Dan Foster

Please join me from the comfort of your own comfy chair or survival bunker for a half-hour of virtual socializing and storytelling at 5PM on Thursday, March 26th.

Click this link at 5PM on Thursday to join: [link removed as event has now passed]

Come prepared with your happy hour beverage of choice, be ready to share your favorite paddling memory from 2019, and, since this is an NSPN event and you'll be on video, proper attire, please!

You'll need a laptop computer, phone, or tablet with a front-facing video camera and a microphone, and you'll be prompted to run some free video conferencing software from Zoom when you join the meeting. If you haven't used Zoom or other video chat/conferencing software before, you might want to click the link below a few minutes ahead of time, to give yourself time to test your video and audio settings. For the best video quality, try to pick a spot in your house with plenty of light (harder to find at 5PM) and make sure the brightest light is in front of you, and not behind you! (sit facing a window or lamp, with a wall with no windows behind you). For anyone using Windows 10, you can click start and type Camera to use the Camera app to preview your camera setup and appearance.

This is a first attempt at a virtual NSPN gathering, and hopefully it will evolve and grow from here. If you can't join us this Thursday, reply with a set of time slots that would work for you in the future, and we'll try to accommodate various schedules going forward. 

[link removed as event has now passed]
 

Looks nice! My family always had an "icebreaker canoe" tradition growing up, which made it a good thing we had an aluminum Grumman instead of a kevlar boat. We'd occasionally get too agressive and plow our way up onto an ice shelf that we couldn't break through. Other favorite memories from this time of year involve paddling through floodplains and dodging trees and fences in people's back yards during the spring melt.

There's plenty of bad news in the world right now, and like most of you, I wish I could turn to paddling and this community of friends to escape from all of that for a while. Since we can't get together in person for the moment, let's start having a conversation about things we can be doing right now as an online community to stay connected, keep ourselves sane, and make our little slice of paddling cyberspace a welcome harbor from the storms gathering around us.

Here's a few ideas to get the brainstorming going:

Let's share or retell some of our favorite kayaking stories.

Forum topic: How did you get started in sea kayaking? What brought you to NSPN?

Post that trip report or share some photos from an old trip.

Let's get a "Cooking with NSPN" thread going with our favorite camping or potluck recipes.

Pick an upcoming day with interesting weather, and let's do some virtual forecasting and trip planning.

I'm going to host a virtual NSPN cocktail/social hour via Zoom's free video conferencing in the next 7 days. (Details soon...)

Now would be a great time to take some of our popular paddling routes and start creating an NSPN library of pre-made trips (1 page description with accompanying map, just check tides and go!)

What else can we be start doing? Add your own ideas, or just take an idea and start running with it. It would be great to log in to NSPN every morning and see our virtual harbor buzzing with activity, conversation, and new initiatives.

Sunlight deactivates this stuff rather quickly (so you might consider leaving those Amazon packages outside for a while, and grabbing a shopping cart from the far end of the lot). If you're worried about boat toggles, adopt the rule that the boat's owner always touches the bow toggle, and you use the same helper to assist you with unloading, loading, and beach carries, always on the stern toggle. This way, you've limited your contact to a single person, and the sun/UV exposure your boat gets on the car ride and the constant rinsing out at sea should help.

That said, all of humanity is in this together, and if social distancing is our best chance to buy some time and flatten the curve, it's counter-productive for everyone to be carving out reasons for why their group activity shouldn't count as a group activity.

Sounds like the perfect antidote to the cares of the world. I'd love to learn more about the various seaweeds commonly found in our area on a future NSPN paddle.

I was waiting to see launch time and location, but I guess I have to get on the PM list to learn that. So put me down for "maybe".

There's free wifi at REI. The meeting room has a lectern and a wall-mounted monitor that you might be able to connect to (I couldn't make it work last year). There is limited access to power (floor jack in center of room, maybe a few wall outlets) so you might consider bringing a 10ft extension cord and power strip if there are going to be multiple people needing to plug in.

Link to the calendar posting so you can see who has RSVPed:

Gary's photos from Squam 2019: https://photos.app.goo.gl/kDHL2ovbae4N8P2Y7

Trip report and photos from 2018: https://www.nspn.org/forum/topic/12397-squam-lake-oct-19-21-2018/?tab=comments#comment-74528

More photos and reports from 2017: https://www.nspn.org/forum/topic/11916-squam-lake-oct-6-8-2017/?tab=comments#comment-71817

Join us for a glorious fall weekend at Squam Lake in Holderness, NH, launching at 10AM from Squam Lakes Association in Piper Cove at 10AM on Friday, September 25th, and returning to the cars after lunch on Sunday, September 27th. Our group base camp will be on beautiful Moon Island (approximately 2 miles from the Piper Cove put-in).  There are numerous coves and islands to explore on daily paddles, as well as the option of for short hike up one or both of the Rattlesnake Mountains (fabulous views, and hopefully peak foliage) or a longer hike to the Red Hill firetower. We typically have a gourmet pot-luck feast on Friday night, with plenty of leftovers for Saturday. If skies are clear, the moon will be 80% full and rising early enough for night paddling.

Our group is limited by space to 10 tents, which need to fit onto the three large wooden camping platforms at the site. $40 reserves your spot on this trip - contact me and RSVP here when you're ready to commit. If we get 10 campers, your cost will be closer to $25, and excess funds will be returned on Moon once we've paid for firewood. This trip needs a minimum of 6 campers to RSVP by August 1st in order to run, or it will be cancelled and you will receive a full refund.

Trip policies:

You are not confirmed on the trip until I receive your $40 deposit, by check or PayPal to support@topografix.com.

You will receive a full refund if fewer than six people sign up by August 1st, and the entire trip is cancelled.

You will receive an excess funds reimbursement on Moon Island if you actually show up on the trip and excess funds have been collected.

I will not be managing a waiting list for this trip, or facilitating transactions between club members. The first 10 people to pay the deposit are on the trip. If you didn't get on the trip and would like to go, post your intentions on the forum. There are almost always drop-outs and cancellations. If you ARE on the trip but can no longer attend, you can sell your spot on the trip to anyone within the club - just let me know so I can add them to the trip roster.

See you at Squam!

Dan

USGS (the makers of US topo maps) have already gone through the process of abandoning hand-drawn or even human-influenced cartography, and have scrapped the traditional topo maps in favor of something called USTopo, which is entirely derived from vector data, with the option to display it over aerial imagery. I think it's a mistake to conclude that NOAA is going to make drastic improvements to the final ENC product from what we're seeing now. ENC has never been about kayakers, power boaters, or sailors. It's like your car's navigation basemap, except for ships. There's no shoreline detail because a big ship's autopilot should never take it anywhere near shallow water.

I think the correct way to interpret this announcement is that NOAA and US Coast Guard now believe that every ocean-going vessel now has electronic navigation, and that the sole purpose of NOAA's mapping efforts will be to provide updates to the ENC data that feeds those electronic navigation devices.

I suspect that the way forward for kayakers who don't have a tablet running navigation software strapped to their decks will be to print out ENC data superimposed over aerial photographs, which will be the only way to determine shoreline detail in the future.

Cancelled due to stay-at-home directives in New England.

The annual club trip to Jewell Island has been posted for a while on the calendar. This is a call for interest in forming a pod of up to 6 kayak campers to commit to a more circuitous route to our annual gathering, exploring more of Casco Bay by spending Thursday night on a different island before meeting up with the larger group for Friday and Saturday nights on Jewell. This group would focus on visiting a large variety of islands in Casco Bay on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. We would launch by mid-morning on Thursday, and spend Thursday and Friday exploring, with an expected arrival time on Jewell no earlier than 4PM on Friday, leaving just enough time to set up camp and contribute to the potluck dinner. We would join the main group for Saturday's social paddles and meals, and then plan for another full day of paddling and exploring on Sunday, arriving back at the cars no earlier than 3PM.

The focus of the trip would be on maximizing enjoyment and time on the water, but with plenty of stops and exploration, rather than focusing just on miles. Still, expect 10+ n mi with loaded boats per day. There would be lots of opportunities to practice navigation, and everyone would be expected to participate in navigating and leading the group to the next destination at some point. Since there are six paddlers, and three full days of exploring to do, we'll team up in pairs so that everyone gets experience in planning and leading a day's worth of adventure.

If there is interest, I may run a pre-Jewell planning and navigation workshop for any paddlers who want one (regardless of whether you're going to Jewell or not), possibly at REI that Tuesday night if we can steal the room away from the NSPN board meeting.

This would be a weather-dependent trip. We'd evaluate wind direction and weather in the days leading up to the trip and make launch and camping plans accordingly. If the weather looked sufficiently lousy, we would likely scrap the Thursday plan and just become another Fri-Sun Jewell pod.

To maximize our camping options on the smaller islands, the pod is limited to 6 paddlers. Given time of year and the fickle nature of New England weather during a 4-day trip, paddlers in this pod must own a drysuit and have previously kayak camped with NSPN.

Let me know if you're interested, and we can develop and evolve these plans as the spring progresses.

Cancelled due to stay-at-home directives in New England.

Gary welcomes any day paddlers who want to LAUNCH by 8:30AM on SUNDAY (the middle day of the trip), in order to rendezvous with the campers on Moon before 9:30AM. He's planning to stay for a potluck dinner on SUNDAY and paddle back under the light of the fullish moon. There will likely be a paddle-to-hike option on SUNDAY, either to our usual lunch spot on the Rattlesnakes, or a 5.2 mile round-trip hike up Red Hill (eastern shore of Squam).

Anyone who wants to day paddle on SATURDAY should be ready to LAUNCH from SLA by 11AM on SATURDAY (campers will be there at 10AM to pack boats). We will likely paddle to Moon Island to set up camp, and may venture out after that. (We can negotiate that in the group PM going on now with all interested parties).

Dave, Terese, Jim, Gary, and other potential day paddlers: the two launch times above are your options for meeting up with the group. I've invited you all to the group PM, which has more info as well as the contact spreadsheet with launch times. Please solidify your plans by 5PM Friday and post your intentions there so we know who to expect, and when.

For anyone else interested in joining us, there are still camping spots available. And Gary and Terese are joining us to day paddle on SUNDAY, meeting at the island by 9:30AM (which implies a launch from the Squam Lakes Association around 8:45AM.

Please contact me ASAP if you'd like to paddle with us this weekend.

Gary is the only one who has expressed interest in day paddling. He's planning to be there at 10AM on Saturday when the rest of us launch.

Campers      Arriving at Squam Lake Assn
Dan Foster    Saturday, 10AM-ish
Romaine Randall    Saturday 10AM-sh
Patricia McCauley    Saturday 10AM-sh
Terese Pawletko    Saturday 10AM-sh
Pablo DeTorres    Saturday  10AM-sh
    
    
Day Paddlers    
Gary York    Sat AM

We have six campers registered, and several day paddlers joining us. There's room for 4 more campers at this point. I hope some more of you can join us!

This year's Squam Lake camping trip will be held over Columbus Day weekend, Sat Oct 12 - Mon Oct 14, 2019.

We have our usual spot reserved on Moon Island in Squam Lake for Saturday and Sunday nights. The group will meet at Squam Lakes Association headquarters in Holderness, NH on Saturday morning in time for a late-morning launch, and will return to the cars after lunch on Monday. There is typically a paddle-and-hike (surf and turf?) option on Sunday as well as an option for a longer paddle without any hiking. While there is not much of a tidal range on Squam Lake, there's a good chance of wind on the water and along our shoreline campsite, and temperatures can dip into the 30s in mid-October. The foliage, food, and friendship are always spectacular.

We are limited to a maximum of 10 tents in our group campsite. The cost to reserve a spot on the trip is $25, and includes two nights of camping on raised wooden tent platforms, firewood, and defrays our annual membership in the Squam Lakes Association.

To register, send $25 by PayPal to support@topografix.com and include your "Paid Member" NSPN username, or PM me for the address to send a check by mail. 

This announcement posting is just a reminder that the trip is open for registration, since it's been several months since the trip was first announced.

Please post questions and any replies in the earlier Squam thread:

https://www.nspn.org/forum/topic/12492-squam-lake-camping-columbus-day-weekend-sat-oct-12-mon-oct-14-2019/

Patricia, you've paid successfully. I was waiting to see if Romaine was able to pay before sending out confirmations. For those without Paypal, you can send a check for $25 to me at 24 Kirkland Dr, Stow, MA 01775. Send a PM when you send the check and I'll hold your spot on the trip.

Paypal seems to be doing a stupid thing on my browser where if you copy and paste in an email address, it doesn't let you press Next, but if you type it by hand, it will. I went through the motions from a second account and I was able to send $25 to support@topografix.com, which I guess means I can go on the trip now.

Registration for the Squam Lake trip is now open to all NSPN members. To register, send $25 by PayPal to support@topografix.com and include your "Paid Member" NSPN username. 

Sorry about that! Here is the correct address for payment:

To register, send $25 by PayPal to support@topografix.com and include your "Paid Member" NSPN username. 

Registration for this year's Squam Lakes trip opens on Monday, August 26th, at the moment it stops being Sunday night. As stated earlier, some preference is being given to members that have full-time jobs and can't take time off to attend other NSPN camping trips. If you are an employee working 35+ hours a week OR if this will be your first-ever NSPN camping trip, you may register now.

To register, send $25 by PayPal to support@topografix.com and include your "Paid Member" NSPN username. 

Paddled the Ipswich river from Pavilion Beach and the town landing at high tide over the last two days. One greenhead encountered, quickly dispatched by my crazy, fly-loving SUP pup.

Gary is of course being understated in his descriptions of how fortuitously he had matched up the tides to our paddling schedule, how idyllic our campsites turned out to be, and how wonderfully the trip turned out in terms of weather, conditions, and companionship. It was a near-perfect trip, in my estimation, and was one I won't forget soon.

My takeaways from the trip:

 - Things that you cut off when folding or making a custom chart can be important! Crossing from Pemaquid Point to the Thrumcaps was not in our original plan, but got added in once we saw that the conditions would allow for it. We rounded the point, made visual contact with the outermost-island on our chart, confirmed a rough bearing, and started paddling. After the crossing allotted time, our visual target wasn't getting any closer. Sure enough, there was another set of visually-similar islands, just left of our destination and a few miles past, that were beyond the border of my chart.

 - Do your chart prep ahead of time and dust off your nav skills before you actually need them. I showed up for this trip with 5 beautifully-crafted, laminated custom charts, each missing magnetic north lines, bearings for our few crossings, and with a decimal 0.01 degree grid rather than our beloved 1NM-based grid of minutes of lat/lon. And despite Gary's loan of a sharpie and two leisurely nights in camp with charts and compass readily at hand, I still found myself unprepared when the fog rolled in on our final day.

 - MITA is an absolute treasure.

 - Gary has got this kayak camping stuff dialed in, and there are dozens of tricks to be learned if you pay attention.

 - There are multiple ways to put on a spray skirt, but only one correct way.

It's about 6 NM from Lanes Cove to Straitsmouth, and an additional 2 miles to Thacher. So, 12 to 16 miles round-trip for Sue's proposal.

I might be lured out to paddle tomorrow, but for now I'm just lurking. My preference would be to follow the coastline to Thacher, with a stop to see if the new landing ramp inside of Straitsmouth is finished.

I set up the early-season calendar sessions, figuring that the regulars would figure out how they wanted to run things going forward. It doesn't look like I'm going to be able to attend many/any sessions this summer, so perhaps one of you wants to step up and post the weekly sessions in whatever style works best for you all.

If nobody posts something by Monday, I'll just post a recurring calendar event throughout the summer, with a note to create a weekly forum post for RSVPs.