A Tippy Canoe On Bottle Lake

Been thinking about getting our canoe out from behind the garage. It needs some work such as a new thwart and some serious cleaning but it's been way too long since we've used it for either pleasure paddling or fishing. I've always been a little shy about canoeing, not scared but edgy. Maybe it all goes back to my "canoe experienced" boyhood friend Mike and his demonstration on how to properly and safely use a canoe with a small outboard hanging off the side on an outrigger. We were at his family's camp on Bottle Lake for some fishing fun and we needed some power assistance in order to get thru the thoroughfare and into Junior. 

So Mike carefully leans out just a bit to adjust the motor and the next thing you know he and the canoe are upside down. This happened not once but twice and our motor very seriously sputtered for the entire weekend. I guess it is a testament to the simplicity of the old outboards back in the day that it ran at all.

Maybe that's where my edginess comes from. Luckily my wife Pat is a seriously fine canoe-er but I'm not sure about our two dogs...

I just have to keep this in mind...

There is no such thing as a tippy canoe..only tippy paddlers 

And there is..

a right way.

And a...

wrong way.

So I'll just have to take it one paddle stroke at a time and make sure my fly rod is securely tethered..you know, just in case.

Wives and dogs are on their own...