Canoe tripping since 1957

John Scarlett

New Member
As a thirteen year old in 1956 I built a dugout canoe from a hollow log. The following summer I took my first canoe trip in a neighbor's Peterborough cedar strip. The next two summers I borrowed a Dundee "unilam" mahogany plywood canoe. In the years following I bought and did some restoration on four Old Town canoes and took them on long canoe trips. These days at age 70 I am still single carrying on portages with 90 lbs. of canoe and pack but the canoe is a 38 lb. tandem kevlar. However I still dream of that Dundee and hope someday to paddle or own one. It was made in Central New York in the 1950's, was wonderfully lightweight (or at least it was compared with that Peterborough), and paddled beautifully. My wife and I live in Rossie, NY, just off the St. Lawrence River.
 
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