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I'd lean to Royalex
Posted by: acre on Jan-25-13 12:05 PM (EST)
The boat is certainly going to take some abuse no matter how careful you are and even if you choose to carry around any obvious rough spots. If you run into low water conditions your canoe will take even more abuse. The trail has lots of beaver dams to surmount as well as the odd log to cross as well as the normal things that cause the bottom of your boat to turn white.
I know of two parties that attempted the NFCT in composite boats who had issues. One party punctured the canoe on the Saranac River and the other smashed their Kayak on the lower Nuhegan River.
https://vimeo.com/43736857
http://kdaanen-nfct.blogspot.com/2011/07/day-9-july-12-bakers-acres-to.html
One of the first parties to do the trail wrapped their canoe on the lower Saranac and a party with a wooden boat I think had to make some repairs.
http://northernforestbycanoe.blogspot.com/2007/05/flying-canoe.html
This is not to try and dissuade you from attempting the trail in your boat but you should be prepared to make some repairs. At least one solo paddler did the trail in a composite boat successfully. A previous poster inferred that you cannot use a cart with a composite boat, I do it all the time. I’m just a section paddler and am fortunate that I can pick a boat to fit which section I am doing. If I were to choose one boat for the whole trail I would go with royalex. You should pose this question on the NFCT message board to get some more responses. http://74.220.207.172/~northez1/forums/forum.php
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