After 20 years of long-distance wilderness backpacking in the US, I discovered that you can carry a lot more gear ( "junk".which I been able to do without for 2 decades) in a canoe, rather than in a backpack. This "discovery" coincided with my advanced old age 0f 40, and the general loss of true "wilderness" in the US, and the increased usage of all forms of motorized recreational vehicles into the remaining wild areas of the US. Unfortunately, (for others) Edward Abbey was my role model, not Bill Mason.
 

My wife (Wendy) and I have been canoeing for 5 years, in "saskia" our OT Disco 17.4". Our next canoe will be a Bell Northwoods! It will be an epiphany to paddle a "real canoe". J We have managed 1200 miles in our wretched plastic boat thus far. Canoeing , for us, has been a means to an end. Photography, birding, botany, and "walking up and down in the world" are our main interests. Most of our trips are multi-week. our longest "stretch" without seeing other people has been 24 days. We are "flatwater" paddlers.though mostly we have been canoeing on the large lakes and rivers of Canada in Alberta and Saskatchewan ...I often dwell on the meaning of the FW classification while heading for shore in 3 foot swells, and wind, in an undecked tandem canoe.
 

In 7 weeks we are driving to Yellowknife NT, for a fly-in to the Lockhart River on the Barrens.