April 18, 1999

New Paddling Partners

Trip #14

Map

To tell this story properly, I need to back up the clock by 24 hours. 17 April was kayak demo day on the Piscataway River put on by Atlantic Canoe and Kayak. The goal was sneaky: Get the wife in a double and get her to like it enough so I could buy one.

Things never go the way you plan and the wife tried one or two kayaks with me. She didn't like it at all. I have to admit I didn't like it either. There were no doubles on hand that had the cockpits far enough apart to allow unsynchronized paddling. This could have gotten ugly quick but I remembered some of the stories I've read on the net on how doubles could ruin a relationship. Now I knew why.

My 8-year-old daughter went with us and tried a few doubles also. I pretty much just sat in the back and let her paddle since trying to do anything meant banging paddles. All the doubles were large open cockpit; not something you want when using a Greenland paddle.

My wife suggested my daughter try a couple of singles, which she jumped at. There were 3 small kayaks; A Necky Gannet, an Old Town Otter, and another Old Town kayak I don't remember. The 2 Old Town kayaks tracked much better, but my daughter didn't think they were as much fun as the Gannet. The Gannet was a bright yellow, which also seemed to be to her liking. As much as I tried to explain to her that she wanted something that tracked straight, she would hear nothing of it. The Gannet did have a skeg that helped straighten the boat a lot.

While my daughter and I walked up the pier to talk with Judy about buying the Gannet, I noticed one wet and embarrassed guy standing on the dock. He was busy explaining to all that would listen how his mis-stroke while sculling had caused him to tip over. This turned out to be the only in water demo while I was there and I was disappointed that I had missed it.

After pulling out the plastic, strapping down the kayak to the roof, and making a side stop at the store for kid's paddle, tow belt, and spray skirt we were on our way home with a new addition to the fleet.

Map Blue line

Fast forward back to today. My daughter had a sleep over at a friend's house so I picked her up at 08:00am. We got to Bull Run marina about 08:30 and managed to get on the water by 09:00 after some instruction on wet exits. I was really surprised at how well she tracked and she did a good job at keeping up. After about 3/4 mile, 1/4 of which was into a heavy wind she started to have problems making forward progress. I clipped in the tow belt and pulled her another 1/2 mile until we were out of the wind. From here on she was fine and we paddled on at a leisurely pace. The geese were nesting and we glided by several nests. It was strange to see these normally talkative birds being quiet. They would lay down their head as we cruised by in hopes we wouldn't see them.

Katie got startled as a stump sticking up in the middle of the creek burst to life into loud honking. One of the geese had built a nest and neither Katie nor I noticed until we had gotten too close. No harm other than a few ruffled feathers.

At the halfway point Katie and I stopped for a little snack. There was a large puddle on shore full of tadpoles and Katie wanted to take some home. She scrounged up an old discarded water bottle and caught a few tadpoles being careful to take water "from their home" and not someplace else that they were not used to. We headed back towards the marina with the wind to our backs.

Katie's hands began to get cold so we pulled over again and got out a pair of pogies. She had worn a pair of my gloves when we started but soon had them wet and decided to paddle without them. The pogies were great because they kept her warm even when wet.

The cell phone coverage in this area was spotty at best, and I tried several times to get a call through to my wife. Finally, though a series of one-syllable words I managed to tell her to meet us at the marina at 12:30. My son and daughter were to trade places and I would go back out again. We got back a few minutes early and while Katie looked after the tadpoles I took out the Gannet for a short spin. "How do you like my kayak dad?" she hollered. "Not bad for a yellow boat" I replied. The Gannet had a lot of primary stability and tracked like a rail. Of course after paddling my kayak, almost anything tracks like a rail in comparison. I was just beginning to hot-dog it a little when the wife blew the horn on the van as they passed over the bridge. Back on shore to tell stories of the morning.

Map Red line

I offered either kayak to my son and he asked which one would go straight the easiest (smart kid). I told him the yellow Gannet and after another round of wet exit instruction he took off up the creek. It takes me a little longer to squeeze in my kayak and get everything situated and he was several hundred feet ahead when I took off after him.

He had no form. He insisted on leaving the skeg up and zig zaged all around. His hands were in the water on each stroke, and he flopped from side to side using only his arms for power. Still, it was almost 3/4 of a mile before I caught him. And I was paddling pretty hard, averaging about 4 MPH. The only reason I caught him was because a boat was coming the other way and he stopped to see what the boat was going to do.

We had fished this creek before, but we went farther upstream than I remember while fishing. The creek twisted and wound its way back between steep hills until we were right beside a firing range. We considered going on further but I was tired and we still had a three-mile paddle back to the marina. I certainly want to try a trip further back into this area while the water is still high. Aside from the firing range this area seemed untouched with purple wildflowers growing along the bank as far upstream as you could see.

The trip back was uneventful with an occasional boat passing us. Every one of them was courteous and reduced their wake to where it almost didn't exist at all when they passed. This greatly disappointed my son who had hopes of jumping his kayak over the waves. The return trip was an all out race back for me, with non-stop paddling just to keep up with the boy, while he leisurely bolted ahead and then would just coast for a while waiting for me to get near again.

At the marina we loaded up and got on the road for home in short order. We were actually #4 in line to get the truck down to the boat ramp so while we waited we just carried the kayaks up to the truck and left. On the way home I asked the boy if he was tired.

"Yeah."

"Wimp."

The blue line trip (Katie) was 4.51 miles by the GPS plot. The red line (Jimmy) was 6.14. About a 10.5-mile paddle for myself including a 1/2 mile tow and a 6.14 mile race.