I went canoeing in Fish Lake in northern Illinois, where there's no one.
I hear ya.
We seek out 'off the beaten path' spots to explore. Here are a couple. First, Schooner Creek of the Waccamaw River in South Carolina (we anchored there on the sail boat, so not rowing the dink or paddling the canoe, but it is a bit 'remote'):
Here's one "rowing." Our dinghy (we live aboard a sail boat, so we are 'on the water' in one way or another or one boat or another all the time) has a small engine that we use to get TO places, but then I kill it and row so we can explore. Rowing times are sometimes as long as a couple of hours. The children love this, since we see all kinds of wildlife. Anyway, this is one such 'trip' on a small side creek off the Trent River (in North Carolina) about two miles from where we presently live:
On the day that picture was taken, but on a different creek, we saw an osprey swoop down and pull a fish out the water. It was not that particular day, but one afternoon while rowing, we saw six otters, and had them swimming behind the boat 'chasing' us.
You cannot beat slowing down and the relative quiet of rowing/paddling for seeing this stuff...if that's part of what you are after.
My friend and I thought it would be a breeze.. it's not! My husband was tired and didn't want to go but we talked him into it by telling him he could relax and we'd do all the work! And then he ended up doing all the work anyway.
HA!
The first time I took our canoe out, it was my two children and I. It was over 90 degrees outside. We were invited to dinner at a friend's house, which was close enough to the river that I figured, "hey, let's paddle up there!"
It was upriver and dead into a 10 knot breeze pretty much the whole way, and it took me over 3 hours to get there! I was so sore for several days after that. Ah, the memories.
But in all seriousness, with paddling, there is a proper "technique" that let's you do it for a long time without getting too tired. It has to do with twisting and unwinding the twist of your torso. Youtube has some good videos on both basic and more advanced paddling techniques.
A couple of tricks I've learned:
(1) We go out sometimes with just me and the two children and sometimes with all four of us (my wife, too). When it's just the little ones and me, I sit just forward of the middle.
A canoe is actually easier to control if you are trimmed very slightly "by the bow," or at least NOT "by the stern." This means that you do NOT want the boat sitting back-end heavy in the water, especially if you are the only one paddling.
Single paddlers usually sit in the middle for the best control. I learned this the hard way (ie, BEFORE I read about it in a book), when I tried sitting in the back with the two littles up front. It did NOT work at ALL.
(2) If we have two adult paddlers (the children do paddle), my wife (and the children) provides "drive" and does pretty much NOTHING to steer the boat. I paddle for forward motion to some extent, but do all the steering. Generally, very small sideways deflections of the stroke does the steering. I learned this from many many trips white water rafting: one person (in the back) steers, everyone else is "horsepower."
(3) It tracks straight best and turns/controls easiest with some pretty good speed. If you are moving "fast" through the water, the aft paddle can be used as a 'rudder,' giving it a slight twist to turn. This does not work if you are going too slowly, in which case you have to use a push or pull stroke to physically push the end of the boat sideways in the water....this is quite a bit harder. The 'rudder' technique lets the flowing water do the work for you; the slow technique is all you.
Every once in a while, I'll ask her to pull or push or reverse in a manner that helps steer, but if she does not hear from me, she/they pretty much just do a straight stroke to propel the boat and keep it moving.
It is surprising how fast we can go and how efficient (ie, non-tiring) this is with a little practice.
I hope you get another chance to do it...paddling and exploring by canoe is totally awesome, especially if you like being outdoors and seeing wildlife, etc. I wish I had started doing it years before I did. Best of luck, fair winds and following seas.
