I carry a small gizmo that counts steps (you set your stride length) and converts it to miles walked. I'm going to try to adapt it to counting paddle strokes not so much to estimate distance but to just keep count. I guess the technology is not new but it is for me. Rather than re- invent the wheel if anyone has already done this please post how you did it and how well it worked. 57 days and counting.

Thanks, Merlyn

I got curious one trip about 10 years ago and simply tried counting how many strokes it took me to get across the south arm of Knife paddling into a stiff wind. I was solo in a Magic then, so was not distracted by other paddlers. I seem to recall (and being surprised) that I was taking something like 500 strokes to get from one point on the shore across a bay to the next point. I counted up to 500 multiple times to get across South Arm Knife, and that night on Ogish tried to use my counts to estimate how many total strokes I took for the day. I seem to recall coming up with a number of 10,000 or something, but my memory of this could be even less reliable than my original methodology.

I’d be really curious to know what you come up with if you do count. For what it’s worth, I was also really surprised the first time I actuall added up the total distance of all my portages in a 10 day trip.

Wearing a Fitbit device would probably do it.

Just strap your FitBit to the wide end of your Paddle !

Larry S

I just tried a little air paddling with my Apple Watch on. It seems to somewhat overestimate the number of strokes but it may do the same thing for steps. I only did 10 strokes on each side and so the motions at the beginning and end may have contributed more than they would have if I had done 100 strokes.

So, I agree that wearing a Fitbit might do the job for counting strokes.

For distance, a GPS will be way more accurate due to the bigger effect of wind on paddling than walking. Some Fitbits and the Apple Watch have that feature and so you could compare strokes and distance under different conditions or different paddles.

Maybe we need to get Apple to develop a canoe paddling mode for their fitness app. In swim mode, it does an impressive job of counting laps and keeping track of which strokes I was swimming at different times.

I need one of these for solo trips, so I can switch sides. I keep losing count after 2.

I have a Fitbit charge. It did count paddle strokes as steps, though I'm not sure how accurate it was. It seemed like I took more strokes on one side vs the other. I do count my strokes in my head so my husband can't Complain I'm staying on one side too long!

The hand motions on the two sides are different enough that I’m not surprised that the watches may count them differently. I thought I saw a difference on my very short test. But it was too uncertain to be sure.

Just paddle and go and don't worry about it. Your supposed to be having fun and you'll get to where your going when you get there:-)

dschult2: "Just paddle and go and don't worry about it. Your supposed to be having fun and you'll get to where your going when you get there:-)"

+1
I counted fish caught on a trip once and it ruined my enjoyment. It became a 12 day or a 16 day instead of a good day. Focus on your surroundings.

Please don't read too much into this thing. I was just curious not obsessed. I never counted or measured steps in any way until I got the Ozo fitness gizmo.
I can't seem to get a reading air paddling no matter how I attach it to my hand, arm or paddle so maybe I'll never find out. As tripping time gets closer I'll probably come up with other silly stuff to think about.

Pedometers such as the Ozo are probably looking for a jolting motion with each step rather than a swinging motion. The Fitbit or Apple Watch are looking for a swinging motion of the arm associated with walking and so that may translate better to counting a paddle stroke as a step.

I would take your pedometer and hold it in your hand and move it about to see what it counts as a step.

Jaywalker: "I got curious one trip about 10 years ago and simply tried counting how many strokes it took me to get across the south arm of Knife paddling into a stiff wind. I was solo in a Magic then, so was not distracted by other paddlers. I seem to recall (and being surprised) that I was taking something like 500 strokes to get from one point on the shore across a bay to the next point. I counted up to 500 multiple times to get across South Arm Knife, and that night on Ogish tried to use my counts to estimate how many total strokes I took for the day. I seem to recall coming up with a number of 10,000 or something, but my memory of this could be even less reliable than my original methodology.


I’d be really curious to know what you come up with if you do count. For what it’s worth, I was also really surprised the first time I actuall added up the total distance of all my portages in a 10 day trip. "

Ha, I remembered a guy on one of our trips counting strokes. I kept a journal for that trip and he wrote an entry for that day -- I'll include part of his entry:

"Yesterday I helped myself and filled a ration bag with Trail Mix and Gummi Bears. So as not to slow down our vessel, I only ate a handful of mix every 50 strokes. Of course, this required me to count every [paddle]stroke. I didn't know how big the lake was, and all my mix was gone at 800 strokes, so we took bets on how many strokes it would take to get all the way across. The final number was 2470."

Unfortunately, the lake isn't named. He does say that the next morning we were canoeing on Crooked lake. I'll have to ask my hubby to see if he remembers.

I count my strokes when I paddle solo. Not total strokes, just the number on each side. It's part of my rhythm and helps me give my brain something to do so I can forget about world at home. While my mind counts, my other senses are fully engaged in the experience.

I wear a Fitbit Inspire everyday just to monitor general fitness and to generally compete with myself from one day to the next. I looked up my history from my BWCA trip last June and it recorded a little over 47,000 "steps" on the first day of our trip. That was from Moose River EP to Boulder Bay on LLC. That was recording paddling and portaging, as well as my steps to the latrine. I'm not sure how accurate it is on measuring paddling strokes but I know that I didn't "walk" that many steps. But, as others have noted, I don't focus on my steps or fitness when in the BWCA but instead I just enjoy the moments. As an aside, my fitbit also monitors my sleep quality and it confirms that I sleep much better in a tent in the wilderness than I do at home in a comfortable bed. Take away the daily distractions that we all have and that's why so many of us venture into the wilderness each year.

I would just come up with an average strokes per minute and use that as your guild.