Found this on the Wanipigow River last week and at first look thought we could save it but after closer inspection it was deemed too far gone. It is between portages 5 and 6 downstream from Wallace Lake and likely wrapped last year on #5, which is the same rapid Wapoose wrapped on a few years ago.

It belonged to someone in Minnesota based upon the registration tag.

Just a little G-flex, and it'll be good as new!

Do people just leave busted boats out there?

If I wrapped a boat the thought of not hauling it out would never even cross my mind...

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I like canoes

A good reason to pack a hacksaw blade and a small saw.
Part collection.

The groups that come up from Minnesota are from different camps, YMCA/YWCA and are out for month long excursions. We met three groups last week headed up to the Bloodvein and beyond all using Bell Alaskans. That particular boat wasn't from their camp but since we were the first through this year it had to have happened last year.

They get dropped off at Wallace Lake and the driver leaves with the trailer, heading back to the USA. The groups then head out for the duration of the trip.

We figure they wrapped it, then just carried on with the extra people loaded into another boat. Of the groups we saw this week, first was 6 men in 3 boats, second was 5 women in 2 boats and last was 9 women in 3 boats.

And there is an ancient Dolphin fiberglass canoe at the 6th portage that we know has been there for 6 years, now we view it as part of the landscape.

Some years back we ran the Miette River in Jasper in spring time high water, I was paddling with my future brother-in-law. The first mistake was not thoroughly scouting the river, the second mistake was over-confidence from running the Athabasca the evening before.
We were about five or ten very fast minutes from the put-in and we swamped in standing waves at a bend just before a little bridge. I had an altercation with the stern rope and my bowman and the boat dissappeared around the bend downriver while I ended up on shore near the bridge abutment wondering if my future sister-in-law owned a gun.
After climbing the embankment I spotted my companion lying prone on a midstream gravel bar about 50 yards above a river wide log jam. It turned out he was just having a short nap after his invigorating swim. If we hadn't swamped we would have probably been in the lumber until late June.
At low water I returned to the scene of the crime with my two kids and a shovel and an axe and excavated the battered royalex hull. I brought it to Saskatoon as a wedding gift and it's now in his backyard planted with petunias.

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Time's but a golden wind that shakes the grass...

The Ontario MNR staff in Algonquin left a flattened and twisted aluminum canoe at the top of rapids on the Petawawa years ago, probably as a sign to the likkered-up crazies ready to run any and all whitewater.

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><((((º>

If the camp was keeping up on their current Minnesota registration it looks as if the boat was there awhile.

My Alaskan is green too. It is in better shape however.

J

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HALF THE PADDLE, TWICE THE MAN

The registration decal says it expires Dec 31, 2012. I have a photo of it from the other side of the boat.

I saw that being from MN. That is why I said if they were current with their registration. Maybe they were not.

At any rate, it ranks as a major oops!

J

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HALF THE PADDLE, TWICE THE MAN

If you think it belongs to a camp you should try connecting camps.

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Brian
http://www.JohnstonPursuits.ca

 

Not sure why.. obviously whoever had the boat noticed it was wrecked and got extracted and did not come back for it.

IMO marine salvage rights prevail if you want it.. Kind of a big removal and repair job. Too bad it won't biodegrade as a Chestnut would be. I have found keels and ribs of old wood canvas canoe that are decomposing ala dead mammals.

We did think about extracting it, but it is split gunwale to gunwale in front of the rear seat and the side is caved in. I don't know much about royalex boats but I doubt it is repairable.

Once in awhile we run into boat wreckage on remote US rivers like in eastern Oregon. It doesn't bother me that much, because they are a useful reminder for newbies and the overconfident to watch their steps. Kind of like a boat graveyard. Eventually flood waters wash them downstream where they can be picked up.

It's more of an issue when someone leaves a pinned canoe where it is a hazard to others. Once, running Coppermine Rapid on the Chestatee in Georgia, I realized I was passing *over* an aluminum tandem pinned crossways on a rock. Then I notice three wet guys on the old bridge, eyeing their boat, which was visible only from downstream. If I had been in a kayak instead of a high volume c-1, my bow might have entered the submerged boat and caused me to become pinned against it.

Still, I don't think the guys could have done anything to remove the boat that day. The real solution to the problem was for them not to run a class 3+ they couldn't handle.

Another time, we encountered some guys whose Grumman was pinned crossways at the runout of Sandy Ford Rapid on the Chattooga. Somewhat hazardous position for others. We stopped, and one of our guys had a "come-along" lever ratchet thing which we linked to a rope, a tree, and the canoe. Couldn't get it loose, wished them luck. Later on another Chattooga III run I saw the same canoe parked up the left bank, badly torn. Somehow it disappeared. Maybe the aluminum eating rats got it.