Hold Your Breath

Recently my 12 year old son told me that he'd like to get involved in paddling whitewater in a kayak.


His first kayak ride happened when he was about 6 months old.  He rode 'papoose' between my knees in my 15 year old Perception Caspia on a fun little ride down the Clarion River in Pennsylvania.

Over the next couple of years he got used to seeing me in my boats, and going along when Mom and he were my 'shuttle bunnies'.

Getting ready to put my Pirouette in for a run on Slippery Rock Creek.

We would travel around Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia and camp - and there was almost always a kayak on top of the car.  Kenny soon learned that Daddy would try to get in a boat trip any time he could.

Me paddling past Kenny at our campsite on the E. Br. Greenbriar River, WV.

And he got the chance for quite a few more rides while he was still just a toddler.  Many times we would camp in the Allegheny National Forest and take a boat along so we could enjoy a peaceful ride on the Clarion River.

When he got a little bigger I'd take him to a creek along with a small inflatable raft.  I'd put a leash on the boat and wade downstream, letting him float along and enjoy the water.

The growing boater on South Sandy Creek, PA.

He always enjoyed these creek trips, so just before he turned 6 we got him a child sized kayak for Christmas.

He loved to sit in his boat, and spent a lot of time pretending to paddle.  But he also got to spend a good amount of time on the water, learning how to balance in a kayak.  He never paddled any real rapids, but he loved to get in the water and paddle around while I was his 'safety crew'.

More fun on the Clarion River.

But he outgrew that kayak pretty quickly, and he seemed okay with that.  We've gone on many canoe trips together, on the Clarion River, and on Ohio's Beaver Creek.  Of course on these trips he's as likely to jump out of the canoe and swim the whole distance as he is to ride in the boat.  But getting to be comfortable in the water is a good thing, and as long as he is enjoying himself then I'm happy.

Then this year he said he wanted to try paddling whitewater.  At the age of 12 he's just about the same size as I am, so he fits in my kayak just fine, as well as the life jackets and spray skirts.  So this spring we've spent some time on Slippery Rock creek at low water - learning the safety aspects of whitewater kayaking.  He's learned how to use a throw rope, and how to repack it.  We spent a good amount of time teaching him to 'wet exit' the kayak - that is how to get out of the boat when it flips over.  And after a couple of tries he gets it - no need to panic, just do what you know has to be done and you'll be fine.  We've even run a couple of easy rapids, with him in the boat and me standing by as safety.

Now he just needs to build up some more arm and upper body strength - and the way to do that is to paddle a bunch more.  We've had some trouble getting water levels that are appropriate for him, but he's done a couple more canoe trips that definitely helped out.

But I admit that I do kind of dread him running more difficult water.  Accidents happen (brother do I know that!) and I don't want them to happen to him.  So we'll go very slow in our progression, and make sure that there are never any corners cut.  Safety first - and second for that matter.  But I have a feeling that soon enough he's going to want to push it a bit and hit some real whitewater.

And I'll be right there, ready to be the 'safety crew'.

Summer Frenzy

So now we're fully entrenched in summer, despite the calendar insisting that it's still 3 weeks away.  We've had some days in the 90's, though mostly the days high temps fall a little short of that mark.  The trees are in full leaf, and the early flowers have made their show, and now patiently wait for spring to roll around again.

With the change of seasons, which is always so dramatic in the Great Lakes region, people have a chance to change their routines.  Getting away from the lazy winter hibernation and pushing into the endless opportunities that nice weather presents can be difficult - something about a body at rest tending to remain at rest...   Personally I can only let so many beautiful days go by while I sit and enjoy looking at them.  Once the trend is for warm temperatures my mind goes into overdrive, and I can come up with a dozen plans for any available free time.  And so after a long dreary winter, and then a cold and reluctant spring, I'm finally back into the kind of routine that I enjoy.

I've been spending a good amount of time riding the bike on the rail trail.  My home town has a nice straight, flat paved trail leading north, almost all the way to Lake Erie, and I've been heading out that way when my available recreation time is less than two hours.  That gives me time to get out there, ride for a smidge less than an hour and a half, and get home.  Since I ride my mountain bike I'm not setting any speed records, but an hour and twenty minutes of rail trail riding will get me about 16 to 18 miles, depending on the wind and how energetic I feel.

These trips are easy to fit in, and easy to do.  The trail is so straight and flat that the only thing that I have to keep conscious of is my cadence.  I much prefer the much more mentally demanding experience of riding a bike on singletrack, but these rail trail miles have their purpose.  After squeezing in rail trail rides whenever I could this spring, I was gratified to find that when I got back on the dirt that I was riding at (for me) top form.  So in an effort to keep that fitness level up - and burn off as many extra calories as possible - I keep returning to the paved trail.

Once or twice a week I, weather permitting, I can usually get the bike on the trails.  Unfortunately my time is almost always limited, so that I ride to fill the time available, not till I'm ready to quit.  But I'm finding that even at 50 year of age that I'm still improving as a rider.  I'm not much faster or a better climber, but my rock riding technique continues to improve.  Several times this spring I've surprised myself by successfully making tough moves that I wouldn't have even tried two years ago.  And while my breathing still is terrible, at least it seems that it hasn't gotten any worse, and I'm still able to enjoy the ride.

I've also been trying to get a little more balance in how I spend my free time.  After a couple of years where I hardly even paddled my kayaks, now I'm putting more effort into finding ways to get on the water.  I had a couple of great whitewater runs when spring was just starting to happen, including a fun run on a creek that I'd never managed to paddle before.  Plus last weekend I got out on some flat water with a buddy who had just bought his first kayak.  We paddled 8 miles on a quiet, slow river on a warm and breezy afternoon, enjoying the scenery of one of Pennsylvania's newest Water Trails, the upper Shenango River.  The new paddler had a great time, enjoying the small riffles and the long slow sweep of the river between.  It was great to get out on a quiet waterway, and rediscover the local wildlife that lives just off the beaten path.  We saw a wide range of birds while out, including an encounter with a huge bald eagle who let us get within 50 feet before flying off.

I've discovered two 'new' creeks in the area as well.  Both seem to offer whitewater in the class II-III range, but neither is listed in any guidebook or website that I can find.  So I'm watching the weather and waiting for the next big rain for my chance to do some 'exploring' in the middle of this area that's been settled for 300 years.  And we're planning a vacation for later on this month, that will involve a visit to Gettysburg for my son, some biking for me, and some relaxing in the woods for all of us.

I hope that everyone else out there is getting back into their summer routines as well.  Have fun and ride hard!

The Well Worn Trail

I've been slacking lately - not doing the work I should be doing - on several projects, this blog being one of them. I'm not sure what the reason is behind this lack of motivation, but for the time being I'm blaming it on a gloomy winter that dragged out into a reluctant spring.  And though the weather seems as if it has finally decided that spring is here I'm not quite back into the swing of things yet.  Yard work remains to be done, and my bike is in the shop having a bunch of stuff replaced, repaired, or re-adjusted.  But I'm starting to feel the caveman stirrings of the blood that are indicators of summer activity, so it seems like a good time to dust off the keyboard and update the blog.

We had a nice rain event a couple of weeks ago, one that had me watching the Accuweather precipitation total maps and the USGS real time streamflow gauges.  I managed to get in two nice whitewater kayak trips while the water was up, and had pretty much decided that I was going to write a post about paddling Wolf Creek.  But then this weekend, with my bike in the shop, I decided to go for a short hike on a familiar trail instead.  So that's today's story.

Slippery Rock Creek is NW Pennsylvania's most reliably running whitewater creek.  It's just to the east of New Castle, and about an hour's drive from my house in eastern Ohio.  The best whitewater section of the creek is in McConnells Mill State Park, where you can paddle about five miles of class II-III rapids when the water is up.  This is where I learned to paddle whitewater, and I've made literally hundreds of runs down the gorge.



Me on Slippery Rock Creek in 1999, in my old Pirouette.  Note the bike helmet...

I had thought that my weekend was pretty much scheduled full, but then I unexpectedly got a couple of hours of free time, and needed to find a quick adventure that I could fit in.  There was a light rain falling, but that wasn't a problem.  So I packed up a bit of gear and headed east into Pennsylvania.

This trail runs down the gorge alongside the creek, right alongside the best of the whitewater - "The Mile" as it's known to local paddlers.  I've hiked it dozens of times, from the downstream end back up to the parking area by the ranger station, as a finale for solo kayaking trips on the creek.  But it's been three years since I've been on The Mile, and I've only been down by the creek a few times lately, so it seemed like a good idea to revisit this beautiful spot.

I parked up at the Point parking area, and hiked down the stairs into the gorge.  The highest points on the surrounding ridge are more than 400 feet above the creek, so there can be a bit of up and down if you're hiking in this area.



 

 

Once down by the creek I can see that it's at a nice juicy level, high enough that a paddle down would be a serious blast.  There had been a big rain early in  the week, and I knew that the water would likely be high, but it's still nice to see the rocks covered and hear the muted roar of whitewater echoing from downstream.  The rain and warm weather have been good to the forest too, and its beginning to show signs of spring.  The wildflowers are starting to bloom, and the trees are showing buds.  Everything seems a bit greener and the smell of wet earth fills the air.

 

 





 

 

The way is open and obvious, but not necessarily easy.  With the steep gorge walls squeezing the creek, the trail sometimes has to climb up quite a ways to find a path downstream.  The boulders that constrict the creek and create the whitewater also litter the banks, so that the trail involves a good deal of scrambling up and over.  It's one of those trails where you have to watch your footing the whole time, lest you catch a toe and tumble down the banks to end up in the water.  Yet despite the hazard it is an overwhelmingly beautiful place.  The hemlocks that line the creek give a dark, majestic presence to the narrow gorge, standing tall over grey lichen-encrusted boulders lining the perpetual movement of the creek.  Silent wildflowers grow among niches where wild bird songs compete with the drip of water down sheer rockfaces.  This is a special place, and I'm lucky to know that it's here.

 



 

 

Midway along the trail you come to McConnells Mill, a restored grist mill powered by the waters of the creek.  Here the water pools up behind a dam, and boaters must get out of the creek and portage around to the rapids below. 

 

 

 

 Looking over the creek from the observation deck I see a Great Blue Heron fishing in the water below the dam.  I've seen several people fishing along the creek already, as well as a pair of kingfishers, but the heron seems to be oblivious to everything else but the water.

 

 

 

As I hike down the trail I scout each rapid - a habit left over from the days when I paddled every weekend.  Some of the rapids seem very familiar, and I can easily remember the line needed to make it through smoothly.  Other rapids seem almost unfamiliar, and I study them trying to remember the approach, the move, and the exit.  Funny how something that once seemed as familiar as my own signature can gain distance over a couple of years.  As I hike along I promise myself that I'll get my boat back on the Slip this summer, when the water is nice and low, and re-establish my connection with the creek.  I've truly enjoyed the last five years of mountain biking, but I find that I'm missing whitewater more and more.

 



 

 

The hike takes an hour and a half to cover just over three miles.  The rain had stopped somewhere along the line, but I'm still soaking wet with sweat as I climb up the stairs back to the car.  Back in the day I used to run this trail from the take-out back to the Mill, carrying a paddle in one hand and wearing a life jacket.  Hell, I even carried my 50 pound boat the whole distance before.  Just goes to show that time goes on, despite our best efforts to ignore it.

 

It's going to be a great summer. I can't wait.

Holding my Breath

Well, I've hit a temporary road block in my writing project so I thought I'd try to get the magic word-juice flowing again by putting together a blog post update.  It was unsettling to find that I really didn't know what to write - usually words practically run out of my fingers, but this time I couldn't even think of a topic.  So what I'm doing is an unplanned, non-topical, let-it-flow type post to try to help me figure out what the hell the problem is.

Winter, such as it is in these days of a warming planet, has been particularly grueling for one who's accustomed to spending a sizable amount of time outdoors.  It's not that we've had a lot of snow, or even a little snow for a long time.  The problem is the constant freeze/thaw as the season struggles to find it's identity.

The ground took a long time to freeze this year.  Even after the first substantial snowfall the ground beneath was soft and wet.  That means no mountain biking, since the dirt was taking ruts through the snow.  And before it could freeze solid the temps climbed, the snow melted, and the mud deepened.  This has been the pattern for most of the winter.  I think I've managed to get in three or four winter mtb rides this year - which is definitely not enough.

The other side of the coin (or maybe a different facet of the same side) is that there hasn't been any real snow accumulation - once again because of the constant passing of the freeze/thaw line.  A couple of inches of snow will fall, and then the temps climb and it melts.  And then another inch or two of snow will fall, and the whole thing starts again.  So the big flush of water into the creeks that happens when eight to twelve inches of snow melts hasn't happened this season - and that means that there hasn't been enough water to bring those favorite hidden creeks up to a decent level to kayak.

To summarize: not enough cold or warm to mountain bike, and not enough snow melt to kayak.  Sucks.

We did have an interesting high water event about ten days ago.  There was a bit of snow on the ground, then the temps came up and it rained - which melted all the snow and pumped up the waterways quite a bit.  I watched the USGS water gauges climb to a potentially fun level, but didn't even consider taking a half-day off to chase water.  Why?  Because after missing out on the flu earlier in the year I'd managed to get a lovely head cold, which has now worked it's way down into a respiratory infection.  So instead of enjoying the best paddling opportunity of the winter I'm sitting around sounding like I'm breathing through a milkshake.  I've been pretty lucky lately in avoiding these respiratory issues, but this one is starting to worry me.  The first bout of antibiotics appears to have been overmatched by the petri dish of germs that is my lungs, and I'm on the verge of getting another doctor appointment to see if I can get something stronger.  The next stop is usually a stay in the hospital, and I definitely DO NOT WANT THAT.

Perhaps the reason I'm not able to write is that I'm just in a winter funk. Not able to get out and have fun (though I have been to some interesting trail work days), not feeling well, tired of the dark, not happy about turning 50, etc.  Usually my mood gets a boost at the passing of the shortest day of the year at the winter solstice, but this time it didn't seem to do the trick.  Perhaps next weekend, when daylight savings time gives me back another hour of daylight after work I'll feel better.  We'll see...

One thing I can say is that after sitting here and forcing myself to write this at least I find that the words are starting to flow a little easier.  Maybe I should just sit down with my 'writing project' and force myself to put some words down.  If it doesn't seem to be any good I can just delete it, but maybe I'll get something worth keeping.

Here's hoping things improve in the next couple of weeks.

Photos and Progress

So Blogspot/Blogger/whatever fixed their photo posting problem, which means that I can put a few of my recent pics up.  That does two things: it lets me put up a post, and it lets me do it without spending a lot of time writing.

And I don't want to spend extra time writing because I'm currently funneling my creative powers into writing a short story/long story/novelette/whatever.  Don't know how long it will be, how good it will be, or how long it will take.  But when I finish it I'll post it on this very blog for the whole world to see (all you Ukrainians ready??!?)

Fog and snow at Beaver Creek

 

Self portrait in headlight, with my son and nephew.

 

Frost & fog at Lake Milton dam.

Vertical sunrise over the interstate.

Tree on foggy shore.

Fog, snow and sun over new singletrack at Beaver Creek.  This has to be one of the best photos I've ever taken.

 

One other thing, for those of you who ride bikes and are interested in reading about adventure: check out this guys expedition across the real wilderness of northern Canada.  Quite an amazing story.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1&doc_id=8865&v=jg

Bear Rocks

There's a distinct flow to the long drive from my home in northeast Ohio to the heart of Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia. 

The trip starts on the big roads.  Being as populated as it is, you're never too far from a four lane highway where I live.  For east and west travel both I-80 and I-76 are within twenty minute drive, and I-90 is an hour north.  If you're heading north or south you can get to I-71, I-77 and I-79 within a short time.  And we have a couple of four-lane US highways that fill in the blanks between the interstates.

So when I put my backpack in the car, plugged a tape in the cassette deck and pulled out of the driveway, within 15 minutes I was on four lanes of concrete heading south at 70 miles an hour.  I've always loved that feeling of putting the miles behind when you get started on a long drive on the interstate.  You travel through the countryside so fast that you can see the terrain slowly changing.  The small towns and farms on the gentle hills of Ohio gradually gave way to the more heavily forested hills of western Pennsylvania, and once I was south of Pittsburgh those hills began to express themselves a bit more, growing taller and steeper, occasionally showing off bands of bare rock.

After about three hours I was leaving Pennsylvania on I-79 and entering West Virginia.  By now the hills were noticeably bigger, with just small flatlands lining the rivers between them.  Towns were further apart, and farms had been replaced by long stretches of unbroken forest.  Driving past Morgantown and Fairmont gave me brief glimpses of city development, but they came and went quickly - the extensive suburban belt I'm familiar with from Ohio doesn't exist here.

I finally turned off the highway onto a smaller state route.  The cluster of businesses at the interchange reached less than a mile, after that only scattered houses lined the road.  The state route was a nice two lane road, but my speed inevitably dropped because of local traffic and the constant curves and hills.  After a while I turned onto a smaller road.  The first three and a half hours brought me over 250 miles - the last hour only about 45.  This newer road was much narrower, and seemed to follow every contour of the mountainside, curving back on itself as it slowly made it's way southeast.  Small towns, some no more than a crossroads with a few houses and maybe a gas station, occasionally lined the road.  By the time I made it to the National Forest boundary dusk was upon me, and heavy clouds further darkened the sky.  I looked at the odometer and the dashboard clock - my average speed had dropped even further, to around 35 miles an hour. 

After checking the map, I turned off the narrow two lane onto a gravel road leading up the side of a broad mountain.  Slow and easy, I made my way into the growing dark as the wind picked up.  The forest road switchbacks were tight, and I slowed further as the road got rougher.  I was nearing the top when the first splashes of rain hit the windshield, first one, then another dozen, and soon the road ahead was blurred by the heavy downpour.  As the tree cover pulled back the road steepened and the occasional flash of lightning revealed scrubby pines among heavy rock cover.  I was almost there.

(Might be a good place to click on this link for a soundtrack:   Bear Rocks storm   )

I navigated the last switchback, a climbing left turn, and strained to see the edge of the small parking area that I knew was there.  As I eased the car into the lot the storm seemed to pick up in intensity, with lightning striking a couple of times each minute.  This was my destination - Bear Rocks in the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area.  I turned off the motor and listened to the sound of the rain beating on the car - not the weather I would have picked, but it wasn't anything I couldn't deal with.  That wasn't what I was thinking about though.  I was too captivated by the building storm to grab my pack and head off to find a place to camp.



Bear Rocks, with Dolly Sods in the background.  My parking space for the storm was off the road in the background, just about behind the second highest pine tree in this pic.

I sat on the shoulder of the mountain with the valley before me.  The windshield wipers provided a clear view of my surrounding with each swipe.  Lightning flashed across the valley every few seconds, seeming to be concentrated over the river below but occasionally striking close enough to make me jump.  The thunder was so close it felt like a tremor coming up out of the ground - like an echo of the artillery shells fired up here during Army training during World War II.

Trying to feel it more closely, I turned off the wipers and listened to the storm.  As the sheets of rain washed over the car and flowed down the windshield they provided a wavery version of the valley and mountains before me.  Each lightning bolt lit up the whole landscape with a blue-white intensity that lasted just a second, leaving a negative of the scene burned into my eyes as their brief illumination ended.  I could see the green slope before me that I had just driven up, the tree canopy boiling in the wind.  Below that the valley of the South Branch of the Potomac River could be seen in the distance.  Further away I could see New Creek Mountain, and the long shape of North Fork Mountain trailing away into the distance.

The black sky above me blazed up into an amazing vibrant purple centered on each lightning strike, then quickly fading, leaving my eyes dazzled by the contrast.  Outside the car window the white rocks along the edge of the plateau stood out brilliantly in the momentary flashes, forming a silent bulwark against the fury of the storm.  Gnarled pine trees, tough survivors on this exposed height, grew with their branches flagged off the downwind sides of their trunks.  The scrubby blueberry bushes that covered the rocks between the pines seemed to move like flexing muscles as the wind intensified and dropped off.  I watched, transfixed by the everyday magic around me, as the fury travelled east across the mountains.

After a while I realized that the lightning was moving off to the other side of North Fork Mountain, and that the wind wasn't gusting as hard.  The rain began to calm as well, fading to an even, solid downpour drumming the roof of the car.  When I turned the key to check the time I was astounded to see that it was approaching midnight.  I'd been sitting spellbound for nearly two hours, alone on the top of the mountain.  As the power and energy of the storm front faded to the calming susurrus of a heavy rain I began to feel tired - the aftermath from the adrenaline rush of the electrical storm combined with a long day made me want to just close my eyes and sleep in the car.  But I hadn't come all the way to Dolly Sods for that, so I started the car and backed out onto the gravel road. 

The road through Dolly Sods, near my camping spot.  Notice how the trees have most of their branches growing on the downwind side.

A short while later I was at another tiny roadside parking area, a place long familiar to me from earlier backpacking expeditions.  Rummaging around in the car I donned my rain gear and headlamp, then braced myself  as I stepped out into the steady rain and pulled my pack from the trunk.  Wrestling it onto my back, I prepared to hike back into the wilderness to find tonight's camp - but I stopped for a moment before setting off.

The glow of my headlamp seemed pitifully small, like a match glowing in the night, but the shifting circle of light showed the deep green of balsam pines all around me.  The sky was black - no more lightning to shock my eyes.  I switched off the headlamp - total darkness.  The rain came down as if I wasn't even there.

My son and I at Bear Rocks, more than ten years ago now.

Retrospect

When the calendar rolled around to 2012 I hoped that it would be a good year coming up, though the trend certainly doesn't seem to head that direction these days.  A lot of that was because the year before had not been so great, and I was desperately hoping for some sort of improvement.  Now we're one year further on down the road, so I thought I'd take a look back.

My line of work - architecture - was certainly one of the hard hit professions during this recession.  With construction taking such a huge hit the architecture market was forced into fevered competition for the remaining jobs.  The firm I work for was lucky to go into the recession with several good sized jobs, but after two years we were hurting.  Some local firms closed down for good, while others downsized to a bare-bones survival mode.  Our firm was forced to downsize as well, cutting some of the staff that wasn't as diverse their skills, while the remaining staff had their hours cut by 10 to 20 percent.  At the end of the year we're about half the size we were before the recession.  It seems that we're slowly starting to make some headway coming back, though we certainly could use a couple of big jobs to establish some real security for the near future.  My schedule has been set back to 40 hours a week, which is an huge weight off my back. So going into 2013 at least I'm not so worried about losing my job, which as you can imagine is a immense relief.

My family has been doing pretty well through the last year.  My wife had taken on more hours of work in an effort to make up for the hours I'd had cut, and was working up to 70 hours a week.  There is no way I can express my gratitude for her stepping up in such a way during this time.  She's a sweet girl, but she can be tough as nails when she has to.  That's one of the reasons I married her (our 19th anniversary was January 9).  Since I'm back to a full schedule she's been able to cut back on her hours, but being the person she is, she hasn't quit her second job - because she doesn't want to leave them hurting for employees.   My son has had a good year, though he's had a few typical 11 year old boy issues.  All in all they've come through 2012 pretty good and leave the in better shape than when they entered it.

And speaking of "in better shape", one of the major things about 2012 was the lack of a major injury for me.  I'm having some problems with my left arm from trail work, but I'm hoping that it will resolve itself soon (I go to the doctor about it next week).  In 2011 I had a double skull fracture, in 2010 I had a major knee surgery, and in 2009 I broke my leg in two places.  So just having a year when I didn't spend a lot of time in the hospital feels like a major victory.

One other notable thing happened in 2012 - the formation of Rust Belt Revival Trail Coalition, our new IMBA chapter for eastern Ohio.  I'd been considering trying to start a mountain bike club for our area for a couple of years, but when I met up with some other people that had similar ideas it finally happened.  We're still struggling to build a reputation and increase our membership, but we've got a lot of things going for us.  In the 6 months since we started we've managed to get some significant things done, but we definitely have a lot of work ahead of us to get to where we want to be.

There have been some not so great things too - some good people were lost this year.  I'm not going to dwell on that much because it's inevitable for us all.  But there were some that left that will be sorely missed, and for a long time.  And the state of the nation and the world is such that I've pretty much moved to a stance where I willfully ignore what's going on, choosing ignorance instead of a continual state of agitation over the stupidity of the decision makers. 

All in all I'm pretty grateful for the way things have turned out over the previous year.  I hope things turn out as well at the end of 2013, not only for me and my family, but for all of you out there.  Cheers.


PS.  I had some really nice photos to add to this post, but damn Blogger won't let me upload anything from my computer.  If Blogger screws me over ONE MORE TIME, I'm done fooling with them and I'll move this blog to a site that actually functions.