Picnic / Safety Training / Camping
 

TCTC Club Picnic / Safety Training / Camping

Saturday, July 22
Pymatuning State Park

Safety Training & Picnic & Club Meeting:
Pymatuning State Park (PA) – Espyville Launch
23531 S Lake Rd, Linesville, PA 16424

Building on the positive feed-back from last year, we are returning to the same location for the club’s picnic and safety session. This year, our training will focus on wilderness safety and survival, focusing on the special situations and hazards that paddlers may encounter. Our own club vice president, Mark Vallecorsa, who has worked in emergency medicine for many years, both in the field as an EMT and in the emergency room as an RN, will lead us through first aid and CPR training. This training will be informal and provided free of charge to club members. If any member desires a certification card for CPR, we are making arrangements to have testing and certification available for a fee of $25.00. Members opting for a certification card are responsible to pay the fee on the day of training. We plan to begin the training at 9am, and is to be followed by our picnic and meeting in the afternoon.

The club picnic will follow usual fashion, with the club providing hamburgers, hot dogs, and vege-burgers. Club members are asked to bring a side dish and / or dessert to share. Please bring your own beverages. There is electric service at the pavilion, and there are restrooms adjacent that have running water.

We do ask that members RSVP with their intentions for attending the safety training and / or picnic, and we need to hear from those who will be opting to obtain the CPR certification. Please RSVP ASAP, so as to help us plan accordingly.

CAMPING:
61489 W Lake Rd, Jamestown, PA 16134

We will again be camping at the Rustic Organized Group Tent Camp Site #8. This site is located at the group campground, which is part of the Jamestown campground. We can check in any time after 3pm on Thursday, July 20th and check out is Sunday July 23, by 3pm.

Please call Dustin Noel with any questions 724-301-4751.

pinky and I will be there for camping and picnic.

Shenango River Dam to Greenville Park
 

Hello,

The Noel family is looking forward to this weekend. I just picked up a load of firewood so we can have lots of time around the fire. I do plan to paddle from the campsite Saturday night as well as the dam to Greenville park on Sunday. We will work out all these details at camp but we are all pretty familiar with this paddle. Can’t wait to see you all there.

Dustin

K & c
 

Looking forward to it!
 

I plan to be there Saturday for training (assuming it's not on the water) and the picnic. Will not be camping or paddling.

JP rental boat
 

Hello JP,

As per my usual style I will have over a dozen canoes there. At anytime you want to get on the water feel free. Even if you want to come other days I will definitely have one for you to paddle.

Dustin

Thanks, Dustin. I may take you up on that. I still have not completely figured out carrying my boat on the new vehicle. I have a new rack, but I’m still working on how to get the canoe on and off without killing myself.

JP

So will there be a paddle on Sunday? What are the times and logistics? I am unable to attend the event Saturday but was interested in coming up Sunday
Troy

Shenango trip
 

I posted details on a separate post. Thanks

I will work on a list and figure out how I can post it. I'm glad folks enjoyed the presentation.

Weekend review
 

The Club Picnic was amazing. Mark Vallecorsa did an amazing job going over first aid, survival if something would go wrong and CPR training. He brought a CPR dummy and skin like roll to show how to stuff a bad wound, and several ideas to keep in our safety bags like Israeli bandage and self turnikit. Mark was very prepared and really knows his stuff.
Afterwards we had John Libonati, a Mercer County Coroner, for more detail about CPR and brought several dummies of different sizes to help teach about giving CPR to different age groups. John also was doing certifications if any of us wanted it.
Thank you to Dustin Noel for organizing the safety event.

Afterward we had our meeting and had a feast that was fit for a king; if you left hungry it was your own fault.
After the Picnic Several members went back to camp were some of us went out for a paddle on Pymatuning Reservoir & tried some of Dustin's Canoe's.

On Sunday we had 6 Paddlers(5 kayaks & 1 Canoe) make there way down the Shenango River from the Pymatuning Dam to Riverside Park in Greenville PA. We had a little trouble with the shuttle as they turned Allan street from a two way to a one way street and that through me for a curve ball and had to find a new way to the park.
Once on the water Ken, Cheryl, Jodi, Mark, Jess and myself enjoyed a nice a and peaceful 9 mile paddle. We got to hear about Mark & Jodi flood stage rescue on this section roughly 9 years ago. This was the first time Jodi has paddle this section since the rescue .
USGS at Pymatuning Gauge was 4.79 which was low with some bumping and scraping in spots. It was a great day to be on the water.
Mike

A fun weekend...
 

Cheryl and I had a fun weekend. We got to the lake Friday afternoon hoping to paddle the north part of the lake from the Wilson launch. Unfortunately it was too windy to comfortably paddle. We headed for the camp to find Stan, Steve and Linda already set up. They were there during the storm on Thursday afternoon. Eventually more campers showed up.

The Saturday morning safety training was good. Mark did a really great job with his presentation. I expected to just observe the CPR training part but as it turned out we all participated. This was good to do although I can't say I feel "qualified" to do this procedure. But in a pinch, at least I have a good idea of what to do.

As usual, there was waaay too much food at the picnic.

We paddled a couple of times from camp Saturday evening. The lake was a bit choppy but settled down later on. There was a good crowd at camp Saturday. Thanks to Dustin for arranging this. It was good to have some time chat with other members.

The paddle on the Shenango Sunday was nice. Lots of shade and a pretty good current for a low water level. This is a very curvy section of river. K & C have done this section nine times that I can recall. We are always amazed at some of the strange currents that will grab the stern of your boat and just turn you around. You have to do a good bit of paddling even with approx. 1.5 mph current. At the end of the 9.2 mi paddle it's good to see the park at Greenville.

---KenM

Carnage!
 

Mike and Ken forgot to mention that there was carnage on the Shenango . . . Much of the stream was twisting and turning with deadfalls littering the path, however there is some obvious maintenance that is done to maintain a channel. We never had to portage, however one particular narrow bend in the river was shallow to the inside and had a bit more forceful current and depth to the outside of the bend. There was a tree stump at the apex of the outer aspect of the bend. One had to fight the current coming out of the bend to make a quick adjustment so as to not be pushed into the stump, nor the deadfall forming a strainer coming out of the bend. Well . . . trying to avoid the inside of the bend, so as to not run aground, I let myself get pushed against the stump on the outside of the bend, and was unable to paddle, being up against the stump and the bank of the river. As I tried to move my paddle and push away from the stump, I quickly found myself tea cups over tea kettle in the water. I held onto my paddle, for better or for worse, and thanks to my PFD I promptly resurfaced. Mike and Ken had turned around and paddled back up to assist me, and the ladies were downstream collecting the belongings that fell out of my boat. My hand was throbbing in pain, and I'm still not exactly sure why; if trying to hold the paddle bent my thumb backwards or if I struck it against something . . . At the end of the trip I took my glove off to find that something had punctured my glove and I had a gash about my thumb. It's been three days, and I'm healing but still sore. Now that darn upper Shenango has gotten me twice. Any who . . . thanks to Mike and Ken for the assist, and to Cheryl, Jess, and Jodi for gathering my stuff. Jess got a post carnage pic that I will try to share soon. Dagnabbit! The Shenango got me again! And as they say, we are all in between swims.