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Marin Canoe Club
San Rafael, CA
US
We started waa-a-a-ay back in 1965, when a half dozen or so folks got together at the Kentfield, California, home of Ann Dwyer, canoeist extraordinaire, to talk about organizing a canoe club. The club’s purpose would be to encourage and promote the sport of canoeing and to provide instruction in order to improve canoeing safety.
MCC’s charter members included active and ardent canoeists. Ann herself was teaching canoe classes at the time. She went on to invent the Kiwi Kayak and has led canoe and kayak trips all over the world. Still an active member of the club, she’s presently writing a book on canoeing waters of Northern California. Elizabeth Terwilliger, another of the original organizers, was leading canoe trips along with hikes and bicycle outings. She would become practically world famous for her outdoor education activities with kids.
Others who attended that first meeting were young couples who thought canoeing would be a great, inexpensive way to have fun with their kids. From that first potluck, MCC grew in numbers and activities, drawing members of all ages who enjoyed an impressive schedule of organized, volunteer-led trips on lakes, rivers, bays and esteros all over California and beyond, canoe and kayak races and skills contests, fun days, and canoe/kayak classes.
Ann Dwyer, along with Gordon Young, another charter member, organized the Quentin Canoers for students of high school and college age. Their canoe-camping expeditions took them on many of Northern California’s rivers. With moves and marriages, the group has disbanded, but we’re hoping to reactivate it in the near future.
We hold our annual potluck dinner in January, a combined business meeting and social event. Members share stories and show photographs and slides of the previous year’s trips. We schedule "skills days" through the canoeing season, combining canoeing and kayaking instruction with races and other water fun, topped off with a barbecue. Another tradition is our canoe-camping get-together at Kidd Lake in the Sierra every summer. Over sixty kids, canoeists, kayakers, and campers enjoyed the event last year.
A prime benefit of club membership is our trip schedule day outings on local waterways, moonlight excursions where the lights and images of the above-water world are magically mirrored all around you, week-long canoe-camping adventures on more distant rivers and lots more.
http://www.marincanoeclub.org/
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CLUBS
