I have been wrestling with these problems of shuttle too. Bike shuttle and flat water are good ideas… I’ve done both before. Hopefully situations change soon. Hope for the best, plan for the worst!
Thinking of a few more challenges… some parks and corps of engineers lakes in pa are shut down. Also, Erie and therefore access to the Lake Erie is limited to only essential travel.
Your precautions against infection are perfectly sensible and I wish everyone would practice similar care. My own husband did an IDIOTIC thing yesterday, unnecessaily exposing both of us to more risk.
The day before that, a UPS driver foolishly took the unmaintained road we live on as a shortcut. He should’ve known better as soon as he saw the ruts left by the local bubba boyz. The soil is native red clay, with no roadbase or gravel whatsoever on the northerly 0.67 mile. It had just started pouring rain also. He got stuck and, after much churning deeper and destroying a traction aid and leaving three sets of tire chains, all of which we noticed yesterday, he backed down and out of trouble.
So yesterday my husband saw another UPS driver, flagged him down, and asked him if he “wanted him to do something with them.” As I said, not something he needed to do at all when we are supposed to keep 6’ distance from people. The driver—ALSO AN IDIOT!—said, “Well, let’s go there together and get the chains!” Stupid hubby got in the UPS truck and together he went off with this driver, who daily handles hundreds of packages from who knows where and encounters at least several dozen strangers each day. He probably violated a UPS rule, too.
Anyway, I sure wish your prudence were contagious!
Thanks for the video, Erik. Enjoyed being “on the water” albeit only visually. How did you get around those blow-downs?
Men!!! We crazy, sometimes.
I have quite a few friends who are avid road bikers (something I can no longer do, at least at their level of distance, due to having healed breaks in wrist, elbow and shoulder joints) who report being thrilled with the lack of traffic on roads in their areas and being off work and are venturing out more often on longer and more ambitious rides. They claim this is “safe” since they are not contacting anyone. But I keep pointing out that if they have an accident they are going to be sucked right into the contagion vortex if they have to go to the ER or even just being tended to by first responders, most of whom are desperately short of PPE right now. I have noticed that the lack of traffic means more motorists seem to be driving at higher speeds on the city streets, plus the level of frustration and impatience in general has probably overtaken what used to be irritation with slow traffic.
It’s similar to the argument I have with people who don’t want to use safe practices and PPE when paddling: yeah, you want to exercise your “freedom to take my own risks” but you are also risking the lives and safety of the people who will have to show up and rescue your “free spirit” ass when you screw up. I’m a curmudgeonly veteran of past adventures (mostly mountaineering and backcountry camping, but a couple of paddling) during which I and my well equipped party had to abort to intervene and extract one or more clueless “free spirits” whom we stumbled upon lost, stranded, hypothermic, injured due to foolishness or otherwise woefully underprepared for their circumstances. The temptation was often to let Darwin prevail, but we always relented and bailed them out, interrupting our own plans and more often than not, earning no thanks for our efforts.
I think about that (not wanting to have to engage with health care and also to not burden them with my injuries) whenever I am tempted to do some of the riskier projects around my house now that I am stuck here. This is not the time to fall off a ladder or cut yourself with the compound miter saw. For the time being I am stitching up cloth mask covers that some of our local hospitals and care facilities have requested both to protect and preserve their limited stock of N95 masks for medical staff and to provide nominal two-way transmission protection to auxiliary workers until they can get the PPE they need. My 1909 Singer treadle is also functioning as my exercise treadmill since I can’t go to the gym.
Supposed to warm up here tomorrow – I am considering a local kayak run but need to do a scouting run in the car first to see how crowded the launch sites might be.
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Most of them I could either sneak under or shimmy over. There was only one that I had to carry around. It would have been easy if I could have gotten out on to the tree and lifted over, but it was covered with poison ivy so I had to carry around. Not a big deal. When you are paddling alone on flatwater you need something to make it more challenging 
Washington State has closed all public lands, including boat ramps. They have also closed recreational fishing. I went to a local lake when we were told we could still go out, but keep a distance. All good in the morning. A couple of bank fishermen. I launched without coming within dozens of feet of anyone. By 5pm, the ramp was packed with boats and kayaks. The parking lot was full. Apparently, this scene was repeated on public lands statewide. That led to the total closure. I don’t disagree with it, but it sure puts a crimp in recreation. I’ve settled for a couple of bike rides and a walk in the neighborhood. If this goes past April, it’ll hurt.
Wow. Horrible when irresponsible people ruin good opportunities. I guess I should be thankful that my mapped launch sites are all out-of-the-way sites, either small village/county parks or remote places I’ve found searching Google maps which get me on the water.
Michigan is in a lock-down but all state parks remain open. Unsure what they’ll do about boat launches but I’ve always avoided them because of concrete ramps/riprap. Things might get interesting, especially as our water levels are projected to be even higher this spring.
Earliest club paddles on local rivers, banquet and leaders’ appreciation dinner and a few remaining pool sessions cancelled. These are sadly all correct decisions along with cancelling three orchestras, my monthly retiree lunches, my dentist for routine cleanings and my socializing German Shepherd puppies up at New Skete.
Some state parks with easy open space are there, I expect openings of the more concentrated areas like swimming beaches to be delayed. There are some launches to ponds and rivers which are never monitored, I don’t see that changing.
Unless and until there enough test kits available to find out who among us is safe, there is no way for anyone to be in near contact. Because this thing passes asymptomatically. Right now I am in one of the better resourced areas and they still ran out of test kits to handle any more than medical professionals and people who have been admitted to hospitals for critical level conditions. Vacation areas in the Adirondacks have IMO sensibly asked downstaters with second homes NOT to come because they lack anywhere near the hospital etc resources to handle it if it goes badly with a population swelled by a bunch of transplants.
I don’t see a near term solution. If I can retrieve my time in the summer on the coast of Maine I will be very happy. The one piece of good news is that I live in a state which will likely have a dreadful care crisis, but is also run by a governor who is not delusional like we are seeing at the federal level.
That all said, I am sitting pretty compared to many. I picked up friends at Logan Airport on Tuesday who arrived from overseas, after three days of sleeping in airport lounges and a series of cancelled or late flights. They barely made it onto the last plane leaving Dubai before the entire Emirates fleet was grounded. Their plane was heading back to Dubai at midnight to be grounded, carrying the last UAR citizens who were get out from the east coast. My friends were crispy critters, but they made it. We drove back to New York on probably the last day before they started shutting down some of the rest areas on the Mass Pike.
The impact on paddling is unfortunate. It is not the most important part of the picture.
in Maine some of the coastal State Parks have closed. Those affected today are from the NH line to the Boothbay area. The gates are closed. Some launches have gates too and might be closed. Many do not ( usually the hand carry ones) We have been told to stay local and use local conservation areas.
Rhode Island has started pulling over cars from New York and collecting info and then ordering occupants to self quarantine for 14 days. The info is for tracking.
Maine is advising ( not ordering) people from out of state to self quarantine for 14 days. As we have not hit a wave yet we are regarded as safe. What I fear will happen is our infection rate will spike come the summer season. And I expect many restaurants will never ever reopen. Red’s will be fine.
What I find appalling is the litter of latex gloves in grocery store parking lots. Not paddling related.
Paddling related: the ice refuses to budge though it must be weak. That is as frustrating as the virus to me. The highs have been around 40 with subfreezing at night… Great for maple syrup and not so much for paddling !
Dock installation when the ice goes out is going to be interesting. We have a large system of floating dock and the dock installers have been shut down.
Washington state is nuts! I saw people where I grew up were snapping pictures and complaining about people on the beach. One to two cars in the picture and a small number of people. Instead of being indoors recycling air, they were on a 20 mile strip of sand with a steady wind coming off the open ocean. Certainly seems better than being indoors sharing air
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I was considering taking a short solo outing on the local Mon or Yough river this weekend now that temps have moderated. But then I considered that our city still has trouble with co-mingled stormwater and municipal sewage drain systems and we have had considerable heavy rain this week (which overwhelms the systems and causes more release). I have made it a habit to be more conscientious about water contact (and potential e . coli and other nasties) in these rivers after rainy periods (like keeping my water bottle in a baggie and using hand sanitizer before handling snacks). I have been hearing that the survival period for CV19 can be as much as a couple of days so I have to consider that the rivers could be a possible vector. So I think I will pass paddling for a while. The lake where I usually paddle is a state park and probably closed by now as well.
I had to check the Rhode Island thing from Kayamedic. Yup, they are not stopping trucks/commercial vehicles but are passenger cars carrying NY plates. Getting their info and telling them to go and stay out of sight somewhere for 14 days.
I am guessing that it is mostly people from downstate escaping to second homes or to stay with family members. I understand the impulse, but I am not sure it is a great idea for Rhode Island.
Well it’s now a lot more difficult to go paddling here in Vancouver B.C. as lots of places are closed because they have beaches and picnic areas where people can gather in groups, so you can’t even park there to go paddling either. Lakes and even ocean access is very limited.
Hmm. Hadn’t thought of that. Don’t think it will affect the installation of my meager two dock sections as my installer is a friend and his girlfriend is his helper, but it sure will affect all the power boaters here if they can’t get their docks installed.
Docks don’t normally go in until May here because the water is too cold, so fingers crossed things will be better by then.
Making me wish I had ignored the structural issues and bought the float house I looked at…… Hard to beat leaving the house in your boat to be un effected by all of this
meaning more peace for you! We have landscapers with bobcats and bucket loaders. We probably won’t follow six foot rules all the time but some of us have drysuits.
Whod’a thunk?
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