Can anyone who has used a Wenonah Wilderness speak to the capacity for gear for a decent length trip and full size portage packs? Can you lay a big portage pack flat behind the bench seat?

Last year I rented a Wenonah Basswood solo from an outfitter and was impressed with the Basswood Solo's ability to let me lay a reasonably full Granite Gear Superior One portage pack flat behind the bench seat. I'm looking at purchasing a Wilderness because it has a foot brace, which is a requirement for me (the Basswood Solo is simply not able to have a footbrace per the folks at Wenonah - something about the rib placement and hull design).

From what I have read, the Wenonah slightly modified the Wilderness design to create the Basswood Solo. So I'm hoping to have a decent amount of room for a full size portage pack to lay flat in the Wilderness, plus a smaller pack and some gear up front. Also, I understand the Wilderness has a lot of "initial" stability similar to the Basswood Solo.

My other consideration is a Northwind Solo. I know everyone raves about them. But I hear they are slightly tippy since they have less initial stability and have less gear capacity than a Wilderness? I really like a stable boat I can sit and fish out of, etc.

Thank you for any input folks can offer!

I'm leaning Wilderness myself.
And yes.....that brace, and the fact that they can't fit them in the BW due to rib spacing is part of that reason.

I’ve done two weeklong solo trips. The first was in a Wilderness, the second was in a Northwind Solo. I had zero issue with fitting my gear in either canoe. I prefer to have my heavier pack further forward when soloing on windy days for controllability in larger waves.

Trip one in the Wilderness had more amiable weather. The Wilderness has noticeably more initial stability. The seat also sits quite a bit higher which you may prefer. That said, I managed to dump the canoe when pushing off from one shallow landing, and nearly dumped one other time when poorly loaded in rough water.

Trip two in the Northwind Solo was a week of wind, waves, and rain. While I noticed the very slight decrease in initial stability, it was more than offset by far superior secondary stability and tracking. I paddled more than once in rough water, and was amazed by how capable the boat handled all conditions. I also fished quite a bit on this trip and had no issues. Maybe it was more experience, but I vastly preferred how the Northwind handled and it felt faster to me too. The Northwind is also prettier both in Starlite and Blacklite!

I now own a Northwind 18 and my son and I had fun last year forcefully rocking side to side on occasion to experience how incredible the secondary stability is on this craft.

Bear Paulsen does a fantastic job of describing initial and secondary stability here. The whole video is worth watching, but the part about initial and secondary stability begins at 14:22.Really all of his “Bear’s Discourses” videos are a fantastic watch on YouTube to learn about how various canoe designs compare to one another.

A disclaimer: I haven't paddled either the Basswood Solo or the Wilderness. I have tripped with Wenonah's Encounter and Prism.

I did quick ratio measurements on the pictures of the Basswood Solo & Wilderness on Wenonah's website. You should be able to easily lay flat a GG Superior One aft of the seat in the Basswood Solo. It would be a tighter fit in the Wilderness: you'd have to make sure you didn't overstuff that pack (i.e. keep the height of the pack to 25 inches).

As for a foot brace in the Basswood Solo, why could't you install a brace yourself? Yes, the ribs in the Basswood Solo are in the wrong place for Wenonah's factory installation methods, but why couldn't you glue small blocks of wood on either side of the ribs just forward of the seat and attach the brace to those blocks? You could even glue the side rails to the existing ribs. Both Wenonah and Northstar sell foot braces that should work. Northstar sells braces that are advertised to be installed with glue.

Yardstick Angler - thank you for your feedback! I ended up purchasing a Northwind Solo in the Blacklite layup, after a huge amount of research and going back and forth. After I bought it, I saw your response later, and it was great to see how much you liked the Northwind Solo also. That largely matches what I keep hearing about it.

I did paddle a Northwind Solo back in summer of 2024 via a rental through Clearwater Lodge and Outfitters. I remember liking it quite a bit, and I had no issue paddling the 7 mile length of Clearwater lake with a decent tailwind while heading east.

New year, new canoe! Awesome! I can’t wait to see your adventures in your new dream machine!

I have a foot brace in my two Wenonah canoes and never use it. It’s there but I never found it to be useful really. Not sure what it is intended to do I guess, I’d rather have my feet free. I would suggest putting that on the back burner and enjoy your new boat as is. Congrats, have fun!

scat: "I have a foot brace in my two Wenonah canoes and never use it. It’s there but I never found it to be useful really. Not sure what it is intended to do I guess, I’d rather have my feet free. I would suggest putting that on the back burner and enjoy your new boat as is. Congrats, have fun!"

The foot brace is there to isolate your lower body so you have a more upper body power for your paddle stroke. I'm the opposite I've used footraces since the 80s and feel weird without one