billvoss

According to the Walden park rangers, starting this coming week the boat ramp gate will be locked at 6:30pm instead of the summer 7:30pm closing time. That means getting off the water at 6:00pm which does not work very well if people are arriving at 5:00pm. For the few remaining hard-core pond addicts, I propose that instead we meet at White's Pond on Tuesdays. White's pond is an eight minute drive from Walden. Here are Google directions. The advantage of White's pond is that nobody locks the gates. We can also practice right in front of the boat ramp. The disadvantages are limited parking and no restroom facilities. If White's pond runs out of parking, you can still unload your kayak at the pond, then park your car at the nearby school. The pond is "A" and the school is "B" in this Google link. By the way, I'm proposing Tuesday because the Boston AMC Paddlers meet at White's pond on Wednesdays, and their leader requested that I pick another day because of the limited parking. I rejected Thursdays because the NSPN calendar shows the Chebacco Lake sessions continuing through September on Thursdays. I'm only going if I know someone else plans to join me. So post here or message me. I can also arrive earlier in the afternoon if someone else can join me earlier. I'm also open to more Walden Wednesdays, but only if someone else wants to join me there by 4:00pm.

I should be Walden bound again this afternoon.

The grand total was six paddlers, and included some new faces. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

I'm now recovered from my swimmer's kayaker's ear, so I expect to be Walden bound this afternoon.

Yes, a long curve is what I was trying to describe with my rough diagram. Almost all of my GPS units have had compasses. Perhaps that is why I have never seen the behavior you describe. What version of GPS do you use? I want to look up the user manual.

I agree that the GPS is a great gadget. In this application it is wonderful to have an arrow pointing directly towards your destination. Especially if fog or other issues prevent you from seeing your destination. However, the GPS systems I'm aware of display an arrow pointing directly towards your destination, they do not compute the correct ferry angle. To quote your PDF attachment. The GPS points to the destination, that is rarely the correct ferry angle. The higher the speed of the current relative to the speed of the paddler, the more this becomes an issue. Attached is a rough sketch showing what can happen when the paddler simply keeps their boat pointed toward the destination shown by the GPS when the current speed is close to the paddler's speed (no GPS spoofing required). GPS_Ferry.pdf

I didn't see the conditions, and I don't know your guide's motivations. However, personally I find it much easier to paddle downhill, which requires bumpy water. I'm referring to the technique of adjusting your strokes to the waves, trying to insert your paddle into the water near the top of a wave, then completing the stroke as you go down the wave. Though I'm not certain how much of the effect is psychological, and how much is physics. Matching your strokes to the waves is certainly more interesting than imitating a metronome, and I find it less tiring. As I recall, Brian Schulz told my kayak building class that in short-steep-chop he could paddle an F1, the 14 foot skin-on-frame that Brian designed, faster than long surf skis which would easily pass him in smooth water. Brian described the technique as repeatedly momentarily surfing the waves. If one was trying to paddle like a metronome regardless of conditions, then I would expect smoother water to seem easier. I personally try to always have my smooth water paddling heavily seasoned with good companionship.

I just stumbled on this Greg Stamer post about Sticks versus Wings, and thought it might be of interest. http://www.gregstamer.com/2012/02/12/greenland-paddle-wing-paddle

Well done!

I expect to attend today.

Walden bound!

This year as in past years, the NSPN training sessions have been great. Thanks for organizing and running them!

I am interested in such trips. Unfortunately I am scheduled to attend the Hudson River Greenland Festival that weekend.

Thanks for the replies on the board and via email. I found a close-out discontinued color GMER in my size, and decided I didn't want to spend more for the ICON.

Has anyone out there used a kayaking drysuit with a rear-entry zipper like the Kokatat ICON? I'm thinking about possibly buying the ICON instead of the GMER because at least half my trips are rolling practice instead of paddling. Wondered if anyone else had any experience.

My first year I asked, and was told you definitely need to pay to park in the boat launch area, even if no attendant is present at the gate. I have always purchased my out-of-state season passes at the Walden Pond main parking entrance.

Registration for the Hudson River Greenland Festival is now full for 2013.

Registration is now open for the Hudson River Greenland Festival. If you are interested in rolling with a skinny stick, this is a great event to attend. Bill Voss P.S. I've attended the HRGF in the past and plan to attend again this year, but I am not involved in organizing this event.

From a safety perspective, getting integrated DSC with GPS is definitely the way to go. In the unlikely event someone ever needs to use the radio to send out a MAYDAY call, the integrated GPS may save their life by enabling the DSC portion to send out location information. Whether having an integrated GPS will satisfy your apparent growing GPS craving will depend on your "semi Luddite" status. I have one very close relative in the "semi Luddite" camp who uses a hand-held GPS only to get coordinates which he then writes down on paper and checks against paper maps. For him it would be fine. I know of other GPS users who hook their GPS up to home computers to enter waypoints for future trips, upload new maps and charts to the GPS, download tracks of previous trips, share that track information on the internet with friends, analyze their track information as performance training data, not to mention use their GPS like a speedometer. If you want to do any of those things, getting a separate dedicated GPS is a much better choice. Getting both is of course the best of both worlds.

Definitely another great Greenland session! I look forward to attending again next year!

I can not currently imagine buying a kayak which weighs over 40#, that I would be afraid to drop off the roof of my car, or a kayak which did not fit me. So I recommend building your own SOF! If you don't build, then at least buy used until you are replacing a boat you know you love.

No problem. Have a great time.

At this time of year you would not need to worry much about boat traffic. While it would be challenging to fight the current, the current is quite smooth. So riding it is really only a psychological challenge.

I just did something closer to full diligence, and I don't really love the results. Seavey Island (proxy for Pierce Island) Sun 3/3 low 9:08am, high 3:20pm Jaffrey Point (proxy for Little Harbor) Sun 3/3 low 8:42am, high 2:57pm That means the peak current under the Wentworth bridge will be in flood just before noon. Regarding my schedule, the earliest I could be BIB on Sunday is 11am. We have a new dog with some issues still being introduced to our cats, and I need to help out in the morning. I would like to get off the water by about 2pm so that I could rinse my gear before sunset. Combining all of that, the best option I see is launch from Little Harbor anytime between 11am and say noon. At that point we could either go out on the ocean if the sea state permits, or ride the fast flood under the Wentworth bridge. If we take the bridge route, we would just meander around the various inner islands until we sprinted out against the current under the Wentworth bridge a little before 2pm. That is the best option I've come up with for the Portsmouth area on Sunday, March 3rd which works with my schedule constraints. However, I am totally OK with you sticking with the original circumnavigation proposal instead if that works better for you.

While I have some interest in paddling this Sunday, I have no interest in an early start. I'm definitely not a morning person, and Portsmouth is a fairly long drive for me. However, even you early birds may care that the national weather service hourly forecast predicts the temperature will reach freezing between 10am and 11am. The warmest part of the day will be in the 2pm to 4pm range. So from my perspective, having lunch at the put-in and launching between noon and 1pm could make a lot of sense. Plan to spend a little over two hours on the water? Sunset is around 5:30pm. Might consider a different put-in with the different launch time. However, if you do want to paddle that morning, no problem, have fun. I'll just attend my local WW pool rolling session that evening instead.