Western PA Solo Canoe Rendezvous
 

TCT,
Who knows where we will be with the COVID crisis in early June, but I received information below from Bruce Kemp this week on the annual Western Pennsylvania Solo Canoe Rendezvous. It’s the same weekend as Riverfest, but the rendezvous runs for three days so there is still a chance to catch a big part of it.
JP

From Bruce Kemp:

A reminder and invitation to everyone to what will be the 13th annual Western PA Solo Canoe Rendezvous. Always the first full weekend in June, which this year will be June 5/6/7, 2020 (Friday-Sunday) at our regular home at Cooper’s Lake Campground, Portersville/Slippery Rock PA. At this point in mid-March, with the Rendezvous still almost 3 months away, it’s impossible to predict how ongoing coronavirus issues may affect our event, but for the time being we are continuing to prepare and plan and invite. And to hope for the best – in all ways really, and for Everyone.

That said, the Rendezvous is a deliberately and relentlessly informal gathering of enthusiasts and afficianados of solo canoes in particular (but tandems are welcome too…) We will have the best of the current canoe manufacturers present with demo models for you to try out; a selection of classic canoes that you just don’t see that often; some basic paddling instruction as well as some basic FreeStyle paddling instruction and Interpretive demos; some beautifully restored wood/canvas canoes from our local chapter of WCHA; and Goodness knows What-All. An event dedicated to the goal of immersing oneself in canoes and canoe folks in all of their variety and diversity for 60-some hours to the exclusion of all other reality. It’s a Very Nice Affair Indeed!

The event itself is free, though our host campground assesses a fee for camping and for day-trippers. On both our website (wpascr.org) and our Facebook page (“Western PA Solo Canoe Rendezvous”), we’ll keep you updated as to who’ll be coming, what we’ll be doing, and all the rest of it as that information comes to us. On the website message board, anything with “2020” in the title will have current and pertinent info. For those new to the Rendezvous, clicking on “2020 schedule” on the message board there will give you a fair idea of what usually occurs, and clicking on “prior years” on the home page will take you to pictures of Rendezvous’ past.

We’ll keep you posted on our website and FB page.

Take care of yourselves in the meantime, everybody, and we hope to see you there…

Wester PA Solo Canoe Rendezvous Cancelled
 

TCT, Bruce Kemp sent the following message today, April 27, regarding the Western PA Solo Canoe Rendezvous:

Though it will come as no great surprise I’m sure, given the Coronavirus situation still abroad in our country, we have reluctantly but officially cancelled the 13th edition of the Rendezvous for 2020. It is quite clear, and has been for some weeks really, that it will just not yet be safe enough to conduct, nor travel to, nor to attend a “large gathering” event like the Rendezvous by the first weekend in June here in west PA. Bans on such gatherings and a continuation of social distancing measures in PA generally (and pretty much just about everywhere else) are likely to remain in effect for the foreseeable future – certainly past June 1 - despite gradual and incremental moves to re-open this and other states’ economies and inch back to “normal”.

We’ll greatly miss getting together with y’all at Cooper’s Lake to, as we always say, mess about with canoes to the exclusion of all other Reality. But these days there’s a Reality we just can’t in good conscience ignore. We plan to reschedule edition #13 in 2021. Just a little delayed, is all…

And as always, with all of you coming, it’ll still be - as it always is - a Very Nice Affair indeed…

Stay well and safe, Everybody. Better times a’comin……

I really do want to attend one of those.
I could learn so much.

Jp
 

I do need to say thank you to jp.
Even from a far he still mentors me.
He got me a great book a while back about canoeing and adventures of a paddler and his family.

Jessica and myself did the grand river the 19th.
I was getting my butt handed to me for the first 3 miles by the extreme wind.

Then I remembered a chapter in the book.
Emptied a dry bad, (30 liter) filled it all the way up with water.
Attached to the front of the canoe. The last 5 miles were pretty easy as I had very little trouble after that.

Thanks again JP!!!!

Mike

Double Duty Gear
 

Mike, I love this story.

I had this experience when the kids were little. Tom and I rented canoes in Jamestown and went out on Pymatuning Lake. I had the canoe with our son and at that time he didn't weigh very much. We had a great time until we tried to get back and found ourselves trying to paddle into the wind. I paddled and I paddled and I paddled and got no where. I was exhausted and getting panicky when someone saw my struggle and offered us a tow back to the marina.

I would love to hear others McGyver stories of how they solved a problem they encountered while out paddling with the gear they had on board.

Not sure if this qualifies as a “McGyver story,” but on a French Creek trip a number of years ago the sustained winds were some of the strongest I’d ever experienced in my canoe. The wind was bad enough on French Creek, and I was dreading how much worse it was likely to be when we hit the Allegheny River to paddle to the take out in Franklin. When we reached the wide open waters of the Allegheny, the head wind was worse. It forced me to tack back and forth across the river several times, the way a sailor sails into the wind rather than trying to paddle directly into the teeth of the wind. So while I didn’t have to use a piece of equipment in a way it wasn’t intended, the conditions forced an adaptation. I don’t recall how others on the trip handled the situation.

Thanks JP!

That is good info I will tuck into the back of my brain. That happened to us last year on Lake Arthur at Moraine State Park. We had a really nice day out and then when we tried to come back the wind was ferocious. Waves were coming up over the front of the kayaks. We just dug deep and suffered through it but I always worry about becoming too fatigued to make it back.