Pakboat Adventures

Todd Schwartz has come up with a very functional way to portage kayaks like those made by Pakboats. Below you will find pictures and information about his portage yoke as well as his experience with the PakPod. Click here to see his experience with the XT-17 on Lake Superior. Greetings Alv, Laura and I very […]

  Greetings ALV, My wife and I just returned from an eleven day BWCA kayaking trip.  The XT-17 and 15 performed flawlessly, and with the portage yokes I designed and built portaging was as comfortable as portaging ever gets (I’m attaching photos of the yokes).

I am looking forward to a really special canoe trip. We will spend 3 weeks this summer, paddling 3 rivers in Lapland. Starting in Norway, we will cross into Finland for a few days on the Poroeno watershed www.canoeguide.net/en/finland/fin-01-lappland/404-fin-01-006-poroeno .

The following is a discussion that was prompted by my previous ‘Family Canoe’ post. The discussion covers canoeing with kids and how PakCanoes can fill the particular needs that kids have. I think you will find it interesting.

A few days ago, I included a little story in my e-mail newsletter. The newsletter was about something else, but I received some nice responses to the story. These responses are from people who have had Puffins for several years, and you may find them interesting.

Alv, I got the XT-17 and have been giving it some sea trials. Right out of the box, in tandem mode it is faster than my Current Designs Sirocco 16’10”, a rotomolded brit form kayak with the same width and probably 2′ less waterline.

Hello I have been meaning to send you this quick note for some time now.  Back in 2001 I contacted you under the auspices of our guiding company with a request for information on purchasing some of your Pakboat folding canoes for expanding our offerings into combined water and mountain trips.  You kindly offered a […]

  I took my Quest 135 on a 3 day “Sottocosta” group rally around the Mediterranian islands of Ponza and Palmarola with about 70 sea kayaks, me with around 25 lb of camping gear. My first camping trip in it. Less bouncy laden in a chop although a bit wetter and not as good for […]

Many years ago, a group of friends bought canoes, picked a route on the map and went on an epic trip. None of us had been on a canoe trip before, and none of us knew how to paddle a canoe in whitewater, but we had a good time and I was hooked on canoe […]

Canoeing the Lorillard River By Brian Johnston I am a Far North paddler. I travel with others that share my passion for exploring this vast region of Canada. As we continue to chase our dreams and follow our passions, we will continue to research, paddle, and report on original and unique water routes. This is […]

Rio Coypisa. Bolivia 2012 The buttress roots of rainforest giants reach right down into the scarcely-moving greenish water and a ‘vee’ ripple spreads away from the front of the canoe as we paddle gently forwards, taking care not to make any noise that would scare away the maroon and orange ball of fur that is

             Di and I spent February and March, 2012  paddling our 16 ft. pakboat canoe on  the Mekong river in northern Laos.  Here’s a few photos of our adventure.   By Brian Svelnis           Our goal was to paddle the Mekong river 800 kms from Ban Huay Xai to the capital city of Vientienne.  It […]

I had read about one of the world’s greatest and most scenic kayaking rivers: the Whanganui River that flows for part of its length through the wild and remote Whanganui National Park in the north island of New Zealand. I decided to attempt to kayak this river….

ADVENTURES IN A PUFFIN. During a bicycling journey in 2005 from Vancouver to the Arctic Circle I spent quite some time cycling beside the Yukon River and was very envious of kayakers who paddled leisurely along with the current while I battled strong headwinds, freezing rain and sleet. We camped together

Armu River. Russian Far East. My PakCanoe is a boat that can get you just about anywhere. You can carry it dismantled in a couple of rucksack loads over mountains and through forests, then reassemble it when you get to a river’s headwaters. You can get to places where few, if any, people have traveled […]

In Canada, a country known for it’s numerous rivers and waterways, the North Saskatchewan river stands out as a premier route. It runs for more than 1200 km (750 miles) from the Rocky Mountains eastward across the prairies to it’s joining with the South Saskatchewan river.

We sometimes get involved in a really neat project, and this is one of them. Having 6 local youth from the Great Slave Lake area reconnect with nature in our folding canoes was a real thrill. Here is the first contact I received – and at the bottom is a link to the blog from […]

This summer I canoed in the Lapland area of Norway and Finland where we ran two shallow and rocky rivers with lots of rapids – including a mile-long rapid that dropped 60 feet! One challenge in preparing for the trip was to figure out a way to keep my new SLR camera safe, yet easy […]

I am leaving in a few days for a whole month in North Norway and Finland. The main feature of our trip is to canoe 3 rivers. Three guys in 15 ft solo PakCanoes – and one in a 14-footer that I saved for my own use when we stopped making the 140. We will […]

Adirondack fishing guide Scott Gardner just received his new Puffin Saco, and he likes it – a lot! We think it is neat because the Saco’s is just like the ‘Wee Lassie’, a small canoe that was popular in the Adirondacks a hundred years ago – although the ‘Wee Lassie’ was not a folding boat. […]

We have had the Puffin Saco tested by the North American Fishing Club. The format of the test is that boats are shipped to three members who put their boats to a few weeks of use. Each tester rates the tested product on a set of criteria, each on a scale from 1 (poor) to […]

It is getting close to the canoe season – even on our still frozen northern rivers. In other places, paddling never ends. Here is a note that I just received from a customer in Thailand. I want to go! Alv, Our Canoe trip started in the deep jungle of Northern Thailand. From a small village […]

By Brian and Diana Svelnis After much research and map gazing we decided to paddle 850 km across Poland by canoe during the summer of 2010.

Again, Pakboat kayaks proved worthy and convenient on our Bar Harbor, Maine trip. Imagine carrying 2 kayaks, 2 bicycles, plus our bags within the confines of a Ford Escort.

In the last few days I have received information about three very different trips (one of them was actually many trips) that involved Pakboats. One was an exploratory trip on the Quoich and Lunan rivers in Arctic Canada, and the story occupies its own space under Canoe Adventures. The next note was about a very […]

July 11-24, 2009: To the best of our knowledge we were the first canoe trip on the Lunan Branch of the Quoich. We could find no pre information on the river and as such were running with topo maps only, no river notes.

Riding motorbikes around South America may seem like a strange beginning to a story of canoeing down a remote river in the Bolivian Amazon but that’s how it all started nevertheless. In 2004 I was looking for a route around the north side of Lake Titicaca into Bolivia with my wife, Liz. We had a […]

If you think canoe adventures can only be had in the wilderness, this story will set you straight. Or may be you consider New York just another kind of wilderness. In any case, I think you will enjoy this tale! The PakCanoe used in the story is well traveled. A couple of years ago, the […]

Just back from a fantastic month in northern Manitoba. Our family completed another in what is becoming a long string of Pakboat wilderness expeditions in the Far North. This one featured the South Seal River and Hudson Bay, paddling 400 miles of terrific northern wilderness full of rapids, wildlife, and fantastic campsites.

Cold Wind, Sucky Mud, and Big Fish on the Nanook River

I was attending a meeting in the beautiful city of Sydney, so decided to bring along my Puffin Sport kayak.

The Puffin II proved to be particularly practical on our camping holiday in Burgundy, France, and the Spanish Pyrenees.

I took the Puffin Sport to Jamaica and used it every day.

For the past dozen or so years I’ve been paddling down the Thames in a variety of folding kayaks every time I’ve visited England.

I just returned from my summer Arctic canoe trip where I used your 15′ solo PakCanoe. 

If you are looking for the kind of wilderness experience you can find on a canoe trip in Canada, then France is not the place for you.

 The Back (Thlewechodyeth, or “Great Fish River”) is a very challenging & long river, about 1100 km.

 We landed on Bonnet Plume Lake at the end of June with our two Pakboats and all the other stuff that is needed to run a challenging river.