(DON’T BE) WITHOUT A PADDLE Watercraft essentials and places to use them

In 2004, Paramount Pictures released a lousy buddy comedy, Without a Paddle. In it, three estranged friends (greenhorn adventurers, all of them) canoe into the Oregon wilderness in search of D.B. Cooper’s long-lost treasure. On their journey, they find poop-slinging hippies, machine-gun-shooting pot farmers, and hermit Burt Reynolds, but the worst to befall them (falling over a waterfall, being preyed upon by wild animals) happens because they’re disastrously unprepared. Without a Paddle has a 14 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and while the film’s laughs are few and far between, it does contain one nugget of wisdom: when you go on the water, it sure helps if you have the right gear.

So, what’s the right gear? What watercraft is best for road-trippers? And after you christen your vessel, where should you take it? Like a map leading to D.B. Cooper’s