Maby Wendy could hand out the awards
Given her round the rock paddle last season,she’d be a natural choice…I’d feel honored just to shake the gals hand.
You mean like this?
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2383847410032988148TxEjRG
It certainly was an honour for our club to paddle with her and present her with an award last summer.
Depends on the conditions!
One year my cousin and I did 16 miles in 3.5 hours in our canoe. The water was running fast, it was an easy cruise so doing twice that would not have been a problem.
30 miles on flatwater is another story. You’re talking 10 hours of solid paddling. Personally, it doesn’t sound like fun to me.
Well then wouldn’t…
… a row boat let you collect and haul more stuff? Maybe get a bigger one, add a motor, maybe a tug and barge combo…
Or just walk the shoreline pulling a red wagon?
I have more use for exercise than found stuff. I pass up brand new lures and all sorts of trinkets almost every paddle. Once and a while I stop to pick something up. The rest of the time I get something far more valuable.
To each his own, I paddle to paddle.
Up the ante…
30 miles in a boat no more than 10 feet long. Mega-Bonus points for doing it in a play boat on flat water.
lakes are for us wimps
>>Those inland freshies can have their lilydipping spirit journeys
yeah, how about an around the lake challenge for the inland paddlers - like 1000 miles. (Superior)
Andy
Re: the “relative value” of different…
…personal approaches to paddling…
Though I try to have some idea of what I mean when I post something, I’ve learned that others can read more and/or less into just about anything, so I’ll expound a bit on my original reply to this thread…
Personally, in my almost 10 years of paddling a kayak, I can’t recall a single paddle that I didn’t absolutely love; be it lillydipping in some quiet wetland area or punching through the surf and dancing with the waves while the fishing boats scurry for the safety of their harbor (and everything in between and beyond). My “journeys of the spirit” are just as joyful, meaningful, and transcendent to me regardless of the types of water and conditions I find myself in. I paddle for exercise as well, and this “reason” is no more or less valuable to me than any of the other reasons I paddle (after all, “exercise” happens whether or not it is my primary intent at any given moment :-)).
All I really meant to say is that for me, “arbitrary goals”, like trying to see if I can paddle a certain number of miles in one session, or counting my total miles paddled in a year, does not inspire me as it might some others (not a “value judgment” towards others one way or another…it’s just what it is)…even if I do end up paddling many miles in a session, and thousands of miles in a year (as I often do, in fact).
Melissa
Fun
– Last Updated: Jan-11-07 4:37 PM EST –
"30 miles on flatwater is another story. You're talking 10 hours of solid paddling. Personally, it doesn't sound like fun to me. "
Let's see, at 3 knots/hour, it'll take nearly 10 hours. Not fun. Kick it up to 4 knots/hour, it takes 7+ hours. That's not bad already. If you can cruise at 5 knot/hour, it only takes 5+ hours. That's perfectly FUN!
20 years ago, I met some guy who biked a century in 12 hours because his brakes were rubbbing the rim. He considered it an accomplishment. But not something he'll do again. 10 years later, I picked up cycling. With a thousand dollar bike and riding 5 times/week, I routely rides 70-80 miles/day in about 5 hours. It didn't take much to stretch it to a hundred. There're plenty of cyclist who cycle a hundred miles every weekend, because it's FUN!
I think 30 miles paddling is perfectly doable, and can be fun with the right training and equipment (aka fast cruiser/wing paddle). It's the paddling's equivalence of a century on bike.
It’s Thowed Daln
Whut the hell’s a gauntlet?
Here’s the deal. You have from dawn to dusk to complete it. You have to use a GPS for measuring. If you do it on a river ya gotta do at least half of it going upstream. 30 nautical miles equals just under 35 statute miles.
A real man can do it. A real woman can do it. When you’ve done it, by all means post the story of your long day on the water.
Your Close ABC
The right equipment makes it fast and fun, but all you really need is decent hydration and food, plus detirmination. The first time RedCrossRandy did the 40 miler all he had was the detirmination.
I personally have seen a big (280-300) guy paddle a penobscot solo on the 40 miler. 2 years in a row. a royalex boat is not the way to make an easy paddle day.
Re: Award to Wendy
Magoo.I’m envious
re: Fun
I’ll agree on the century being able to be done in under 6 hours by a conditioned cyclist…the caveat being…head winds.
Try 40 miles of the return leg into 30mph winds and the story changes.
Do the century thru hilly terrain vs flat terrain and the story changes.
Do the century in high heat/humidity conditions and the story changes…
I know about all of em.
Flat water paddling incurrs similar stumbling blocks…
I know the century (cycling) used to have to be accomplished in under 8 hours to qualify for a patch…I’ve had centuries where ‘just finishing’ was accomplishment enough.
Chesapeake Paddlers Association
They set out and accomplished a goal to do the 35 miles around Kent Island (East of Annapolis, MD) by doing it this past Summer of 2006. They set up 4 or 5 “once a month training paddles” to get familiar with the Bay conditions while circumnavigating various sections of the island. The logistics were set up well in advance and were very organized with land support included. Unfortuately, I was never able to actually join them on any of the training runs. Hopefully this year I will be able to join them.
Perhaps someone from CPA could chime in with more details of their accomplishment.
Jeff
I drooled with envy
I was hoping to do that trip but was unable to fit it in the schedule.
Tim (in MD)
Very interesting thread
I like using the outdoors to challenge myself physically. Whether paddling, running, cycling, or hiking nothing (well maybe, sex) beats what I call “maxing out my fun meter” in the outdoors. Races against others get the endorphins flowing but so does a personal challenge against the clock, or just pushing yourself close to your physical limits.
I’ve no problem w/ those who stop to smell the roses & slowly cruise along a shoreline but to say you see more doing this is, IMO opinion, inaccurate. If I paddle @ 5-6 mph, put up w/ a little sweat in my eyes & cover 2 or 3 or 5 X distance how can you say I’ve seen less ???
Like was stated earlier, that shoreline’s really just a blur @ that speed !
Like they say, whatever floats your boat! Enjoy !
I paddle
differently. A lot of times I’m a foot or two from shore and enjoy paddling slower to find stuff and avoid a collision with a rock. On a nice, long crossing I like to get in “the zone”, challenging myself so I don’t pay attention to the shoreline or brush like I would do otherwise.
Folks paddle the way they want to because you’re out there for you and not anyone else. I edited a post so folks don’t interpret that paddling 30 miles is the axis of all evil. 
Thats an easy day
for an expedition paddler. 26 knots or 30 statute miles is not even close to a marathon. This is where efficiency matters, not speed, but I wont even try to go there on a web forum anymore.
agree on the training paddles
For me, the upper niagara being the paddle of choice, I know how quickly conditions can change.
Flat and glassy at 6:30/7 a.m can easily turn into mild chop or rollers given western ny’s chronic winds.
I’m hoping to get in at lest one training paddle a week (yes, on the niagara…no sense in practicing one place when you’ll be paddling another)to build up the endurance…I have to rely a lot more on using the torso because of the bad shoulders and it’s all too easy to slip back into the bad ‘pulling stroke’ habit if I don’t work at it.
Couple of folks I paddle with,have suggested a ‘half the circumference paddle followed by a 26 mile cycle of the parkway around grand island’ for sometime next season…sort of a woosie biathalon:o))
Hey McYak, I’m not
a wuss!
I suggested spotting a car halfway around Grand Island in case those of us with lower back problems (ahem) go into paralysis!
wuss fuss cuss cuss
Ahhh Ness…A REAL biathelon would have incorporated paddling the entire circumference (34 miles) and THEN cycling the entire parkway circumference…(26 Miles)
And somewhere in between calling 911 and making funeral arrangements for moi`
Or putting photos of both my arms and my legs on milk cartons.