Holiday Wishes

[Kathryn Klos]

Belated Thanksgiving best-wishes to our Canadian friends... and Cheers to All, as we begin the Great 2008 Holiday Count-Down.

We are elderly (though not in spirit!) and live in a snowy place, so we don't expect to venture too far from home until spring. I made a little video that maybe says why that is...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVeQT0vr7jA

Please Note: If you have dial-up and would like to see this YouTube video or any other ones I made, I'd be more than happy to send you a DVD with everything on it. All I need is a snail-mail address. If you'd prefer not to see my dog videos, I can leave them off and send canoe related ones only. There are great ones of Assembly 2008! (I guess the dogs appear in some of them, too).

Kathy

 

[Mark Adams]

Even with the snow on it, the Red Suburu looks nekked without a canoe on it!

Happy holidays!

 

[Kathryn Klos]

A fully-clothed automobile...

Mark-- you inspired me to go through my pictures and find a few of the Subaru with a canoe on top... kinda scary, in a way--- I'll have to use two replies, but that'll give me a chance to remind folks of a neat way to tie down the front end (as discussed in Forums in the past).

In this reply, you'll see:

Subaru with 16' Morris
Subaru with 12' Morris
Subaru with a UFO and a 17' Veazie
Subaru with 16' Gerrish
Subaru with 17' OT HW with sponsons
Subaru with Penn Yan rainbow

 

[Kathryn Klos]

continued...

... and the Subaru continues to model her lovely hats:

Subaru with Kennebec Katahdin

1987 BMW with 18' Morris (had to throw this in to prove it can be done-- a 14' car with an 18' canoe!)

And three pics of the loops (called "bunny ears" at our house) used to tie down the forward-facing end of the canoe...

 

[Dan Miller]

Lots of nice hats! But... you're still missing at least one...

PS. that's a 34' hat... don't know how long a CRX is...

 

[Benson Gray]

Now you also need to start thinking about painting your car to match the canoe/hat as shown below.

Benson

 

[Denis M. Kallery]

Dan,
I'll bet that was scary to drive. I know I was nervous. Especially when I went over the Mackinac bridge which is 5 miles long.
Benson,
Is that your vehicle? Cool!
Denis

 

[Benson Gray]

Benson,
Is that your vehicle? Cool!

It is my vehicle but Dan Miller added the design with a photo editing tool. I have some magnetic sign strips that will get painted like that some day so they can added as appropriate.

Benson

 

[Dan Lindberg]

Happy Thanksgiving to all,

And a big thanks to Kathy and Dennis for the pics, nice canoes, even if they are under a little car. Seems like the canoes deserve an upgrade.

When we were just starting out, our 1st boat/canoe was a std grumman 17ft'er, and we had a 1967 Camaro (wife's car, I drove a junker) that had a very short roof and this was well before we discovered roof racks, we just used those foam blocks.

Taking that canoe anywere was an adventure, we never lost it but did loose severel blocks over the years.

Dan

 

[Max Peterson]

Kathy & Dennis,

Thank you for sharing with us such a beautiful video! I note that the only dangers implied were related to the man-made road and transportation. Why go anywhere at all when this kind of beauty is in your front yard!

Max

 

[Fitz]

The trick to Holiday Travel

The trick to holiday travel is to Go Over the River and Through the Woods to Grandmother's House with an empty rack and then come back with it loaded without the missus noticing!!

Happy Holidays and Safe Travel Everyone.

Fitz.

 

[Howard Caplan]

Thanks for the video, Kathryn. It was great meeting you and Dennis at the WCHA event this fall. And meeting the other Great Rivers members who suffered through the rain and my little dog, Alfie.

howard

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Great meeting you and Alfie, Howard. One really fun aspect of the Jag Lake Adventure were all the dogs that showed up!

 

[Fitz]

How could she miss this?

So, I did go Over the River and Through the Woods to Grandmother's House with a stowed rack and I came back with this. A 20 foot Bastien Brothers Huron. She didn't even notice .

It belongs to a high school classmate of mine who has fond memories of growing up with it, but now it needs some TLC. I think think it is late 60's early '70's vintage. The story is that is my friend's family picked up at the factory in Quebec and it was the last 20 footer they made(?).

I still have to look it over some, but the planking on this monster is 6 inches wide or more!

 

[Dave Wermuth]

Forgive the hijack Kathy,

but fitz, how far apart are those crossbars and how did the canoe fare on the roof rack ride? Are there bow tie downs?

 

[Fitz]

Long boat on rack.

Dave:

Those are Thule bars on the Ford factory rack and they are spaced as far apart as possible on that rack. The factory rack is rated to 200 lbs. I also have a Maine roll-on on the rear Thule bar. I too would like more spacing between the bars, but that is all I can get. The center thwart is centered between the Thule bars.

For the trip home (5 hours), I used two ropes on the front and a single rope on the rear, mostly to avoid losing the whole thing in the event of catastrophic failure of the factory rack. I'm not sure what the Huron weighs, but I did portage it a little around the yard so it is manageable.

It was rock solid on the drive home even for 3 hours at interstate speeds. I did get quite a few curiosity looks during the drive though.

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Loven' the "Hijack!"

I love stories like these... they "help to make the season bright"!

 

[Dan Lindberg]

Look'en look Fitz,

Dan

 

[Dave Wermuth]

thanks

my crossbars are by yakima and are only 32" apart on my Jeep grand Cherokee. the '90 Cherokee has six feet plus of span. the '94 had four and a half to five feet. the '06 only has 32" Yakima says only 30" is needed, the minimum I expect. I must research the maine roll on. My front bar is so far from the front edge of the roof it is easy to scratch the roof at the front. I have a rack that bolts to my grill guard for 18 foot canoes but the shorter canoes won't reach that far. Oh for the 1990 gutter roof of my old Cherokee.
and every year they make the roof higher and higher off the ground.

 

[Fitz]

Drift

Well, this thread drifted - no?

As far as I know, they don't make Maine Roll-Ons anymore. Figures. I finally find something that works great and they stop making it. I have used that one for probably 10 years.

Too bad. I load all kinds of big canoes single-handedly with it, including double Prospectors, that 20 footer, etc.