Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Paddling.net is one of my favorite sites for paddling info. They have a periodic boat giveaway, photos, and some very good writers.

This article about strainers caught my eye because not too long after I started paddling regularly my son and I were in a tandem kayak on Eagle Creek and got caught by a strainer right after a sharp bend. It was November, so the water was very cold, and weren't far from the takeout, but wrestling a swamped boat out of the water in cold temperatures isn't fun.
We were fortunate that we just dumped the boat and floated on through the branches, but strainers can be very dangerous and are something to be on the lookout for, especially on smaller streams where you may not be able to see very far ahead.

A New Adventure of Sorts

I'm now blogging for WildIndiana magazine, check it out at www.wildindiana.com or www.facebook.com/wildindiana.

Posts on those sites will probably be shorter than what shows up here...I can ramble on as long as I want on this site.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

A Group Expedition


Our church small group decided to spend a day at Eagle Creek, and spend part of the time paddling so we offered to supply boats for as many of our group of 23 as we could. Over the years we have acquired several boats; two tandem kayaks, two whitewater kayaks, a rec single kayak and a couple of canoes. We are also currently storing a canoe for some friends, so we loaded six boats on the trailer, and one on the truck and headed south. Sort of the Clampett's go boating...

Sort of like the Clampett's going paddling...


One of the other families has two single kayaks that they brought along, to make nine personal boats total. Another family borrowed a bunch of life jackets, so I think we would have had enough for everyone to have two, if that had been necessary.

When we pulled up to the gate and I told the lady I had seven boats she thought I was kidding. We decided to use the "personal craft" launch at the marina for convenience, and since it was a nice day the parking lot was really crowded.

It's a short carry from the access drive to the launch, so we parked near the walkway and unloaded, which went smoothly (lots of help).

Fortunately they let you park in the grass along the road to the marina, or I might have had an extremely long walk back from an unknown parking lot somewhere. While I was parking a guy started asking me about the trailer; where I got it, how many boats could I get on it, etc., so everyone was wondering what had happened to me by the time I got back, and the younger natives were getting restless.

Note to self: With a group this large, making a list of who is going to be in what boat is very helpful. Actually taking that list with you to the lake is even more helpful, because when you have that many people standing around waiting it's a little stressful trying to remember the arrangements you worked out two days before.

We finally got it all figured out, and a couple of people headed to the marina to rent boats for those that ended up without a seat. Eagle Creek Outfitters has a nice selection of rental boats available; SUP's, SOT and sit-in kayaks - both single and tandem - canoes, paddle boats, sail boats and small pontoons.

After we all met up on the lake we had quite the flotilla: four canoes, seven kayaks and a paddle boat.




We all paddled around the north end of the lake for a while, and everyone had a great time. The paddle boat was a nice platform for some of the kids to take a rest from paddling, or to switch between boats if they wanted.





















Everyone was smiling at the end, that's a good sign