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I've bought a used Grumman 17' standard canoe 35 years ago and canoed flat water and the gravelly Class 1+ North Platte River near Casper, Wyoming a lot the first 10 years I had it. I had 17' and 11' Smokercraft aluminum canoes as well, but the narrow beam and flush riveting of the Grumman made it the "racehorse" of my stable, and it was the one I ended up keeping.

Yes, it was cold and noisy and it grabbed onto any rock it contacted, but the combination of rocker, deep keel and narrow beam made it perform well on all types of water. It hardly got out the last 25 years but the house got fixed, the kids left, and the wife finally let me free to do my thing and taking this UV-resistant beauty off the back yard rack and scouting for campsites along the river was like dating an old flame.

At 75 lbs it's getting tougher to car-top but when run stern-first and balanced it's easy to line up on the center riffles during low water even while paddling solo. It was amazing how all the old feelings came back. I'm looking for an 18 footer for expeditions but I'm keeping the one I have.