Anyone ever paddle in the rain?

@tjalmy said:
We love the rain,
and will paddle in the cold.
But the rain AND cold, and I will wimp out. Unless I’m already committed, of course.
Lightning in Florida is a fact of life. We try to get off the water before the afternoon storms hit. Great adrenalin rush when we don’t make it.
BTW, g2d isn’t a Nazi, just someone who follows the lines in the parking lot even when the store is closed, and the lot is empty :wink:
T

Its NOT cold unless the rain is SNOW. Thats when I wimp out. If its still water it still warm out.

@Sparky961 said:
Better question: Do you ever paddle in the FREEZING rain? How about sleet? Y’all down south even know what those are?

they got more of that last week than we did! Freezing rain is probably not a good idea if you have to drive there.

@kayamedic said:

@Sparky961 said:
Better question: Do you ever paddle in the FREEZING rain? How about sleet? Y’all down south even know what those are?

they got more of that last week than we did! Freezing rain is probably not a good idea if you have to drive there.

Because of poor traction on the road or because the kayak won’t stay put when placed in iced-up cradles?

I rank black ice and freezing rain right at the top for most hazardous traction conditions. Oh, slick mud is awful, too, but not normally encountered on pavement.

@rival51 said:

@Sparky961 said:
Better question: Do you ever paddle in the FREEZING rain? How about sleet? Y’all down south even know what those are?

Yep I have. That’s around level 2.3 fun.

We know what those conditions are and usually see them once a year in NW SC. Usually here today, gone tomorrow.
We’ve had two instances in the 30+ years we’ve been here that the roads iced. BAD thing.

@pikabike said:

@kayamedic said:

@Sparky961 said:
Better question: Do you ever paddle in the FREEZING rain? How about sleet? Y’all down south even know what those are?

they got more of that last week than we did! Freezing rain is probably not a good idea if you have to drive there.

Because of poor traction on the road or because the kayak won’t stay put when placed in iced-up cradles?

I rank black ice and freezing rain right at the top for most hazardous traction conditions. Oh, slick mud is awful, too, but not normally encountered on pavement.

You would love April. here… Many of our roads are private roads and dirt… Some town roads are dirt. Paved roads here are never a given. I don’t ever want to be in a Southern ice storm cause the other drivers have no experience and go too fast. I am not fond of ice storms in Maine either. Its not here today and gone tomorrow. in 1998 it was here today and here for three weeks. A month and a half ago we drove through two feet of snow and then freezing rain… Not fun when you need new windshield wipers… And logging trucks swerving out of control made us wish for not having to travel

Loading iced over kayaks is not really fun but we do do it as the lakes start to freeze over as the patterns of ice crystals are really nice and pretty and make a unique outing… Its the tying on… not the sliding of boats. at 8 degrees.

Gotta go… our camp road has been a sheet of ice for half a mile since Nov 10 but its OK… Its got some dirt worked into it.

Kayamedic, I live on a county road that the county does not maintain. It is the poor-draining-mud kind of primitive dirt road. Many, maybe most, roads are dirt roads. This road has not been plowed at all, and the foot of snow we got a couple of weeks ago turned into a glacier. Now the glacier has an “interesting” mix of sunglazed ice, crunchy snow chunks, some softer snow, and MUD. Deep, sucky mud ruts on about half a mile of it. Fortunately, we do not have to deal with that section, just the slick icy section which is not muddy yet because it is mostly shaded. High-clearance 4WD is a given, and people can still get stuck.

I do love it here anyway.

Tis not mud season here. What comes down as Miss November still can be found as the bottom layer when Miss April reigns
Significant thawing rare till mud season.
Yes Its interesting when an SUV bogs down… But that is de rigeur in the North Maine Woods. Look at an atlas… there is a large area that appears empty but actually has a few hundred miles of logging roads to exquisite paddle locations. AAA doesn’t service the area . Sometimes a winch and chain are needed for extraction.

Which roundabout leads to our preferred SUV… Having had Foresters for 20 years and avoided the ditch at the T intersection on the hill we have to stop at, I am wary of switching brands.

Hey! I miss g2d / ezwater! He had years of experience with WW. never met but enjoyed his input.

As for the OP, two weeks ago on a day with 100% chance of rain we put in on the Enoree to camp overnight with a bailout car at the halfway point. We ended up bailing our canoes of the rain water several times, and using the bailout car as the river was beginning to flood. It rose over 5 feet that night. So “yes and no” on canceling because of rain!

Been caught in a tidal creek during an impressive lighting storm and heavy rain that stared raising the creek we where in from marsh rain runoff.



@kayamedic said:
Tis not mud season here. What comes down as Miss November still can be found as the bottom layer when Miss April reigns
Significant thawing rare till mud season.
Yes Its interesting when an SUV bogs down… But that is de rigeur in the North Maine Woods. Look at an atlas… there is a large area that appears empty but actually has a few hundred miles of logging roads to exquisite paddle locations. AAA doesn’t service the area . Sometimes a winch and chain are needed for extraction.

Which roundabout leads to our preferred SUV… Having had Foresters for 20 years and avoided the ditch at the T intersection on the hill we have to stop at, I am wary of switching brands.

Uh, yeah, I grew up in MA and even there “down south” (compared with Maine) once the snow hit in late November the ground tended to be frozen till spring. Maine’s logging lands are well-known.

Here in SW CO, the temps go up and down enough to cause surface thawing, and the local mud is clayey. It doesn’t drain well, and even after lots of warming and sunshine, it takes a long time to dry. Some of the ruts on this road get to be almost a foot deep, because a few people drive it despite—or maybe because of—the ruts. A guy thing… The last stuckee needed friends with two trucks to help him get out.

We don’t drive that section when it turns too soft. My truck’s ground clearance is 10” but when the soil is that mushy, it wouldn’t take much to sink it down to stuckee level. The high ridges next to the ruts may or may not be hard enough to support anything heavier than a child.

None of this has anything to do with icing of kayak roof racks, though.

Castoff, having to bail rainwater several times in one outing would constitute a No Go for me. But it’s the kind of thing you decide after getting caught in it already.

If I am on a trip of two weeks paddling in the rain is inevitable… Shelter unless you make it is not around… Such is wilderness canoeing and kayaking. I don’t postpone starting on a trip either but I don’t like starting in a downpour.
Icing on kayak or canoe roof racks is never an issue. Icing happens. With gunwale stops and good tiedowns icing meh…

I do have more of a problem getting access to the ocean. Sometimes you have to drag everything over a snowbank and then depending on where the tide is ( 13 foot range) the launch can be perilously slippery with ice.

Paddling is a water sport/activity. Loving water is part of it. To me, paddling in rain is fun, and sometimes even more fun than sunny days. I think most of time having a splash jacket and splash pants (better than poncho), plus a rain hat, should give you enough comfortable gears for rainy days. If you kayak a small cockpit kayak with spray skirt, rains shall not deter you at all, no matter how big it is. Dealing with cold weather at the same time is a different story though.

However, stay away from lightening. It’s dangerous.

I love dirt roads. I learned to drive on them.

@string said:
I love dirt roads. I learned to drive on them.
Come over Sat. 2 inches of rain on the ice will make some fun!

Post the video. I’ll enjoy it while being happy not to be there.

@string said:
I love dirt roads. I learned to drive on them.

Dirt’s good, deep mud is not.

Do you get any of that southern gumbo mud?

Hmm… ok, forget paddling in the rain - frozen or not. How about paddling in the mud?

@pikabike said:

@string said:
I love dirt roads. I learned to drive on them.

Dirt’s good, deep mud is not.

Do you get any of that southern gumbo mud?

If you are referring to pluff mud , that is found primarily in salt marshes and I have been in it many times on foot and in boats. Almost as tenacious as grease.
I learned to drive in the Charleston area and the roads were mostly sand.
I live in the Upstate now, and the dirt roads are often red clay/ sand mixture. Not something you want all over you or your equipment.

I’ve paddled/pushed through some thick water.

Some was earth & plants and some was more like a slushy

@Sparky961 said:
Hmm… ok, forget paddling in the rain - frozen or not. How about paddling in the mud?

For sure I will be doing that in late Feb as the tide tables for the Everglades backcountry are only best guesses
Poles are useful