Over the Mountain Triathlon 2010

The Over The Mountain Triathlon is an annual event where the swim is in Moss Lake, the ride heads toward Kings Mountain, and the run goes back out from Kings Mountain. Since we got boats, I've wanted to help out with this event. The email arrived Thursday afternoon saying they needed more on-the-water volunteers. It was the first I heard about it, but fortunately I had no plans. While Kathleen was preparing for the Certified Pool Operation exam, I paddled toward the public access where the swim starts.

With minimal instruction and none of the promised equipment (flotation device & whistle), I was back out on the water and headed towards another pair of paddlers that were positioned at about the halfway point. The swim course was a 7 facing down for 1.5 km. At 8am, the horn blew for the lead group to start. The leaders tore up that distance. At intervals, trailing groups started. No one became distressed or needed anything to hold on to. Several swimmers got off course. Some more so than others. One boat was orange, as were the course markers, which caused at least one person to cut the corner, lose time, and add distance before getting re-oriented. The last person out of the water had a regular flotilla escort as all the boats along the course trailed in behind him.

Here are the leaders going past me (with a path buoy way in the background) and the finish line with a lady just out of the water and a blue-capped person still in the water but approaching boat ramp.

ECCKF Round Two

We made it back to the East Coast Canoe & Kayak Festival in Charleston SC this past weekend. No pictures this time. We jammed the weekend full of master classes (expert teachers, not old learners) on the water, tent classes, vendor tent browsing, boat demoing, and a beginner's class on rolling (me, that is; not Kathleen). We only went for the festival deciding to hotel it rather than rent a place on Folly Beach. It was a good decision. As it turns out, we were beat at the end of each day and didn't want to do much at night. Kathleen threw out her knee getting out of a boat after class on the first day. And, by the end of the weekend, I had a massive crick in my neck from poor sweep turn form on the windblown pond and then unsuccessful attempts to roll in the last class on the last day. No trips in the area this time. Next time! And next time, hopefully, we'll have better boats to take the classes with. The Charleston Park & Rec folks had nice boats available for the classes but it's harder to learn technique in an unfamiliar boat.

Winter Warmup & Brown Water

It's been a cold snowy winter so far - very different from last year when we started kayaking; very few options for us to get on the water. It warmed up this weekend and I couldn't pass up the chance to paddle. I decided to do a quickie on our very own Moss Lake.

First decision was "what to wear?" Actually, it wasn't hard due to our experience last year and expecting the water to be colder. Even with temp pushing into 60's, I was going to wear my 3mm farmer john. I went with a lightweight long-sleeved paddle shirt to go over it. Oh, the other part that made it easy? A guy died a couple weeks ago on the South Fork Catawba River. Inexperienced, not dressed properly, then trying a river in flood stage. We haven't tried the stretch they did. It's a real mix of flatwater and rocks & shoals. Neither flatwater nor whitewater paddlers are fond of it - I think due to the mix of conditions that make it hard or unpleasant for one or the other. More later if/when we ever paddle it ourselves.

Second decision was "where to go?" This wasn't hard either. With Kathleen not able to go, I didn't want to go far or stay out for long. I wanted to go to the Mystery Waterfall and see if the higher rainfall this winter made a difference. This would also make it a short paddle. Since we were going to run an errand, I didn't want to stay out long.

As I'm prepping to go, I realized that last time, after a long break, I'd forgotten to take something. I meant to look at my checklist, but did I? Noooooooo! (Turns out, I only forgot a small face cloth to dry my hands.) Good to be doing this again none the less.

While the lake had some minor flooding during the big rains, the water level was normal full pond. There was floating stuff about. Less than what we've seen before when we were on the water more consistently. After all, a week of no rain had allowed some degree of settling or stabilization of the stuff that gets washed through the creeks. I picked up some floating debris in the open water.

The lake water was very brown. Not surprising, really, but it got me thinking. A pharmacist, who works where we get our prescriptions filled, lives on our lake and was commenting about the changing color of the lake water over the course of a year. A little Googling and I found this nifty explanation of lake turnover.

When I got to my destination, I was surprised to see the buildup of a sandbar that kept me from getting past the 'gatekeeping' tree. Disappointment. Compare this to
this:
And then I discovered this affordable lakefront home (only one of it's kind on Moss Lake that I've seen so far):

Finally .... I've speculated previously about proper clothing for days like this. I saw that NRS has a 3mm shortie and a 0.5 mm shortie. I think I'll try the thinner material. But then again, if I wait too long, I'll have even less reason to buy something.

No Paddling, but Interesting Observation

We STILL haven't hit the water since October. However, I am amused to see posts on the Catawba Cruisers forum as winter paddling comes on. I'm very impressed with the activity of the group and the trips they plan - and megabummed about not being able to join them. The amusing part is the cold water experience of Jenny ... and how much it is paralleling our own. I will get a link to her site over there in the right column once Google fixes the JavaScript bug in their "Configure Link List" add link widget in Firefox 3.5.6. Until then, here it is: zen kayaking

Duck Cove - Osprey, Big Fish, & Really Big Snake

We brushed the cobwebs off our kayaks and headed out to Duck Cove today. This is upriver from Mountain Island Lake along the Catawba River. It borders a waterfowl refuge. We didn't see much in the way of waterfowl at mid-day. We did see two osprey - which were much bigger birds than I was expecting. No pictures, but I did bring my birding binoculars and got a good look at the white of their underside. No diving for fish either. They just circled. We did see what they were looking for - big honkin' fish. I don't know fish. Maybe they were carp. But we saw lots of them, usually in pairs or threesomes, that were 2-3 ft long. [UPDATE: They were grass carp. Imported for vegetation control.] The cove is very shallow, only a foot or two deep through most of its stomach-shape. When we too close for comfort, they kicked up quite a dust cloud swimming away from us. Some even kicked up a wave. As for the leaf peeping, we saw sweetgums that had turned already and a number of drought-stressed poplars that were yellowish.

Our put-in was at Killian Rd. We started on a smaller cove/inlet and went up the main river channel just a bit to get to Duck Cove. After circumnavigating the cove, we went a little further north to find another creek scouted by others. On our way up, we caught sight of this:

From a distance, it looked like a branch/log, but it didn't move with the current. It kept cutting across heading for the other side. Kathleen wasn't too happy at the time. And she didn't want to see the pictures I took. I don't know snakes either. I'll update the post with an identification later. The impounded river had to be 150 yards across. I was amazed a snake would try to cross it. I wouldn't believe it unless I'd seen it. And, you can keep your Loch Ness monster jokes to yourself. I was moving. The snake was moving. I used my photo processing software to adjust the contrast. Unfortunately, I can refactor the focus. The thing had to be about 6 feet long. [UPDATE - Fellow paddler, Mike Slater, says it was a banded watersnake. According to that article, my "snake" story exaggerates it's length by 50%.]

The other creek was quite neat. Both Duck Cove and this creek had rather clear water. With the shallowness, it was quite easy to see to the bottom - of only a couple feet or so. Is with my previous post, when I can see under the water, I find what's there much more fascinating than the land above it - the undulations, the sand/silt patterns, the shells, the branches & other stuff in the water. With some leaves on the water, it was interesting to see their shadows on the bottom. For the most part, they did NOT look like the leaves. They were much more rounded. I guessed that the way the leaves sat in the water was part of it. But I also noticed that a small stick didn't have a noticeable shadow at all. The light refracted enough around it to make any shadow very faint. The big shadow here is my boat and paddle:


Finally, for posterity's sake, here are a couple shots of the put-in & take-out. I'm standing on the packed dirt road off the paved Killian Rd. The dip is deep enough that I didn't trust getting our truck through from both directions. We parked on the side of the road. If you can get through the dip, there is space to park offroad. The put in is just to the left.

Belated Trip Report with Neighbor

Between weather, work, and activities, not much paddling going on. Two weeks ago, we geared up to go on our home lake, but on the morning of, Kathleen wasn't up to it. She suggested calling our next door neighbor, John. To my pleasant surprise, he said yes. This was his first time in a kayak. He took the more stable of the two. He took to it well.

Afterwards, I kicked myself for not bringing the camera. We saw a number of pretty flowers in bloom. Two stand out - an orangy trumpet-shaped flower that was rather small & delicate and quite abundant on the bushes - and a vine that profuse light purpley violet stems of flowers. We had seen the later floating on Buffalo Creek and wondered what produced it. And I was correct in my suspicion - it was kudzu!

John had a great time. As we were paddling up the creek, he was telling me that they're using a variety of grasses in wetlands to suck up and aspirate volatile chemicals and experimenting with a poplar hybrid with their deep tap roots for groundwater plumes. He's an environmental geologist that does polluted industrial site cleanup work.

Upper Catawba - Riverbend Park to Lookout Shoals Dam

Today, we made it to the stretch of the Catawba River that we'd had to bail on at the beginning of the month. We were able to put in at the Riverbend Park, near Conover. We weren't able to start as planned because Duke Energy wasn't releasing enough water. We arrived at 8:30am to find Andy standing on rocks about a quarter way across the river. "Tide's out," he said.

Fortunately, a horn went off at 9am and a guy fishing gathered up his stuff and scampered up to the bank. Within a few minutes, we heard a rush of noise as Duke started running water through one of it's turbines (or whatever). With their re-licensing this year, Duke is supposed to be much better about these releases during the weekends to support recreational use of the river. So, we were to get started after all, and away we went:

The first couple miles, at this water level, had rocks to avoid but not enough to cause problems. We scraped over a few but nothing like the aggravation at Landsford Canal. We saw the bald eagle pair that nests nearby. Not much I can do picture-wise. The only picture I took has the bald eagle launching, but it's fuzzy enough to qualify for a "UFO In-Flight!" article.

At each island, we took the narrow path. At the second island, after the river bends south, we stopped at a sand bar to munch. After putting in again, Kathleen saw what she initially thought was an otter. We'd heard they were about. Upon our return, and discussion with Ranger Lori Owenby, it may have been a mink. No picture, but here are Kathleen and Andy at the bar:

After this, the trip shifted to placid, impounded river. Because of our "narrow side" of islands, we missed seeing the big rock outcrop to the wide side of the longest island. Oh well, it gives us something unique to look forward to when we return. For future reference, this island had 4 or 5 duck blinds along the narrow side. I'd not seen any around here before.

The trip duration was right at the 3.5 hours that Lori had predicted. According to the river map, it's a 9.5 mile trip. We loaded Andy's kayak into our truck at the Lookout Shoals Lake access and headed back to the start. Overall, nice trip. The temperature stayed in the upper 70's and cloudy. We were sprinkled upon occasionally but it was light and not really very noticable.