The Canoe Collector

In this podcast, Dave Johnstone, known as the Canoe Collector, shares his extensive knowledge and love for canoeing, camping, and outdoor adventures in Ontario. With a current collection of 14 canoes, each suited for different river conditions, Dave discusses the unique characteristics of various canoes and how they affect handling and performance. He also shares his personal experiences and growth in the canoeing world, from his first trip at age 13 to his work at MEC. The podcast also covers upcoming canoeing trips on the Pickerel, French, and Wabakimi rivers, as well as Dave's newfound passion for cooking in retirement, including using reflector ovens and Dutch ovens in the backcountry. Additionally, the podcast features a discussion on innovative camping gear designed by a talented creator.

https://thecanoecollector.com/
https://www.facebook.com/canoecollector/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNugybyAfUFVkwamUODUvfg
https://www.instagram.com/thecanoecollector/

Transcript

SPEAKER_03: 0:00

Welcome to the Super Good Camping Podcast. My name is Pamela. I'm Tim. And we are from supergoodcamping.com. We are here because we're on a mission to inspire other families to enjoy camping adventures such as we have with our kids. Today's guest has over 57 years of canoeing experience and has owned quite a few canoes over these years. And Tim uses that as justification for more and more. If his pictures are anything to go by, he is an amazing cook. You must check out his Instagram. He loves to camp, preferably traveling by canoe, and has tripped with an impressive collection of outdoor adventurers from here in Ontario. Please welcome Dave Johnstone, a.k.a. the Canoe Collector. Hey,

SPEAKER_02: 0:35

folks. Easy for you to say.

SPEAKER_03: 0:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 0:37

Welcome, welcome, Yansir.

SPEAKER_00: 0:39

Thanks. Thanks for having me aboard.

SPEAKER_02: 0:41

Sure, sure. Thanks for coming. So right out of the gate, just because I think I know the answer or I know close to the answer, how many canoes have you owned? Why are you the Canoe Collector?

SPEAKER_00: 0:55

Well, I've had a bunch since COVID, not so much. Obvious reasons there. But we were sitting here one day, Karen and myself, my wife, and I said, I really want to start considering doing a blog and sharing some of my adventures and some of my learnings or experiences. She says, well, how many canoes do you have? And I said, well, I don't know. So anyways, I went through the garage and Counted the four on the trailer, the two hanging from the rafters and went out in the backyard. And I came back in and I said, well, I have 14 on the ground. And she says, well, why don't you just tell the people about your collection? And I went, collection? Canoe collector? Perfect. So that was back in early 2016. And it's been a lot of fun. It's been a lot of fun. A lot of knowledge gained in construction, hull design. and whatnot. So it's been a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_03: 2:01

Well, yeah. As I said, Tim uses you as a justification for us. We need more.

SPEAKER_02: 2:06

We need more. I only have two. It's not enough. No. Just saying. But what possesses you to own that many canoes? I have to assume there are differences between them all that make them all unique for themselves. You don't need six of the same thing.

SPEAKER_03: 2:26

Can't use

SPEAKER_02: 2:27

six in one.

UNKNOWN: 2:27

That's very true. Excuse me.

SPEAKER_00: 2:30

I liken the canoes to golf clubs. You can't go the full round of golf with a nine iron or only with a putter. So there's a lot of different designs, a lot of different purposes for them. And what this canoe is good for doing on that river, you won't want to take that canoe to a different river. So it's, they all have their own signature to them, I guess is the more correct way of placing

SPEAKER_02: 3:02

it. Okay, well, speaking for myself, I currently own two, excuse me, and I've owned one other one. All three different canoes, all three paddle quite a bit differently, only I don't necessarily know why. I kind of miss, we had a 17-foot... ancient scott fiberglass that i don't know it tracked it tracked so well like i probably because it's the i spent the most time in that uh boat um but i could steer it i knew knew exactly what it was going to do now we've got a 17 foot oh poetico um kevlar and it's it's totally different like it it slides around it doesn't it doesn't steer the same way, like the back end will just kind of slide around a corner as opposed to turning. You know what I mean? And I don't know, is it like, is it a rocker? Because the Scott was a prospector style, right? So is there more rockers? So is that what gives it that? I don't know. It feels like you expect it to steer. And then I get into the lighter boat, totally different animal. I mean, it's fine. And I'll take the weight loss, carrying it over my head, but I like the steerability of the old Scott.

SPEAKER_00: 4:34

Big feature there is with the Scott, you're likely to have what they call a shoe keel. So the hull, I can't do this. There'll be a bump on the bottom of the hull. It comes up and then the hull comes out. That's what they call a shoe keel, whereas the Aquatico is likely a no-keel canoe. So what happens when you're turning the Scott, you're turning the boat and the keel at the same time. So all of that hull space and all of the face on the shoe, the shoe keel, you're turning that at the one time. So it's... It's a slower rotation. That boat you don't want to take into whitewater where you've got to eddy out very quickly in order to reassess what you're doing. Whereas the Aquatico, you can take one paddle stroke and you'll feel the canoe come around.

SPEAKER_02: 5:30

Cool. And you're right. I did notice that difference, but it's such a shallow keel, I guess. The two bumps are just... itty bitty in the grand scheme of things, I wouldn't have thought it made, like that's a substantial difference between the two boats. Just

SPEAKER_00: 5:50

for that little bit. For sure. And then what you were saying about rocker, just when you take a look at a canoe, like if you were looking at a canyon, those canoes are, I may stand to be corrected here, I think they're four inch rocker bow and stern. So basically with the rocking chair, that's what's happening. That's what's happening with the canoe as well. So you've got a very radical pronounce or an upsweep on the bow and the stern, puts less boat in the water. So again, you have a lot less boat that you have to turn in the water as well. You can spin those things around in a heartbeat.

UNKNOWN: 6:34

Cool.

SPEAKER_02: 6:35

so much, so much, like I know all the parts, you know, I know what a fort is, uh, but I don't know, I don't know anything about how they, how they, they work. Like my, I've got a 14 foot key waiting and assuming I get into it and don't just continue on over because it's very reactive. Um, this has happened probably more times. It's probably happened more times than it hasn't happened for me.

UNKNOWN: 7:01

Um,

SPEAKER_02: 7:01

But man, you can just boogie all over the place in that thing. A, it takes off like nobody's business because it weighs nothing, I suppose. And yeah, you can turn it on a dime. It's mind-boggling.

SPEAKER_00: 7:15

Yeah. A buddy of mine picked up a 16-foot key and just a fabulous, fabulous boat to paddle. But again, no rocker. So when we did the French River, actually... think the last three years consecutive and um steve will he'll try and run them in the kuwait but there's no rocker to that boat at all and it's just it's terrible to try and uh get it to eddie or keep it under control if you're you know if you're doing a ferry at all coming across through the water so lots of fun but the four teams yeah there's so much tumble home to them uh like you can you almost feel like you're paddling straight up and down know as opposed to very much so yeah

SPEAKER_02: 8:07

i know because i i i bought we have we have a number number number of paddles um but i i wasn't sure i wasn't sure how that how the whole tumble home thing was going to work out how much how much i was going to be reaching out and stuff so i also bought a double blade like a like a kayak paddle for it uh and then and then started like i tried that that's cool that's like you Mach 7. Woo! We're out of here. But I tried single blading it and yeah, it's so easy to get out and over without having to put your... I was concerned that I was going to have to put my weight way out to the edge in order to get around the corner and not at all. There's so much curvature to the side of that boat that it's dead easy to single blade it.

SPEAKER_00: 8:52

Yeah. There are a lot of fun. You can... Like a lot of people, you want to keep a lower center of gravity for sure. So you want to stay low in the canoe. But with like, I'll solo my Novacraft Prospector. And Novacraft is a real prospector. It's their runoff of old forms from the Chestnut Canoe Company in New Brunswick. Fabulous, fabulous boat to paddle. It's just an absolute dream. On a nice calm day, not on a windy day, because you want to change everything, you end up having to move forward and stow gear forward with the high decks on them. They're a weather vane in a windstorm.

SPEAKER_02: 9:40

So much to learn. See, we need to buy more canoes.

SPEAKER_03: 9:45

Sounds like you have to take different ones with you on your trip because it might be a windy day. So you might need to pull out the other canoe.

SPEAKER_02: 9:52

Yeah, maybe I should think about not portaging so much. Portaging three canoes is no fun. If you don't mind me asking, Dave, how did you, aside from simply owning a boatload of them, how did you come to be so knowledgeable about canoes? I'm sure I heard you mention working for something. I don't remember. Was it MEC? Yeah. Yeah?

UNKNOWN: 10:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 10:20

How

SPEAKER_02: 10:22

did that come about? Is that what got you into canoes? Were you already into canoes and then went to Meck? How did that all play out?

SPEAKER_00: 10:31

As I said, I started off in a canoe. I was 13 the first year. I went into the French River with my cousin. It was all by canoe. Then we upgraded. Once I got bigger and looked older, and was able to successfully navigate the beer store. We upgraded to an aluminum and that was just, that was a disaster. I laugh, one recollection I have is midweek on a five day camping trip, having to draw straws, to see who was gonna portage the aluminum boat back out so we could go back up to the beer store in Noelville. And not only older, I think a little smarter, but I don't, well, it's not that I don't know. I would not say I'm very knowledgeable about canoes. It's just a lot of information acquired over the years. Um, when you, uh, when you speak to people like Andy Phillips, um, who ran composite creations, um, brilliant, brilliant canoes, tough, like crazy tough. He, um, he, uh, offered me one of his 12 foot shorties and, um, Liam came with me to pick it up. And as we're pulling the boat out, I said to Liam, I said, now, be careful with that when you put it. And he goes, oh, you don't have to be careful with these. Hold it right out of the back of his pickup truck and throw it out onto the grass on the ground. Like he stood on them upside down. They're incredibly tough boats. So that's that's part of the joy when you when you get to speak to people like him. MEC, sorry, I shouldn't say MEC. MEC, you don't want to offend their culture, right? It was kind of a natural progression as well. I had been a long-distance truck driver stateside for 14 years. Then I started concrete delivery in town, and I just got to the point I have right to here with MEC. driving and drivers actually it was our daughter that said uh why don't you go to MEC and put your name in the hat down there and see what goes because a little bit of experience between boats and camping and cha-cha-cha and um then COVID came along so plus MEC had their their own issues at that point um so it came to the point yeah they would have been

SPEAKER_02: 13:14

transitioning from uh a co-op to to a company at that point i'm guessing right

SPEAKER_00: 13:20

yeah yeah exactly exactly so but that's no longer my issue i am fully retired now

SPEAKER_02: 13:27

okay how much how much camping are you going to do this year then

SPEAKER_00: 13:33

or maybe how much we're we've already got it in the works um myself and a canoeing buddy if you go back on through some of my sites you'll see Two of us, I think it was December 11th, we're out canoeing in a snowstorm up by the big chute at the Marine Railway. So him and I are planning on doing a trip going into actually the Pickerel River where it joins in with the French as well, just below 14 Mile Island. So that will be one trip there. One trip that I definitely want to do is to pull out of the West Arm in Nipissing over the headwaters of the French and then down to Highway 69 and I'll take out there. A lot of people say, well, we just continue on down through to Georgian Bay and probably get comments on that. I don't really like that section of the river. Too busy cottages, fishing boats, that kind of thing. So I'll take my chances and pull out at Highway 69. The other one. And this one takes an awful lot of planning because the logistics are pretty crazy with it. But it's going into Wabakimi. So up to Allenwater Bridge, up through the top end, and then back out at Little Caribou. That's kind of a bucket list. That's a dream on that one. So that's what we've got lined up for this year.

SPEAKER_02: 15:11

Cool. Just to throw it out there for no other reason, we got... My eldest, sorry, our eldest is my backcountry partner, and we get, he's 22, so his scheduling is a little bit iffy sometimes, maybe, you know? So we didn't, we've done the French, the bottom half, Hartley Bay, Marina, and then down into Georgian Bay, and then looped our way back up. But we went in September, So windy, which wasn't a ton of fun. We actually got windbound for the first time ever down in Georgian Bay, but no boats, heard nothing from cottages. It was super quiet. I think we saw two other canoes the entire week. That was it. So it was great. It was wonderful. Wow. It's a nice paddle if you do it at the right time, I think. But I've heard the same, everybody saying, you know, oh, it's crazy with the boats and the cottages and all that sort of jazz.

SPEAKER_00: 16:18

Yeah. Well, high water in the springtime, it's the French River and the Five Mile Rapid area. Actually, I kind of lost Tom, my cousin, at one point because... He said, you know, I don't want to go up there anymore because you had jet skis coming up the up the rapids and down the rapids and, you know, obviously in high water. But it just that's that's not that country anymore and lost it. So I guess the reason I go back there still is more nostalgic and I know exactly where I'm going. After that many years, you better. So that's why I like that section.

SPEAKER_02: 17:05

Well, yeah, the top section out of Nipissing, would you say the west arm? Yeah. I'm sure that I've heard our friend, Mr. Callan, talk about that portion and it being a much better deal than farther south, like down towards Georgian Bay.

UNKNOWN: 17:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 17:26

It's on my list to do at some point too.

SPEAKER_03: 17:31

Well, so you enjoy some whitewater paddling as well as like flat water?

SPEAKER_00: 17:35

It's a combination. When you get into the five mile rapid area, all of them have portages. So if you look at it and you think that's over my head and I'll still do that depending on the water levels, big Parisian, well, as you're coming down, there's little uh little pine rapids um big water it's just basically a swift but the water boils in there just incredibly so um balanced so that section the big pine is uh is a technical set of rapids a lot of twists and turn in there double rapids exactly that high water it's just a big swift blue chute is If you look at anything from Bill Mason, you will see the Blue Chute in there. It's just such a well-defined waterway. It's gorgeous. It's a lot of fun to run regardless of what level you're in. Big Parisienne, it's a technical rapid because there's a rock outcrop on River Left at the bottom that pushes you over wants to push you over to river right which is about a 30-foot granite cliff um not a good spot to reconsider what you're doing after that like kevin says you stay river left all the rest of the way down and um actually river left jim lang and i uh went river right because we thought that's exactly what we're going to try right although Kevin had said. And if you look back on some of the photographs there, just absolutely hilarious. We had a small, very, very small lift over to perform. And out in front of the canoe, there's just a little rock that comes out of the water like this. So it will be perfect if you actually slid the canoe across and land on this thing. Unfortunately, that's exactly what I did. I went to slide my hand up the gunnels and they wouldn't move. So I guess I had my weight off center for sure. And I had Jim behind me. I had Bill Graham out in front of me taking photographs. And the two of them were they were in hysterics. I don't know how I stayed in the canoe, but that I did. And everybody stayed dry. And that's the name of the game. So there you go.

SPEAKER_03: 20:18

So have you done any certifications for Whitewater or are you just experience?

SPEAKER_00: 20:24

No, I've got bruises and cuts and scars and all the rest of it.

SPEAKER_02: 20:33

That's better than a stinking badge. That's it. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 20:37

School of hard knocks.

SPEAKER_02: 20:38

So just to spin 180 degrees, because you keep talking about pictures, and what I've been seeing in your social media lately is pictures of the kitchen behind you and you making things on that beautiful stove. Has it always been a hobby? Is it a newish thing for you? I'm like, oh, I just ate. I'm starving. I'm drooling. I'm drooling looking at the pictures.

UNKNOWN: 21:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 21:08

What a great hobby.

SPEAKER_00: 21:12

Yeah, you pay for it on that way, too. What was I this morning? 235.2 pounds. It doesn't always get you in the end, for sure. I've never been afraid of the kitchen at all. I think retirement has brought it out where... okay, I'm home, so if I don't catch Karen on the way out with her going out the door in the morning, okay, babe, what would you like for dinner? There's a text conversation going back and forth by 9.30 anyways, and I'll sit there and think about, well, what about this, that, and the other thing, and she'll go, okay, but that's way too much food, so you scale back this, but there's a There's a lot of people doing what we do now, and there's a lot of people doing food. You have to eat anyways. So it's just fun. It's just fun. I'll read a recipe. I rarely follow a recipe, but I'll take that as a guideline. I'm not alone, eh? So we'll take that as a guide and just run with it. So a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02: 22:29

Okay, we're brothers there. So that's exactly, I look at it and go, all right, there's a list of ingredients. I do not look at amounts of anything. I just start throwing stuff in. The family sticks around and eats it most of the time. So I assume I'm doing okay. And it is, it's fun. It's like, woo. Then the next time it's like, that's different from the last time. I'm not surprised. Same ingredients, no idea how much of what this time. And I might've grabbed something else out of the cupboards too, so. Cool. Does that transfer? Does that follow you into the backcountry? Do you get creative in the backcountry? Do you make more creative meals and dehydrate and take them with you? How does your kitchen go camping with you?

SPEAKER_00: 23:15

Fairly close. Fairly close. Just trying to think. I think it's four years ago now at the Outdoor Adventure Show. I met up with the guys from Kid Products and KIHD. And I'd always thought about cooking, baking, you know, whatever doing in the bush. And I picked up one of their reflector ovens. Absolute game changer. Totally, totally, totally different. Um, so again, I'll go back to the French river trip and that was, uh, that was 20, 20, 21. Um, no, I don't have mine on because I can, I can see better. It's, uh, I got new, a new prescription for my glasses. Apparently the prescriptions all right, but my arms aren't long enough anymore. Um, so Jim and, uh, and bill, and Steve. Steve is a nutcase. Everything has got to be lightweight. Do this. Taking ramen noodles, blah, blah, blah. If he could get his sneakers to stay on without the laces, he'd dump it. Bill and Jim, both, those two are, I'll say, artists around... a stove and around a campfire to go through. And remind me of somewhere back, I'm going to write it down, but the trip we did in 21, as I said, I normally wear these and I got a nickname a hundred years ago from my cousin, which was fours or the four-eyed marvel and all the rest of it so this trip i planned it was four guys four days and that was it four tents four systems all the way through had an absolute riot uh we ended it up on the last night out before we hit highway 69 um we had excuse me we had an island site in target and uh We got out on the site and it was just, it was a disaster, an absolute disaster. Pans, shells, toilet paper mysteries, an absolute disaster. So Jim gets out of the canoe and the wind had been coming up. So he got out in the canoe and we're kind of having a look around the site to see what's what and, you know, toss a coin, are we staying or are we not? Because as I say, the weather was deteriorating. So Jim gets up and goes, hey, guys, I've got cell phone signal here. Oh, that's great. And two seconds later, hey, guys, we're under a tornado warning. So we decided we weren't staying there and beetled around into a back bay, again, for protection. Got set up, and you could see this thing coming across the bay at us. It was just... I have never seen 14 years truck driving through Florida, Georgia, California, blah, blah, blah. Um, I have never seen a storm come in that fast or hard. Um, but we, we had enough time to get in and get set up. So it was, it was all fun there, but yeah, that reflector oven, Jim, what are you having for dinner? So I'm doing pizza and I'm putting my oven together and he's well, What are you having on it? I said, well, I said, I've got my bag of fresh sliced red peppers, my bag of fresh sliced green peppers or yellow peppers and my fresh onions and my fresh blah, blah, blah. And a little Tupperware tin of pizza sauce. And he's sitting there looking at it. So what are you having? I can't remember what it was. It was a dehydrated meal. But yeah, it's those stoves. Game changer.

SPEAKER_02: 27:33

I'm with you there. We picked one up last year. We did pizza. We've had Keith on the show, and he mentioned pizza, and then he started talking about they had a bunch of them were out with Dennis and whatnot, and they did a roast, like a roast beef. And I went, really? In the backcountry? You can do it? So Thomas, our eldest, we took a Oh, I don't know. It wasn't huge. Maybe two and a half or three pound roast. And it's like we're three days in and we're making roast beef. It's like, yay, I can do this. This is good.

SPEAKER_00: 28:14

Yeah. It makes you very pleased that you forgot that can of pork and beans at home.

SPEAKER_02: 28:21

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Although, well, we still we still do do. We still do do. Yeah. dehydrated meals it's just i it's we do we do way way more cool stuff as long as there's not a fire ban for that for that first few days that first three or four days right

SPEAKER_01: 28:43

yeah

SPEAKER_02: 28:43

so there's going to be a fire ban this year i'm positive we haven't had enough snow it's just insane but we didn't we didn't get any Cool. So, so reflector oven makes it good. Do you, well, I guess if you're only doing four days, you could probably come pretty close to getting through the four days without, without any dehydrated stuff, right?

SPEAKER_00: 29:06

Yep. Yep. Yep. And like if you're doing a chili or anything like that, put it in your freezer bag. freeze it and stick it in your layers. Actually, it was Steve that taught me that. I used to just have a food barrel, the 60-liter barrel, and just any time you wanted a cup of coffee or if you wanted breakfast or if you wanted dinner, the whole barrel got emptied. And so, like I said, it's not a certification, but you do learn. So now... excuse me, all of my meals are done on a daily basis. And Fridays on the bottom, Thursday next, not coming up, you know, I do it that way. And you're gawping that kind of thing. You're going to, you're going to stay out anyways on top, but yeah, it's, you get a couple of bags of frozen chili and that keeps the rest of your stuff, you know, cool on the way through as well. So it's, that's a science as well is doing your, you're planning um like with your menu and getting all the meals balanced out and packed so it's it's a lot of fun

SPEAKER_02: 30:21

yeah i suck at making spreadsheets but i'm happy to steal them from people so that i can do exactly that i plan i plan the crap out of our all of our stuff yeah it took me it took me a while to figure the same thing i got we don't uh what's just a kid and i so we have a Five-liter, or sorry, five-gallon Home Depot barrel with a spinny lid that we bought from Amazon. And yeah, we do the same thing. We pack it all in reverse and then jam all the fresh stuff down on top with some frozen bits, whether it's we freeze the steaks and then put them right on top so that they're the first night's meal or whatever. Steak's always pretty amazing in the backcountry, too. I don't care if you're frying it in a fry pan because there's a fire band, but it's still good. It's still

SPEAKER_00: 31:08

good. And when you're doing your steaks too, a real good tip, tasty anyways, I do this with my pot roast. When the pot roast is going into the cast iron Dutch oven, I'll lightly rub with an olive oil. And the one I use, we talked about this the other day, the one I use is Terra Delisa. really super, super good tasting. It's an extra virgin, and I never understood the term extra virgin. Like, do they put one more virgin in that bottle when they pack it? But if you rub that, very, very little salt and pepper, and then get a plate, a lipped plate, and take your roast beef, and you're gonna sprinkle coffee grounds into the bowl or pan plate, and then take your roast, bring that back in and a real quick sear on all four sides. Then you're going to flip that into your cast iron pot with a little bit of beef stock and a little bit of red wine just for the flavoring and let it go. I do them probably three hours before three hours total. So after an hour and a half, you'll flip the beef in the Dutch oven and then put in your potatoes, carrots and onions from there. And it has to be a fresh twig of rosemary. Two or three on top. Put the lid down. Pretty tasty.

SPEAKER_02: 32:47

That sounds really good. It's drooling. It's coming up on lunchtime. I'm hungry. That's excellent. What does the coffee grounds do?

SPEAKER_00: 33:02

Um... It's just kind of a rub. It'll give a different flavor to the meat. Plus it also stays in the juice or the gravy as well. So when you're doing it right at the end finish, just put in a little flour or roux and mix that in with the rest of the juices. It's just a little bit of a flavor touch to it.

SPEAKER_02: 33:24

Cool. All right. I'll replay this as soon as we're done and write that down.

SPEAKER_03: 33:29

Coffee and wine. How awesome

SPEAKER_02: 33:32

is

SPEAKER_03: 33:32

that?

SPEAKER_02: 33:34

Stay awake so you can get drunk.

SPEAKER_00: 33:37

Yeah, that's it. Remember I said I'm going to write this down? And I did. A lot of people will use when they're cooking, they'll either use a pan on top, but if you're going to use open flame or a coal system, how many camping sites have you ever run across and they're well there's a grill over here and here's a grill over here or here's 12 grills leaned up against this one tree yeah exactly okay uh another tip trick whatever no certification but i've done it is um use fire irons um sorry about that um it was getting to the point where the dog was whining so bad i couldn't hear myself Um, but I'll take fire iron. So, um, like maybe a three eighths chunk of angle iron, take two of them. Okay. Um, and obviously they're going to be dirty. Obviously you can find a, uh, an old bicycle inner tube somewhere that's not being used. So tie a knot in the one end, slide your fire irons inside the inner tube, fold it back over and a bungee around that. And it's done. But the, the good thing with the fire iron is, is your coffee pot is going to be different diameter than your saucepan so when your fire irons are up like this you can put your coffee pot here and your saucepan down the bottom anywhere you want so you can angle them in that way and they stay clean they work well so

SPEAKER_02: 35:12

that's an excellent idea i i we have done the uh the dollar store grill I don't know why it's the same deal I would have said 14 leaning against the tree but yeah you don't if you need a grill you don't need to take one with you but that was always the like I would have to go and do my best to to scrub the black off of it because it's going to get all over whatever else is in that in that pack so brilliant although now I just went and bought a fairly ridiculously expensive uh titanium one from so like 46 right okay um it's cool though okay just for the cool factor

SPEAKER_00: 35:52

complete with the carbon fiber case

SPEAKER_02: 35:55

yes very much so we i it was at the outdoor adventure show uh and uh i was trying so hard to get out of there without buying anything and then some somebody was giving it away i might have been Camper Christina. I don't remember. Somebody was giving it away as one of their talk or presentation prizes. And I went, oh, I have to go get that now. And they didn't have, they only had the show, the demo one left. No case. So we ended up coordinating with Steve and Thomas, our eldest, went down. And they're just, I don't know, 15 minutes away. Their shop is 15 minutes away from us.

SPEAKER_01: 36:32

Oh,

SPEAKER_02: 36:34

okay. Yeah. Carbon fiber tube and It's pretty cool. I will give it that. The way that it snaps together and stuff, and it weighs nothing. It

SPEAKER_03: 36:42

holds

SPEAKER_02: 36:42

25 pounds. And apparently, yes.

SPEAKER_03: 36:44

It's got a lot of meat on it.

SPEAKER_02: 36:46

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00: 36:46

I watched his show on YouTube when he was highlighting all of the different equipment, and that's some serious smarts behind that stuff.

SPEAKER_02: 36:59

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I... I mean, I've looked at his products and, and I saw his, his episode where he was, when he was on Dennis's show on Canoe Hound and just, just listening to him, like how he, his, his thought process for how to redesign something that has been redesigned. Like there's no more, there is no more redesign. And then you look at it and you go, holy crap, there is more redesign. Like that's amazing. So strong, so light, so well thought out. Just like, Dude, you rock.

SPEAKER_00: 37:35

Yeah. Smart cookie, that one.

SPEAKER_02: 37:37

Yep. Yeah, he is. He is. Okay, well, cool. I like that. I like the bicycle tube idea, too. I spent so many years with black crap all over my kitchen bag. Like,

SPEAKER_00: 37:49

just, man, come on. Well, in the cleaner, you're walking all over the cleaner anyways because if you pick up any of that moss and lichen off of the rocks, you can just give that a scrub and boom. Sweet.

SPEAKER_03: 38:00

All right. That's it for us for today. Thank you so much to David Johnstone from the Canoe Collector. Check him out. He's on Instagram. He's on all of the social media things. And check out his blog. I actually read a few of his blog posts and they're quite entertaining.

SPEAKER_02: 38:14

Yes, very

SPEAKER_03: 38:15

much. And do check out us. We are on all the things too. We're at supergoodcamping.com. And if you want to email us, we are at hi at supergoodcamping.com. And we'll talk to you again soon.

UNKNOWN: 38:27

Bye.

SPEAKER_03: 38:27

Bye.