the car... with a roof carry capacity of 50 lbs. Fiberglass or aluminum exceeds that by 71%, while the canoe made of dacron is 30% below that max capacity. So even with fiberglass with a birchbark pattern, it'd squash my roof. So, for a replica canoe, that will look very much like a proper birch bark, weigh like a proper birch bark, handle like a proper birch bark, and cost about 80 -90% less than a proper birch bark, I submitted this to the group.

LD

Dave! If you find one let me know, I have two canoes and two kayaks I swap you for it.Might even throw in a row boat with oars,a one eyed dog and an ax that could use sharpening.
Showed your posting to the wife,said she agrees, wasn't going without plenty of gear, mention the other part of your posting,she said it was ok with her,I'd be the one cold and I paddle in the back of the canoe out of sight, got to love a woman who knows the good,bad and
the ugly.

My wife and I are considering one of the Old Town Charle's River canoes. It's plastic, comes in only red or green...but it has the classic canoe lines with a rounded bow and stern. Cabela's carrys them, and I've ALMOST got enough Cabela's points to pay for half of one...

My canoe is 15 feet long, weighs 60 lbs (heavier than Kevlar, etc. but light enough to portage), has Sitka spruce gun'ls, ash and cane seats, and a rather flimsy core of "Cor-Mat"(?) that's about 1/8" thick sandwiched between fiberglass and paint. We molded it off of a friend's, and he helped me make it. It won't stand up to rapids, but few canoes really do. I've had it in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness a number of times, repainted it once, etc. It's a satisfactory canoe until I can afford a birch one--but I'm really intrigued by the ones on the link you showed.

Dick

I live just a shot treck,30 miles,by the road,15 over land, north of Old Town. There arn't many,never see one, Birchbark canoes even on the Penobscot Reservation in Old Town. There is one in the museum but she isn't floatable,used hard.I asked why and the old people says it's because there are no more trees large enough to get the bark off.Thinking back on it thier right, can't remember when I last saw a big White/yellow birch in the woods.You could make one but it won't be long before you realize why there are so few around and why they are expensive.I wonder if a fella was to glue birchbark to the outside of a new one if it would look like it or like a real canoe? Figure it would be just about as ugly as a chrome inline with a veriable scope on it.

Guys and Gals don't get me wrong. I have tried several of the modern canoes, with most of them being Coleman or Old Town. GREAT products, last a lifetime, and take a beating. BUT..., I got spoiled and tried a birchy one day. WOW quite a dif, and super light. You have to be gentle, but white water is a short way to say you're gonna have to buy all new gear. Then I saw the price tag of a good sized birchy that I could take the youngsters out in, let alone the wife, and OUCH! This was the only thing that came close to the weight. Heck, even if it was red or green, I'd still be interested in the weight to capacity ratio! Those are my personal parameters. Some folks might prefer super durability; some might prefer ready-made to a kit. This was just another option. Ask me if I think the same way AFTER I try to build it (lol)

LD

another option is to build a pirouge...Jim at blueheronmercantile.com sells plans and a kit(I think),also UncleJohns sells plans(look in WoodenBoat magazine ads)....these can be built in a few wknds, according to a couple of guys I know who've built'em...can be done in plank or plywood..hope this helps,Mitch

I surely hope Dave gets to build his canoe. I'd love to see it. And one could hardly argue with his reasoning --- as usual!

Fortunately for me, there are no portages where I'll mostly be canoeing, which is a moderately sized lake 100 miles long and 750-1000 miles (depending on levels) of shoreline in two states. Actually, there are three of those nearby. So weight is not a great problem for me --- just put it in the water, paddle away, and eventually come back.

The pirogue is a good option, easily built, and one I've considered. However, I'm in love with the 'classic' lines of the birchy (which I can't afford) and for my purposes may opt for modern stuff-old design.

Fiddlesticks

I don't know what he charges, but there is a guy in Big Fork, Minnesota (way up north) that makes birch bark canoes. He apparently took over from the old-timer that wrote a little book some years ago that is still probably available. I think the gang connected with the White Oak Society in Minnesota may make some, too. I'd love to have one. The suggestion that there aren't any big-enough birch trees around any more is pretty much correct, but they still do make the canoes. Maybe they find some trees in Canada.

Dick

From what I was reading, yesterday, the harvesting of the bark at the proper time rarely damages the trees and the bark grows back to be taken again. There are places you can buy it by the rolls.

If I recollect right, the price for a boat is somewhere around $250-$300 per foot that these folks charge to build one. I peeled out of the covey like a dying quail when I saw that.

Fiddlesticks

Actually, it's pretty well known that peeling the bark off a birch kills it dead--not just a little strip of the outer "paper", mind you, but all the bark, which you need for a canoe. One of the ways you know idiots have been at your campsite in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area is the dead birch trees with variously-sized strips of bark peeled off. That's part of the problem in finding large enough trees to make canoes, of course. You destroy your crop.

Dick

Thanks Dick. I've never lived around birch, that I know of, in my whole life. I got my mis-info from:

www.squeedunk.com/building.htm

"Building canoes".

Fiddlesticks

Dick There's a book written by Richard C. Schneider from the University of Wisconsin, "Crafts of the North American Indians" there is a whole chapter on building the Birch bark canoe,rigth down to how to strip the black spruce root to lace it all together.I was told by an old man that the canoe will not last as long as the amount of work to build it. Labor intensive and in 4/5 yrs your doing it over again. Dont know forsure but sounds good.
If you can't find the book I use WWW.ABEBOOKS.COM and you can get new/ old /out of print books most times.