Life in the freezer

Well the answer to how much longer paddling would be possible was three days. The Willow trip and 7 degree c temperatures seemed a distant memory by the following Wednesday when a winter storm swept into town, kinda reminiscent of the rapid freeze scenes in The Day After Tomorrow. The temperature kept dropping until at the beginning of this week it hit minus 29 celcius/minus 20 farenheit/chuffing cold by any measurement. My truck was frozen to the driveway and took a lot of coaxing to even start, let alone move.

With the rivers frozen, driving hazardous and not really enough of the fluffy white stuff for the ski hills to be open yet, I find myself trying to stay active (the body seems to want to hibernate) mostly by trying not to slip over, shovelling snow, or visiting the gym.

I think I am beginning to understand why people here love being outdoors in the summer so much. I have no idea how they cope somewhere really Northerly, like Fairbanks. Yikes.

Frase.

Cold weekend for kayaking

The temperature dropped below zero recently and it's been snowing on and off. Just as well, then, that I am still a new enough paddler to be keen. Although crazed is probably an acceptable alternative word.

Thursday was meant to be a trip out to the Willow canyon for an afternoon splash, but as the snow started to come down (sideways) my paddling partners all conveniently found they had more pressing (indoor) engagements. Not to be put off, I went over to the local lake. It was partially frozen, but still accessible around the sides. I practiced some strokes and even did a couple of rolls, although as I still don't have a hood to wear under my helmet that was probably a bit stupid even by my standards. The water was a bit of a shock as soon as my head hit it.

Strangely the rest of me was way too warm, I wore a fleece as well as thermals and more or less as soon as I started paddling I began to overheat. It was sweating rather than cold that kept the practice session to about 40 minutes, trudging back to the truck I realised that with a decent hood I reckon I will be able to paddle until there is no liquid water left to paddle on. In theory anyway... I'm not sure how much fun putting my gear on will be in -30 degrees c :)

Sunday the planned Willow trip worked out, I met up with Matt and a visiting paddler called Bob. Bob was from further south and turned up on the off chance he might be able to paddle with us. He had a kayak that had been converted to C1, which essentially meant he'd be paddling kneeling on his knees and using a single bladed paddle like a canoe. It was all new on me so I took the opportunity to ask plenty of questions on the drive out to the river. Bob seemed to be a fairly experienced kayaker and had been boating a good while, but he was fairly new to C1.

Matt and Bob

Arriving at the Willow canyon we did our usual scout of the river from the highway bridge, just in case any logs were blocking navigation. The bridge is so high over the canyon that almost the entire run can be seen from one location. I noted the snow on Log Rock and House Rock, and shivered at the thought of being in the water shortly. We took the river trail up from the main road, a fifteen minute walk through the forest to the put in at the start of the canyon. I'd only put in there once before and I wasn't overly fond of it as you are literally straight into the drops and rapids... no nice big eddies to warm up in!

Bob on the trail to the put in

We paddled out into the current and dropped straight into the canyon. I was running the fall over Freak My Beak through my mind in an effort to remember to try "boofing" - lifting the bow of the kayak as you drop, so you land flat instead of bow first. So I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing in the rapids, and I suddenly realised I felt really tippy. I seemed to be catching edges a lot, at one point I turned around to see where Bob was and almost capsized. Whilst pulling out into the current to try to surf at Diamond Wave, I caught an edge and literally only just managed to brace myself back up with a strong last-second brace. The unexpected edginess made me nervous, and I spent most of the rest of the time just ferrying out into the current and back into the eddy.

Matt at the start of the canyon

Further down the canyon in a fast flowing section we practiced jet ferrying from one side of the river to the other, and that was too much for me in the new boat. I immediately caught an edge and went over before I even thought about a brace, but my first roll was good and I was back up before my head went numb from cold ;) Fortunately Bob had lent me his spare hood, and once the water it held had warmed up a little I was toasty, if a little wobbly from having freezing water rammed into my ears. A second combat roll doing the same thing made me far more cautious. Moving the seat forward in the boat seems to have made it much more edgy. While I sat in an eddy on river left, I heard Matt shout and turned to see Bob coming back up after he was forced to combat roll. He was pretty chuffed as it was his first combat roll since moving to C1... he'd tried to explain how to roll a C1 but my brain had kind of switched off during the explanation, it was so convoluted :)

After a little more playing about we moved down from eddy to eddy until we were above the Beak. Matt gave a little safety chat as I think he could see I was having a hard time in the All-star and of course Bob would be running the Beak for the first time in his C1. I'd been under the impression that the level was well down, but the river was moving through the canyon much faster than I'd ever experienced before. Matt went down first and sat waiting below the falls. I followed his line down, but was a little further right than I wanted to be and was so concerned about the drop I completely forgot to boof it. The kayak followed the green tongue of water over the main section in the centre of the fall, but where I would normally plough straight through the foampile at the bottom, there was now a bit of a hydraulic. Before I even realised what was occurring the stern of the boat was driven under and the bow came up, for a second I was doing a nice vertical stern squirt which would have been awesome if it was intentional :)

The boat dropped over on me so I ended up underwater, but I rolled up first time ok and paddled clear of the foampile and canyon wall. Unfortunately where at low levels you can easily paddle into an eddy against the current, the swifter water carried me a dozen yards or so down river before I managed to eddy in. I still managed to see Bob run the falls ok, and he seemed made up that he'd done a decent run like that in the C1.

Freak My Beak (from the highway bridge)

The river was flowing fast around House Rock and there was a small rapid either side of it, which I'd not seen before. So the river was definitely up and/or faster than usual. Once on the flat stuff after House Rock we paddled and chatted, and I did a couple of practice rolls despite the cold. I was actually nice and warm and the air temperature was probably a good 7 degrees c even though it was nearly dusk and there was snow laying around us. Bob decided to try a practice roll and I was right next to him so I got to see the technique... unfortunately he couldn't roll up, and after watching two attempts I was debating whether I should go in for a T rescue with my boat, or wait for his signal, when he swam. There was little current in the wide flat section we were on, so there was plenty of time to make sure he was ok and then tow him to shore. He was towing his boat and paddle so it was a pretty good workout! My old Dagger Rx is definitely better for towing swimmers. I offered to tow Bob to the takeout as it was a matter of yards away, but he wanted to finish the run in his own boat. Top man.

As we drove back into town I wondered if that would be the last river trip until Spring... the weather is due to take a turn for the seriously cold this week, with -13 degrees c forecast. How much longer can we paddle?

More soon hopefully.

Frase.