Any thoughts on this solo canoe in fiberglass. Intended use is fitness paddling in our local harbor and nearby waters. It will be in California and so won't be used for the BWCA.

As far as I can tell from paddling.net the specs are:
Bow Depth 18.5"
Center Depth 13.5"
Stern Depth 17"
Width 27 3/4"
Length 16'2"

BTW, just found some posts by Hans Solo on this boat and also the catalog page for it that he uploaded. Looks like the major issues are weight (60lbs) in fiberglass but it won't be portaged much and, from paddling.net, that it has a lot of windage when unloaded. But if it is really windy I can always go sailing! Or I can use some water jugs.

But it sounds like it has some good characteristics too for handling rough conditions.

BTW, my weight goes from 155 to 175 and I'm 5'7".

They are a big solo boat. I'm sure the heavier layup will make it more stable. If you have never paddled a MR with the "shallow V keel" design, you may be surprised by the feel. It can really turn some people off. Some of the solo models flattened out more midship which made them less squirrely. I'm not sure if the Traveler was one of them. I have a MR disease and am always keeping my eye open for a Traveler if the right one comes along, but I don't think it would be for an evening fun paddle, but instead for a 2-3 week solo with lots of gear.

Thanks, Cowdoc. And also thanks to Hans Solo for having the catalog page in his photos. That was handy.

The seller did say that he always put a 5 gallon water container in the bow and stern to help it perform better. And that fits in with the comments here and on paddling.net. I can easily do that even if it isn't the most convenient thing to do. And I do like the sliding bench seat. That's a good feature in the wind, too. He also said that based on the serial number that Mad River told him it was an Arkansas Traveler, but I haven't seen that name used elsewhere. I may need to call them. It looks a lot like a Traveler.

There was one spec that got me to buy it: $300. It's in good shape, too. The seller had bought it with no gunwales on it and put on really nice wood ones with some pretty work on the bow and stern deck plates.

I would really have preferred a smaller boat but had not found anything that was perfect and nothing anywhere near this price range.

Anyway, it's in my garage and will go down to the harbor this weekend. And we'll see. If worst comes to worse, then I'll use Hans Solo strategy of, "buy, try, sell." But I really wanted to get started so that I can go paddling while my wife rows her skiff. It will be good to get some exercise on the water. She's been commenting that sailing is fun but not that much work and then the beer in the clubhouse afterwards keeps it from being a good way to get fit.

Plus, any day you buy a canoe is a good one!

My first tru solo was a Mad River Traveler. Like someone said it's a big canoe made for a big guy and big loads. Mine went on several solo adventures, BWCA, Wabakimi,and to WCPP. Never had any complaints...except at 60 pounds my old beat up body simply refused to carry it on portages. Handled big water with no problems,it was a hoot on twisted streams, simply slid off the seat onto my knees and heeled it over. Seemed fast enough with a straight wooden shaft paddle but was a lot more fun with my 260cm yak paddle. I loved the sliding caned seat, when I bought my current Savage River solo that was the first thing I asked of John Diller if he could put in a sliding seat, he surly did at the same height as my Mad River canoe. My only regret in buying my Mad Bunny was I didn't do it sooner while my body could handle it. FRED

Andy, I think that will be a great boat for your intended purpose and some other at present possibly unintended purposes too (hopefully that makes sense). It's also really neat looking. Congratulations and enjoy!

I have a Kevlar Mad River Traveler.

Is it the best possible boat for your intended use? No.

Is it a good boat? Surely.

The Traveler is a large volume, deep solo that began life as the Jim Henry designed Screamer, which was a downriver racing hull. As such, the hull is extremely seaworthy. I would not call it remotely squirrelly. The shallow V bottom MRC hulls do behave a bit differently. The Traveler is a pretty hard tracker. An efficient turn usually requires a fair amount of off-side heel.

A boat like the Wenonah Advantage would obviously be better suited to exercise paddling unloaded in calm water but there is no reason you can't use the Traveler for that purpose. It will catch more wind but the sliding seat is very useful for trimming the boat and can be used to make the hull weathercock or leecock if that suits conditions best.

I paddled my Traveler solo many miles on lakes before I owned smaller solos and was perfectly happy doing so. I even paddled some Class II creeks in it, although it was poorly suited for that role. It would do fine running non-technical rapids in which no real maneuvering beyond side slips and back ferries was required.

When my daughters were young, I would put one of them on a small folding chair in front of me, move the sliding seat all the way aft, and paddle on lakes and Class I rivers this way. I may have gotten more usage out of my Traveler than any other boat I have owned.

I'm enjoying the info from Traveler paddlers. Thanks!

Also, I realized that I have paddled one of our SR Q17s solo on a moderately windy day trip and that went fine. The Q17 has more volume than the Traveler and while every boat is different, that gives me some confidence.

It is a nice looking boat. The woodwork needs a touchup but when I got back from picking it up my wife looked at it and said, "I didn't know it was going to be such a pretty boat."

Later she started asking if it could be paddled tandem but I told her it was probably too narrow to make that a good idea. We have two other tandems out here (the Silver Phoenix (our Aluminum barge) and an Ally folding canoe.

The other funny thing was that at one point she said, "Quick, without thinking, how many boats do we own." I immediately said, "8" and she agreed. But it turned out that we were both missing a boat in our counts. So, we're at 9 now!

Now the only problem is that a big storm is moving in for the weekend!

Andym, I'm glad you got that canoe, I live in Tahoe and was sorely tempted to pick that one up, such a great buy. But, I'm looking for a solo with more rocker to goof around on some of these east Sierra rivers, and I already have a large solo (Wenonah Encounter), which I think the MRC Traveler is similar too.
Again, I hope you have fun with it. 9 boats?!?
Cheers

TeakMtn: Glad you are happy that I got it and that I raced up there last night after work. That one was about half way between us.

Did you notice this
Wenonah Rendezvous on the SF Bay area craigslist? I found specs online that it has 2.5" of rocker. He dropped the price yesterday and so there may be some more negotiating to do.

9 boats:
2 tandem canoes in California
1 solo canoe in California
1 rowing skiff in California
1 sailboat in California
1 tandem sea kayak in California
2 SRQ17s in Minnesota
1 sailboat in NY (probably will get shipped out here at some point)

I have actually tried paddling my Traveler tandem. It has sufficient depth to function as a tandem and remain dry, but it is relatively narrow at the water line. I think it could work for a relatively light tandem team that stayed on their toes. If so, it would be quite fast.

That makes sense that it could work as a tandem. We're quite good at balance together but I think the issue for us would be that it is pretty narrow for the bow paddler. I doubt my wife would like that.

If you want to paddle the boat as a tandem, you will have to use a "Gemini" set up with the paddling stations pretty close together.

I believe I placed the front seat so that the machine screws for the rear frame of the seat went through the more forward gunwale holes that supported the center sliding seat.

If you want to do this, place the front paddling station as far back as necessary to allow for a tolerable degree of legroom. Then figure out where to position the rear seat to trim the boat.

quote pblanc: "I have a Kevlar Mad River Traveler.

Is it the best possible boat for your intended use? No.

Is it a good boat? Surely.

The Traveler is a large volume, deep solo that began life as the Jim Henry designed Screamer, which was a downriver racing hull. As such, the hull is extremely seaworthy. I would not call it remotely squirrelly. The shallow V bottom MRC hulls do behave a bit differently. The Traveler is a pretty hard tracker. An efficient turn usually requires a fair amount of off-side heel.

A boat like the Wenonah Advantage would obviously be better suited to exercise paddling unloaded in calm water but there is no reason you can't use the Traveler for that purpose. It will catch more wind but the sliding seat is very useful for trimming the boat and can be used to make the hull weathercock or leecock if that suits conditions best.

I paddled my Traveler solo many miles on lakes before I owned smaller solos and was perfectly happy doing so. I even paddled some Class II creeks in it, although it was poorly suited for that role. It would do fine running non-technical rapids in which no real maneuvering beyond side slips and back ferries was required.

When my daughters were young, I would put one of them on a small folding chair in front of me, move the sliding seat all the way aft, and paddle on lakes and Class I rivers this way. I may have gotten more usage out of my Traveler than any other boat I have owned. "

I'd say pblanc and FOG51 covered the characteristics of the Mad River Traveler quite well. There's not a whole lot I can add to their assessments.

It is a bit overkill for your intended purpose, because as I'm sure you know, it was intended to be a big tripping solo for big water and a lot of gear, somewhat akin to Wenonah's Encounter. Nevertheless, it should serve you well. It's a fun boat to paddle and it's also an attractive solo canoe in my opinion, for what it's worth.

I do use mine on some fairly crooked streams, and although it tracks well, it can cut the corners fairly easily with a good heel, as stated by other MR Traveler owners.

One of my motivations for buying the MR Traveler was to accommodate my big, hairy. 93-pound Golden Retriever, which it's very good for in that regard. Even when it's just him and I, it's still a fairy stable and predictable canoe IMHO. I haven't really felt Mad River's "V-Hull" to be much of an issue either, but it does have a slightly different "feel" to it than a shallow arch design hull.

Enjoy!

Hans Solo

Thanks for the additional thoughts. Now I just need a weekend day without a storm. After all, if this is a tough boat in a wind then 30-40 mph winds are not the way to start!

Hans?....is yours Kevlar or FG?

quote cowdoc: "Hans?....is yours Kevlar or FG?"

My Traveler is Kevlar cowdoc. At 47-pounds, I still consider it a reasonable weight for portaging, even with a moderate pack. At 47-pounds, it's essentially the weight equivalent of my Kevlar Flex-Core Wenonah Voyager, which has been my mainstay solo tripper for over ten years.

Hans Solo

Thanks.....beautiful boat. Just something about them where they don't look like mass produced, cookie cutter boats. I really like my Independence. Like to compare how they paddle.

quote cowdoc: "Thanks.....beautiful boat. Just something about them where they don't look like mass produced, cookie cutter boats. I really like my Independence. Like to compare how they paddle.
"

I've never paddled a Traveler but I HAVE paddled an Independence for one day. I have been looking at one as a possibility for the BWCAW? I would love to hear some thoughts on the Indy to add to the reviews and my friend's opinions. I won't feel guilty about this diversion since the OP purchased the boat in question (LOL)!

I'll give my blessing to this diversion. Just no blessing to the storm that has moved in and kept me from paddling! Had a good conversation with our plumber about paddling and rowing, yesterday. Canoe on the floor of the garage is a conversation starter. Soon it will move to the harbor for easy access launching.

To follow up on the using it as a tandem, turns out my wife was asking more about whether I could carry passengers, perhaps great nephews. The Gemini position sounds like it requires excellent coordination between paddlers. Not sure we'd like that. We like the ability to not pay too much attention. Even our tandem sea kayak has the cockpits pretty far apart.

quote ozarkpaddler: "

quote cowdoc: "Thanks.....beautiful boat. Just something about them where they don't look like mass produced, cookie cutter boats. I really like my Independence. Like to compare how they paddle.
"

I've never paddled a Traveler but I HAVE paddled an Independence for one day. I have been looking at one as a possibility for the BWCAW? I would love to hear some thoughts on the Indy to add to the reviews and my friend's opinions. I won't feel guilty about this diversion since the OP purchased the boat in question (LOL)!"

I don't know a lot of "canoe terms", just a boat I really feel comfortable in. A real ease to paddle, stable enough for fishing and responds well to strokes. Most of my paddling is flat water, but I do use it on the local meandering river. Mine is the FG layup at 44#. I was looking and looking and hoping for kevlar, but this FG boat came up close by at a great price and it was well cared for. I did move the rear thwart forward towards the seat to accommodate packs easier....didn't affect anything. It did everything I wanted on a week long group solo in the Q. Kept up with the Magics and handled some windy days/choppy water well. Only problem I had was keeping a good line in a quartering tail wind....may have been a trim issue.
I did have a shot at a Kevlar Traveler many years ago, but it was a long drive and I wasn't desperate. I'll keep watching for one though.

Thanks much, Cowdoc! If I can get the better half to see the wisdom in it, now (LOL)?

Cowdoc - could you reach out to me via email? My email address is fanningk@gmail.com. I am located just down the road in Janesville, with friends in Brodhead. I have a FG MR Traveler.

A couple of photos of my Mad River Screamer; the predecessor of the Mad River Traveler.
I would put the Screamer in the hard tracking/fast boat category.
But............ it will most certainly manuever quite nicely when paddled by a skilled paddler.
Fun boat to paddle.

BOB

KevinBFanning: "Cowdoc - could you reach out to me via email? My email address is fanningk@gmail.com. I am located just down the road in Janesville, with friends in Brodhead. I have a FG MR Traveler."

Message received.....nice talking with you.