Native caones on Empire Lakes

Doug Barett from the Confederated tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians teaches youth to paddle a head canoe on Empire Lakes. Note the cedar wreath on the bow and the cedar hat on Doug.

















The race is on a "Head" canoe vs a "Yourk" canoe. Both of these boats were used in this area by the local people. The Head canoe was faster but not as fast as our Mad River canoe. Our advantage was being a thousand pounds lighter and having seats where the paddles reached the water better. We also had a 40 year experience advantage.

Bob Sleeth came out to paddle different types of canoes. He has much patience to put up with my incessant lecturing on how to canoe. Here he is paddling a Royalex Mad River. The afternoon winds were making it difficult to control so he shifted his weight to sit in the front seat backwards. You can still see the bow is out of the water and wanted to weather cock in the wind.

Everyone needs to know where is the tipping point for your boat. Bob is finding out for himself how far can you lean before you swim. He kept the canoe dry in this experiment. I was impressed with his courage, bracing the canoe with only one hand on the paddle.