Paddleboating season
Posted by Chris on March 21, 2007 at 12:51 pm | In Trip Reports |The time has come.
March, usually a great month for some deep pow dumps, is now dumping not the white rad, but the wet rad. Most years we find ourselves too distracted by face shots right now to be concerned with the fact that most rivers in the state have been “IN” at one time or another for the last few weeks.
Are you STILL waiting for one more pow day?
Us Pac NW’ers are at the edge of the spring season and we are about about to find ourselves falling into a frenzy of splashy water, 1hr flow updates, large cell phone bills, caffeine powered drives, and hopefully some waterfalls. I know each and every one of us looks forward to the warm weather, camping, and hanging out with friends that go along with a great kayaking trip; that’s why I am writing this post- I love it.
With our local runs on the North Fork Nooksack now free of pesky wood, and the Chilliwack River, we should be readying ourselves for other runs that wont last so long, like Clearwater Creek or the Norrish, and looking even further away, classic runs like Canyon Creek or Yellowjacket Creek. Some of these runs get harder to catch the longer we wait. Getting in some laps on our local runs to help temper our bodies and our minds for the upcoming season are absolutely necessary to ready ourselves for new, fun, harder, longer kayak runs.
Other that just going kayaking: spend some time before bed reading about whitewater safety in whatever books you own, read the guide books, watch some videos, practice rolling in your yard, practice using your throwbag in the yard, I guarantee any of these things will improve your stoke!
That said, anytime in the next few weeks there will be daylight enough for some afterwork kayaking trips, about 2 hrs before dark is just about all you need to get a lap in on the bend so get on the phone and call somebody, lets go boatin’!
Just got done practicing rolling in my yard. I’m covered in grass stains, but you’re right- my stoke is improved!
Comment by Eric — March 21, 2007 #
And if you practice rolling in the yard in heavy rain-its like a combat roll.
Comment by Chris — March 23, 2007 #