Skating the Lake

As much as there are some paddlers who will seek and find whatever liquid surface remains on the lake through the winter, there is the flip side.... people who relish the frozen surface, maybe hiking to alpine ponds in search of skateable ice in October.

We just had a few days of cold weather, one morning clocking in at minus 20 to 30 F depending on where in the state.  I asked Phelps to let me know when there was some skateable ice in the islands, and the answer was now.

On the way I saw that there were already some ice fishing shacks out.

I was picturing putting on the hockey skates and whizzing around some area on the scale of an ice rink, or maybe a football field.  Things were mostly a little rough for that, plus why confine yourself?  We ended up using nordic skates, which are essentially speed skates with XC ski bindings and a bevel on the front to go over bumps.  They were the inspiration for the clapper skates now popular in long track speed skating.  I've used them once before, but only on a groomed oval.  I recall in that setting one good stride could take you a hundred yards.

It seemed like I was just here for a barbecue and it was 80 degrees.



First thing is getting down to lake level, then walking out to where the surface is a little smoother.


The horizontal dowel hanging from his neck is really 2 nested ice picks, which you use to haul yourself back on the ice in case you fall through a thin spot.


Much of the ice looked like this.  A couple of days ago these were loose floating chunks of ice, now encased in new clear ice.  I saw a fish swim by one of these "holes."

From Other2011

You  need to occasionally whack the clear sections with a pole to check the thickness.  Those familiar with the local tectonics know where the plates of ice are pulling apart (causing thin ice or open water) due to wind and the configuration of shore line.

The temperature is in the teens, but with the wind it feels like I'll be at that distant island (2.5 miles)  in about 5 minutes.  Seriously, just standing there the wind will blow you to some real speed, and we used a lot of the space visible here.

Unlike ski poles, these poles have no baskets, and have hard conical points that reliably grip the ice.

Cool trip

Despite the zero degree morning Dave called for a paddle yesterday. Without the wind, it feels warmer  Shelburne bay looks totally frozen up, but things are clear on the broad lake side of the point.

We went south, letting Dave play ice breaker on the thin stuff between Meach Island and shore. Turnaround point was a bit north of Charlotte town beach.

Lots of ducks about and at least one eagle (we saw a lot, but only one at a time, so might have been just one.)

One good thing about this weather is you can just drag your boat between the cars and the water.

From Kayak2011

This buoy was slowly turning. From a distance is was confusing as it was changing color between white and green.
Dave discovered that touching a buoy with a wet mitten in zero degree weather is like touching your tongue to a light pole (but not as painful). Not sure if he left any neoprene behind when he tore it off.


On those lines, I had to smash ice off the dry box to get it open (to get the camera). I had a lot of trouble getting it shut again and wasn't confident that it sealed well, so no more rolls after this picture.

South Pole Centennial

Next antarctic summer marks the 100th anniversary of the race to the pole betwen Scott and Amundsen.

An article in today's NY Times describes the expected tourist boom at the pole, people arriving by plane, maybe skiing the last few miles, or trekking from the coast:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/world/16pole.html?_r=1

One event is a reenactment of the race, with teams following both routes.

A snip from one contestant's profile:

"He has never tried cross-country skiing, and he is not a big fan of cold weather, but he has been practicing by dragging two car tires on a rope for several hours at a time."


Sounds well prepared... but try dragging those tires 12-14 hours a day, and did anyone tell you the pole's at 10,000 feet?  So maybe breath through a straw while you're at it.

“I want to know how far, physically, I can go,” said Mr. Elliott, who is paying about $95,000 to enter the competition, sponsored by a London-based company calledExtreme World Races. “It would be great to get there first and run the Union Jack at the South Pole before the Norwegians get there” 

One aspect (not mentioned in the article) that can't be reenacted is that the Norwegian team's effort was dependent on sled dogs, which are now banned on the continent.

There is a year round research station at the pole.  They may have to invest in a few signs.

End of the year paddling

Hmmm... I see I've been pretty slack on the blog lately, only one post since September, and it's not even about paddling.  I'll wrap a couple of trips into this post.


 Tom, Dave, and I went on our last trip of the fall on Dec 18 from Converse Bay and headed south.
Pretty much everything in splash range of the lake had some ice.




Including the the raft that set out on a round the world trip last month but wrecked on Thompson's Point about 15 miles into it.

This was the first time we'd been out that way since the incident. Article on wreck

Our planned endpoint was the mouth of Lewis Creek, in Hawkins Bay. The bay is already frozen in, so after a seal landing on the sheet and some hunting around for a passage, we headed home with the wind at our backs. On passing the wreck, we saw someone from the fire department who secured the raft to the cliff and tied some netting over the openings to keep more junk from ending up in the lake.  Some talk with him, and the pictures, ended up with a followup article in the paper with one of my pics on page 1! Burlington Free Press  OK, it's not the NY Times, but it is The Paper for about half the state.


The day after Christmas there was a wicked zero degree north wind, so the next time out, "splash range" was a lot higher.   Exposed shore/cliff had ice going up about 40 feet.



These are only about 5-6 feet, under an overhang

From Kayak2010

Tom decided that his iphone (with dry bag) makes a good paddling camera, so I'm not the only photographer anymore.  One of his:

Deer hunting for college students

My daughter is a student at Vermont Tech in Randolph. She tells me that many of the rules for dorm life stem from behavior that has caused problems in the past.

One such rule in the manual is you can’t hang a deer carcass in the shower. This wasn’t because of one deer, but on one occasion ALL the showers in a dorm had deer hanging.

Not quite a festival, but a long GP weekend

Our local club just had a full weekend of classes with Turner Wilson, Cheri Perry, and their intern (not sure that's the right term, maybe touring partner?) Adam Hansen from Greenland.

There's been a surge interest for skill development since that squall hit a club trip a few posts back.  "Hmmmm.... maybe all that rolling, heavy bracing and such aren't just parlor tricks for those boyz in the hoodz!"
So the classes (rolling and strokes, both days) were fully booked, largely with folks from the club, plus a contingent who came down from Montreal, and a few of the already-converted who wanted to move further or just refresh.

Saturday night Adam gave a slide show on growing up in Greenland, and Turner gave one on the kayaking championship they went to a few years ago.

Sunday, Adam demoed and talked us through a few moves of rope gymnastics, which I'd never tried or seen other than pictures.

My role was mostly spotting people while they practiced, and herding avatuks (floats used to practice, and they blow away easily)

Initial demonstration, note the black avatuk:

From Kayak2010

Tom gets his forward butterfly roll:


Strokes in the afternoon:


Adam demonstrating a sweep turn.


Student trying a low brace.  Ideally her body should be rotated towards the paddle, but she was watching Turner's demo while doing it.

Oswegatchie Canoe Trip

Last week a friend asked if I wanted to go camping, maybe a backpack in the Adirondacks to get away from everyone, catch some solitude.

I figured there wouldn't be much solitude on any of the normal backpack routes on Labor Day weekend, so I suggested a water trip.  Once you get to a pond with no road access (have to carry your boat from another pond) the crowds thin out pretty fast.  Besides, the weather's been in the 80-90 range so water would be good on that count as well.

With portages in the plans, a canoe sounded simpler than kayaks.  Less boats, you can have all your stuff in backpacks without worrying about bags that fit through a small hatch. Besides, I hadn't been on a real canoe trip in 10 years or more.

By the time Friday rolled around, so did Earl.  Not a direct threat, but he was still messing with the weather.  Forcast was winds ~20 and likely rain.
As a backup plan to canoeing an open lake with big waves we printed off some info on the Oswegatchie River, which feeds Cranberry Lake.

Even though the Adirondack Park is only about 10 miles from my house, the lake district is on the western side.  With the ferry it took about 4 hours, an hour longer than driving from Albany would.  Put the boat on the car, put the car on another boat:


On the way, every lake we saw was showing bigger waves than you'd want with a canoe, so we did opt for the river trip. We finally arrived at the launch point for a "Crack of noon" start.


We headed upstream and upwind, though on this type of river, you will be paddling in any direction to the compass with turns up to 270 degrees followed by one in the opposite direction. The wind and current like to work together to push you into the bushes. That got better once I got my "river sense" back and gave a quick lesson in cross-bow maneuvers.


A blue heron flying upriver.


Morning misty view from our campsite:


I think we saw more people than we would on a carry-in pond, but the campsites were about a mile apart, and it seemed like somewhat less than half were occupied. A few have lean-to's but most are just a clearing with a fireplace. Overnight I heard owl, loon, and coyotes, but all were pretty far away.  Given the on and off rain, we decided to just day-trip on Sunday and not move camp, rather than go for maximum distance.

There was also some quality "wait out the rain" time.



One of the straighter sections.  We had the best weather on our way out


On the way home we stopped at the Natural History Museum in Tupper Lake, aka the Wild Center.  I recommend  it if you are in the area with a few hours available.  Lots of indoor and outdoor exhibits, films, and guided tours. http://www.wildcenter.org/

In the cafe, the pond is right at your elbow.