Had a nice afternoon paddle on the Wakulla and beat my record again. Did the six mile bridge to bridge in 1:48. Guess all that paddling over the weekend made a difference. No one on the river when I put in and then a bunch of people in the last twenty minutes or so.
Did about 21 miles the first day:
I followed the advice and found a high place to camp. I set up my hammock even higher :) and tied my kayak as high as I could. I pulled the kayak as high up the bank as I could, until there was only the last 8 inches of the boat in the water. These were all good things as when the sun came up the water was three to four feet higher. Not a good night to sleep on a sand bank. The kayak was almost afloat by the time I cast off.
The river was incredibly changeable. It would go from wide and open to almost a creek flowing through a huge collection of snags and downed trees and then back to wide and open. A Klepper A2 not being a whitewater boat I got hung up a few times on logs and snags. A few times there was no way down the river through a downed tree and I found myself using momentum and the plentiful current to bust though some bushes on the edge of the river or the green leaves in the top of a newly fallen tree. Not my favorite kind of paddling. Many times I wished I had a Kruger and could just bash through with no fear of tearing my boat up.
One other challenge of this river is navigation. There where multiple places where there were options on which way to go. Once I paddled more than a quarter mile to ask a fisherman if he was in the river or if it was one of the side channels that are called "lakes". Turned out I had left the river and was in a lake. In another spot I found myself having left the channel and accidentally taken a short cut a Fish and Game officer had told me about but not been willing to attempt directions for. More than once I sat at an intersection trying to puzzle out which way to go, as twisty as it was south was not always the right answer. At one point I was worried that I was going up river (I was not :p). Guess this was very good training :)
The second day I planned to paddle twenty to twenty five miles. The middle of the afternoon came and I had already covered more than twenty miles. I called Christy and she told me there were thunderstorms forcast for that night. I pushed on and as the end of the afternoon neared I thought I only had ten miles or so before a takeout point so I pushed on. Total for the day was forty-two miles. By far my longest paddle. About half of that was in current (ducking and dodging fallen trees) and the other half fairly open without much current and with a headwind.
I must have done enough of a workout cause I am still sore :) Total count 16:45 hours in the boat and 64 miles traveled.
Spent the weekend with the family at Stephen Foster State park in Whitesprings Florida. Great place to visit we had a nice time. I really liked the bell tower playing Stephen Foster songs. Paddled upstream from the park to Little shoals. Man was it tough. Current was really moving along. Paddled up for about an hour and forty minutes, less than forty coming back. Think I did about 5 miles.
My digital camera broke a little while back so last week I took a old APS point and shoot camera with me. Here are the pictures, a little grainy but still a pretty river.
I was curious about my training so I added it all up by month:
June: 28 Miles 12.5 Hours 8 days paddled
July: 14.5 Miles 7.75 Hours 3 days paddled
August: 9 Miles 4 hours (Hurt my shoulder then back) bah! 2 days paddled
September: 6 Miles 2.5 Hours 1 day paddled Yeah recovery!!! (mostly)
October: (So Far) 16 Miles 7.5 hours 5 days paddled (out of 8 wow)
My thoughts are that I need to kick it up a notch or three, but that I seem to be on the right track for this month.
My target this month is to be on the water 15 days and do at least 75 miles. Wish me luck :)
Best time ever going up and back on the Wakulla river! Made the 6 mile bridge to bridge route in under two hours Current was about medium. After my forced break in training it feels good to make some progress.
Had a great paddle down the Wakulla river from the north bridge to its confluence with the St. Marks river at the fort at San Marcos de Apalache in the town of St. Marks. Christy provided the shuttle service. Going down river only helped for the first three miles. After the 98 bridge where the river opens up I had a pretty good wind in my face for the rest of the trip. Best part of the day was that the weather was overcast with potential to have some storms so most of the motor boats stayed home. Lots of canoes and kayaks. Great day!
No photos because my camera has died.
I have been a slacker about updating this. So.... here is a quick summary. Friday, took Christy out on the Wakulla river for a hour or two moonlight paddle. Saturday sailed the kayak around the St. Marks and Wakulla river confluence for a about 45 minutes then paddled for a couple hours on the St. Marks river. Sunday paddled with Gary aka Lugnut on the Wacissa river for about 2 and 1/2 or three hours. And finally Tuesday paddled Christy up the Wakulla river for about two hours. I love being back on the water.
FINALLY! I got back on the water! Last time I managed a training paddle was the 5th of August. First push ups hurt my shoulder, then I had some back problems, then a bad head cold. Whine, whimper, whine lol. Had a nice paddle up the Wakulla. The current was so low that it was actually flowing back up river for the first mile or so.
I also saw more manatees than I have ever seen in the river. I saw at least six and it could have been 8 or 9. (Some could have been multiple sitings of the same manatee).
In other news I have my new hull for the klepper from Wayland in Poland. I have bought a new Jetboil stove , a tent, and some other stuff. I will be doing some reviews as I put the stuff to use so watch for that.
I am swearing off push ups. Last week I did some and my shoulder hurt a little bit the next day. It felt fine after the Friday night paddle but after the Sunday night paddle it has been hurting. So I skipped a couple of paddles to try and let it get better on its own.
I had several shoulder problems in the Army (probably relating to evil evil push ups) but I have not had any pain for about 10 years. bah bah bah. Well I hope to get a paddle in Sunday but I am not going to push it if it hurts I will just give it till Tuesday and see how it is then.
Gary aka Lugnut of water tribe, my fearless captain in the 2007 Everglades Challenge, he of rowing super powers (Hey I was there I saw it! Who are you to doubt?) is going to fix some broken pieces in my Klepper and reinforce some parts with fiberglass while I stand there and "help him". It is really nice of him and just the latest in a long list of nice things Gary and Helen have done for me starting with "wanna crew on my boat for the EC?"
I tell you the Water Tribers are all the nicest people in the world. It would have been worth doing the challenge just to meet all of them.
And over at Duckworks webwatch page chuck is trying to scare small children using a picture of me! Well actually he linked to two of our recent podcasts and to this site. Thanks Chuck :) Lots of cool stuff on the page (and the rest of the site) that is not scary to small children.
Did a short paddle on the Wakulla Sunday night. Just went upstream a little over an hour and then came back. On the water about 1 hour 40 min or so. My guess is I did about half my normal route. The river conditions are so different from day to day it's hard to gauge my progress (or lack). Time in the boat must translate to better paddling :) right? Any way you cut it though, there it's hard to have a bad day on the water!
Just got back in from a fun paddle on the Wakulla. It rained most of the day so I did not think I was going to be able to go out, but after dinner it started clearing up. Put in on the river right at sun set. There was this light mist rising from the river. It just hung over the river like a feather blanket. Wonderful and magical. Then it got dark and between the no moon, clouds, and the magical (dark and thick) mist navigation became more challenging than a normal night on the Wakulla. Was still a great paddle, the challenge kept it interesting.
Scared the crap out of a small gator it was just swimming along in the dark minding its own business and swish I come along. I almost passed it completely before it noticed me. Then it took off down river fast with a loud splash of its tail. Saw a couple of bats flying low over the river hunting insects.
I really like the night paddles. No other boats and nice and cool.
Had a relaxing paddle on the upper St. Marks river. North of where it goes underground at Natural bridge. Took it easy and slow. Had to pull over some trees down over the river. Eventually I got tired of that and headed back to the car. Of course I had to pull back over and under the same trees. Very pretty .
Got back about 40 minutes ago from a paddle on the Wakulla. I am really getting into this night paddling thing. I like having the river to myself. I like that it is cool and no sunburn. Don't love the bugs but it has not been bad except for the first night.
Did a slightly different route tonight. I had this theory that the reason the first half mile or so up the river was always so hard was that I was not warmed up. My plan was to go downriver for about 20 minutes warming up and then paddle upriver past both bridges then back to my car at the lower bridge. How did this work out you ask? Well the river is hard the first half mile because the water is flowing freakin fast! And it is even faster south of lower bridge, or it was tonight. I went a long way in that 20 minutes down river, and it was a hard slog back up. I am sure the stronger currents are caused by the tide. Low tide 8 miles down river was right at sunset tonight. Good workout :)
Paddled for a little over three hours, no GPS along so not sure how far. My guess would be an extra mile, so that would make the total 7.
My ZRE Power Surge carbon fiber canoe paddle came in today and I could not stand giving it a try. So I sewed up (badly) the opened seam in my Klepper, put it together and went to the Wakulla. Did not put in until 8 pm so the ramp was no problem :p. Had not been feeling well most of the day so I did not think I was going to do much. Ended up paddling the bridge to bridge route anyway, just one stroke after the other. Was dark about 2/3 of the way up river. Bugs where low and I have to say on my second night paddle wow I like night paddles. I think it is even better than night sailing.
Nice paddle up the Wakulla and back. Lots of traffic on the river at first. More trucks and trailers than I have ever seen at the ramp. Current was very strong, so I got a great workout going upstream. Then a thunderstorm rolled in. I spent almost an hour on land under the bridge waiting out the storm and talking to a canoe based fly fisherman. Then being all rested I pushed hard back down river. Not a boat on the river and much cooler. Perhaps the best time to paddle?
Got busy and never posted. I paddled The Wakulla river bridge to bridge route on Tuesday. Hit dusk at the north bridge, it was full dark before I got back to the south bridge. Was the first time I have ever paddled a kayak in the dark. Was very cool. The bats came out and were swooping over the river eating the bugs. Very cool. But I think kayaking through the Everglades at night by myself is going to give me the wiggins
Friday I took the day off and spent more than five hours paddling (about 6 hours if you count the breaks) on Ochlocknee bay. I did not go fast just tried for distance. Think I did about 11 or 12 miles. Boy was it hot. About 100 degrees. The heat got me in the end.
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| Ochlocknee bay 7/20/07 1:33 PM |
Took my new Greenland paddle for a spin on the Wakulla did all 6 miles. Felt very un-energetic after working almost all night Friday and Saturday nights so it was hard to make a comparison betweeb. Paddle felt slower than my fat bladed plastic one but I really liked doing fully extended sweeps. Saw a momma manatee and the smallest baby manatee I have ever seen. Looked about 4 feet long.
I think I lost my GPS on the boat ramp. I couldn't find it when I got home. Dang. Well if I did loose it, I hope someone finds it and gets some use out of it, and it didn't just get run over by a truck. Note to self: Lanyards, Lanyards, Lanyards. The really ironic part is that I think the GPS fell out of my live jacket when I was carrying the life jacket with me to the car so no one would steal it or my cell phone. (Cell is in a small waterproof box lanyard-ed to the vest). In hind site I probably could have left it laying in plain site on the boat and no one would have bothered it.
Came home watched some tv, did an interview for furledsails.com, then still made time to go out for a paddle. Did a little bit more than 3 miles on the Wakulla river ending a little after dark. Nice time to be on the river and more fish jumping than I have ever seen.
Tried to do the six or eight miles route again on the Wakulla river last night, but thunderstorms started coming up before I got a half mile. So instead of going up the river I played around the bridge for about an hour total. Sprinting between the pilings fast enough to not be swept down onto the downstream one. Spinning the boat with sweeps to go back between the piling I just came through. Tried to scull the boat sideways, and failed again. Then practiced pulling the boat sideways in a current using a draw. Had a good time and felt at the end like I had gotten as good a workout as if I had gone up the river. Just not the two hours I had planned on.
While I was sitting on the land waiting out the lightning, I met TallTails from Forgotten Coast Kayak Anglers. Nice guy, and an interesting organization. They look like they are very active. Even to the point of monthly fishing tournaments.
In other training news I bought the Yoga AM PM DVD that Chief recommends in his article Get fit for a challenge and have been doing the AM portion each morning for about the last week. Not a bad way to start the day.
Paddled 16 miles on the Crooked River today. Put in at the HW 67 bridge and paddled to the confluence with the Ochlocknee river.
One of the prettiest bodies of water I have ever paddled on. Very wild hardly any signs of man. Perhaps 6 houses in 16 miles. It was Friday and really, really hot so I did not see anyone on the river until I arrived at the dirt boat ramp were I took out. Some of the pictures are mapped with their location, pretty cool.
I have a photo album up of some pictures I took along the way. (I plan to make some web pages about the crooked river later as finding information about the trip was difficult). Sorry about the water spots.
The paddling was tough, I probably should not have done that workout the day before :p
Distance by GPS was 16 miles, I was on the water for about 7 hours. I stopped and looked around at each campsite, so my guess at my movement time is about 6:30. Pretty slow, but did I mention it was hot? I think it was mid 90s. Wind ranged from nothing to 12 knots. Direction was pretty random. When it was blowing I would say it was behind me half the time and in my face the other half. So can't blame the time on wind.
Paddled the Wakulla river from the HW 98 bridge upriver to the HW 365 bridge.
It is about 4 miles each way with a current of about 1 mph. I took one hour each way, and was plenty tired. Still have a long way to go to get ready.
Did about a 6 mile 3 hour training paddle today. Started on Wakulla Beach and paddled up Goose Creek bay all the way up into the creek.
Goose creek bay is one of the prettiest places I have ever paddled. Winding salt creeks going up into pristine pine forest. As wild looking as it comes and only a mile from a highway. (Though its a longer drive to actually get there).
Tide was going out as we paddled in, then had about 10 knots of wind in the face coming out. I have a long way to go before I am ready.