Wild Turkey Paddlers

Bea bought this funny short boat from Lora and wanted to try it out. Ken and I wanted to protect her from switching over to the the "dark side" of whitewater paddlers so we volunteered to escort her to make sure she comes back to sea kayaking. Ken risked his life as Lora was his personal guide and told him to make another pass around a big rock because he failed to capsize on the first pass. But Ken survived and came up smiling. Ken was in Jordan's WW boat, but Jordan hasn't trained the boat to roll back up yet like he has with all his other boats.

It was a strange day, driving with short boats on the roof of my truck. My truck resisted the trip north and made all kinds of horrible grinding noises and refused to go over 60mph. Lora was even able to catch me and pass me on the highway and guided us to a gas station but the garage had been transformed into a store...so we used the rest rooms and bought coffee.

I haven't had time to do anything interesting with the pictures and video I shot, but Lora and Alice made a video, and Bea has created a photo album on Facebook completely documenting the day better than I did anyway.

Here is a link to the video by Lora and Alice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajrMshfdnOw&feature=youtu.be

Hopefully Bea will add a public link to her Facebook album.

Thank you to Lora for all her planning and providing us with safety escorts. Thanks Mark and Phil for putting up with rookies on the water. Thanks to the other experienced paddlers Lora recruited to accompany us too, Jim and Paul. It was a fun day in the cramped little spinning boats. I think next time we try this, we want to do it in the middle of summer when the air is warmer...

I found one video clip worth sharing and got it uploaded to Vimeo overnight. Watch the middle of the picture at the beginning of the clip to see Ken in the blue boat trying to make the second pass upstream around a big rock in the right side of the picture. More traffic is coming down river and Ken fades downstream into the rock, then tries to head back upstream again but gets swept over. It's a little hard to see as there is water on the lens and just Kens head and shoulders are visible behind the rock. Welcome to swirly whitewater Ken!

https://vimeo.com/77945549

Here is the link to my photos from the "2013 P-cat Drawdown and BBQ". I took many photos from the river, but none from the amazing PPR BBQ with steak tips, beans, baked potatoes, salad, clam chowder plus an amazing spread of desserts. Yummy!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 326d23a9ee

Enjoy!

Bea

CLAP,CLAP, CLAP!!!

Abby and Steve

Nice!

It was a fun, if chilly, day. If you don't think whitewater is the "dark side", then explain who the guy on the right is in this picture from Bea's album:

Here is a link to a few photos that I took at the P-Cat. Not as thorough a report as Bea did, but a few good shots.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.669346593083599.1073741852.100000247920357&type=1&l=916229575d

norm wrote:Here is a link to a few photos that I took at the P-Cat. Not as thorough a report as Bea did, but a few good shots.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.669346593083599.1073741852.100000247920357&type=1&l=916229575d

Norm, one of those odd boats is a decked canoe, the other is a kayak that has been converted for use as a C-1 (basically a decked canoe also). They are paddled with a single-blade paddle, and the canoeist kneels in the boat. It's a way of moving from open canoe to a decked boat without having to transition to kayaking. People who have no knee-pain threshold use them....

Very nice photos. I hope to join you some nice WARM day.

NK

noseykate wrote:

Very nice photos. I hope to join you some nice WARM day.

NK

The upper section of the winnipesaukee river in Tilton NH is fairly reliable and warms quickly in the spring. It's a good learning and practice river and there is also a more advance section a couple of miles downstream with a rail trail alongside.

If there is interest I would be happy to work with some folks on this run.

I've got some time on my hands. Not next week but the one after..

Johnysmoke wrote:I've got some time on my hands. Not next week but the one after..

John, maybe the Concord-Lowell will be running. I can carry your boat on my car if you want.

cgr wrote:

noseykate wrote:

Very nice photos. I hope to join you some nice WARM day.

NK

The upper section of the winnipesaukee river in Tilton NH is fairly reliable and warms quickly in the spring. It's a good learning and practice river and there is also a more advance section a couple of miles downstream with a rail trail alongside.

If there is interest I would be happy to work with some folks on this run.

Definitely interested!

Johnysmoke wrote:I've got some time on my hands. Not next week but the one after..

I was speaking of next year, when I hear that you'll have much less time on your hands!