Eddy Lines by John LaneEddy Lines by John Lane
It's not time to plant
pumpkins yet but it would be a good time to get out and do some paddle plants. Now that Aprils showers are over, the
footrace to see what water's where begins. There should be a short breather before summer but that's just what the
weather person says...
Seven of our boating leaders will be taking the ODNR River Rescue for Paddlers course over Mother's Day weekend and getting basic ACA swift water rescue certification. Kim Sacksteder is holding an American Red Cross standard first aid and adult CPR class on May 7 & 8 from 6-10 pm. Contact her at kimandeli (AT) yahoo.com to register. Tuition for our volunteer leaders for both these classes is being wholly subsidized by COP board-approved leader training funds.
COP boating is the proud owner of a Magneta modular kayak trailer. Rick Weeks donated it because his garage was filled to overflowing. It also didn't hurt that he and wife Lorin had gotten instructional help with their touring kayaks at our Alum Creek summer evening sessions. Thanks Rick!
The City of Columbus Waterways Advisory Committee has finished up most of its business. This ad hoc committee is formed occasionally to study changes in state laws and the use of Columbus waterways. Once recommended changes have been cleared by the city attorney and city council, I will provide relevant information for paddlers.
Volunteer Spotlight
Rick Allison
Rick and family have been COP members for 2 1/2 years. They joined when Rick bought a Swifty 3.1
at Galyan's and made off with the store copy of the COP newsletter. Galyan's loss was our gain. Well, he did go back
and buy 3 more kayaks from them so Sara, 13, and Samantha, 5, and wife Julie would have a perch to paddle from too.
Those kayaks and a canoe round out the family flotilla.
Rick works in residential realty and computer operations for the Huntington. Sometimes he puts in 80 hour weeks! He "really looks forward to Wednesday night paddle trips". Unfortunately he's tied to two Wednesday evening meetings a month as a Northland Area commissioner and is hoping not to be renominated or reelected!
Rick and family can sometimes be seen on early Sunday morning paddles at Hoover. Sarah and Julie paddle solo while Rick and Samantha propel the tandem Sanibel. Samantha has created a new doll phenomenon, "Water Ski Barbie". She drags her Barbies in the water and says, "Look, Barbie is water skiing" and then, "Faster, Daddy, faster!"
Rick is leading four Wednesday night paddle trips this season and would like to see COP do more canoe and kayak camping overnights in the state. He went on the COP southern flatwater trip to Florida in March and will be able to apply much of what he learned in future outings. They had 7 1/2" of rain in two days during the first part of the trip. It was the first time he had paddled in such wet weather and said everyone was doing routine bilge pumping every 10-15 minutes. The knowledge he would pass along is: The $30 tent will not keep you dry no matter how much seam sealer and Camp Dry you've put on. Headlamps are a necessity because one's jaw isn't strong enough to hold a flashlight for all the after-dark camp making that seems so prevalent on some COP boating trips. Make sure when you buy a mess kit a year before a planned trip, make sure there is a cup in it. Lastly, "Thank goodness for Wal-Mart".
Now you know a little about Rick and his family. Look for Barbie skiing off the bow!
My wettest TOSRV by Keith Finn
TOSRV Sunday was really wet - I was up to my armpits in rushing water, holding on to a tree branch and trying not to get flushed downstream. Thank God I wasn't riding a bike that day.
HAHA! You thought I managed
to ride my bike into a creek, didn"t you. And only an idiot could accomplish that! Well, you are wrong. I was in Rocky
Fork Creek on purpose!
We were holding a Kayaking class on Rocky Fork Creek (20 miles west of Chillicothe) the following weekend, so 3 idiots (dedicated service oriented volunteers) decided to clear out the fallen trees so as to spare our students the trauma of drowning while trapped under a tree. Dave Seslar, Mike Stocarrdo and Keith Finn bravely set forth into a gusty torrential rain to drive down to the Rocky Fork. We went thru Chillicothe and saw some early riders, and comments were of the "drowned rat" and "utterly wretched wretches" variety as we saw the TOSRV riders. Prophetic words indeed.
Armed solely with clippers and a bow saw, armored in the peculiar attitude of (male) boaters (after all, it wasn"t like there was ICE in the creek), we put in at the Browning Road bridge. The creek was "runnable", but not high. We spent a dreary 2 hours cutting smaller branches in knee-deep water, clipping thorny vines and otherwise tidying up the place. All the while the rain poured down, pretty much without notice by our 3 heros.
We got the gorge portion of Rocky
Fork at about 1:00 pm. Now we had an idea of just how much rain was falling. Water was literally shooting out of the
cracks of the high stone walls of the gorge. The creek has risen over 2 feet in this area. The kicker here is that the
gorge is where we really needed to clear out some trees.
Mike and Dave were not heavy enough to stand on the bottom and cut limbs - anything over knee deep water would flush them downstream. Largeness is something I have plenty of, so I was often chest deep in the gorge, sawing branches while trying to attain hydrodynamic stability. You can simulate this at home. Turn the thermostat down to 50 degrees, and your tap water needs to be 45-50 degrees. Now squat down in your toilet and let it flush on you for several hours, remembering to fall down every 20 minutes or so. Oh yeah, while all this going on, saw on some moving object.
Important safety tip! - I found a patch of quicksand in the gorge. If you are going to fall into quicksand, have some good friends around to haul you out.
We finally staggered (can boats stagger?) out of the gorge at around 5 pm. This is a long time to be immersed in cold, moving water. We were pruney, smelly, chilled, and exhausted. By the time we ran shuttle, got changed (warm clothes!!!) and loaded boats, it was around 7 pm when we approched Columbus. As we passed some of the last TOSRV stragglers, we thought "drowned rat" and "poor wretches".
