Saturday, September 23, 2017

Canoes Baby!

... a while back we lamented the passing of the classic plastic canoe ('End of Days'), as we knew it, with the abandonment of the production of 'Royalex' plastic composites around 2014 - well, thanks to 'High Density Polyethylene (HDPE)' plastic and a bunch of human ingenuity, they appear to be back, with reckless abandon...

... credit: 'Gnarlz Outdoors'...

... that was cool - view in full screen for best effect...

... personally haven't paddled canoes (and that means whitewater) much (if at all), since around 2010 - picked up a few SUP's and have mainly been playin' around on those things since then - but after having viewed much of the performance of those new (shortboat) designs (powered by some pretty impressive paddling ability), we're about a gnats hair away from pickin' one up... we'll think about it some more...

... did pick up this 'Mohawk Maxim' (Royalex boat) back then - think about 8'10" length (may be wrong and don't feel like running out back to measure it) - other than some Class II and some small surfing waves, haven't spent a whole lot of time mastering it - some hard edges on this thing and not a whole lot of primary stability - good secondary stability, but spent so much time low bracing and cross stroking this thing until finally re-injuring a rotator cuff on the left shoulder  - it's been back up on the shelf since then...

... from the archives..

... a young rookie 'Strongman Matt' - Lower Yough River around '92...

... around '04...

... around '04 again...

... turned into a pretty competent Class IV open boater...

... don't recall the rapid here...

... gotta' love canoes - they're even cool lookin'... 

...we've played around with decked kayaks a bit, but we'll stick with open boats - could never figure out why someone would want to spend only half their time outdoors...

... plus it's scientific fact...
... "not all badass's paddle a canoe... but all canoeists are badass"...
                                                                                                                - Albert Einstein

Saturday, September 16, 2017

Natural Camouflage 2

... some interesting moth sightings of late...

 
... 'Pandora Sphinx Moth'...

... probably about four inches in width wing to wing - first one we ever viewed... would be cool to complete the trifecta with a 'Luna Moth', but we think that opportunity ended late July...

(internet image)
... here's an image (swiped from the internet) of one for those not familiar - have only ever spotted three in all these years - all while stumbling around the ridge above El 1000ft - and all just after dusk...