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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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!
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
