Monday, December 28, 2009
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
Thursday, October 8, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Demoing Tampico and Tracer
In the search for a new boat for Kathleen, we drove into Charlotte, Great Outdoor Provision Company, today hoping to demo two boats from Hurricane Kayaks. We were able take out a Tampico 140S and a Tracer 165. I had looked for nearby spots to paddle and picked a launch point at McDowell Park which borders Lake Wylie/Catawba River. We arrived at 1pm when the store opened, loaded up the two boats and headed out. Here they are - all pretty in their trylon plastic colors.
Now, actually, I should have known that Sunday afternoons on a big lake were not ideal kayaking conditions. Well, I did, but I thought we'd be able to scoot up to one of the feeder creeks or rivers without much trouble. Unfortunately, the wind and waves proved to be a limiting factor so we didn't end up getting far upstream. All in all though, we weren't there to see the scenary so much as to try out the kayaks. Two demo lessons learned in the process:
Net-net: both of us liked the Tampico, even if we could not figure out the back band adjustment. Kathleen felt smooth in it and powerful. I had the foot pegs in as far as I dared and it still wasn't enough for Kathleen to brace properly. It's looking like we'll be asking for a specialized foot peg track placement with our next purchase (of whatever boat) for her. While the Tracer was tippier, I didn't notice it too much. What I did notice was it's tendency to keep turning once I started the turn. It looks like there are some techniques that we would need to learn to use this high-rocker boat effortlessly.
As we were puttering about in the cove area, we came across this unusual heron. It's rather small in the middle of the frame - my picture using the digitizal zoom on the camera didn't come out very well. The coloring looks like a Little Blue Heron, but the shape and legs are like a Green Heron. My bird books say the Little Blue stays on the coast. I look forward to a proper identification.
Now, actually, I should have known that Sunday afternoons on a big lake were not ideal kayaking conditions. Well, I did, but I thought we'd be able to scoot up to one of the feeder creeks or rivers without much trouble. Unfortunately, the wind and waves proved to be a limiting factor so we didn't end up getting far upstream. All in all though, we weren't there to see the scenary so much as to try out the kayaks. Two demo lessons learned in the process:- It's better to paddle someplace you already know.
- If you're trying a stretch boat, pick someplace calm.
Net-net: both of us liked the Tampico, even if we could not figure out the back band adjustment. Kathleen felt smooth in it and powerful. I had the foot pegs in as far as I dared and it still wasn't enough for Kathleen to brace properly. It's looking like we'll be asking for a specialized foot peg track placement with our next purchase (of whatever boat) for her. While the Tracer was tippier, I didn't notice it too much. What I did notice was it's tendency to keep turning once I started the turn. It looks like there are some techniques that we would need to learn to use this high-rocker boat effortlessly.
As we were puttering about in the cove area, we came across this unusual heron. It's rather small in the middle of the frame - my picture using the digitizal zoom on the camera didn't come out very well. The coloring looks like a Little Blue Heron, but the shape and legs are like a Green Heron. My bird books say the Little Blue stays on the coast. I look forward to a proper identification.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
First Moonlight Paddle
Various paddling groups in the area organize full moon trips at night. They inspired me to monitor the weather to do the same on our own lake. It seemed like a really good idea to try this on water we knew instead of water we didn't. After throwing in a late night long drive to some other place, the local option became a no-brainer.
Saturday, after church, looked best for us. We made it down to the access ramp around 8:30pm while there was still light. And we were out on open water before it started getting really dark. Armed with our nifty Petzl headlamps, we were night boating compliant. Errrr, not armed; headed, actually. These LED-based doodads are on a headband. Ours have several brightness levels and a flash mode. So, we're sure to catch anyone's attention, except for the bass boaters hellbent on getting to their next fishing hole. There were mostly pontoon boaters enjoying the night just as we were. We saw our next door neighbors on the water before it got completely dark.
We wore our long-sleeved summer weight shirts to try them out and reduce surface area for mosquitos. I brought bug spray but, surprisingly enough, didn't need it. The only thing that attracted bugs were the headlamps when in a cove. The temperatures were pleasantly cool so the long sleeves were perfect.
We headed up the cove to Kathleen's parent's house. She called them on the cell phone when we were coming around to their view of the water. I just know Bill was muttering "blankety-blank kids" then hollering "you look great, kid!" We continued on up their cove. It was near the end of this one where a pontoon boat nearly snuck up right behind us.
The moon was pretty. However, not having nearby objects on the horizon, it looked small the whole time. The lake surface had mesmerizing undulations. I think these are the longer wavelength waves, caused by boat wakes that reflect off the shores. Not being able to see them coming, we would just sit in the water and experience them going past us.
We puttered about for 3 hours total, not getting back to the ramp until 11:30pm. A very pleasant night out on the water. We'll be doing this again soon.
Saturday, after church, looked best for us. We made it down to the access ramp around 8:30pm while there was still light. And we were out on open water before it started getting really dark. Armed with our nifty Petzl headlamps, we were night boating compliant. Errrr, not armed; headed, actually. These LED-based doodads are on a headband. Ours have several brightness levels and a flash mode. So, we're sure to catch anyone's attention, except for the bass boaters hellbent on getting to their next fishing hole. There were mostly pontoon boaters enjoying the night just as we were. We saw our next door neighbors on the water before it got completely dark.
We wore our long-sleeved summer weight shirts to try them out and reduce surface area for mosquitos. I brought bug spray but, surprisingly enough, didn't need it. The only thing that attracted bugs were the headlamps when in a cove. The temperatures were pleasantly cool so the long sleeves were perfect.
We headed up the cove to Kathleen's parent's house. She called them on the cell phone when we were coming around to their view of the water. I just know Bill was muttering "blankety-blank kids" then hollering "you look great, kid!" We continued on up their cove. It was near the end of this one where a pontoon boat nearly snuck up right behind us.
The moon was pretty. However, not having nearby objects on the horizon, it looked small the whole time. The lake surface had mesmerizing undulations. I think these are the longer wavelength waves, caused by boat wakes that reflect off the shores. Not being able to see them coming, we would just sit in the water and experience them going past us.
We puttered about for 3 hours total, not getting back to the ramp until 11:30pm. A very pleasant night out on the water. We'll be doing this again soon.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Lake Lure
We finally made the trek up to Lake Lure today. It was Plan B. Plan A had been to paddle the upper Catawba River near Conover, NC. The idea was scuttled by the put-in being closed by high water from Duke Energy needing to bleed water from its reservoirs. We have wanted to go to Lake Lure since the very beginning of the year. This was the trigger. We needed a fairly easy out & back trip and I figured the lake would get more crowded as the summer kicks in.
It's a pretty reservoir, up in the mountains, and an easy 1.5 hr drive. The route via US74A/64, coming from the east, is very popular for motorcycle rides. The town has several restaurants with outdoor seating. Much better than the town of Chimney Rock, up the road a little further. We paid the $22 annual fee for each boat at the Lake Lure Marina and used their single lane boat ramp to put-in. Here's a view from the water (with a pair of blue kayaks that came in as we left):
The hills are quite nearby and have nice rock faces in spots:
We went up the Broad River, just past US74/64. We couldn't get far before the rocks blocked us. We found a small side creek that led to a retaining pond. The pond was home to scads of Canadian geese, their yung'ns, and a pair of white swans(?). The homes on the lake are a real mixed lot - some huge stone houses, some mobile homes, and lots of boat garages. On our lake, the lake-side "style" is plain old docks/decks, or roofed boat houses. The garages here were complete with wooden doors on them - kinda quaint. We also saw big turtles and a lot of swallows. There were fewer power boats than I expected on the water, so the mid-afternoon timing worked out just fine. We only went as far as where the lake tee's out to the north. Maybe that northern finger has more interesting hills and wildlife.
Look close in that upper pic above. Besides Katheen in the foreground far right, I think I've got a picture of Chimney Rock, complete with US flag flying, up in the rocks, about middle right.
We will definitely be back in the fall when the leaves are turning. Another summer trip is likely. It was rather breezy today. Hopefully, that breeze will be there when it's stagnant in the piedmont in July & August. We took NC9 south out of town. It was an easier and faster drive than coming through Rutherfordton. (Remember this for the next trip.)
It's a pretty reservoir, up in the mountains, and an easy 1.5 hr drive. The route via US74A/64, coming from the east, is very popular for motorcycle rides. The town has several restaurants with outdoor seating. Much better than the town of Chimney Rock, up the road a little further. We paid the $22 annual fee for each boat at the Lake Lure Marina and used their single lane boat ramp to put-in. Here's a view from the water (with a pair of blue kayaks that came in as we left):
The hills are quite nearby and have nice rock faces in spots:
We went up the Broad River, just past US74/64. We couldn't get far before the rocks blocked us. We found a small side creek that led to a retaining pond. The pond was home to scads of Canadian geese, their yung'ns, and a pair of white swans(?). The homes on the lake are a real mixed lot - some huge stone houses, some mobile homes, and lots of boat garages. On our lake, the lake-side "style" is plain old docks/decks, or roofed boat houses. The garages here were complete with wooden doors on them - kinda quaint. We also saw big turtles and a lot of swallows. There were fewer power boats than I expected on the water, so the mid-afternoon timing worked out just fine. We only went as far as where the lake tee's out to the north. Maybe that northern finger has more interesting hills and wildlife.
Look close in that upper pic above. Besides Katheen in the foreground far right, I think I've got a picture of Chimney Rock, complete with US flag flying, up in the rocks, about middle right.We will definitely be back in the fall when the leaves are turning. Another summer trip is likely. It was rather breezy today. Hopefully, that breeze will be there when it's stagnant in the piedmont in July & August. We took NC9 south out of town. It was an easier and faster drive than coming through Rutherfordton. (Remember this for the next trip.)
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