C Dory history

[Hunkydory]

Overlooked by some could be the many written cruise accounts all with C-Dory boats, including feed back with question answered. These are the many accumulated in the Grand Adventure Forum. There are many hours of good reading stored here. I, every winter read back through many of them including my own & find my self enjoying them year after year, while re booting my knowledge of different types & places boated in C Dory boats. Winter has already arrived here in Wyoming & my reading the last month or so has been a combination, Grand Adventure Forum reading & so far re reading 11 books out of my collection about the mountain man era of the Rocky Mountains & the 50 years following it. I seldom ever watch TV.

Jay

[curioustraveler]

Very interesting threads. Just picked up Halcyon.

[Marco Flamingo]

I also read River Horse before I knew anything about C-Dory. The fact that it was a C-Dory didn't really catch my attention. What did was a blog about a couple boaterhoming the West Coast in a C-Dory. I think it may even have been a CD 16. The idea of travelling up the BC coast a bit at a time, with occasional stops at high lakes and missing all the nasty parts, appealed to me. I figured that there was a reason coastal charts had place names that sounded like Cape Death and Point Pitchpole. Now that I've done a fair bit of similar travel it would be interesting to find that blog again.

One of the most interesting parts of River Horse was the upper Missouri, i.e., the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. Motor boats are now limited on much of it, but limited to certain days of the week. I went through the planning stage finding a put-in as high as I thought possible for a CD 16 and then going down river (several hundred miles) to the Fort Peck reservoir dam, where there is a little marina. Across the road from the marina is a small airport. I contacted the airport to see about flying back to my put-in. Nobody there had a license to carry passengers (or wanted to risk their crop duster license) and arranging an outside plane to come in for private flight was more expensive than a round trip to Europe.

It is still a possibility. It wouldn't be the first time that I hitch-hiked back to a put-in.

Mark

[Hunkydory]

Mark, we had made plans to do this same stretch of the Missouri River, but pre C-Dory. We drove the dirt roads to where the Judith River meets the Missouri & camped there with later going to Fort Benton. We were going to do it in a 12.5 inflatable with 18 hp 4 stroke Nissan motor. The same combination, we later explored rivers & lakes in British Columbia & Yukon & Northwest Territory. What stopped us was the regulations for the time periods, when powered boats could be used on this area of the river. Not being able to do it switched our attention to the further north Canadian waters & Alaska. The draw to the Missouri Breaks for us had nothing to do with Riverhorse, but rather the descriptions of the area from accounts during the Lewis & Clark Expedition.

Jay

[TyBoo]

One can also learn a lot from the discussions on here.

Just reading though this short thread I learned that the Missouri Breaks is more than just a name of a movie (a good movie, by the way). The pictures online show it to be a beautiful and fascinating area.

The reference to Point Pitchpole also got me to look up Pole Pass in the SJ Islands to see why it was called Pole Pass. I went through through it a few times. The first time I was following Catman when he still had Bambina, and the other times on my own but heeding his warnings and advice from the previous trip.

Here is what I learned here:

"Approximately 75 yards wide, Pole Pass received its name because Native Americans used to string a net made of kelp and cedar bark between a pole and a tree on opposite sides of the channel to catch flying sea birds."

I'll keep watching this discussion to see what else I learn.

[robhwa]

[thataway]

Would electric power be allowed on this stretch --like the Torqeedo?

[Hunkydory]

Bob, I don’t think it would matter if electric or gas. The regulations just state motorized watercraft. In that 150 mile stretch of river some areas you can motor both up & down, others just down & another section only down & just on certain days of the week. A great place to float down, but for motorized, when I was still working trying to time my trip with the regulations, not worth it to me.

Jay

[kevinnuckles@icloud.com]

For those searching for a travel adventure aboard a CD22, you cannot do better
than to read "Landfall along the Chesapeake i In the Wake of Captain John Smith" by Susan Schmidt. Ms Schmidt circumnavigated the Chesapeake solo, beginning in the cold of March, through one of the hottest Chesapeake summers on record, completing her adventure in early August, a voyage of 100 days. The book is well researched and conveys history, ecology, and personal observations of relationships and seamanship without a touch of overt judgement or unearned authority.

I read it, and then read it again. Hope you will too.

[Marco Flamingo]

I did end up planning a complete "reverse River Horse" cruise on the upper Missouri. I planned on leaving Coal Banks Landing and cruising down to the reservoir marina at Fort Peck, about 7 to 10 days. I even had a couple of friends agree to run the shuttle (the most difficult aspect of the plan). It didn't work out for a couple of reasons, but I did get to stay a week at the Virgella Mercantile (in old rooms above the store) and found a local who could run up and down the river on the last day motor boats were allowed for the season. Not the same as a cruise, but I got to see a lot of remote country and all the "famous" landmarks.

After the boating trip, we did some exploration on dirt roads that come close to the river. After a little hike down to the river, we returned to the truck and the thermometer read 117F. We weren't prepared for that and carefully returned 28 miles to pavement. Didn't see another vehicle. Apparently the locals know better.