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The Old Town Saranac 146 is probably the best canoe for the money on the market. There are better canoes out there, but if your looking for a good quality canoe that is not going to break the bank, this is it! It is not as fast and does not track as well as its counterpart, the Mad River Adventure, but tracks well enough. Between the two canoes the Saranac is much more stable, and has more storage, and seating than the Mad River. The Mad River is a great boat as well, but since I was planning on using this with the wife and two small kids, the Saranac was the better choice. I"ve had the Saranac for two years now and had my wife, 5 year old and two year old in the canoe comfortably, and have not had the slightest fear of tipping over yet. The canoe is also very durable as we have had some pretty hard hits on rocks with no damage to the canoe. If your looking for a great, economical, family canoe this is the canoe you want.

I've paddled The Mad River Adventure on 3-4 occasions. It is a great canoe for the price. It is faster and tracks a little better than its counterpart, the Old Town Saranac 146. It is not quite as stable however, as the Saranac, but stable enough. Between the two you can't really go wrong either way, but I ultimately went with the Saranac, due to its more stability and more storage.

I was looking for a canoe I could take the wife and two kids (2yrs, 5yrs), and the added stability, storage space/seating of the Saranac outweighed the better tracking and speed that the Adventure offers. The Adventure is made out of a hard plastic material vs fiberglass with the Saranac, so I would say the Mad River is more durable. But my Saranac has held up to quite the beating.