The Birth of a Dugout Canoe || Northmen

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Blackwater Swamp Excursion

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We left Atlanta with a light snow coming down and temperatures fallen into the 30's - relatively cold for late February in North Georgia.  My good friend Jeff and I were heading south on I-75 with a destination in the southeast corner of the state: Okefenokee Swamp . There, we had booked a trip with local outfitter Okefenokee Adventures for a three day paddle along some of the canoe routes criss-crossing the expansive refuge.  Day One: Arriving at the refuge entrance outside Folkston, GA, we met our bearded guide, Chip Campbell, who turned out to be a real character. He and his wife own the outfitting and guide service there, and he entertained us the entire trip with his extensive knowledge of everything from swamp flora to local lore to current TV series to conservation practices! His enthusiasm for the creatures there and the swamp itself was clearly evident, and he managed to impart a whole lot of knowledge in just a couple of days. My favorite laid back li...
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Old Town Guide 119 Review

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I loved this boat. The Old Town Guide/Discovery 119  is a small frame, single seat canoe built to meet the requirements of a solo paddler. The "Guide" version was made specifically for Dick's Sporting Goods and featured the grey/black camo pattern in the pic above. The "Discovery" is the same boat, with some seat variations, as sold by everyone else. At a glance, it is also very similar to the pricier Pack Canoe , but there are some differences in both materials and design that differentiate these two crafts. First off, the technical specs: Length: 11'9" (Get it? Guide 119 ?) Width at widest point: 32.5" Bow height: 19" Weight: 49 lbs Max load range: 450-500 lbs That 49 lbs weight was what drew me to look hard at the 119 in the first place. Not a big guy, I was getting tired of lugging the 80lb Pelican I owned just prior, well, anywhere really . As anyone who has explored lightweight paddlecraft can tell you, there are light bo...
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Etowah River || Boling Park to Field's Landing

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Slowly, a few miles every year, I'm chipping away at my goal to paddle the entire Etowah River. It's 164 miles long, and I'm 66 miles in right now. I suppose you could argue that it's the easier of the miles that've been paddled too, considering some 26 of those are the still, slow waters of Lake Allatoona. Regardless, it's a goal and an enjoyable one to work toward at that. A lot of those miles have been solo, a few with my wife Jeannie, and now that my brother(s) are around more, they're racking up a good bit faster. This latest stretch was 10 miles from Boling Park to Field's Landing . This was the first bit of Etowah I've done upstream from the lake, and for the first 8 miles or so there was a nice current pushing along. It's all woodlands on both sides, and only a couple of houses peek through the trees along the way. Unlike the lower Etowah I'm used to, there were no riverside shacks or private boat launches dotting the banks. I have...
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