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Old 01-30-2018, 11:18 PM   #4
KenM
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Default 2017 Paddling Highlights (Ken and Cheryl)

2017 Paddling Highlights (Ken and Cheryl)

In early May we finally got to paddle the Upper Cuyahoga while it was flooded. Been trying to catch that for years but never wanted to try it while there was still ice. Went from Eldon Russel up to SR 87 for a 7 mile trip.

I have been wanting to paddle the Little Beaver for 25+ years. Never had an opportunity until this May with TCT. I was aware of the couple of good rapids and expected to take on a lot of water with our extra large cockpit Hurricanes. I did some measuring and made up a 4 mil plastic "spray skirt" for my boat. I heavily taped up the body tube that came up almost to my armpits. It tucked in under the rim with a bungee cord so it would come off if needed to. While it wasn't sealed around my body it was high enough to deflect a wave to the chest. I finally got a chance to test it in some good size rapids. Right at the beginning a wave came over the bow and hit me in the belly. I did not get wet! There was however a pool of water caught in the skirt right over my lap. Still needing to keep my paddle in the water before I got to the end of the rapid and could empty it, I could feel water. The tape had a leak! Even though my wonderful skirt worked very well, by the time I got through the waves the leak had emptied a couple of quarts right into my lap. I was wet anyway!

K & C got in two new (to us) sections of the Mahoning... Canoe City to Packard Park and the really nice fall paddle from Lowellville to Covert Road.

We were able to get in four more Paddle Ohio locations and received our fourth Paddle Ohio Pin...the "16 Rivers" pin. The rivers we wanted to paddle were too low by mid summer so we paddled three lakes from the ODNR list... Harrison Lake, Belmont Lake and Dow Lake at Strouds Run SP near Athens. Dow Lake on Oct 3 was especially nice on a quiet and crisp fall day. It was our 25th wedding aniversary.

In early August our "big" river trip was on the Maumee River. By then even the Maumee was too low to float. We had heard there was a large pool between rapids above and below Missionary Island. It's a large island. We logged in 5.4 miles by the time we made our way around it.

Reviewing my yearly list, I counted 8 trips (including Riverfest) with TCT in 2017. Cheryl got in 6 trips. The trips covered 64 miles. 24 of that was in a canoe.

It didn't seem like K & C got out to paddle as much in 2017 but in review I see we were on the water 23 times. I logged in 130 miles of paddling this past year which is a bit lower than the last couple seasons.

Ken and Cheryl
Paddle Pin_2 2017.jpg

Last edited by KenM; 01-31-2018 at 08:37 AM.
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