liveonearth: (Rain Lake)

If rightly made,
a boat would be a sort of amphibious animal,
a creature of two elements,
related by one-half its structure to some swift and shapely fish,
and by the other to some strong-winged and graceful bird.

--Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

liveonearth: (water_dropping)
A man who is not afraid of the sea
will soon be drowned, he said,
for he will be going out on a day he shouldn't.
But we do be afraid of the sea,
and we do only be drownded now and again.

~John Millington Synge
liveonearth: (Tempest in a Teapot)
If you want to build a ship,
don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the wood and give orders.
Instead, teach them to yearn
for the vast and endless sea.

--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
liveonearth: (moon)
...is worth overdoing. That was their mantra.

Completely Recommend.
is worth overdoing. )
liveonearth: (moon)
I wouldn't believe it either, if I hadn't seen this.
liveonearth: (moon)


Paddlers all know that WV has great rivers. The Cheat River has seven free flowing tributaries and many whitewater sections, including the famous Cheat River Canyon where the downriver Nationals were just held. Once a year, in May, boaters and environmentalists from all over the region converge at the Cheat Fest to celebrate the progress we've made in restoring the Cheat and her tributaries to their former wild glory. There are bands and activities and educational booths and a general feeling of joy in the air, each year, when the festival happens beside the Cheat River.

What happened to the Cheat? Coal mining happened. The coal of the region is embedded in sulfur rich rock that causes Acid Mine Drainage to spill into streams and kill all the fish. It takes very careful management to prevent spills and remediate acid leaks where they do occur. Thanks to Friends of the Cheat, this has happened. Friends of the Cheat has taken a gentle but active approach to building consensus among all those who hold a stake in having clean water and healthy fish in the Cheat. They deserve many congratulations for work well done.

liveonearth: (moon)

Kayaking on this class V section will be permitted, and the management team there sounds quite reasonable about letting management evolve along with use. The use of this river section can be revoked if there is any paddling on Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, where boating is banned.

The run will start at Pothole Dome below Tuolumne Meadows and end at Pate Valley. Exact details about put-in, take-out, portage trails and landing/no-landing zone locations will be determined in the near future in consultation with the boating community, tribal interests and National Park Service resource experts. Boaters making the run will be required to carry their boats 3 miles to the put-in, and carry them 8 miles from the take-out at Pate Valley to the White Wolf trailhead.

Carrying your kayak 11 miles is hard. The info does not indicate that this section of river is a series of long slides over domes of granite. I do not know if anyone has been running it lately, but I do remember that Lars Holbek carried his boat most of the way and didn't want to do it again. I have HIKED down the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne on a 3 day backpacking trip, and it was spectacular. A backpack trip might be a good way to scout the whitewater before committing in a boat. Though it is possible that those California boaters think nothing of this stuff. Looks hair to me.



SOURCE
http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Article/view/articleid/31898/
liveonearth: (Default)
The rain began the night we got home from our Grand Canyon adventure, and I've been getting out every weekend day. We got on the Sandy Gorge at something just shy of 3000 cfs, and again at 1200 or so, the North Fork Washougal which usually doesn't run in October, Opal Creek at something like 900cfs, and the Tilton at a lovely 1300 cfs.

notes by river )
liveonearth: (sexy tits)
I am a river runner. From way back. My father got me started, in canoes first. When I was very small he would put me in the bow of the canoe, tell me to paddle, and surf the canoe in river waves. We used to camp by creeks up on the plateau, and he'd let us take the insulite pads that we slept on and go hiking up the stream to float back down on the thin beige mats. I got my first kayak when I was 11. It was a cut-down Mark 4. I was already too big for it, or at least, it was uncomfortable and I always got fiberglass in my arms and legs when I used it. I only used it a few times, once when I got hypothermic on the Nantahala and had to be plowed to shore by my dad's canoe, and once when I got tangled in vines on the Green and completely panicked. I didn't paddle for several years recovering from these experiences.
ruminations provoked by another woman's story of becoming a guide )
liveonearth: (gorilla thoughtful)
Today's google doodle is a digital slalom "canoe" race. The boat in the race is actually a kayak, but it is called a canoe because we speak the English language, and the English call kayaks canoes. This English convention dominates Olympic language. Uninitiated Oregonians call kayaks "rafts" when they are used for whitewater. They see the kayak on in my truck and ask me if I am going rafting. But all this vocababble is beside the point: the doodle race is kinda fun. I did it a bunch of times. http://www.google.com/doodles/slalom-canoe-2012
liveonearth: (fantasy river)
Here's a nice new post on the NRS blog by a friend of mine. It's about Staying Connected to Boating... The author gives examples of several different ways of negotiating the river, and makes the point that a full connection to river running and to the river itself comes from trying many different craft and styles.... which is in my view what adds up to true mastery. And joy.
liveonearth: (Default)

Paddled the Stomper 80 on Saturday (on the Sandy Gorge) and really enjoyed it. That's the first modern creek boat that I have liked in about a decade. Finally! My beef with most modern creek boats is that they are 1) too stable 2) too slow and 3) too pudgy. I like the boat to lean easily, and to have more secondary stability than primary. I like the boat to have a wee bit of forward glide, and an edge or two that I can engage. The stomper does all of this. My congratulations to Shane and Woody for creating a planing hull creeker with class.

http://www.teamliquidlogic.com/tag/stomper/
liveonearth: (Default)
http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/video/kayakers_plunge_90_feet_over_waterfall/#62943

Notice how the first guy takes a stroke about halfway down the falls. And the rest all toss their paddles before hitting the bottom. Notice also how big the grins are. Nothing like putting your life on the line to make you realize how happy you are to be alive. Gotta have a good hand roll to consider this an option. And huevos.
liveonearth: (Default)

The first thing you must learn about canoeing is that the canoe is not
a lifeless, inanimate object: it feels very much alive, alive with the life of the river.
Life is transmitted to the canoe by currents of air and the water upon which it
rides. The behavior and temperament of a canoe is dependent upon the elements:
from the slightest breeze to a raging storm, from the smallest ripple to a towering
wave, or from a meandering stream to a thundering rapid. Anyone can handle a
canoe in a quiet millpond, but in rapids a canoe is like a wild stallion. It must be
kept on a tight rein. The canoeist must take the canoe where he or she wants it to
go, not where it wants to go. Given the chance, the canoe will dump you
overboard and continue on down the river by itself.
--Bill Mason
liveonearth: (Default)
I should have written down my dream this morning. It was a vivid one, and my grandmother was in it. This evening as I think back on it, I don't know that I have ever dreamed about my grandmother before. What I can remember about the dream:
short dream )

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