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Strong, scary, powerful
Why you don’t want to wade onto icy river edges during the thaw The ice jam release you see here comes courtesy of our friends at the Roaring Fork Conservancy (http://www.roaringfork.org/) on the upper Roaring Fork River here in Colorado a couple weeks ago. Ice jam releases are incredibly dangerous for both boaters and anglers. You…
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Update: Raindog Boatworks’ Two-Person Dory Build
A few weeks ago, we introduced you to a radical drift boat design from Justin Gallen over at Raindog Boatworks. Today, we have an update from Justin on how the prototype boat is progressing. From Justin… When we left off last, the boat was still on the strongback. You build a form with cross members…
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TU Tested: The LavaBox Portable Campfire
When I first stumbled across the Lavabox, it was a head-slapping “DUH” type of moment and I knew I immediately must try one out for an upcoming float trip.
Do you like fire? As in, “warm your hands and feet with a cup of something delicious and a marshmallow” kind of fire? I love fires while camping, floating, and of course even in the back yard. But... fires take a little bit of work, time to set up, and there's always the cleanup.…
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Taking rafting to extremes
Would you float the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world? If you’ve been lucky enough to visit New Zealand, you know what an amazingly spectacular place it is. You also know the Kiwis take their extreme sports quite seriously and typically push everything to extremes. Well, their approach to rafting is no different. While…
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Pull up a seat: We’re watching a dory build from scratch
It’s rare that you hear about an idea for a boat and watch it play out from scratch in front of you in relative real time—but that’s what I have for you.
Follow along as Raindog Boatworks builds a dory that blows our mind Back in September, I wrote here about what I thought was one of the most amazing little wooden dories I had ever seen. At just nine feet long, the fully decked, one-man Raindog Boatworks “Doryak” looked to be about one of the most fun…
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It’s Winter: Time To Refinish Your Wooden Oars
We just got a couple feet of snow, and while my mind is very much thinking of summer, I really do tend to enjoy some mid-winter boat-centric housekeeping at this time of year. Personally, I am a wooden oar guy (more on that choice later), and as such, I occasionally have to do some work not…
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The Thalweg: Already Dreaming of Summer
Twelve images that instantly bring me back to boats, rivers, and of course fishing. I hope you agree.
Or at the very least Spring… Here on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains it seems as if Winter has not yet arrived. We’ve had precious little moisture and my last float was incredibly just a few weeks ago. The dory is now finally wrapped for the Winter, and the rafts are put away…
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