The Canoe

Our first choice for a canoe with which to conduct the field work was an Old Town Discovery. This was the canoe we used for the 2007 field work on the Verde Paddle Guide between Tuzigoot and Bridgeport. Three people made inquiries "high and low" hither and yon around the Verde Valley and could not locate the canoe. It simply disappeared.

Luckily, AZSP loaned us a Mad River Explorer 14 foot boat. This canoe is no longer sold by Mad River but its specs are still shown on the Mad River website. You can click here to see them.

The Explorer is what we like to call a "compromise boat." It's not a whitewater canoe, per se, and it's probably not your best choice for paddling a wide open large lake or reservoir. Mad River says it's well suited to "confined" waterways. That pretty much describes the Verde River.

The boat is very heavy, weighing in at 72 pounds! There are two real good things about the boat--its hull material and length. It should turn OK and the hull will take a major beating on the rock-studded river bottom.