Canoe Ponderings by Red Rock Wilderness Store

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BWCA Trip Suggestions and buying a Souris River Canoe during a Try-Buy

Q. We are interested in a completely outfitted trip to the BWCA on in September for 4 days and 3 nights. There would be two couples. Two of us have about 4 years of canoeing experience and have been life-long campers but not canoe campers. We are in our early 50’s. The other 2 are our daughter and son-in-law who have about one year of experience canoeing. They are early to mid 20’s, age wise. We have been talking about this trip for two years and have been looking at your web site for that long or longer. We have some books on the topic but really have not developed a plan for a route. We would appreciate your suggestions. We are coming from Eastern Nevada and Eastern Idaho, so we expect about 4 days of travel each direction. We expect to purchase at least one canoe at the end of the trip, although, we have considered taking advantage of your $300 special discount in February. Fishing would be a plus but is not the focus of the trip. We look forward to hearing your suggestions. 

Thanks 

Dan

A. Dan-
99.9998% of the people who do a Souris River Quetico 17 try-buy end up taking the canoe home with them.  It's a flawless performer in all general recreational uses and everybody from guides to novices use them.  It is difficult if not impossible to find a used Quetico 17 that has been privately owned.   It's unusual to see them on the market except by an outfitter after 3 seasons of rentals.  My point is that it remains very unlikely that you would not really like the canoe and taking advantage of our sale will save you a chunk of cash.  That option is not available on Try-Buys and it's most likely that if you are in the market to buy anyway, you might as well save $300. 

I'm laying this out because 5 minutes ago, I just emailed a guy who wants to buy a Souris River Limited Edition Quetico 17 which were available last year.  He really liked it and waited long enough for the word "limited" to really run its course and now there are no more.  I see this happen time and time again.  I'm not pressuring so much as I'm telling you what I know regarding the popularity of the canoe with Try-Buy customers and how often it they take a new one home after a trip.  Might as well save the $300 if you know you are going on a trip here anyway.  Just a thought. 

A good place to go in for your trip would start at Lake One to the South Arm of Knife lake and back down to Moose Lake.  There are route variation possibilities in that area that you can use to adjust for how fast you are traveling, bad weather, etc.   In the event that this trip does not have an available permit, you can also enter at Moose Lake and do it in reverse.  I'm assuming you would not be traveling at break-neck speed and wouldn't mind having a few layover days along the way.  Breaking camp and moving every day becomes an exercise in tedium and doesn't allow one to stop and smell the roses.  Also, it really cuts into fishing time and calmer exploration.  Many of our customers do the "pound hard thru the woods" thing - I think they spend too much time on the freeways back home.

Joe
Red Rock