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Old 01-02-2019, 02:45 PM   #4
KenM
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Default Ken and Cheryl 2018

Ken and Cheryl - Paddle Review 2018

As has also been my habit, I finished up my log of paddling trips for the year. I almost always run a GPS on paddles... or hikes. I save these tracks and re-name the files with data like date, place, distance, water level. Essentially this becomes my digital diary of outings.

For 2018 one thing was clear... Cheryl and I didn't paddle as many miles as in previous years. We got out a good bit, but just didn't accumulate the miles. I was 60-80 miles lower on mileage than the last few years. For us though, MILES paddled does not equate to TIME on the water. It's not uncommon for us to be out 3-4 hours and only paddle 2-4 miles. We goof off a lot watching birds and critters.

For sure, the long cool spring was a factor that kept us off the water. And if we did get a warmer day it was too windy to paddle. We also noticed that on many summer days, when we might have paddled in mornings when it was cooler, it has been just too breezy to be fun. Groan. I hope this isn't the new "normal".

My statisitcs for 2018: I paddled 30 times this year. 19 of those were different places (or different sections). Total was 164 miles. 39 miles were in a canoe. I did 9 trips with TCT which totaled 64 miles.

Highlights:

_A new overnight trip on the Allegheny, 23 miles from Kinzu Dam.

_Little Beaver Creek from Grimms Bridge, ODNR paddle. We had to use their canoes and watched as they loaded and unloaded boats and steadied canoe for us to get onboard. Not used to a "catered" paddle.

_Kokosing River! Finally! After years of trying to hit a good water level. Another ODNR trip. We got lucky and had a bit of rain a couple of days earlier. Water still low but doable.

_Big Darby (mid August). 10.8 mi with low water. Flexed the keel once too many times on the rocks and got a small crack with leak (my only low point). Nice paddle though.

_Mad River (mid August). 9.7 mi. Amazing clear water running nicely. Mostly spring fed, the water was 58 deg! We could see trout in 2-3 feet of water. The surprise was the low head dam (and the surprise portage) that the livery didn't tell us about. We managed OK.

_A memorable outing on the Cuyahoga River with train ride and the extra long portage. Gives us something to talk about! A good trip. Would do this again...but maybe with our own shuttle.

_Cheryl and I got to try out our Scavenger Paddle on TCT. Found out I needed better tie-breaker questions.

_Mahoning River Nov 4, Newton to Swift with Mike and Stan. A crisp fall day with lots of leaf color. The last paddle of the year for me.

Of special note for Cheryl and I was that the trips on Little Beaver, Kokosing, Big Darby and the Mad Rivers all counted toward our Ohio ODNR Paddle Pins. These rivers gave us our 4 paddle points for the 2018 season. This will make a total of 20 different locations paddled over 5 years. This now ends the ODNR Paddle Pin Program for us. But... there's still places on the list we will try to paddle and some we will re-visit.

-Ken
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