A couple of summers back,
when Nissan loaned me a Micra, I helped a friend harvest birch bark to make a canoe:
I helped him with a couple of other small tasks during construction:
Finally this weekend, we loaded the finished product on the Firefly, to take it down to the water for the first time:
Sea trials on the St Lawrence River!
You couldn't wipe the grin off my friend's face. He says he's wanted to make a canoe for 60 years, and he finally did it. Half a dozen people came over to talk to him about it when we were putting it in.
Other than needing a bit more waterproofing around the stern stitching, its first paddle was a success.
We collected enough bark for a second vessel. I may make something.