Oliver Kemp Paddle Illustration

Here's an illustration by artist Oliver Kemp. It's from a piece of fiction called "Tragedy on the Upper Snake River" that appeared in Scribner's Magazine (Volume 70, Sept 1921) online courtesy of archive.org. Nice clear view of the paddle blade and roll top grip... 

More Cree Paddles from Fort Severn...courtesy of Mike O & Doug I

Working on some technical issues with the blog. The original clickable sliding gallery that appeared on the top right disappeared and stopped functioning entirely. It's been replaced with a non-clickable slideshow. Links to all the completed paddles are now found on the separate Paddle Image Archives page

In the meantime, paddling friend Mike O of the ever-insightful Reflections on the Outdoors Naturally blog has put up some pics of Cree paddles from Fort Severn. They include some standard looking blades painted in utilitarian green but also a decorated blade with an interesting tip. For anyone interested is seeing the pics, the direct link to Mike's post is HERE.

Also, for those who might of missed it last time, Mike's canoe restoration work with Fort Severn First Nation (along with Doug Ingram, Pam Wedd, & John Hupfield) was documented in Canada's national news network. Here's that post from earlier this year

Temagami Style Carrying Bar

One item on my endless to do list of projects was to carve a new centre yoke for the 15footer cedar canvas canoe since the the current, no-frills centre thwart is quite uncomfortable for portaging. Some old-school authors and builders believe that a single centre thwart bolted onto the gunnels is a potential weak point in the construction arguing that the role of the thwart is to simply spread out the hull to the desired width and not meant to bear the weight of the canoe when portaging. 

Close inspection of the attachment points of the thwart in my canoe show some stress related splits that have occurred. You can just make out a split in the inwale around the 2 attachment points. 

Installing a new yoke will also likely also mean having to do a time consuming inwale restoration or splice might be in order but I want to start using this no-name, amateur built canoe for some upriver tripping ASAP. 

Writings about native methods of portaging birchbark canoes mention a "carrying bar" - basically a piece of wood that fits over the mortised centre yoke and stretches over the gunnels thereby providing support when the canoe is flipped over. In the Temagami region of central Ontario where camps still use heavy cedar canvas canoes, the carrying bar is still used to prevent potential weakening of the gunnel structure.

Here's a photo of one such carrying bar rigged up with cord and a tumpline from the wonderfully illustrated Canoeing Wilderness Waters by Heb Evans

Normally, the bar is made with a scrap piece of spruce or pine and notched to fit over the gunnels. It is securely lashed to the center thwart with cord is a series of Marline Hitches so that paddle blades can be slipped under and used as a temporary yoke. A tumpline is also secured around the whole apparatus

Found an online article in Boys Life (July 1951) that shows describes this classic method of portaging. Hopefully this embedded article will appear in your browsers below.

Instead of using pine or spruce, I had some very lightweight 8/4 Sassafras pieces left over from some paddles. A nice chunk with one straight edge was almost a perfect width for this project. The ends were cut to fit nice and snuggly over the thwart.

Scrap piece of Sassafras

Ends notched to fit over gunnels

Came up with this idea to combine the carrying bar with the Stewart River portage pads picked up last season. Basically some additional notches were cut to accomodate the pads and once they were secured with their bolts and wing-nuts, the whole apparatus was secure. The tumpline was lashed in using the methods described by Heb Evan in his book. This way I can still lashed the paddles in reverse style with the grips on the thwart and the blades resting on the seat while comfortably (relatively) supporting the canoe on the shoulders.

Aug 10 Update: Received a most informative email from Brian Back, Keewaydin Camp Historian, with some corrective details about traditional carrying bars used by the Temagami camp. Here's his info...

"The traditional carrying bar was not lashed with marline hitches, though it appears so in the photos. Nor are there any overhand knots on it. The lashing actually doubles back to form a double lash. The single lash wears out quickly where it meets the edge of the paddle. For some reason Heb’s photo is not of the double-back lashing. The carrying bar in that photo has been hand routed (also can’t be seen) in the traditional way to prevent the lashing from slipping from the left and right anchor points."

Apparently there is plenty of info about tumplines and other traditional wilderness canoeing methods in Back's book entitled, The Keewaydin Way  for anyone else who may be interested.

Paddle Break around Pen Lake

 Been away for a while with the family up north. Unfortunately some issues prevented me from getting out in the canoe for more than a few hours so I took the opportunity to explore the cottage lake. At the extreme other end of the lake (about 6km away) is a large vertical cliff face named "Wolf Mountain". This end of the lake has been left fully undeveloped by the owners and features a a steep trail climb to a granite overhang where you can dangle your legs over. The view is quite stunning and it's a popular spot for locals to visit and sometimes camp overnight. 

Approaching the "mountain"

Pull up onto a sloping rock

The view of the calm lake waters

Pair of loons lounging about during the return trip

Full moon rising on return - "Wolf Mountain" is the peak in the distance

Sassafras Northwoods Part 2

Here's an update on the next paddle I was working on - the sassafras Northwoods style paddle modelled after the one in the Hudson Museum in Maine...

Hudson Museum Paddles (Credit: Bob Holtzman)

Took advantage of the cool down in the weather to finally get some carving done in the backyard. It's been scorching here in Toronto for what feels like forever! Progress on the blade was moving along nicely. Love the smell of those Sassafras shavings while you work...

For the handle, a few stop cuts with a saw and then some work with the axe and crooked knife to clean up a bit.

Everything was going well, the grip was being rasped down to shape and then I had the urge to check the flex...SNAP!

I suppose this could've been avoided by using precision power tools but it just isn't my thing.  Still want to salvage what I  can from this project. Thought of continuing to work on the blade and rounding off the remaining shaft. Maybe my 4 yr old  can use it like a wooden tennis racket with a beach ball or something. Was thinking of carving some old school wooden tent stakes  from the left over handle part.

Any readers have some  creative ideas of what to do with these pieces?  I've already  posted a thread on BushcraftUSA asking folks the same question and some ideas are flowing in. Apparently my thread got removed because the mods think I'm a vendor trying to sell "a product". Oh well. In the meantime, if any readers here have suggestions of what to do with busted pieces, then feel free to leave a comment.