Columbia Kayaker

Foot Braces Installed

2009-09-17T17:30:00.002-04:00

I spent quite a bit of thought trying to determine what to do for foot braces for Paige's kayak. The usual suspects were:

Build an extra cross section for her to rest her feet against
Because she's growing like a weed, putting an extra cross section that is properly fitted now would render the kayak useless next season.
Pad out the cross section with pieces of minicell foam
Because she's still quite small for the kayak, I would have to buy a LOT of minicell foam.
Make foot braces out of wood + stuff
Because my building abilities aren't very good nor precise, I really wasn't up to the task of building my own foot braces.
Buy + install commercial foot braces
Through a process of deduction, this is my winner.

Once the solution was identified, the next obvious question is what to buy? And where will I buy it from?

The 2 commercial foot braces that come to mind are Sea Dog foot braces and Keepers foot braces. I've read nothing but wonderful things about the Sea Dog foot braces, but the average price was about $60 plus shipping. I've read a few poor reviews of the Keepers foot braces – mostly that they're flimsy; but, I found them for $25 and, as a bonus - locally. I'm not overly concerned about them being flimsy because the kayak is for a kid and she shouldn't be stressing the foot braces even if she does (one day, far away) learn to roll.

I did some quick research on how others have installed foot braces and found that the common solution was to install blocks between the stringers for the 2 mounting points on the foot brace tracks. That was my idea, as well and I decided that's what I was going to attempt to do.

First, I wanted to install the foot braces as far forward as possible – giving us the most flexibility for how long Paige can continue to "grow into" this kayak. I set the kayak on the ground and had her sit in it properly. I put the foot brace in the most forward position. I brought the foot brace only as far back as required (ok, plus a little for her to be able to change her leg/foot position a bit). I marked the position on the gunwales at all 4 positions (fore and aft on both sides).

I then measured the distance between the stringers and grabbed pieces of scrap wood. I had to use pieces of pine because the pieces of WRC weren't large enough to work. Some quick 15-minute epoxy and were in business.

I also decided to follow a trick that I'd read about. I installed the foot braces at an incline. I figure that as she gets taller, her feet will get bigger. As her feet get bigger, the balls of her feet will get higher. This is another of my ideas that only time will tell.

The actual installation is a quick screw through mounting holes on the foot braces into the supports for a quick evening in the shop. Here's the final product:

Sea Flea Flotation Bags

2009-09-17T17:03:00.001-04:00

Man-o-day, where does the time go? I haven't posted about Paige's kayak since May 15. While I haven't posted, I have continued to work on it. The last post mentioned that I finished the final epoxy-work on the kayak. The next step was to build flotation bags for Paige's kayak.

Since I had made flotation bags before, I was pretty sure of the process:

Acquire & cut PVC connectors
Measure the kayak's circumference at the bow and stern
Transfer that to clear plastic vinyl
Cut
Glue connector in place (for inflation hose)
Tape off 1" on sides & 1.5" at ends
Glue both pieces together
Glue hose & mouthpiece

Viola! You're done!

Between the time I had cut the bags and got around to gluing them, Paige had decorated them with a Sharpie and I wrote a message to her.

The cutting the connectors proved to be my first challenge. Previously, with my father-in-law's assistance, we cut them using his hack saw in a vise and then cleaned them up with his disc sander. I should have done all of the steps while I was at his house, but I didn't have the connectors so I just borrowed the hacksaw. I don't own a vise (yet), I will – I just haven't invested in one so far. Not letting a lack of tools (or much ability, but I digress) get in the way of a successful project – I winged it and cobbled together a vise out of my work table, scrap pieces of wood and a couple of clamps. It was a little rickety at times, but it worked. My lack of disc sander was made up for by some 80-grit sand paper (down to 120 grit-ish - it didn't have to be pretty, just cleaned up a bit) and a little extra time and effort.

The next problem, I'll admit was out of sheer laziness: I have vacuumed or swept my work floor in a while. So, as I was gluing – I had various sorts of "stuff" sprinkled through-out my glue. None of it seemed to be problematic, just looks "less good".

The final problems turned out to be small leaks in various spots on the bags.

Leak #1 (on both bags), while I was gluing the bag – the extra height of the inner connector keeps the top layer of PVC from lying properly. I thought I was being slick and sliced the edge out, mashed them back together and went about my merry way. What I found out (later), was that I create a leak that proved to be challenging to fix.

Leak #2 (on both bags), on these bags and the one that I made for the Dirigo, I ended up with a leak around the PVC connector for the inflation hose. The simple fix is to glue a patch over the area and move-on. On this particular bag, I did 2 patches and then covered the entire area with a bigger patch – it was "cleaner looking" was my justification. As the picture shows - I even tried to be careful and clean! It still didn't work out quite like I had hoped.

Leak #3 (on just 1 bag), while "fixing" one of the leaks, Paige came out to help. Not being much for her to do, she wandered around the garage and did whatever she wanted. The wandering included her walking on both bags multiple times. Apparently one of the bags got walked on a time too many – she put a whole clean through both layers.

Leak #4 (on the other bag), while fixing my leak #1 on one of the bags, my solution was to put a patch on and then clamp it between 2 pieces of wood. Apparently I got a little over-zealous with my clamping and/or heat gunning and worked a hole into the bag.

With all of these leaks, I'm ultimately left with 2 patched up bags that hold air. In case you (dear reader) are wondering - I do feel comfortable that my patch-work will hold and they're as safe as any non-patched bag.

Lastly, I had previously mentioned installing an eyelet into the stems of the kayak (using the drill-fill-drill approach). These serve 2 purposes, one- to act as an anchor point for securing the flotation bags to the kayak and two- to act as a bit of a pulley for re-installing the bags once the kayak is skinned. Truthfully, I think #2 looks great on paper, but won't actually pan out- but only time will tell.

Places to buy HH-66

2009-09-11T08:44:00.003-04:00

HH-66 is the key ingredient to making your own flotation bags, dry bags and kayak covered in Coverene/PVC fabric. It's the glue that melts/welds the 2 pieces of vinyl together to get a water- and air-tight seal (or, so we hope!).

Back when I made my flotation bags, I bought a pint of HH-66 from Veneer Supplies. It has lasted through 2 or 3 tries at that flotation bag, a pair of flotation bags (which, they too had issues and needed immediate patches) and gluing the stems for Paige's kayak. I have maybe 1/3 of the pint left.

With a limited amount of HH-66 remaining, I wanted to get more on hand for starting the deck. Being cheap, I wanted to get the most for my money! So, I googled for places to buy HH-66. I assembled a list of each of the web sites that sold it. I wanted to try and avoid shipping costs, so I found the manufacturer of HH-66 (RH Products Co.) and contacted them about local retailers. They quickly responded and pointed me to Baltimore Canvas Products.

Baltimore Canvas Products is official the most expensive price per quart that I came across. But, even with tax + gas/mileage - it worked out to be a less total price than any online vendor. And, I like supporting local vendors.

Baltimore Canvas Products	Quart	$18.25	No website; plus tax; plus mileage + time for local pickup
Baltimore Canvas Products	Gallon	$46.90	No website; plus tax; plus mileage + time for local pickup
Note, you may want to try contacting the manufacturer of HH-66, RH Products Co. for local retailers near you.
Seattle Fabrics	Quart	$12.95	Plus shipping
Seattle Fabrics	Pint	$10.75	Plus shipping
Mauritzon	Gallon	tbd	Plus shipping
	Quart	tbd	Plus shipping
	Pint	tbd	Plus shipping
Rochford Supply	Gallon	$28.21	Plus $20 handling; plus shipping
Rochford Supply	Quart	$12.57	Plus shipping
Veneer Supplies	Pint	$13.75	Plus shipping (or- possibly local pickup)
Sail Rite	Quart	$16.25	Plus shipping
MyTarp.com	Quart	$15.25	Plus shipping
ElectraTarp	Quart	$15.00	Plus shipping
ElectraTarp	Pint	$12.00	Plus shipping

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month!

2009-09-01T18:17:00.007-04:00

A quick deviation from the theme and general kayaking-ness of this blog... September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

Cancer doesn't discriminate between race, age, income or any other barrier that you can imagine. The oldest people get it and so do the youngest. My daughter, Paige was 13 months old when the beast, childhood cancer, struck our household. She was diagnosed with a brain tumor on January 14, 2005. We later found out that it was cancerous. She endured brain surgeries, broviac/hickman placement & removal surgeries and 6 weeks of radiation treatments.

We celebrate everyday that she's cancer-free and doing wonderfully. Just yesterday, we sent her off for her first day of kindergarten. Every day in our house is a reason to be joyous.

Sadly, we're the lucky ones - the select few that get to celebrate years of health. So much more needs to be done, so many families are affected by this beast. Show your support by visiting some of the following organizations and seeing how you can help and make a difference to a child, to a family, who've been ravaged by childhood cancer:

Experiment Results - Day 1, rope mostly good

2009-07-15T18:04:00.004-04:00

Day 1, the rope trick on the Thule rack was mostly good. At less than 30mph speeds and over 45mph speeds, the rope trick has cut the whistling noise. I'm going to try and see if it's the rear bar that's causing the whistling at lower speeds. I've got some rope at home, it's quite a bit longer than I need, but I'll just collect the excess and secure it. (I didn't use that originally because I wanted to cut the front bar to length.)

We'll see - I haven't yet decided if this has saved me from buying a fairing or not.

Experiment - can rope work as well as a fairing?

2009-07-14T18:20:00.002-04:00

When I got rid of the Corolla, I ended up selling the roof rack. The feet were different and I figured it was a good time to upgrade to the new Rapid Aero Bars that Thule is touting. In an attempt to save money, I decided to go without a fairing. I also figured I'd do the same as last time and only install the rack when I needed it.

First issue, the rack installation on the Hyundai Elantra is a heck of a lot more difficult than the Corolla. There's a slight amount of grunting involved and you're supposed to measure the specific location from the windshield and span between the bars for the rack to be installed properly.

Second issue, because of the first - I've decided to just leave the rack installed. Holy mother of pearl is that thing loud!

The experiment... can a $1.50 fix save me from the purchase of an $80 fairing? I had read a recent posting on PNET that suggested a cheap fix is to take nylon cord and wrap it tightly around the load bars. Use cable ties to secure both ends and you'd be good to go.

I bought 1/4" nylon cord from Lowes for $0.15/ft. Right now my grand total is $1.59 + 2 cable ties. Stay tuned to see how it works out...

Stimulus funds to be used to remove 2 Patapsco dams

2009-06-30T16:46:00.004-04:00

According to the Baltimore Sun, stimulus funds are to be used to remove the Simkins and Union Dams from the Patapsco River. Additionally, the DNR is studying the removal of Bloede's Dam.

Shown below is a map of the approximate locations of the dams on the Patapsco River:

View Patapsco River Dams in a larger map

Additionally, checkout this Flickr stream for photos of the dams.

National parks plan 3 free summer weekends

2009-06-02T17:39:00.002-04:00

All 147 National Park Service sites that charge entry fees will waive them for June 20 and 21, July 18 and 19, and August 15 and 16.

The Right Kayak for You

2009-06-02T13:51:00.003-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, I had my first weekend where I did guiding/instruction for LL Bean's Walk On Adventures out of the Columbia store. These are introductions to kayaking where the participants are outfitted with PDFs, paddles, some instruction and put into recreational boats to take out on Centennial Lake. I really enjoy doing this, as I've gotten to see a few people really get hooked on kayaking. That weekend we had one such individual.

From what my co-guide told me, she was there on Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed her time in a kayak. She had recently bought one from the store on a whim and wanted to get some instruction before going out on her own. I worked on Sunday and the co-guide told me that she promised she'd be back the next day. Sure enough, she was on the bus and this time she brought a friend. Down at the lake, she asked to be put into the boat that she'd purchased instead of us assigning a boat to her. I was happy to oblige and pulled that specific kayak for her.

We got everyone launched and soon were underway to our first rest stop. She told us later, almost immediately she could feel the difference between the boats. The one she was in the night before had better tracking and glide - the one she was in, not so much. She was peppering the other guide with questions through-out the 1st half of the paddle. For the 2nd half, she and I paired up and she was peppering me with questions - why does it feel so different? is it her? is it the boat? She explained that she was fairly athletic and wanted a boat that would compliment her. I told her that we didn't have any talking boats, but I figured I understood what she meant. We talked a bit more and the end of it came to - she was in the wrong boat for her. It doesn't seem like much, but a 12' boat is a huge change over a 10' boat. And the hull shapes are tremendously different. I felt guilty telling her it was so - but, at the end of the day, it was the right answer for her.

On Sundays, we have 2 sessions - one in the morning and another in the afternoon. Guess who we were surprised to see step off the bus for the afternoon session. Yep, Miss "I bought the wrong boat". We chuckled and asked what she was doing. She explained that on Saturday, she tried an Old Town Dirigo 12. And on Sunday morning, we talked about the differences between it and the Wilderness Systems Pungo 12. (As a side note, on land - I actually flipped the boats over so they could see the differences in hull shapes.) So... now, naturally, she wanted to try out the Pungo 12.

It was quite interesting to see. By the time we got to our first rest stop, she decided that she was definitely returning the other boat. By the 2nd rest stop, she decided that she liked the Pungo over the Dirigo.

It was a rewarding day that we were able to expand on her skills a bit and was able to help her hone in on a boat that was a good fit for her.

Rescue and towing practice at Centennial Lake

2009-05-15T13:19:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I met up with a couple of people to practice dealing with unruly participants, rescues (assisting a swimmer and self-rescuing with a paddle float) and a bit of towing. We did it locally on Centennial Lake.

The water was pretty chilly; I didn't have a temperature measuring device, so I have to use how the water felt. My guess based on my 2 (intentional!) immersions was that it was probably near 55 degrees. It was cold enough that on my first immersion, it had me breathing quickly and shivering slightly. It took a l-o-n-g time to get my breathing under control and shivering stopped - well ok, it might have just been a minute or two. But, it felt like forever! Strangely, the second immersion - I didn't have nearly the same issues as the first. It's possible that I just wasn't thinking of it as much - on the first, I was being rescued and on the second, I was actively doing a paddle-float reentry. I chose to wear my 3mm farmer john wet suit. I was thankful for it!

We didn't paddle far - just across the face of the dam. On a side note, the water looks so foreign without the water lilies. By the middle of summer, they have a good 20 to 30 feet area covered.

Jen was playing the instructor first. She had to rescue a tandem that has no flotation in the bow. It's quite interesting watching and thinking about how much you think you know. First, I was able to armchair QB the variety of things she was doing "wrong". Then, I was able to armchair QB the variety of things that I thought the co-instructor should be doing. I found out on my turn that reality dictated some of the things she had to do. The biggest - without bow flotation, the tandem's bow started to sink (because the assessor specifically lifted the stern to squeeze out the pocket of air it held). I didn't think it was far and didn't understand why she didn't start lifting the bow. It would have caused the water to slosh back to the cockpit area and would have made life easier with trying to get the boat out of the water -- with pulling it stern first, she was dragging the water-filled bow through the water and water is heavy. I figured it was because she happened to approach the boat at the stern and simply started on the end that she was closest to. However, once it was my turn - I intentionally approached the bow first and found that there was no water to get to it under 6 or 8 inches of water. She was right, my armchair QB'ing was wrong.

The co-instructor explained to us that we could edge our kayaks to get it under the capsized boat and then lift our knee to rotate/rock the boat and give us better leverage. I found that it took some of the brute force work out of getting the tandem into the X configuration for emptying. Once it was out of the water, it emptied remarkably well and required little to no pumping at the end.

Jen then had to tow and then rescue me (in a rec. boat - a Pungo 140). This went pretty well once I got over the cold water.

After she rescued me, we switched roles; I got into the instructor boat and she got into a rec. boat to play the unruly participant. As I mentioned before, I was definitely schooled in my armchair quarterbacking - rescuing the tandem was as hard as it looks. Being a guy and having more upper-body strength helped. But, it was still pretty challenging. We didn't have any victims/swimmers for our scenarios. I was working through in my head what I would do with them, how I would manage them - dealing with a single is tricky enough.

After rescuing the tandem, she capsized so that I could rescue her. My biggest comments to this are that you need to be very concise with the swimmer, letting them know what the plan is and what you need them to do. Oh and - don't hit them in the head on your approach! I had one moment of distraction and came way to close to hitting Jen. The rescue after that was pretty uneventful.

The final task was to perform a self-rescue using a paddle-float reentry. This went alright as I made it back into the boat. BUT- I have a habit of flipping the boat over before I'm setup with the padde-float on the paddle blade. This means that I had to either re-capsize the boat OR try to hold onto it and manage the paddle-float. I made the mistake a year ago of trying to hold onto the boat and manage the paddle-float; long-story short, the boat got away from me and it was a feverish swim to try and catch up to it. Not fun and pretty embarrassing. So- I picked the re-capsize the boat option. After I swam onto the boat and started to cork-screw into the cockpit, I had one uneasy moment when I leaned away from the paddle-float. I didn't go over, but I went far enough that it warranted a compound cuss-word and a dive back onto the paddle/paddle-float. And finally, the seat back on Tsunami boats S-U-C-K. They're just too high. I don't know of anyone who is able to climb back in without flipping the seat down and ending up sitting on it. You're then required to slide to the very front of the cockpit (if you're small enough - I'm not) OR raise your booty so high to make yourself unstable again. If you own a Tsunami and are going to rely on paddle-float reentries, do yourself a favor and swap the seat back out! I tried to empty the kayak by myself, but I failed at both attempts.

It was a good day.

Epoxying Finished!

2009-05-15T09:04:00.002-04:00

Last night, I put the 2nd coat of epoxy to cut edges of the last 2 cross sections. I'm officially finished with epoxying Paige's kayak!

My next steps are:

Finish and install flotations bags bow & stern
Apply urethane to plywood
Apply Watco "Natural" Oil to WRC
Skin boat

It doesn't seem like much, but we'll see. I keep telling myself that I don't have a deadline and that it'll be finished when it's finished. But man-oh-day do I want it on the water soon!

Free Fishing Days in Pennslyvania

2009-05-15T08:24:00.003-04:00

Last but not least, Pennsylvania's free fishing days are Saturday, May 23 and Sunday, June 7. So, grab your kayak, rod and reel and get out there!

And remember, kids in each state can fish for free - get'em hooked young! Being outside is a great thing.

And now, free fishing in Maryland

2009-05-15T08:21:00.003-04:00

The free fishing in Virginia had me wondering if Maryland has the same "free fishing" opportunities. Maryland's free fishing days are the first two Saturdays in June and July 4.

Free Fishing in Virginia!

2009-05-15T08:11:00.001-04:00

You can fish in Virginia without a license the weekend of June 5-7. Get your rod, reel and kayak ready! I've been itching to fish for a while - I think this'll finally get me out there.

Coaming Finished

2009-05-12T10:20:00.001-04:00

I started the coaming a few weeks ago. At the time, I cut the 4 rings, epoxied them and glued the bottom ring to the kayak. Life got in the way for a while, but I finally got around to mounting the coaming to the kayak. This involved measuring and marking screw locations, drilling, counter-sinking the holes and tightening up the bolts.

The counter-sinking the holes was the scariest bit. I don't own a countersink bit, I didn't think to borrow one and I'm trying to avoid any new tool purchases! I went with the poor-man's method -- I simply chucked a larger drill bit and used a gentle touch. One of the holes is a little deep and another had a tiny bit of tearing out. BUT- all in all, it went pretty OK. Again, I know my limitations; I'm not after a perfect finish.

The coaming stanchions turned out to be a little challenging. The stanchions are blocks of wood that support the sides of the coaming. I reviewed Tom's pages on making the stanchions and I have to admit, I still don't understand how he goes from a square block of wood, draws a few cut lines on it and ends up with a usable product. My method was to get the general cuts out of the way and then use trial and error to fit the stanchion into place. In the end, I probably have 20-more cuts than Mr. Yost does... but- I got it done and I'm pretty happy with the results. (For the record, I used a piece of 1x6 pine that I had lying around.)

DIY - PVC Kayak Stand

2009-05-12T09:52:00.003-04:00

I knew that in the build process that I was going to need to build some kind of kayak stand to hold the kayak once I removed it from the strong back. I did a google search for "PVC kayak stand" and it returned somewhere near 10 million hits. I bounced through a couple of pages and ended up with a fairly detailed HubPages.com article. For my idiot-self, I liked that it had a specific shopping list, instructions and pictures. I figured I couldn't screw it up!

The first thing that struck me as odd with the list is that it's using 2" PVC. From the article and his (I assume a "he") pictures, he's holding a plastic sit-on-top kayak. It's not uncommon for these to be upwards of and over 60 lbs. For my intended use of holding a wooden-framed skin on frame kayak, it was definitely going to be overkill. I thought about going with 3/4" or 1" PVC and modifying the plans from there - but, for the sake of simplicity, I went with the instructions as written. I figured he'd already done the figuring on what size bolts and all that jazz. (Next time, I'm surely going to take the time to downsize it!)

A quick trip to Home Depot yielded all of the supplies that I needed. Being a complete newbie at all of this, I had to buy everything - including the PVC glue. My bill totaled around $40 for the pieces (including the glue). Again, next time - I'm going with smaller PVC which should bring the price down by quite a bit.

I measured the 10' pieces into 2.5' sections. I learned that it's NOT exactly 10' - there's maybe 1/2 to 1 cm extra. Oh well, we're not looking for exact in my projects. My first challenge was how to secure a round object to the workbench (well, strongback ACTING as a workbench) -- some men like duct tape; me, I'm a fan of clear packing tape. A couple of wraps of packing tape and the PVC wasn't going anywhere. My first cut was kind-of straight. The rest seemed to get worse and worse. It's was pretty appalling, to be honest. BUT- they'd be hidden by the 90-degree elbows.

I glued the first square together with the realization that I wasn't exactly sure how to ensure what I was making was exactly square. I got it pretty close, though it does not lay flat on the floor. I glued up the second square, linking it into the first as the instructions specified.

I drilled holes through both pieces on both sides for the center-bolt that acts as the joint. I realized how not-straight my holes were drilled when I had to forego the washers in order to get the nut secured. And, then I realized how much worse the second set were when I couldn't get the bolt to make it through the 2nd-piece of PVC. I ended up taking the bolt out and drilling the interior holes out wider on each side to give the bolt enough play that it could be forced through and secured. It's "speshul", but it gets the job done.

As I seem to do with everything, I deviated from the instructions and instead of mounting rope to the ends of the PVC, I went with mounting it to the top, inside of the elbows. I chose not to use rope, instead I picked up some 2" polypro webbing. I was able to wrap the webbing around the PVC 1 1/2 times and then I screwed through it. I put the bolt, washers and nuts on and it seems like it should hold quite nicely.

The other thing I decided to deviate from the instructions was I added a piece of rope to the bottom of the stand. Otherwise, the stand would open to the point that the webbing would not have any slack to it. Since my kayak is pretty light, I wanted to have a nice cradle for the boat to set down in.

The stand turned out alright. It's not square, but it works for me.

CPR (Adult, Child & Infant) at HoCo Hospital

2009-05-12T08:47:00.003-04:00

I needed to get CPR certified. The main choices are typically either the American Red Cross (ARC) or the American Heart Association (AHA). Both are good choices, if you're doing it for the certification, it's my understanding that the AHA is a 2 year certificate where the ARC is only 1 year.

The AHA offers a unique online certification process where you complete the "classroom" portion on your own and then simply find a testing center to complete a skills assessment. There is a cost associated with both parts, but I'm told it's pretty inexpensive. The online portion was $19.95. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a local testing center that was scheduled to do the skills assessments.

The AHA site wasn't very helpful in finding me any upcoming (and local) testing sessions within the next 2 weeks (I'm a procrastinator, what can I say?). And the ARC's next session is on a Tuesday, during the day. I ended up doing a quick Google search for "CPR" against the Howard County General Hospital site. The search returned a result for an already passed event. I poked around the HoCo hospital site a bit and came across the next schedule classes.

The HoCo hospital offers CPR classes 2 times per month. I called and the cost is only $48! This is at least $12 less than any other equivalent AHA class and $7 less than the ARC class that I took last year. I'm very excited to be taking the class - while it's a job requirement, I feel better knowing what to do in case of an emergency.

Find time, take the class and be prepared to help save a life one day!

Columbia Triathlon - needs support boaters

2009-05-11T10:41:00.004-04:00

I really wanted to be a support kayaker for the Columbia Triathlon but I already have plans for this Sunday, May 17.

If you're interested and able to, they're looking for more support boaters for the triathlon. The swim (and run) portion of the triathlon is held at Centennial Lake in Columbia, MD.

Fish Kill at Wilde Lake

2009-05-08T13:24:00.001-04:00

The Columbia Association has been reporting on a fish kill at Wilde Lake in Columbia, MD. Here's the details from the latest e-mail:

As all of you are aware, there has been a fish kill at Wilde Lake this week. From resident's reports - the number of dead fish range from 200 to 1000. From a field visit the number of dead fish is closer to a number in the middle, around 400-500.

Two common questions that have been asked are about CA's use of pesticides and sewer spills. The Columbia Association has not applied fertilizer or pesticides on the Open Space in the Wilde Lake subwatershed this year. After verifying with Howard County Government, there are also no reported sewage spills in the villages of Wilde Lake or Harper's Choice (portions of both villages drain to the lake).

As noted yesterday, Sean Harbaugh of CA contacted the MDE Fish Kill response team and met with a representative at Wilde Lake yesterday. The water samples, that were taken at the lake, did not indicate that there was an acute water quality problem. A fish sample was taken back to the MDE lab for analysis. The preliminary analysis indicated that the fish had both a gill fluke and a fungal infection (Saprolegnia), both are commonly found in freshwater.

The MDE Fish Kill website does a good job of explaining most causes of fish kills in the region. Directly from the MDE website - "Fish kills also result from a combination of natural and human induced stresses in the environment. Several elements may combine and act synergistically to overload stress tolerance levels and induce a fish kill. Typical stress factors may include population stress (crowding), spawning stress, reduced food abundance, excessive temperatures or sudden temperature change, parasite burdens, high or low pH, low oxygen levels caused by sewage or excessive algae (fueled by nutrient enrichment), salinity stress, chronic toxin levels (including metals and organics), and drought."

As noted above, some probable stressors to the fish population that contributed to the fish kill this week are population stress (crowding), spawning stress, and/or sudden temperature change.

CA will continue to remove the dead fish from the lake and monitor the lake for any changes.

We've just come off of 10 days of hard rains and in the last couple of days, the temperature has started to rise. I wonder what's going on. I paddled that lake a few times last year (pictures) and we took Paige there for her first fishing trip, too.

Trip Report: Monocacy River, Rt. 77 river access to Creagerstown Park boat ramp

2009-04-28T20:29:00.003-04:00

Taking advantage of the almost 90-degree weather, I e-mailed Steve-o to find out if he wanted to get some boats wet. Steve was planning on being in Hagerstown for the weekend, so we had to find something between Columbia and Hagerstown. He remembered canoeing a river with his dad when he was a wee lass that was "out that way somewhere"; oh, and it had a very pretty bridge about 1/2 way through. A quick call to his father found us the Monocacy River, just outside of Frederick. Steve's dad then proceeded to give out route numbers and general directions to both the put-in and take-out. (How do old guys do that - mi papa is the same way. If he's been there once, he's filed it away in his rolodex. Seriously, if I'm ever lost - it doesn't matter what state I'm in, I call him. He's like a human GPS.) Steve's dad's recommendations were - it's a nice stretch as long as it's not right after a hard rain and the water will still be scary cold this time of year.

This was my first-ever one-way/shuttle-required trip. You've gotta love "firsts". We met at the take-out and moved my boat onto Amy's RAV4. She has a Thule rack with kayak stackers. We easily fit the 3rd boat on top. It had its own straps and Stevers and Amy tied up a quick stern line. We threw my paddling crap into the car and headed for the put-in.

I debated briefly in what to wear. Again, this time of year - the water is still quite cold. But, given that it was close to 90-degrees out and the river was only 30' or 40' wide, I (well, we all) opted for swim trunks and a poly-pro t-shirt. Our "unexpected capsize" plans were to simply swim to shore and dry out a bit. We had dry bags of clothing, if they ended up being needed. As it turns out, there were no capsizes and we even ended up dipping our hats into the water to cool off.

The put-in was "the west bank, just below Rte. 77" as Steve-oh's dad recalled. The Community Common's trail map calls it the "Route 77 River Access". Parking was simply a pull-off area on the side of the road. It was fairly busy and mostly gummed up by 2 vehicles with trailers. (Note to trailer drivers, first try parking nose-in at an angle. You'll probably fit without having your trailer in danger and more people can park that way.) None the less, we found a spot and started unloading boats and the car in general.

I was in my Dirigio; Amy was in her Calypso and Stevers was in a Loon. We loaded the boats - extra paddle, bilge pump to share, 2 dry bags of clothing and 2 first aid kits (okay, 1 and a 1/2 - mine really doesn't count as a full first aid kit) and snacks. For good measure, I grabbed a chunk of rope and my paddling jacket (who knows why or what I expected it to do- but I had it).

The river access required a couple hundred yards carry of the boats from the car parking area to the water's edge. The water's edge itself was a short, slightly steep muddy embankment. There was a more gentle rocky shore line just upstream-- but, lazy took over. I grabbed my boat and simply walked into the water first with my boat behind me. I got it floating and then plopped down into the seat. Steve decided on the seal launch and had just the bow in the water when he sat down. And Amy did the same as me - walked in, sat down. No fuss, no muss (unfortunately - I was hoping Steve at least had gotten muddy).

I was surprised at the quickness of the current. From shore, you could tell it was moving but I underestimated it. For the first 45 minutes, we mostly lollygagged and rarely paddled. The water was very murky from the rains earlier in the week. You couldn't see much more than 12 inches or so. We floated/paddled down shore a bit and came to a set of riffles. These were my first riffles! They bounced the boat around, but it was gentle enough that I was able to have the camera out and I took some pictures.

Steve and I made jokes about daring each other to go around the islands on either side. There was 1 island in particular that we joked about, but didn't take the path less travelled. At the end of the island, the narrow side was almost wide and very calm. I ended up being curious and paddled upstream behind the island. I made it most of the way but the water got too shallow - I had to get out and pull the boat behind me for 10' or 15'. Back into deeper water, I started paddling again for another 15' or 20'. This time when I jumped out, I looped my rope through the front toggle and dragged the boat that way. Having the rope and not having to lift or stoop made it much nicer. A quick bit later and I was back into the main part of the river. I paddled back to Steve/Amy and told stories of seeing bear, deer and elk.

The float continued alternating between periods of flat water and short sections of riffles. Just prior to Legorge Bridge (our 1/2 way point and the previously mentioned "really pretty" bridge), the riffles were a little more intense. I managed to slide my boat over a large boulder - one that made a nice THUD! sound and I then felt move back the length of the boat. After that I managed to safely navigate myself through a line of my own choosing which took me to the right of one boulder and then the left of another. The water was moving quickly enough that I didn't get a good picture of the underside of the bridge.

Immediately downstream of the bridge, the water turned back to flat water. We half-heartedly paddled the rest of the way. There was a lot of debris left by previous high water. Right near Legore Bridge, there was what looked to be a piece of a bed stuck pretty high in a tree. In another area was a folding camp chair - though after seeing a second one, we're suspecting that it's someone marking their favorite fishing hole. There were lots of tires and even a mattress wrapped around some trees.

The take out is at Creagerstown Park boat ramp. As we arrived at the take out, there were 3 young men readying a jon boat. They had:

themselves - check,
some fishing rods - check,
smokes - check,
a cooler with beer - check,
one broken/old-arse looking oar - check,
NO life vests - check,
NO plan on how they were getting back up river - check.

Friendly fellows, they were. They kindly moved to the side to let us land and wished us a good day as they pushed off.

We pulled the boats up off the ramp to near my car. Steve and I went to retrieve Amy's car while she kept guard over the boats. Steve found the Doodle Pro... he drew the missing shapes. He drew me. He then went dirty and drew parts of anatomy. And then there was a cow (on a farm w/ a happy sun). And finally he finished by drawing me without looking AT the Doodle Pro itself. He's actually kind of impressive at his doodle-art. He should find a competition or something.

We got back to Amy's car, drove back to the take out, loaded boats and went home. Our approximate on-water time was about 2 hours and 10 minutes. We covered approximately 6.3 miles. It was a good day.

Map of the area and paddle trip (total trip length: approximately 6.3 miles)
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Trip Report: Gunpowder Falls State Park

2009-04-23T19:49:00.006-04:00

This past weekend, on Saturday, April 18, I joined a paddle with the Watersedge Meetup group at Gunpowder Falls State Park. The weather was supposed to be in the low to mid-70s with 5-10mph wind. Being in my Dirigo, I try to be pretty aware of what water conditions that I'm getting into. It's good for flat water and very mild chop - not much messier. As it turns out, this trip was a perfect test for the boat and its paddler!

The put in was alongside the Dundee Creek Marina at a car-top boat launch area. For boat rentals, this also happens to be one of Ultimate Watersports locations - Dundee Creek. This was a nice launch with plenty of parking, facilities (because of the marina) and was an easy shore launch. There is a $10 fee to use Dundee Creek Marina, but there is no charge for car-topped boats (canoes and kayaks).

This is a wonderful beginner's location with plenty of calm/flat protected water if you stay towards the back of Saltpeter Creek. Our paddling goal was to go out Saltpeter Creek, around Battery Point and north to the Hammerman Beach area (which also happens to be the 2nd Ultimate Watersports' location). Each way was about 5 miles. The one thing to point out with our paddling plans - a large portion of it was along part of Aberdeen Proving Grounds... which means, no landing!

The paddle out was very uneventful. The other paddlers reported seeing an osprey (or some other large-animal) catching and eating a fish. I missed it, but I did get some nice views of hawks and eagles on the way out and on the way back. I'm not used to paddling in an unstructured group, so I found it a little odd that from the lead paddler to the rear was easily a mile, if not more for most of the paddle. And, apparently we lost 1 paddler entirely - the trip organizer thinks he turned back at some point. Being that it's been 5 days and I haven't heard anything about a "missing paddler", I've got to think she's right.

We landed at Hammerman Beach. We were greeted by a variety of folks - from those enjoying the sunshine and beach, to a guy in a whitewater boat practicing rolls and there was even a stand-up paddle boarder. He looked pretty new, judging by his twitchiness. I was impressed that the whitewater boater and stand-up paddle boarder (and his friend in a kayak) were all wearing wet suits.

Speaking of wet suits - the water is still very, very cold. I had checked the Thomas Point buoy [station TPLM2] the night before and it was reporting water temperatures at 50. I had the same dilemma as before, warm/hot weather and cold, cold water -- if I wore my wet suit, I'd roast. If I didn't wear my wet suit and capsized, I'd be in trouble. Again, safety took over and I wore my 3mm farmer john wet suit under a pair of rain pants and a t-shirt. Truth be told, the only time I was hot was when I was getting the boat ready. I think next time, I'll get the boat packed and ready and THEN get changed. I also carried with me a dry bag full of warm clothing, a compass and a first aid kit.

We ate lunch, enjoyed the sun and socialized for a while. It turns out that the big building that looked like it should have restrooms was closed. The only restrooms that were open were at pavilion #2-8 - wherever that may be! A couple of the woman reported that you could find across the road, behind some trees. If it was good enough for them, it was good enough for me! While we were at it, you couldn't help but notice that the wind was picking up and that we'd be paddling back into it.

The paddle back gave us 6" to 12" windblown chop and boat wakes. I opted to put the skirt (with help) onto the Dirigo. (The cockpit is so large that I need to have someone help secure the front of the skirt because I can't reach while sitting.) I'm glad I did as I had enough water to come across the bow of my boat and onto the skirt! It was actually very quite cool - the boat felt good, the skirt held and I felt great.

Getting wound back into Saltpeter Creek, there was a little confusion over how to get back to the launch. On the paddle out, I had tried to make mental marks of the paddle out-- but, apparently I didn't start right away. I felt pretty good about where we were going and I got confirmation from another paddler who, like me, was "pretty sure" we were going the right way. Note- this is another strange thing about this large of an unstructured paddle -- all of the people with experience for this particular paddle were near the back. I did feel irresponsible that I hadn't printed out a chart or map for the area. In the end, my mental maps held and we made it safely back to the boat launch.

My lessons-learned for the day were: 1, print a chart! 2, check the weather that morning (not just the night before). 3, wear sunscreen (very red face and arms)!

Map of the area and paddle trip (total trip length: approximately 10 miles)
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Paige Sitting in Kayak

2009-04-23T18:46:00.001-04:00

What can I say? I finished the coaming and had the seat installed - it just seemed natural to put her in.

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Catching up, seat and coaming

2009-04-22T13:48:00.001-04:00

Wow, time flies - to catch you, dear reader, up on what's transpired since my last post. I've:

finished cutting gunwales and stringers;
glued (epoxied) gunwales and stringers to stems;
glued deck supports back together;
coating plywood with epoxy (cut edges with 2).

Most recently, I did a big shopping trip at Home Depot and Lowes to buy the parts for the kayak seat and coaming. The seat followed Tom's instructions pretty closely. The biggest difference is that I cut the ends of the screws off where the seat connects to cross section #2. I did this to try and keep Paige from getting scratched when she pulls her feet out.

The coaming, too follows Tom's instructions pretty closely - well, ok, for the actual building portion. To draw out the coaming, I took the offsets from Tom and laid out the coaming in Visio. I found that Visio didn't give me a clean enough arc, so I asked a graphic designer friend to take the file and massage it in his whiz-bang tools. The end result is this Sea Flea 11 coaming template. I used my trusty Staples printing service (printed 24" X 36" for $3.99) and I had a full-size coaming template.

The template is of the coaming's inner-diameter. I took my template and laid it out on the 1/4" plywood. I drilled out a spot for my jig saw and cut the inner portion out. I made a little measuring stick for marking the outer diameter. I drew and then cut out the outside edge of the coaming lip.

I used the coaming lip to draw out the inner-diameter of the base ring and two riser rings onto 1/2" plywood. I did the same for cutting these out and made a new measuring stick for marking the outer diameter of these rings.

My rings are not symmetrical, but for me - they're close enough.

I then epoxied the base ring to the boat and glued the 2 risers and coaming lip together. Monday night, I painted on the 1st coat of epoxy. And last night, I put the 2nd coat of epoxy onto the cut edges and entire coaming lip.

In the coming nights, I plan to make and install the coaming stanchons.

In other news, I put in eyelets to make installing and removing the flotation bags easier. I used the drill-fill-drill approach for installing this fastener.

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Cure Brain Tumors! Race for Hope in DC

2009-04-16T19:24:00.002-04:00

In a slight deviation from the kayaking-theme of this blog, I wanted to take a minute and plug one my favorite events, the Race for Hope in Washington, DC on Sunday, May 3rd. My wife, daughter and I have walked in this 5K run/walk for 4 years.

The first year we walked, we did it in support of a coworker's wife named Pam. Pam was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1998 and recurred in 2000. Fortunately, through surgery and chemo, she's been tumor free and "all clear" ever since.

The second year, my life changed - in January of 2005, my (then) 13-month old daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumor. In an instant, our lives were changed, our hearts broken and we crashed into the world of brain tumors and childhood cancer. In 48 hours, we had our first "sick baby" doctor appointment, our first ER visit and a doctor walk into the kids-ICU and tell us, "Your daughter has a brain tumor. We're prepping the (operating room)." The next 6 months were a whirlwind with 4 surgeries and 6 weeks to administer 30 radiation treatments.

In the past 4 years, she's had countless MRI scans, checkups and evaluations. We've been blessed that each has given us the wonderful news - all clear, your daughter is cancer free.

We now walk in support of Pam and Paige.

If you're reading this and if you're able to make it, we'd love for you to join us at this year's Race for Hope. Join our team, start a team, or heck- join David Cook's team (the American Idol winner). Please note that registration closes April 28 at noon.

Epoxy Pictures and Cutting for the Stems

2009-03-12T12:35:00.003-04:00

I posted previously that I had glued the kayak together - shown below are the pictures:

Cross Section 1, shown from bow	Cross Section 3, shown from bow
Close Up / Cross Section 4, shown from bow	Close Up / Cross Section 4, shown from stern

I've started cutting the gunwales and stringers for the stems. This has turned out to be quite a bit more challenging than I originally expected. I did fine drawing a vertical cut line on the end of the gunwale, but I wasn't exactly sure how to precisely extend that back the gunwale to determine the cut. Looking from the bow, the cut for gunwale on the left came out fine; but, the gunwale on the girl wasn't angled quite right. I had to use my bonsai saw to clean up the cut, trimming the back edge a bit. In the end, it turned out fine - but, I wasn't prepared for the extra cut and was a bit frazzled with getting it right.

On top of getting the cuts wrong, I had added perpendicular deck supports between cross section 1 and the bow. In theory, I thought this was going to be helpful in case anything was on the deck of the kayak - it'd have a backing/something firm to rest on (rather than just unsupported skin). In reality, what it did was to prevent me from being able to squeeze the gunwales at the bow together. I had to cut second deck support after cutting just the first wasn't enough.

And finally, while drawing the cut lines for the stringers - I was pushing the gunwales out of the level's way and managed to break the epoxy joint for the 3rd deck support. These deck supports hadn't had the greatest epoxy jobs on them. I'm not terribly worried that this is any indication of my epoxy abilities - I knew these joints were "iffy", at best.

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