View topic - Gettng from here to there

Something that dogs me is how do I get back home.

Picture this, you drive to an access point, paddle down the river, then at that access point.... You are stuck. Your vehicle is too far to walk to. You are not near public transportation. And, you just might be out of cell service, so how are you going to call someone.

If I had someone to go with, then we could have 2 vehicles. Due to my current schedule (or lack there of) I do not travel with others.

So, what do you do?

Make arrangements for a shuttle beforehand?

Usually it goes like this....you arrange to meet someone at the takeout, you pick them up and drive to the put-in, they return your vehicle so it's waiting for you.

The usual problem is finding a reliable shuttle driver and that all depends on where you are paddling.

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"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915

For my local rivers the current is such that I paddle upstream and then have an easy ride back to my vehicle. It makes things so much simpler.

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http://www.youtube.com/user/TheNorthwoodsman1

Yu don't sayhow far you are paddling. Some people drop a bike at the take out and then bike back up, or drop the gear at the put in, drop the car at the take out and then bike back up.

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Present: Slip, Slap and Slop, hide from the sun! Past: Get some colour in those cheeks! Paddle Naked!

I drive my canoe to a put in & I can paddle the river to near my property, stash the canoe, hike a couple of kms uphill to get my truck at my house (can't carry the canoe that far anymore), drive to near the stash site to get my canoe & take it home, then I have to ride my mountain bike 30 kms over 60-40% gravel rough forestry road & then paved road back to the put in to get my car. I have no other options.

I could also paddle a lot further downstream, up to 60? kms, but being in my 60's, I cannot ride my mountain bike that far any longer, at least not more than once. I could leave my truck & trailer @ the pull out & ride my ATV home after dropping it off, but the truck is no longer registered & it's a gamble to have the truck broken into & the trailer stolen & ATVs can't be driven on paved roads here. It's a rural area but sadly there are too many of those that can't be trusted still around, it's a lottery.

My ideal 30 km paddle ride option, is my looking for a "deal" on a scooter under 50 cc that I could use to go & get my car with vs. riding my mountain bike, as I could tow that home behind my small car after I ride it back to pick up the car. Sadly though, the used 50 cc scooters that I see in the area on Kijiji, are still well over $1000 so far.

But the scooter is the best 2 "vehicle" solo compromise that I can come up with.

Well, if I wanted to do the Spanish River, its over 200km to drive from end to end. Train does not go to the bottom end.

Spanish River......Agnew Lake Lodge does the shuttle (reasonable price as well).

For the East Branch you drive to Agnew Lake Lodge, pick-up driver who will go with you to Duke Lake, when you finish your vehicle is waiting for you at the lodge.

For the West Branch you drive to Agnew Lake Lodge, pick up driver who will go with you to the train station in Sudbury, when you finish your vehicle is waiting for you at the lodge.

Most popular routes have similar services (part of the reason they are popular).

If you want to end at the Elbow you can use Spanish River Outfitters (Fox Lake Lodge) to take you to Duke Lake or Cartier to catch the train.

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"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915

Ok, so what about

The French,
Temagami River,
Sturgeon River,

Etc...

I think you can go both ways on most of the French. Almost all 'pool and drop'

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Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.

I haven't paddled any of those rivers so I don't have specific information. That said I'm pretty sure that for all of them there are local people or companies that will do shuttles.

Personally I've arranged shuttles on at least 50 river trips in three provinces, usually not difficult to arrange even for remote and rarely travelled routes although they can get expensive in some situations.

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"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915

On the Middle section of the French, Pine Cove Lodge on Wolesley Bay does some outfitting and runs a water taxi service. Not sure if they offer a shuttle service but I agree both the Middle and lower sections of the French are good for loop routes It all depends on how much time you have.
https://www.frenchriver.com/index.shtml

I've used Smoothwater outfitter for their shuttle service when we did the Lady Evelyn River from it's headwaters. They could get you to the northern part of Smoothwater so that you could run the Sturgeon
https://smoothwater.com

It just takes some searching on the internet. That said I think it's cheaper to find someone to paddle with.

Well that depends on how far away from "home" the trip is. I just paid $300 for a shuttle for the Ashuapmushuan, two of us both with vehicles but the cost of gas alone to get two vehicles there for a DIY shuttle would have been almost the same and used up a days worth of paddling time.

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"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915

Steel River Loop, where you put in, go up the Diablo Portage, paddle about 50 km on lakes, then take the Steel River just about back to your car. Maybe it's not an exciting enough river though...

Any of the Temagami-area outfitters (Smoothwater, Temagami Outfitting, etc) will do shuttles, it's a major part of their business. So that covers the Temagami and Sturgeon, and water taxi services for the French have been named above. The Temagami area is also full of lake/portage networks that can form loops together with parts of the Temagami or Sturgeon Rivers. The French Delta has many criss-crossing channels that can form loops, or a longer loop can be made out of the French and the Pickerel, both of which can easily be paddled in either direction.

If you're doing one-way river trips, you need a shuttle. If there's no outfitter in the area providing the service you're going to have to arrange something with a private driver. It's not really something to ponder after you've planned a one-way trip, it's a basic requirement of such a trip being doable. And yes these things are all the more expensive when you're tripping solo. My own canoe tripping is almost entirely loops, in part because I prefer not having to worry about these logistical issues. But anyone with a passion for whitewater is going to have to contend with one-way trips.

I have an inflatable kayak from SeaEagle.com. It is great for day trips downriver. We park the car at the take-out point and call a cab to take us to the put-in point. The SeaEagle is in a duffle bag in the trunk. It takes 10-15 minutes to inflate and we are off. We often do day trips down the Grand in the Paris/Brantford area and it costs about $20 for the cab. So it is a reasonably priced day on the water.

When we don't know where we want to take out, we just park at the put-in and watch for an overpass with traffic. We get out, deflate and bag the kayak, then call the cab and throw the duffle bag in the trunk. The driver doesn't even know they are carrying a boat.

Ours is their lower end boat, so it has thick walls and is lousy for carrying much gear. But it is great for shorter stints.

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