Monday, July 31, 2006

Rivanna hippos

Sunday, July 30. I decided to paddle on the reservoir today. The reservoir is a huge lake created by a dam so that the county and city can have something to drink. I love the reservoir because there are no motor boats. Fishing boats with electric trolling motors are allowed, but no internal combustion engines. That means no jet ski's, no dumbasses towing skiers or tubes and that guy that likes to speed up and down the lake at full throttle is nowhere in sight (or to be heard). Sometimes a paddler likes to drop the skeg and paddle. The Rivanna Reservoir is an open-water-loving paddler's dream come true. This is "my upper body hurts" paddling. There is a crew club based on the reservoir, taking advantage of the long, uninterrupted straight stretch of paddling delight. For reasons I can't understand, the crew people are allowed to have outboard engines on the reservoir. Does anybody know why?

The bad thing about this trip: I forgot my camera. No pictures. Remember what I said about turtles being camera shy, here? Not at the reservoir. I had about 67,145 chances to take an award winning photo of a turtle. Horrible luck. A little, tiny baby even surfaced and let me paddle close enough to catch him. I didn't catch him, but being so close started me thinking about Charles Darwins account of the tameness of animals on the Galapagos and other islands he visited. He wrote about birds landing on their hats and one even landed on a canteen as a fella was drinking from it. The animals weren't even startled by a gunshot. Darwin referred to them as stupid, in reality, the animals had never seen humans and the islands lacked predators. Therefore, the animals had no predator, prey instincts and allowed themselves to be knocked out of the air with a hat or hit with the butt of a rifle to be killed. A lot of animals were killed in the name of science until fairly recently. Some countries still practice this sort of "research". (Japan is doing it as you read this to the Right whale, they are probably going to "research" the Right whale into extinction.)

Back to kayaking. I put in at the boat ramp on rt 659 and took off to the left-away from the bridge. A fisherman noted to me how high the water level was as I was preparing my kayak for departure. The water was up, way up. I got really excited knowing I was going to be able to paddle into areas I have never been able to before. This turned into a little exploring expedition for me. The pond area was chopped up by a stiff breeze. The sailor in me was chomping at the bit wishing for a sailboat. After paddling around a couple of bends, I entered territory that was reserved for kayaks only. No other boat could make it back there. With only inches of water between my keel and the muddy bottom, I paddled for hours deep into the woods and further from the fishing boats.

At one point, a wide creek fed into the river. Being a curious paddler, I had to see where it went. I was able to paddle up the creek for about thirty minutes before reaching an area that I would have to walk. I came to paddle, not hike, so I turned around and made my way back to the river. The water in there was amazing. There were very convenient kayak shaped channels that ran the whole way, allowing me to navigate the area like a ship in a channel. It took both of my navigation skills to keep enough water under me to keep from grounding. I love this kind of stuff.

In the creek I saw a duck with three or four babies. They jumped out of the bank behind me after I passed; I never would have seen them if they would have stayed put. And I wish they had stayed. The babies frantically flapped their useless wings and tried to run across the water. Momma just quacked and bravely stayed between me and them, following them out of harms way obviously terrified herself. I felt so bad. They were so scared, even though I hadn't done anything on purpose, it just goes to show even our presence in the wild is enough to disrupt the harmony of things. I also saw a large water snake and a dead turtle. I didn't recognize the turtle carcass at first, so I moved in closer for a better look. It was floating upside down and had apparently been in the water for some time. Looking at the thing through watery eyes and between gags, I finally recognized it as a turtle. I have a weak stomach.

Back in the river I saw a fawn on the banks. It was alone, but still had spots on its sides. We watched each other for a while before she figured it was time to get the hell out of there. I guess a log that paddles itself upstream is pretty scary. Later on in an area I would call a swamp, I came across a large whitetail doe standing in the murky water. She was up to her knees in the green encrusted water looking at me with her left side broad to me. Another awesome photo moment that I totally wasted by NOT BRINGING MY CAMERA.

I headed back to the boat ramp and rested for a while. A lady came down the ramp with a large touring kayak on top of her car. When she asked me for help getting it down, I gladly obliged. I won't tell you about allowing her to fall nearly to her death while carrying the heavy boat. Seriously, I didn't see the hole. I would have warned her! That was some scary shit, carrying a boat then seeing the person on the other side disappear. The boat hung in the air for a second like a cartoon before crashing into the pavement, just missing her head. If you ever read this, ma'am, I know I said it a thousand times yesterday, but I really am sorry! I didn't see the hole.

After I was assured she was OK, I headed back out on the water, this time under the bridge and up towards the crew club. It was in this area I saw my second most favorite thing to see on the water, other paddlers! One guy was paddling a beautiful wooden kayak that he probably built himself. Even his paddle was wood. I really wanted to check it out, but he was smoking in the opposite direction of me and I don't approach strangers very well. I am cool with people approaching me and I will talk to a stranger all day if they will let me. Usually they walk away after a little bit though. But, for some reason, I am always a little leery about approaching people myself. Especially on the water. The way I see, dude is kayaking alone, he probably wants to be left alone. I kayak alone because nobody will kayak with me. I'm very sad. Will you be my friend?

This area of the reservoir is probably perfect for sailing a small boat like a laser or sunfish. I don't know much about the contour of the bottom, but it seems to be pretty sandy, so hitting the ground here wouldn't be too much of an ordeal. I paddled a long way up the res, stopping in marshy places to look for snakes. I don't look to hard for snakes, because they really freak me out. But it is exciting to see them swim. I paddled into an area that must have been a nice hangout for the Rivanna Hippo. You may know them better as cows. I grew up with cows and couldn't resist a little conversation with them. It went like this: "Hi cows!" That's pretty much it. They chewed their cud and looked at me with about as much curiosity as a cow can muster.

The wind was blowing at my back on the way back, making it pretty easy to drift, keeping me from having to paddle too much. The bad thing about following seas, though, is that I feel like I'm not moving even though I was going faster on the way back then previously on the way out. I stayed close to the shore line to assure myself I was moving.

This day of paddling completely made up for the depressing paddle from the day before. I picked up a Big Lots shopping bag from the water and an old soda can. Other than that, I didn't see much garbage. I really love paddling the reservoir. Wish I could sail on it.

Fair winds and following seas.

Shadwell and Back

I had a great weekend of kayaking. I was on the water so much the last three days, I haven't had time to post anything. So I'm doing a weekend's worth of posts in one day. This is from Saturday, July 29. I went to the Woolen Mills dam to take a few pictures and met two other people who were putting in with intentions to paddle to Shadwell. My yak was strapped on top of JeepYak as usual, so I decided to tag along.

This was the first time I had ventured downstream of the dam. Let me tell you, if you have never been on this trip, you should. The Rivanna is a totally different river on that end of the dam. There is more of everything down there. More rocks, more birds, more fish. When I crossed under I-64, there was noticeably less trash. The only river booty I came back with was some fishing line I cut from a tree limb. Don't underestimate the destructive force of those who want to see our river turned into a landfill, though. I did run into large items that won't fit in my kayak. Things like tires, ice chest's, and a large metal box held against some rocks by the current dotted the river bottom the whole way down.

The two people that turned into my inspiration for this trip headed out a few minutes before me. I caught up to them at one point while they were resting in the eddy of some rocks. They told me to continue on in front of them because there was a couple of blue herons and a green ahead of us. The birds were flying further downstream every time the paddlers caught up to them, and the nice people wanted to make sure I had a chance to see them. Paddler's are so thoughtful, most of the time. Thanks! The birds were beautiful, even though I didn't get any pictures of them.

Crossing under I-64 into the unknown. I have never been downstream of I-64, so it really is the unknown. The bridge here is kinda like an entry way into the less spoiled and untamed portion of the Rivanna. Crossing under it, I was a little worried some piece of trash from the road high above me would crash into my head. I'm always a little nervous going under bridges because people love to chunk things out of their windows while crossing a bridge. I don't like the idea of being some weird headline about a kayaker getting beamed in the head by a bottle under a bridge.



See what I mean by more rocks? This area was a lot of fun to wriggle through. Down stream from this area was a large, relatively deep pool in which I encountered a fish I have never seen above the dam...Gar. I was able to get a picture of one, but it looks like a dark colored dart in the water, so I'm not going to bother posting it. The further downstream I went, the more gar I saw. Sometimes I would see one facing upstream but not moving. The large fish was just idling in the stream looking pretty freakin cool. If I looked as cool as a gar in the water, I'd have chicks all over the place.

I stopped just short of reaching the bridge in Shadwell. A large group of geese were being disturbed by my thrashing about in the water (I prefer to call it paddling) and knowing I was turning around anyway, I decided to let them rest and began my trip back upstream. A number of places warranted a refreshing walk in the warm water since I don't paddle up whitewater very well. I stepped in a few holes that left me submerged to the bottom of my PFD. My cell phone was in a pocket on my vest, so in the best interest of keeping it dry I placed it in the watertight (riiiight) enclosure at the back of my boat along with my camera and keys. I thought I was doing the right thing, even though I never got more than my waist wet.

On the trip back upriver, I once again crossed paths with the two kayakers that let me pass earlier to see the birds. They were enjoying ice cold and refreshing water (something I didn't have since I wasn't planning on going out) on the bank. I paddled close to the edge and confirmed with them it was, in deed, gar I was seeing and we talked a little about the birds and the conditions of the river further downstream (where I had already been). I said goodbye to them then paddled to the next shallow and fast area where I got out and walked. Thank God for amphibious shoes!

Toting my boat behind me over the rocks I reflected on the reason I love plastic boats so much. It was cheap and extremely durable. Since most of my trips are out and back, I do a fair amount of walking and dragging my kayak over sharp rocks. The only downside of a plastic boat is at the end of a full day of paddling, I have to lug it on top of JeepYak. Not very easy with confetti arms.

Crossing under I-64 was actually a happy moment for me since I was so thirsty and my arms felt like spaghetti. But curiosity caught the better of me, as it usually does, and I took a short trip to the left (river right) just before entering the pool at the base of the dam. This little area was full of very cold water and enough trash to keep Oscar the Grouch happy. As I paddled up this little creek I realized it was runoff from the city. After seeing all the trash behind me throughout the day, I became rather depressed and sad. That is the first time I have ever left the water feeling worse than when I went in.

I got out of the water and hauled my boat across the rocks up the steep hill at the end of Market Street. When I finally arrived at the top I opened the watertight hatch to find a pool of water in the so called watertight compartment. At the bottom of that pool was my cell phone. The camera was fine, but my cell phone was toasted. What a way to end a shit filled day on the river. Oh well. You know what they say, "A bad day on the river, beats a good day licking your own ass."

Fair winds and following seas.

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Another Rainy Day

I had to work Wednesday and Thursday so I wasn't able to get in the water on those days. While I was at work Thursday night thinking about getting in the water early Friday morning, my boss came to me and said I would be working late. 16 hours I ended up working. Overnight. When I finally got home I was exhausted and afraid I wouldn't make it to the river. I tried to sleep but it wasn't working out very well. So I did the only thing I know to do when I'm so tired I can't think straight...I went kayaking. And boy am I glad I did. Rain pushed me out of the water, but before that, I got a few pretty good pictures of our scenic river. I didn't see much as far as animals go, but I was able to get some more New Castle 40s out of the water.


Close Call

I really feel bad for whoever cleans this guys underwear. This is a port-a-potty in the parking lot at the park. I had to poo really bad, but at the sight of this, my butt shut so tightly I burped. No need to poo anymore, let's go kayaking. By the way, to who ever did this, thanks for not wasting any TP cleaning it up. (Note: Notice the near full roll of shit tickets on the toilet.)



A Nice Scenic View
In this photo you can see The Woolen Mills dam to the left of the water tower. The dam was used to provide power for the Woolen Mills, a multi-industrial facility that cut wood, ground flour and most notably, made fabric for Confederate soldiers uniforms. There are plans to breach the dam. More on that later. The water tower is in the area of the mill, not sure if it is part of the mill or not, but probably is. That bare spot on the hill directly above the river is Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson(Charlottesville is in love with this guy. If a city could masturbate, Jefferson is who C-ville would think of and don't even think about calling him TJ).



An excellent tree to jump from

Many area residents have discovered this tree in Riverview Park. It is the best platform for jumping I have seen on the river. Be careful though, this is a river and river bottoms are always changing. I recommend getting in the water and checking it for obstacles before jumping!






The river as a playground
This is between Riverview Park and Free Bridge (Rt250 at Pantops). A nice little beach lines both banks in this area just downstream from a lazy bend and upstream from faster moving shallow water that qualifies as whitewater on really good days. There is a trash can on this beach, but some people are just too lazy to put their stuff in it. An unfortunate aspect of this perfect beach is the large amounts of litter (mostly beer paraphernalia) despite the extremely convenient location of the trash can. The water is in good shape and few people cross the river to the even better beach on the opposite bank. There you will find litter free sand and lots of room to spread out on. No trash can on the left bank though. To get to this area, start in Riverview Park and trek along the trail from the back of the parking lot(as opposed to the trail that follows the river through the playground, both will get you there, but the back way is faster). Go to the left at the junction where the two trails from the park meet. Another 1/4 to no more than 1/2 a mile the beach will be on your right. If you get to a foot bridge crossing a riffle, you have gone too far.


Strange Bubbles
I noticed these bubbles forming in the wake from my kayak and paddle. They were very strange and I have to admit that I immediately thought, "Oh my God! Foam!" A mysterious foam has been plaguing the James River lately. With that on most people's minds in this area, including mine, I got freaked out when I saw this. It was just silt and pollen on the surface though. I don't think we have any foam epidemics in our beloved Rivannna.



Really scary bubbles
These bubbles freaked me out. Even after closer examination, I was still a little freaked by this. My camera isn't very good on detail, but the white stuff is bubbles caught by the vegetation. The water here was not moving so it was fairly easy for me to get close and take some pictures without disturbing it. You can't see it in the photo, but there are tiny black "pills" stuck in the viscous type sheen that the bubbles are stuck to. The "pills" are in the water and appear to be eggs. Being no biologist, I have no idea what it is. I hope it's not some kind of shit.



River Filter
In my last post I briefly mentioned fallen trees acting as fish habitats and filters for the river. Both are good, and even the stuff that is filtered can be beneficial to the fish. Click on the above picture and you can see how sediment and sticks have been trapped by this tree. Some of the stuff in sediment is very tasty to a fish. Then comes a human. Dopey, dumb humans. If you look closely after clicking on the picture to view it larger, you will see trash that has been filtered by this little habitat. This poses a great threat to all marine animals. Remember hearing how sea turtles get caught in those plastic things that hold soda bottles together? This is how it happens. There are several soda bottles in this tree along with little bits of trash that can be mistaken as food by a fish or turtle. Would you eat plastic or foil wrappers from a candybar? No, because it can't be good for you, right? It's not good for little animals, either. This stuff gets caught in their digestive system or hangs around a body part. Depending on how stuck they are in your garbage, an animal may not be able to swim properly and drown or open its mouth to eat. An unfortunate thing I have noticed in the Rivanna is large quantities of trash.


A body for Rush
I once heard Rush Limbaugh tell a caller from Virginia that if factories and pollution in rivers are killing fish, where are the bodies? Here's a body for you Rushy. I don't have any idea how this fish died, but isn't it strange a dead animal is not being eaten by anything? Rush went on to say that fish aren't being killed by pollution from things like mercury because nobody had ever seen hordes of dead fish lining the banks of the river. The only evidence scientists had was the lack of fish in an area around a factory. In Rush's words, the fish realized something was wrong with the water and moved upstream, they didn't die. This is what he said to a lady from Virginia who was unsure as to believe scientists on the issue of pollution or not. She bought it. You idiot. He also said man cannot destroy what God has created. One of his metaphor's to this analogy was that we as humans, cannot move mountains. I guess Rush Limbaugh has never been to West Virginia.


Auhhgggg!! More Rain!
I wasn't going to outrun it, so before hiding the camera under my PFD, I snapped this photo of the rain running at me from up river. I had a good day on the river. I was tired, but I got to think a lot and I had the chance to see a few things nobody else saw. Depending on the weather today, I am hoping to go to a new spot and do some exploring. I promise the next post will be more fun and not so crabby.


Until next time,


Fair winds and following seas.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Not Much to Post


<--There's a little woodchuck up there somewhere.









This isn't a very good picture, but that is a tree
that has fallen in the water after the bank
eroded from under it. I saw a number of these
yesterday, for some reason. The fallen trees
serve as excellent habitats for fish. They also
act as natural filters, catching piles of garbage
as it floats down stream.

Jeep Yak
I have found no other vehicle that can carry a stack of kayaks as well as a Jeep. Jeep Yak has taken me into some extremely remote places that I never would have been able to see without it. I love my Heep. P.S. If it pisses you off that I'm a Jeep driving 'tree hugger', leave me a message.

Fair winds and following seas.

From Patagonia.com










This is an email I just received from Patagonia.








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Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Rainy Day

I'm back from the river a little earlier than expected. About two hours after I splashed into the water, the sky threatened to open up and unleash it's relentless furry upon my head. Although my grandmother swears shit doesn't melt in the rain and I would be fine, my camera doesn't like water. So in my defense, I decided to turn in early and spare my electronics.

I had to wait a few minutes to get into the water because some state biologists were SCUBA diving in the area. Talking to a friendly lady on the bank who described herself as a "Biologist Assistant" when I asked her profession, she told me they were looking for rare freshwater clams. My blog being so new, I didn't ask for an interview or even to take some pictures, so that is all I know.

Lucky devils, those guys. I still haven't decided what I want to be when I grow up but at the moment I have decided on Marine Ecology. Evidenced by this blog, I love the water and would love to get paid to do pretty much what I am doing now. Playing in the water.

Every time I go kayaking on the Rivanna, I come back with a boatload of trash. Enjoy your 40s people, but don't toss them in the river! For June, the trash theme was PBR 40 ounce bottles. It seems Old English is the choice for July. Still 40s. Why is it always bad beer? Maybe that's why they are in the river...Still, that is no excuse. No matter how bad the beer tastes, don't pitch it in the river. There are trash cans placed conveniently all along the river. It dumbfounds me that people can't hold on to their empties until they stumble across one of these. Seems these guys are following the logic of my Company Commander in bootcamp. "What do you do when you finish a 40? Get another 40!"

The fish are growing and I saw several big uns swimming around. Fish are very camera shy, so unfortunately I didn't get their pictures today. Nothing compares to the photophobia of turtles, though. Bigfoot is easier to get a picture of than any turtle. Even the smallest babies that shouldn't know yet not to have their photo taken dive to the depths just before I snap the picture, leaving me with a shot of an empty log or bare rock. At least they let me get the camera to my eye. Adults are gone before I can get into range and start thinking of picking up the camera. I have theorized they have some sort of telepathetic powers that I refer to as Turtlepathy. They have electromagnetic sensory nerves in their noses that enable them to hone in on the camera. Sneaky, very sneaky indeed.

Sometimes I get so consumed with looking under the water that I forget there is a whole different world to pay attention to above the water line. As I was paddling under a low tree branch to pick up a soda bottle from the shore line a young red-shouldered hawk startled me as it launched from the branch just over my head and dropped a small clam it was eating. The bird landed on another branch further up the bank before taking off and fleeing deeper into the woods and out of sight. None of the frantic pictures I snapped turned out. I've got to get a better camera!

That's really all I can say about today's trip. The water level was low, but not too bad and extremely calm in most parts. Visibility was incredible, allowing me to see the bottom in places I have never been able to before. Must have been good diving for those biologists.

I took some pictures today, but for some reason I can't open the link to post them. Hopefully that will get fixed soon and I will be able to show you what I'm talking about. Maybe it won't be so confusing then.

Fair winds and following seas.

River Right

This is a two-fer blog. The first part, and main theme of the blog, is me and my kayak on the Rivanna River. Being that the Rivanna is not the only river in the world, I hope to visit others and write about them, as well. But I live just a few short blocks from the Rivanna. With easy access being a virtue, I will mainly be writing about the Rivanna.
The second part is to keep my family and friends updated on what I am doing. According to Mapquest it is 1269.55 miles from my house to my parents house. For reasons unknown to me, they seem to miss me and I hope this blog will sufficiently replace phone calls. (That's a joke, Mom)
With the intro out of the way, I'm logging off and going to the river. More on that later, hopefully with pictures.

Fair winds and following seas.