Need some advice on what boat to use for an upcoming trip....

My 11 yr old son and I are going on a week long, 100+ mile river trip in June with a group of paddlers on a trip known as "Paddle Georgia". We've paddled with this group on 4 other similar trips in the past years on various Georgia rivers. In the past, we've always had lots of shoals and up to class 2 whitewater to negotiate and we took our Wenonah Solo Plus Royalex canoe and it has been great for the trip.

This year, we will be exploring about 22 miles of the Ohoopee River and another 80+ miles of the Altahama finishing our trip at the Georgia coast. We have been planning on taking our wood kayaks this year and my son has been really looking forward to being in his own boat. My son has a 14' One Ocean Kayaks "Cirrus SLT", a stitch & glue boat I build for him a couple of years ago and I planned to use the brand new Spring Run I just completed.

The Altamaha River is a large slow moving river, 300-500 feet wide with a sandy bottom so using the wood boats on this river is ideal. However, we got a scouting report a couple of days ago that the Ohoopee, a beautiful blackwater river, is littered with deadfall some crossing the entire stream. The folks who ran the 22 miles we plan to run advised that they encountered 13 cross river deadfalls in 9 miles requiring them to drag their canoe up and over many times in addition to up and around.

So, here is where I need the advice.... Both boats have two layers of 6oz cloth on the bottoms so I know my wood boats are rugged enough to be pulled over deadfall and up sandy banks but I'm cringing at the thought of what the bottoms will look like afterwards. I also know that once off the Ohoopee and on the Altamaha, we'll appreciate the efficiency of the kayaks and my son will get to feel his new independance. So, should we take the canoe or the wood kayaks. I also have a Dagger Alchemy 14 and a Tsunami 135 we could take but my son thinks the plastic Tsunami is too heavy for him.....

What do you think??

Bob Beaullieu