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.
@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.
@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?
We have red clay that when it gets wet it cakes to your shoes, your tires and anything that ends up in it. You’ll be walking around with 3" of clay on the soles of your shoes like you have grown taller. They make bricks out of it. You stay in the ruts or end up in the ditch. very slick i have driven side ways as the rear tires try to pass the front.
A friend just gave her daughter a paddle board then got another for herself. One reason was that it was white and she got tired of trying to clean the red clay off.
I haven’t seen the new one but the deck isn’t white.
