Cold Water Apparel #1

Since we started late in the season, learning about cold weather paddling is high on our priority list - especially after receiving the Great Outdoor Provision Company's latest eNewsletter with this post. Bill Mauney has now scared the bejesus out of me. It sounds like we need to upgrade our apparel even further. My mother, who scuba dives, also let me know that she uses a 3mm neoprene wetsuit for hour+ sessions in 84 degree pool water. For 61 degree water, she rented a 7mm suit. Yikes. While paddling is a more active sport than scuba diving, somehow, I think cold water will more than equalize the two.

I'm calling this "Cold Water Apparel #1" because I expect to accumulate information in snippets and post here over the course of the winter. Over the course of running for 20 years, I developed a good sense of my clothing needs for various weather conditions. I need to do the same for both sculling and paddling. They won't be the same. Interestingly enough, the chances of a spill are much higher for single sculling but normally you get wetter while paddling.

UPDATE (Dec 5): Melanie Besson put out similar cold weather information on her site for Moss Lake. At this point, we're prepped in many aspects but not all. And, for the risk averse, probably not enough. We're working to get better!

Funny Clothes

My youngest sister said that people ordering funny clothes for their hobby means they've gone off the deep end. Well, here goes (and I'm not talking about the slippers):


This is a 0.5 mm neoprene shirt and a 3 mm neoprene farmer john wetsuit from NRS. Still waiting on my wetshoe booties. Gonna be working on that general bulge in the middle!

Kathleen's clothes didn't fit so we're having to exchange it for a different sizes. Her top is one of their Mystery shirts, 1 mm thick with a slick outer surface, for increased warmth and wind shielding.

I was getting warm with just my top on, so we probably could have paddled comfortably today. The wind, more than the cool temperature, kept me off the water. Instead, we cleaned up outside of the house in anticipation of Thanksgiving visitors.

Terns Feeding

We had an amazingly pleasant paddle on Moss Lake this afternoon. Shelby high temperature was supposed to be 51 degrees. It sure felt warmer than that. I'm gonna have to get me some thermometer gear!

We were treated to quite a sight: terns feeding on the open water. They were swooping and splashing. While watching, I saw a big splash from a fish. I don't know what the water temperature gradient looks like yet. Maybe the fish are staying closer to the surface during daylight to stay warmer.

I'm amazed that terns are here. I thought they were coastal birds.

Moss Lake Water Temperatures

I asked around about winter water temperatures for Moss Lake. I was pointed to Newt Henson at the Water Treatment plant. Here's what he sent me for temperatures read from 5 ft or 15 ft depths where their intakes are located:

              Avg          Low           High
11/07          59           54            66
12/07          52           50            54
01/08          46           45            54
02/08          46           45            46
03/08          52           46            54
04/08          59           54            61
05/08          66           61            72
06/08          79           72            81
07/08          82           79            84
08/08          84           81            86
09/08          79           72            82
10/08          68           61            72

He said the coldest they've measured was 39 degrees.

(Much bigger) Lake Norman temperatures are here. Looks like it's warmer there.

Roof Rack Rigging & Rigamarole

Here's the saga of setting up a truck rack system:

• Episode 1 - Anxiety over a pure truck bed or a roof+truckbed solution. Decided to go for positioning the load as forward as possible. Yakima Outdoorsman 300 in back and standard Q-tower rack on cab. Later leads to broken finger and another trip to Hickory by Kathleen to ask the guys to do the cab installation.
  
• Episode 2 - Agonizing over cutting through the 1/8" bedliner to get the Outdoorsman attached. Simplified by finding wood chisel in toolbox and going to town with rubber mallet. Fairly nice fitting cutouts are fashioned and rack is mounted. (see below) Kathleen's kayak is wrestled on to rollers and mako sharks ... to discover that the racks are two far apart. Separation of 7'6" leaves the racks trying to hold predominately vertical surfaces on our 12-13' kayaks rather than horizontal ones. Gonna half to bang out another 18" on each side of the bedliner to shift the rack forward. Darn it! I neglected to measure first.
  
• Episode 3 - Who knows yet?

I forgot to mention one of the drivers behind going big on the separation ... We could then transport our double shell which is 24' long. A racing single would be 26' long. I'll be able to use as much of a shift forward as I can get!

UPDATE - Dec 29: Read about the thrilling conclusion here!

Competitive Flatwater Kayaking

Now that's a workout! I don't think we'll be carrying ours at our side like that. I wonder how much those lightweight kayaks cost?

Past Leaf Peek Paddle

Temperatures were cooler this weekend. Family was visiting Kathleen's parents, so we decided to paddle up the cove near their house. Kathleen's finger is getting better. Here she is smoking past me:


I made the video with a Flip Video Ultra, a small handheld "point & shoot" camcorder. I haven't had much practice with it yet - hopefully, our recordings will improve. Leaf colors were better last week. Leaves are dropping and there wasn't much red.

At the top/bottom of this long cove is a bridge for Old Stubbs Road. I wanted to go into it to see the other side and whether we could paddle up this feeder creek. Well, it's really not a bridge; nor is the passage a culvert. But it is narrow! There was a leftside opening and a rightside opening. Coming up to them, we saw branches caught up at the other side. I picked one and started in. Lesson learned - if the tunnel is narrower than the paddles, it's going to be hard to make good progress! Using the paddle on one side and our hands on the wall for the other, we made it the first 20 yards or so. The last 5 yards were tricky due to hanging up on the branches. I made it through but had to come back around to pull Kathleen over them by her oar. There were mud dauber wasp nests higher up on the wall. Empty now, but probably not so when it's warm! Not much to see on the other side. Just a small pond with submerged branches where the water drains in. The adventure here was very literally in the travelling (through the tunnel).

Whiteoak Creek

Whiteoak Creek is a minor feeder into Moss Lake. From Google topo maps, it appears to originate just above Waco. From our sculling runs, we already like the cove that leads up to it. With the leaves starting to turn, I thought it would be a good tripto make, so we headed out after lunch to take advantage of a pleasantly warm fall day. Kathleen's fractured finger isn't impeding her much - except when she catches it on the bow handle when we trying to flip the kayak over!

Very few boats on the water this afternoon. Somewhat cooler temperatures and football season seem to keep most power boaters ashore. Some fisherman. And a few boats with couples just sitting out in the middle of the water. I wonder whether they're taking a nap or ???

The trees are a very nice mix of colors. Some red maples have turned. The sweetgum trees are their full rich dark red. Most trees are yellow so far. This particular cove has many wooded lots - either no houses or owners who didn't strip out the trees to clear their view. Too bad I forgot the camera.

As we approached the creek, we took a closer look at some of the submerged (narrow) tree stubs, two abandoned partially completed beaver dens, and what looks like a guard rail in the middle of the water. The guard rail is not metal, but plastic with reflective strips on it. It's pretty secure in the water. When we first came up here with the shell, it would have been a disaster to hit it. Lots of ducks up here; all mallards. I haven't recognized a wood duck yet.

We couldn't go far up Whiteoak Creek. We could get about a hundred yards past the submerged trees before the creek petered out. After a little inspection, I realized a beaver dam was blocking the creek! I didn't try getting out to see if we could portage up and go further. On the return, Kathleen pointed out that another half-blocked spot on the creek was due to a half-dam. What fun! Except, I suppose, for the folks who had the their trees gnawed off by the beavers. ;-)

This trip was another 3.5 hour paddle. We covered more distance than last Sunday, but didn't explore nooks and crannies much to be able to make time.