43-year-old Family Canoe Trip

103 points by cameron_b 3 months ago | 24 comments
  • noduerme 3 months ago
    Portland callin. Great article. My friend has canoed the entire Willammette River a few times, solo and with friends, and loves it... he makes it almost sound like a Huck Finn adventure, stopping in at weird private landings, dive bars, river parties, sleeping in the parks, making friends with strangers. Personally, I'd be terrified to embark on a trip like this. I wish I had the confidence that I would be able to survive a bad day or two of food poisoning with nowhere to go.
    • 6stringmerc 3 months ago
      Also relevant is Henry David Thoreau’s trip with his brother:

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Week_on_the_Concord_and_Me...

      It was very pleasant jail reading. In truth it’s about 30% trip diary and 70% musings on the nature of life, friendships, religion, and language.

      • eulgro 3 months ago
        What selection of books do they have in jail?
      • keithwhor 3 months ago
        Great read. I think connecting with nature while you’re young is great — when you’re older, even better. Would love to read more of these.
        • marktl 3 months ago
          Ben, the authors brother, is a friend of mine. Ben happens to be a very successful and capable software engineer.
          • nefrix 3 months ago
            Nice story. I wish I were closer to the area so I could explore its nature.

            Paddling is one of the activities that makes me feel more present—no time for scrolling while slowly moving through the water. For the last 10 years, I’ve gone once or twice a year to the Danube swamps to disconnect and recharge. We’re lucky there aren’t any crocodiles!”

            • timonoko 3 months ago
              I traveled from the other side of the world just to make various trips on the Inside passage.

              Verdict: Like Norway coast, but without services and Norwegians, who can be little bit tight-ass on their property rights.

              https://youtu.be/1DDcX9_te5I?si=XvLbijrZAZE-XHyF

              • plantain 3 months ago
                Doesn't Norway have the right to roam?
                • timonoko 3 months ago
                  Nordic Countries always had it, because various nomadic lifestyles. But when it was written to law, Norwegians and Sweden invented 3 days limit on camping. Only purpose of this was to decimate the indigenous Sami-culture.

                  Finland does not have such limits, only vague statements of permanent settlements.

                  • defrost 3 months ago
                    Sure, we couldn't stop it if we wanted to.

                    It does tend to move in lockstep with the other countries on the Eurasian Plate though, and its rate of roaming peaks at 14mm or so a year.

              • donkeyboy 3 months ago
                A very wholesome read. Thank you for sharing. I’ve never been so into outdoors/camping/fishing, but it made me reflect on some of my adventure trips I’m doing right now while I’m still young. And maybe these will be talked about in my future family.
                • yimby2001 3 months ago
                  I’ve done a lot of canoeing. It doesn’t even seem possible that you could canoe in the Pacific Ocean for any amount of time without being swamped.
                  • pge 3 months ago
                    That part of the Pacific is very sheltered by islands so it is often fairly calm. The First Nations people have hunted and traveled in canoes there for many generations (unlike the Inuit on the eastern arctic and in Greenland that used sealed kayaks where the water was rougher).
                  • snickerer 3 months ago
                    This is beautiful.

                    I would really like to know how his father's trip influenced the author's life. He mentions this several times, but does not explain.

                    • pge 3 months ago
                      If you watch the video at the end of the article, you may get a better sense of it
                    • pfd1986 3 months ago
                      Very nice. The story sounds very familiar to me, maybe the movie was part of Banff film festival?
                      • keizo 3 months ago
                        cool to see paddling of any kind on hacker news. The short doc video was a great watch.
                        • phyzix5761 3 months ago
                          [flagged]
                          • rescripting 3 months ago
                            Using AI to summarize a piece meant to be a reflection on our humanity and our relationships is so profoundly sad to me. Either take the time to read it, or don't. You'll get nothing of value asking for bullet points.
                            • gausswho 3 months ago
                              This is a severe take. I for one read the summary and decided the full piece was worth reading.

                              But I get it. Summaries can suck the joy out of the journey sometimes. An alternate approach I've been taking is seeding my own Kagi assistant with context of who I am and what I like, then asking it, not for a summary, but if the long read is something I would enjoy. It usually is right.

                            • KevinGlass 3 months ago
                              This sort of post should result in a permanent ban on any platform. If someone thinks it's too long they can copy and paste it themselves.
                              • phyzix5761 3 months ago
                                Thank you for your reply but to suggest that someone get permanently banned from a website is a bit extreme. I'm just a human being like you trying to help out other humans. The read was very long for me and I thought that adding a summary would help others in a similar situation.
                                • aspenmayer 3 months ago
                                  AI generated comments are against HN guidelines.