Canoes are great for leisurely exploration of the lakes and rivers of New England. You can start by exploring the river right in front of campus--the Charles (the upper section is quite pretty, actually!) Then, work your way up to a multi-day canoe trip in Maine. When canoe camping, you can carry everything you want!
MITOC runs a few organized canoe trips every year. They are usually announced along with other boating info on the paddle@mit.edu mailing list. During some of the MITOC Circi (see the schedules page), a group usually ends up on a canoe trip down the Baker River. The hard part of organizing these trips is transporting the canoes. We do have a canoe trailer, but it's hard finding a person in the club who has a vehicle with a hitch! If you'd like go on a canoe trip, and have a vehicle with a hitch, please let the canoe manager know!
MITOC owns eight canoes available for rental. The canoes range from two aluminum tubs to newer Mad River Explorers. You'll need to make a reservation with the canoe chair if you want to rent one. The canoes are located in the MITOC Boathouse in building N52.
If you'd like to take the canoes down to the Charles, you can use one of the four canoe/kayak carts that keyholders recently built. to roll the canoe down to the river. You can put in across from MacGregor, where the wall stops and you can easily slide in a canoe.
If you'll be transporting the canoes by car, MITOC does have foam canoe carriers you can use if your car doesn't have a roof rack. We also have the straps you'll need to tie the canoes down. If you want to take two canoes on one car, you will need extra wide bars, or use 2x4's to make extra wide bars :) We also have large dry bags available that are great for portaging (available in the office).
In order to borrow a key to the boathouse and rent canoes or kayaks from MITOC, members must first provide one hour of service each year to the boathouse. This policy has been modeled after our long-standing cabin keyholder policy. The canoe manager will conduct one work sessions periodically throughout the year to keep the boathouse clean and make sure that everyone is familiar with rental procedures.
After getting approval from the canoe chair you will need to go to the MITOC office to pick up the boathouse key and put down a deposit check. You can pick up and return the canoe at your convenience. Please note that, like all rentals, boathouse keys are due back 7 days from when you take them out. We have very few boathouse keys, so expect members to return keys promptly