February 14, 2005

Returning to Winter, Part II

I owe Woody a trip report. That was the price of our very first kayaking trip out of Belle Haven years ago. I now owe him another one, now. I've been wasting away in front of my computer for several winters. I haven't been paddling in really cold water for 2 years. Yesterday I broke that streak at Mason Neck with him so I thought I'd do a double to tell about being back on the water for two days in the winter.

I forgot how much of a hassle cold water padding is if you do it the way we do. Not having been out since October I had to work to be sure to bring everything I needed, plus searching the file cabinet of my mind to identify the special things I need for comfortable cold-water paddling. I packed to paddle last week but I didn't make it so I kind of left to chance what I brought this weekend. Yesterday the only thing I actually forgot was to make lunch, so I hit the 7-11 on my way out, even thought I was already 10 minutes late leaving. When we hit the water I realized I didn't have my deck bag, but I figured I could do without that for a short trip.

We were only planning on going across Belmont Bay and back. We went down Muromsco Creek so ended up paddling maybe 6 miles. The observations I made were that I forgot how annoying all the STUFF I need is. I had a brand new drysuit that still has a just-too-tight neck gasket. Woody loaned me a neck ring that allowed enough air in to keep me a nice shade of pink rather than blue. I had a really hard time getting the thing under the gasket. I finally had to resort to asking Woody to help me fix it. I thought I might loose it before he got it to the point I could inhale again, but I survived.

I also found that my booties would not work with the socks in my drysuit. I finally had to "sacrifice" my Tevas so that I didn't have to walk without some protection for the breathable fabric of my new suit. Burping a suit with a neck ring is another issue. I ended up sucking air out of the wrist gasket because I couldn't get past the Pillsbury Doughboy stage with the suit. I was unable to bend over to pick up things so decided I needed to work on the inflation issue. It looks silly but it works. I got in the boat and only had to pull on the neck ring a bit to let the air out enough to bend my arms to put my skirt on.

Woody was very patient through all of this. He only laughed a little bit but I suspect it was because he didn't want me to feel too embarrassed about the fooling around I was doing. It took me an entire hour to get on the water and even then he had to help me get my skirt on.

We are finally going. I can't get my balance and I'm thinking, "Oh no, not again!" When I first started paddling I had an awful time with feeling balanced in the boat. I really didn't need to go there again. A few minutes out and I was okay I was still watching the wind but the beam wavelets were just fun to ride over, rather than worry about.

We went down the creek as far as we could and came back. There is this point of land that says "Military Reservation" on the maps. Woody said something about there being a Port-A-John and people walking along there. We decided to stop and check the facilities. As I spent forever getting out of my suit to use the facilities Woody went over and read this card they had. It has a map of the place that is now a wildlife reserve. I was really excited about the place because it has lot of great nesting possibilities for birds. It was logged within the past 15 years or less, would be my guess. There is lots of new growth that is too dense for good growth over the long haul but makes birds happy now.

Woody looked at the sky and said he thought weather was moving in so we did a bee-line back to Mason Neck. The wind kicked up and pushed us back which was both rare and fun. I would have been easily persuaded to stay out for a bit, but Woody wasn't persuading so we went in. After getting our cars and starting the disrobing process we looked at the water. The wind had seriously kicked-up and the water was "interesting." I was glad one of us had some sense.

The physical issues I had were that I needed new shoes to go over the drysuit socks, my left arm hurt and I got too much sun, despite 2 layers of sun screen.

On Sunday I was into sleeping in but I had agreed to let Woody know on Sat. evening if I was going to bail, so I got up. I arrived right on time and there was no Katie. She was supposed to be there. I had counted on a slow, fairly short paddle but she wasn't there so who knew what we'd do.

We had planned to paddle up the Occoquan to the dam and back, or at least as far as Katie wanted to go so that is what we did. There was a little wind but only enough to be annoying at times at the beginning of the trip. There were lots of ducks, like yesterday, but we were getting close enough for me to identify some of them that day. I love that. We actually saw a loon, which is rare there. I love the common mergansers, ruddy ducks and buffleheads we saw. I think I saw a grebe and we were treated to a red tail hawk and an eagle, among many other birds. I saw an osprey and we saw several cormorants. I had never paddled up to the dam so it was fun to see all the new sights. I didn't like the area right by all the big boulders but the rest of it was really nice except all the traffic noise. I collected a few feathers from the water around the put-in. There were a lot of feathers floating and I was wondering which birds had been there. I haven't had time to look them up.

I have a persistent problem that I fought off the day before. My left bicep burns after a short period of paddling. I suspect part of the issue is that I was paddling with my arms because it is so hard to twist with a drysuit on. I've had this burning in my left bicep for years and I was really fighting it today. I also think I may have discovered one other source of pain. I put a lot of pressure on my pegs. I think that might be the issue for my left hip, which hurts very badly the night after I paddle and sometimes for days, which it keeps me awake at night. It felt better when I didn't press so I tried that. It seems to have worked to some degree but it makes it harder to paddle. My habit is to peddle as I paddle.

Bottom line: I'm so glad to be back on the water, even if it requires twice the gear and twice the time to get ready and makes me more tired, at least it's a good tired. I'm glad Woody has a sense of humor about all the time he spends waiting for me to be ready.

Joan