wow. yeah. nice. soooooo much nicer than I expected. OK, enough meaningless descriptors. I bought a new 210cm Werner Cyprus paddle. It's their foam core, carbon fiber high-angle touring blade. I have been using a 220cm Werner Camano, a fiberglass, low-angle blade...which I like and it's been a very good paddle. But I wanted a spare paddle. I considered buying something cheap (sort of like a donut spare for your car) that would get me back to the beach in the event of a broken Camano. But after paddling the higher angle blade while Meg and I tested some boats in Portland, I decided to get a good quality paddle and have the option of high or low angle blades while underway.
These are my thoughts on the new blade....first off, it has a much lighter feel out of the water. The adjustable ferrule had me a little nervous, but after seeing the quality up-close, I'm no longer worried about it. It's much more versatile than a fixed feather-angle paddle and easier to adjust on the water. Once on the water, the paddle was a dream. The adjustment to a higher angle stroke was a little awkward at first..if you try to paddle hard at a low angle, the blade flutters a little, which is effective feedback if you get lazy. With the larger blade-face there is a discernible difference in the power at hand. I was able to get the boat up to speed much quicker, and even a more relaxed touring stroke felt much more powerful. The buoyancy in the blades really reduces the effort on the back part of the stroke; at the right pace, it almost paddles itself. The lighter weight, shorter length, buoyancy, and larger blade face made it really easy to pull-off some maneuvering strokes. I found I was able to use one hand to hold the paddle upright an execute some draw strokes, and I was able to put significantly more power to the water with the larger blade (power-available may be biggest difference between this and my other paddle).
All in all, I love the paddle; certainly more than I expected too. I led a commuter paddle along the causeway when I first used the new Werner, so I didn't really have the opportunity to do as much experimentation as I wanted. Right now, I can't wait to get back out on the water.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
Bay Minette Creek and the Blackwater Heritage Trail
Well, I got two things done this weekend. I had intended to hit the Gulf this weekend to paddle on the ocean rather than up in the Delta, but with small craft advisories out on Saturday I changed my plans and headed for Buzbee's fish camp and Bay Minette Creek. I have paddled out of Buzbee's a number of times, but we invariable turn right and head for the river. So, for a change, I paddled north up Bay Minnette Creek. A quick look at the map showed a bridge a little over 5.5 water miles north, so that was my aim point. The creek was a lot nicer than I had imagined. There was very little development and as I moved north, it narrowed down and actually started to look like some of the river banks in parts of the American Southwest. Like a lot of the rivers and creeks, Bay Minette Creek terminates in a tree-choked, gin clear spring. In this case, it was just past the bridge. On the paddle back, a hawk flew close-by, a large fish swimming in it's talons. There were a lot of turtles out too, as usual they began throwing themselves off their logs as soon as I came into site. There were some very large splashes, so some of these turtles are pretty large; smart enough not to be caught napping on a log by a hungry 'gator. Bay Minette was about an 11 mile paddle.
On Sunday, I drove out to Milton to ride the Blackwater Heritage Trail with Nate. The trail is pretty neat, and it runs from Milton out to the back gate at NAS Whiting Field (hoping to be able to commute along it next year!). The portion that runs through Milton is pretty busy and has a lot of stops, but once through the village, it opens up pretty nicely. It is, literally, up hill both ways though...the lowest part of the trail in in the middle, so essentially you are riding across a valley. Nothing serious though, it is THE SOUTH! The trail is part of the national Rails to Trails system, and part of it runs through farms...quails run across the road, adding to complications such as wayward children on training wheels and vagrant-looking teenagers on skateboards. All in all though, it was perfect weather for biking and a good distance, maybe 16 miles overall.
l.
On Sunday, I drove out to Milton to ride the Blackwater Heritage Trail with Nate. The trail is pretty neat, and it runs from Milton out to the back gate at NAS Whiting Field (hoping to be able to commute along it next year!). The portion that runs through Milton is pretty busy and has a lot of stops, but once through the village, it opens up pretty nicely. It is, literally, up hill both ways though...the lowest part of the trail in in the middle, so essentially you are riding across a valley. Nothing serious though, it is THE SOUTH! The trail is part of the national Rails to Trails system, and part of it runs through farms...quails run across the road, adding to complications such as wayward children on training wheels and vagrant-looking teenagers on skateboards. All in all though, it was perfect weather for biking and a good distance, maybe 16 miles overall.
l.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Canal Island Group Trip
It's always nice when plans come together! Jon, Ali, Nate and I had been thowing around the idea of kayaking trip into the Delta for a while, particularly before Nate PCS'd out to Hawaii. Last weekend proved to be the perfect merger of a cutter maintenance period for me, a few days not on the road for Jon and Ali, and a non-flying Saturday for Nate. So, after laying in supplies for an overnight we strapped kayaks to trucks and headed for Hubbard Landing.
Our launch was slightly delayed as we had forgotten the beer at home and had to drive back to Stockton in order to pick some up. Once we were suitably loaded we hit the water and began paddling towards Canal Island platform. We stopped in Big Beaver Creek for Jon and Ali to dip the 5 Rivers Resource Center paddle before continuing to the platform. We were able to approach the platform from the northern channel; last time I was there I had to come from the south as the northern end was completely blocked by downed trees. We stopped by the platform to offload gear and pull out the map to plan the rest of the day. We elected to paddle down Little Lake until we were tired, or reached a point where we needed to turn around and head back before we lost daylight. As we came out of the south channel into Little Lake, we ran into Rob Nykvist, who pointed us towards Napp Lake where he had seen a number of small 'gators out sunning themselves. Seeing as this was probably a one-off opportunity for Nate and as everyone apparently wanted to see alligators, we revised our plan and turned north for Napp Lake. As Rob promised, we saw several small alligators that had roused themselves out of torpor to hang out on some of the sunnier logs. Nate was able to dip the paddle in Napp Lake, and once we hit the end of Napp Lake, hunger drove us back to the platform.
Canal Island platform seems to harbour a lot of fish; like the last time I was there, we could hear fish jumping all through the night. The owls were out too, and combined with a full moon, made for a really nice, if loud night. Still, we all slept well and woke up to a very cold morning. We paddled the 5 or so miles back relatively early that mornng as Jon had a flight out that night...with a following wind and current, we made very good time. At the end of the trip, we had paddled about 14miles through five named bodies of water.
Our launch was slightly delayed as we had forgotten the beer at home and had to drive back to Stockton in order to pick some up. Once we were suitably loaded we hit the water and began paddling towards Canal Island platform. We stopped in Big Beaver Creek for Jon and Ali to dip the 5 Rivers Resource Center paddle before continuing to the platform. We were able to approach the platform from the northern channel; last time I was there I had to come from the south as the northern end was completely blocked by downed trees. We stopped by the platform to offload gear and pull out the map to plan the rest of the day. We elected to paddle down Little Lake until we were tired, or reached a point where we needed to turn around and head back before we lost daylight. As we came out of the south channel into Little Lake, we ran into Rob Nykvist, who pointed us towards Napp Lake where he had seen a number of small 'gators out sunning themselves. Seeing as this was probably a one-off opportunity for Nate and as everyone apparently wanted to see alligators, we revised our plan and turned north for Napp Lake. As Rob promised, we saw several small alligators that had roused themselves out of torpor to hang out on some of the sunnier logs. Nate was able to dip the paddle in Napp Lake, and once we hit the end of Napp Lake, hunger drove us back to the platform.
Canal Island platform seems to harbour a lot of fish; like the last time I was there, we could hear fish jumping all through the night. The owls were out too, and combined with a full moon, made for a really nice, if loud night. Still, we all slept well and woke up to a very cold morning. We paddled the 5 or so miles back relatively early that mornng as Jon had a flight out that night...with a following wind and current, we made very good time. At the end of the trip, we had paddled about 14miles through five named bodies of water.
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