I was looking for someplace to paddle yesterday, but there was snow in the forecast for the afternoon so I needed to find a morning run that was close to home. Fortunately, the class II section of the Assabet River in Maynard, MA was running.
I had run this section of the Assabet once before at a slightly higher level. It’s an easy class II with a couple of nice surfwaves. I met my paddling partners at 10:00 to run the shuttle. Temps were in the low 20’s when we put in, and I had icicles in my boat by the time I reached the take-out, but we kept paddling so I never felt cold on the river. It took us about an hour and a half to do the mile and a half run. It started snowing for the last half hour, so I had my first snow paddle of 2017. Few pictures here:
Wow - that’s a lot of snow Rookie - sorry to jinx you. We were suppose to get a couple of inches yesterday, and ended up with 8 to 10. Not quite the same.
You’re a far better man than me…Yesterday and today, where I am, the temps only reached a daytime high of 18F (I don’t mind cold water or snow, but air temp I prefer at least above 30 to consider going out, even when properly suited from head to toe.) And though there’s plenty of water in the nearby streams, think I’ll wait til Midweek when things are expected to reach a balmy 40+F degrees to consider my first paddle of 2017. Nice shots though, and it sure is good to have like(psychotic?)minded partners to share such fun with!
@PaddleDog52 said:
cool, in the canoe what is the yellow strapped down?
The big yellow bags in the bow and stern? Those are float bags. They keep the boat floating high in the water if you swamp so it is less likely to pin on a rock.
@spiritboat said:
sure is good to have like(psychotic?)minded partners to share such fun with!
Very fortunate to have lots of like minded psychotic friends, but I have to say I was never cold on the water. I did get cold getting my gear together and boat on the car after we got off the river though.
@Rookie said: @eckilson
You have power, Erik, so I"m looking forward to your “Bring on Spring” thread,
I’ll start working on it Rookie. In the meantime, enjoy the snowshoeing. We got 110 inches in southeastern New England the winter of 2014-15. Very, very unusual for us. I didn’t do much paddling, but I did a lot of snowshoeing that winter when I wasn’t shoveling the driveway, or my roof.
@PaddleDog52 said:
cool, in the canoe what is the yellow strapped down?
The big yellow bags in the bow and stern? Those are float bags. They keep the boat floating high in the water if you swamp so it is less likely to pin on a rock.
What’s the small yellow square with a purple center and purple line attached to it?
@eckilson said:
Those are the attachments for the thigh straps - you can see it better here
Your outfitting makes it look more like you ride a horse than paddle a canoe… I guess on some pretty crazy runs it would feel that way too!
It’s been too cold here for paddling recently. Probably -14 C (~7 F) or so during the day and dipping down to -18 C (~0 F) at night. My limit is about -5 C (~23 F) air temperature for sea kayaking comfort and safety.
It’s supposed to warm up and get rainy again early in the week so we’ll see what happens after that. We’ve certainly seen more than our share of snow this year. Nature is making up for the reprieve we got last year.
@Rookie said:
Ahhh - got it. At first sight, wondered how in the heck you fit it - then remembered you kneel.
Yes - you kneel with your feet on foot pegs. I was looking for a picture where you can see the outfitting, and this is the best I could find. You can at least see the thighs strap
I was thinking float bags but wow they are gigantic. What do a set of those cost? I guess you need good knees for this. do your knees feel it when you hit rocks?
@PaddleDog52 - the float bags for my boat are probably $70 to $80 each. The Encore is a big old-school boat (13’), so I have a 72" bag in the front and a 60" bag in the back. It can be tough to find them that big, but if you are careful you don’t need to replace them very often. You get use to kneeling after a while - never felt a rock on my kneels through the boat.
@Rookie - I don’t have a roll, so the straps on my boat are relatively low and loose. They keep me in contact with the boat and help with healing the boat side to side, and it is real easy to get out of the boat. If I had a roll the straps would have to be higher on my thighs and tight enough to keep me in the boat while upside-down in the water. It would be tougher to get out of the boat, but with a good roll you don’t need to.
I guess on some pretty crazy runs it would feel that way too!