Canoe Guy @ Albion D and I camped near Mendocino with her kayak club and did a little paddling. There were all kinds of craft -- a couple surf kayaks, some plastic touring kayaks, some long, sleek fiberglass kayaks, at least one greenland style kayak, a few chunky recreational kayaks, and a one green royalex canoe. So I was dubbed Canoe Guy. Most of the group went to the Big River, right at the town. A few of us ventured to the Albion River, a few miles south of town. The Albion is an estuary this time of year. I imagine it must have some significant flow in the winter, because it had a deep central channel. Unlike Elkhorn Slough, the Albion is navigable by small craft -- providing you avoid the logs. The channel is marked by large pylons, probably the remains of a logging operation. I used those channel markers to practice a turning technique called edging. To turn left, the canoe is leaned over onto its right side. The corner where the side of the canoe and the bottom of the canoe meet is called a chine. The right chine is curved in a manner that, when leaned into the water, causes the canoe to turn left. The effect is stronger the faster the canoe is moving, as the chine is better able to carve the water. By the end of the trip, I was able to do a fairly sharp turn in the canoe with no turning strokes. Just a forward stroke to move and a lean to turn. The round trip was about 5 hours including a lunch and a swim. Not all of us swam, just the two participants who dumped their boats. Mine was due to excessive edging in a shallow canal clogged with submerged branches. When you hit something while the gunnel is two inches from the river, bad things happen. The other paddler was attacked by branches from above. We had pressed through into a very tiny channel despite the fact that the river was overgrown with brush. While I was still climing back in, she was just going in for a swim after being whacked by a branch. D went over to help. This being D's first club paddle as an official trip leader (of the Albion contingent), she wanted to get her friend back in quickly and safely. Wouldn't do to have casualties on your first go. Kayakers have all these complicated rescue techniques based on being safe in cold ocean water. Flat water canoers have rescue techniques based on being in shallow water, getting wet, and getting your feet muddy. So I climbed back out of my boat, waded over, and did a kayak rescue canoe style. Between the wind, the distance, the swimming, we had a pretty good workout. The canoeist of the group, in particular, got a workout paddling into headwinds and quartering winds. By comparision, the Big River contingent had a two hour, slow paddle. The Albion is a quiet, lazy backwater. There were some noises in the distance, probably a lumber operation. But other than that, one felt miles away from other people. Looking at the map, I was surprised how close the roads were. Without converting it to park land, I can't imagine it looking the same in twenty years. |
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