Foote Brothers Canoe / Kayak Rentals — Local services in Ipswich

Inside most of us is a deep desire to get close to nature, especially when the weather is good and we can be near the water. Yay!! It's been years since I've canoed though kayaking happens a lot more often. The big difference this time, however, is I was taking my two elderly parents who have never been in a canoe. We arrived at 10am and capsized in the canoe within a few minutes. Read for tips and our sad story:

If you are inexperienced with canoes, come after having watched some youtube video tutorials. They handed us paddles and gave ZERO instruction, which gave me the impression it must be very easy and self-explanatory. NOT SO!!!!

A teenage boy helped us get into the canoe and allowed my mother to sit on a cooler because the boat had some water in it. The lower the center of gravity in a canoe, the more stable it is. Unfortunately, we didn't have the experience to understand this at the time and because my mother was so high in the canoe, it was a lot easier to tip over. Please sit lower in the canoe, preferably on the floor. Please tell your patrons to sit lower if they don't know better.

Do not bring electronics or keep them in waterproof bags. I did not anticipate capsizing and we had two new cell phones and a camera. Thankfully no photos were lost but my camera stopped working. I also spent $120 repairing my phone and my mom's phone suffered a lot of water damage as well that she'll probably have to fix or buy a new phone later.

Understand that you can flip over and watch some tutorials on how to maneuver your canoe in such a case.

Only portable toilets available with no hand washing facilities so use the bathroom beforehand and bring hand sanitizer.

More experienced person should sit in the back to help with steering and also to keep an eye out for those in the boat. I made the mistake of sitting in the front and could not see anyone. I had no idea we were off balance until I was seconds from the water.

The people who worked there seemed very kind and when I called for information I spoke to a really nice person as well. It would be great if they can give some instructions or even a print out for those who are inexperienced and warn us of the probability of falling into the water. Because we had no experience and no instruction, we suffered a capsize within seconds. The teenage boy who worked there was kind enough to help us out of the water and remind me that I forgot my license as a deposit but a bit more verbal communication on the do's and don'ts could have saved us injuries, our electronics, and a lot...

This is a hidden gem of the local area. The Ipswich river inconspicuously snakes it’s way through the quaint country communities of Ipswich, Hamilton, Topsfield and Middleton. However, in the Ipswich and Topsfield section and where Foote Brothers Canoes operates, the river passes through the large conservation areas of Bradley Palmer State Park, Willowdale State Forest and the National Audubon Society’s wildlife sanctuary. These three conservation zones converge to create a large wildlife reserve, much of which can only be accessed by water. Foote Brother’s convenient shuttle drops you upstream where you can drift down through the entirety of the wildlife reserve back to their facility.

In an increasingly busy world, finding places of quiet to enjoy the sights and sounds of nature while slipping along silently on calm waters, is a rarity. Foote Brothers was founded as a family business and has remained so for more then half a century. They are involved in the public school system to provide educational trips for school children, they are active in conservation efforts and they are well known and loved generationally by the local...

It was a beautiful day to be out on the river and kayak. Not too hot not too cold. This was our first time kayaking down the Ipswich river from Foote Brothers and we had a blast. we did the Salem run. It took us five hours, but we did it really slowly. saw a total of 212 painted turtles. had to climb out and cross over maybe five different Beaver dams. The whole thing was a really fun obstacle course really lots of tree branches that you had to crouch down. lots of tight turns very windy river. Getting to see the freshwater flora and fauna variety of habitats was very exciting. There are multiple ways to do this to do it as short as you want and that as long as you want, you can even kayak to a campsite in the Audubon and stay overnight there. There were multiple picnics spots along the Audubon that you can stop...