“There and Back” in a Northstar ADK Pack Canoe
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2023
- Northstar's ADK Solo Canoe...Growing up in Minnesota had me on the water from a young age. Tubes, kid rafts and kayaks at first but it was trips into the Boundary Waters with family and later friends that had touched my soul in the way so many lifelong paddlers describe. The loons in the evening, the reveal of the next lake at the end of a portage trail. The simplicity and pace of life at the campsite.
I attended college in Madison Wisconsin where my sophmore year apartment looked out over the waters of Lake Mendota.
During this year I made a big life choice to depart the Materials Science program and enter the Forestry program. I had chosen to immerse in big natural ecosystem study vs micro-elemental study. I remember the day the microscopes chased me away. I wanted to see and understand the big picture around me instead. The playground of my childhood would become my classroom.
It was around that same time that my roommate borrowed my Toyota Tercel and quickly had a crash at the top of the hill from our place. With my newly acquired ecosystem hungry outlook, I took the “totaled vehicle” insurance money and bought my first solo canoe, a Bell Magic.
I was able to paddle it circuitous around the lakes to class and afternoon studies and then short-cut portage it home at night. What a sight it must have been to see someone walk across campus with a canoe on their shoulders. In the winter, I crossed the frozen lake by foot to get to the agricultural buildings on campus. I loved both these walks and paddles and the time they gave the mind to settle within the rhytmic motion of footsteps or paddle strokes.
There were two local paddling shops in Madison. The one that pulled me in closest was Carl’s Paddlin’ along Lake Monona. Expert staff, a curated selection of gorgeous kayaks and canoes and an old wood floored brick building. When I told the owner, Carl, the story of how I obtained my first canoe he looked up and said, “you used your car funds to buy a canoe?”…”you’re hired”.
Over the next 3 years, many of Carl’s senior staff departed and I became “manager”. I worked year round with Carl (mostly for gear in the off season when cash was low) and learned so much from him. I remember loading a fleet of rental canoes from the river to the trailers one brilliant summer evening. Carl and I both had canoes on our shoulders. I turned to him and said, “I could do this for life” and he beamed back with a big smile bursting out through his thick beard and his bespectacled eyes had a look to me that said he understood all too well.
After college I moved to Oregon for the Forests, Mountains and girlfriend in law-school. Because I was now in a city, a Forestry job just wasn’t going to happen. After a few months of earning cash by building a sheep fence for family friends, I had to find real work. A mortgage loan officer boiler room job was offered to me (and every other warm heart beat willing to sit on a phone all day). I also interviewed at the local Kayak shop, Alder Creek Kayak and Canoe. I chose the latter where I worked 4 months before my relationship with Bell Canoes gave me the opportunity to start a rep business showing their canoes around the West.
I spent my 20s traveling the entire West. Friends were made in every town, rivers paddled with shop parties into the late evenings. Wet gear was always drying off my truck. This was the dream scenario for someone young and willing to dirtbag around the most beautiful parts of our country. Through hard work and dedication, I found my business expand. Less days on the water, more days in front of spreadsheets and more stress to “produce”. The best production though was my family that begin at 30 years old. Over the decade of my 30s I worked even harder to provide for my 3 children.
The need to create security had taken some of that innocence that had me wandering around the West in my 20s. But there was so much joy helping them grow. The super-demand cycle for paddlesports during the 2-3 years of the pandemic had things moving even faster and more flurried.
During this crazy demand cycle, I started to imagine that this is what people of fame might feel. Everyone looking for something and platitudes being thrown at you wether sincere or for ulterior motives.
And then the economy slammed into the log jam of a war in Eastern Europe, high inflation worldwide and “outdoor” fatigue. Shop inventory started to pile up. People wanted their trips to Vegas and Disney back. It felt like a massive hangover to me and I just wanted to pull the covers over my head.
This winter came and I needed a break from paddlesports. I couldn’t find the place of child-like wonder for time on the water.
I took some months off. I had to reframe.
Less can be more. I had to get back to my years of nostalgia where a canoe and paddle was part of my grasp for freedom and exploration. A sunset or sunrise. The meditative calm that comes from repeated step or paddle stroke. - กีฬา
Love the sincerity for your love of the sport. Inspirational. Thx for taking the time to post these videos.
Good Job, Ethan. Very nice action.
Just discovered this channel
Like the energy and content 🤙
Excellent!....Now inspired to head to the Snake on Friday and paddle my Northstar Phoenix! Very well done Ethan!
Can’t wait to see pics…should be nice and warm.
I love fishing without a pole it's so easy. I like that
Hello from another native Minnesotan who lives in Spokane now. My wife is a badger like yourself. Nothing like growing up in the midwest and then moving to the west. Best of both worlds. Keep up the great videos.
Best place to be from for sure! And still…there is some dang fine paddling back that way! Thanks for tuning in!
@@HappyPaddlin My wife and I will make our first visit to Bend the end of June. Which of the Cascade lakes should we try to paddle? Any recommendations would be appreciated.
Check Out Sparks and Hozmer and either hit early or late! I like Hozmer early and Sparks at Sunset. Crane Prairie has some different scenery, dispersed camping and some cool bird and flower life living in the half submerged stumps. Windy often in the afternoon.
@@HappyPaddlin Thanks Ethan, we'll check them out.
I love winter paddling because you do get it all to yourself. What dry suit are you wearing? Thanks for all the different videos you have put together!
Thanks for watching this different format. Just wanted to shared the feelings of the day at the beginning but then the geeky gear stuff at the end. The drysuit is a Stohlquist EZ Drysuit. They don't make them anymore (or any drysuits). NRS and Kokatat both have similar Neoprene neck type suits. For something like this, I don't need latex around the neck. First paddle after a couple months off in a small canoe had me wanting a little insurance for a shoreline spill getting in and out!
@@HappyPaddlin Thank you for the info. I am using a two piece Kokatat system now but I got my eye on the NRS Nomad Gore-Tex Pro.
Cool video! I have the same ADK Solo 12ft boat. Love love it!
Wish I could raise the seat slightly as getting off floor seat of canoe getting harder with age.
Any suggestions?
Stabiiity will reduce if up higher. I’d carry a paddle that I didn’t mind sticking in the dirt/ ground to help keep get up if you can. Rubber boots so I can get up when the boat is 2 feet in the water. Swing feet out into water over the edge and use paddle as a cane. Boat will heel over some.
I kneel in ADKs and it’s not for everyone!
Please let me know if you find this advice helpful or find other ways to get out easier that work for you. This is an interesting subject!!
I'm really interested in your solo paddle . Do you find you need a shorter shaft?? I love my ADK.
I was using a 54” Sunburst from Bending Branches. I use a 58” in my longer Northstar Solos with kneeling seats.
what yoke were u using?
Northstar clamp on yoke with CVCA shoulder pads
Hey I know what we can do let's make a kayak video of me
Let’s do it! Where we paddling?! 😀🛶