: I'm a little leery of
: trying to run a bead of thickened epoxy down the ends and blend it into
: the bottom without making a serious mess.

As a beginner who just did this on his Pygmy boat I think Nick's idea has strong merit. The end result of running a bead of peanut butter epoxy and then smoothing it in looks fine. But somehow I think shaping the end of the kayak so the endgrain is exposed will look a bit sexier than just epoxy. It will also be faster with fewer steps. On the downside if you mess up you may have more trouble recovering. Keep in mind I have a beginners outlook.
I built many rc airplanes as a kid and making the leading edge of a plane translated nicely into practice for shaping the end of a stitch and glue kayak. It did take a while to shape the ends. But I think I obsessed a bit. I was worried about making the bead round enough to allow the glass to bend and used wayyyyyy too much epoxy. Good learning experience for kayak number two.