Standard operating equipment

 

Over the years a lot of time has been spent in one of these boats.
Fishing, hunting, freight hauling, wild ricing, and of course canoe tripping and camping.
Grumman 17' aluminum canoe, designed and first manufactured in 1944.
These sturdy canoes revolutionized travel in the BWCA up until the time of Kevlar and Royalex.
But I had never actually owned one, as they are ubiquitous in the north country.

So, I saw one sitting on the side of the road the other day with a "For Sale" sign attached.
The 85 year old widow who was selling and her late husband had paddled thousands of miles in the days of their firmity through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness - years before it was a designated area.
Well worn, dented, straightened, beaten and patched - the stories it could tell.
It does not leak.

 

Home it came
Like I need another boat.............