Mad River Journey 156

Great price. Nice seats and finish. Good for camping. Seems easily damaged.

Bought this boat to replace an Old Town Camper. Was a great looking boat and the price was fantastic. I use this canoe mostly on lakes with a bolt on sail kit and to transport wife, dogs, and gear to an island campsite.

For us it is a useful canoe. It paddles well and tracks straight. If it were longer it would probably track straighter. Our Old Town was a 16 footer and this one tracks almost as well. It is a tad heavy but that is not to much of a concern, for transporting you can use one of those two wheeled dollies and it is not problem loading and moving it around. With two people it is not issue at all.

With the sail kit installed it is a fast and extremely fun canoe to have at the lake. Paddling solo is no problem because the seats are placed right for either tandem or solo, depending on which seat you use. With the wood thwarts and web seats it looks like a very expensive canoe.

The gunwhales are on tight and do not have any 'bulges" along their length. The boat seems very well put together. It has also proven to be very stable, it is easier for my wife to climb in and out and to haul the dogs in and out without tipping as much as the Old Town did.

The only complaint/concern that I have is that the skin seems very fragile. While loading this canoe I had to gently roll it over in a parking lot (a maneuver that I have done many many times with the Old Town) and it got a pretty bad "scar" on the bow. ( I was holding it by the stern.) It almost looks shredded.

Since then I have been very careful not to "beach" it, or let it come in contact with hard surfaces. I am not sure if this is normal for this canoe. Perhaps this is why it is so inexpensive. The Old Town canoe stood up to years and years of this sort of "abuse" and although scratched did not show the amount of damage that this Mad River Canoe shows.

I am not sure if I have buyer's remorse or not, but next canoe is going to be another Old Town.