8am:

It is officially 18 degrees out and the snow is covering the truck!  The thought process for today is get in, get it over with and it won’t be that bad!  

As a retired Army Ranger, Sam is exactly the guy you want on your team for a day like today.  He has 20 years of training for this exact moment.  Motivate someone to adapt and overcome adversity while adjusting safety plans for when the shit hits the fan to get everyone home safely while laughing at you online lol. 

I had my cold weather dry bag out with what I thought in Texas would do the job if I hit a bit of cold weather paddling. 1.5 mm neoprene pants, a 1.5 mm neoprene long sleeve shirt, a fleece top under my dry pants and dry top. I had debated a small fleece cap, but a FB add got me and I went with a big baklava.  I was wondering If I really needed such a big headsock on this trip and it turns out it was an absolute life saver today.  

My gloves… the only thing I didn’t list above consist of a2 mm neoprene mitten with the palm cut out so you can get your fingers out as needed.  That was the only mistake I made today. I should have put my pogie gloves on my paddle, then put my gloves inside those for a 2nd layer of warmth and protection…. Lesson learned! 

As the shaft of my paddle started to freeze with ice around my hands the palm of my hands kept getting colder and colder. As long as I didn’t move my hands off the paddle, no problems.  The winds would cause the paddle ends to freeze solid with ice, and the more I dipped the blades, the thicker it got. The snow was falling steady and the wind was blowing at 18 mph wind chill had to be pretty low.

Today was a low miles day, as there was only 1 takeout in a 21 mile stretch of river and it was far too cold to push all 21 miles in zippie the wonder slug.  I had 1 midpoint spot to take out, then put back in tomorrow.  No other option when paddling unknown waters at this temperature.  Safety 3rd right?

I was surprisingly warm most of the morning. Just don’t stop paddling, don’t change hand positions and wiggle your toes on occasion is what I used for mental comfort food as I pushed on across the cold channel of water winding past the duck grass.  I could see trees on occasion, and a small channel or two that I knew could be a shortcut between the never ending switchbacks of water, or a dead end only making the paddle longer.  

I decided that if the cutoff had as much or more flow than the main river I had good odds of it being a shortcut along the way.  The shortcut channels, only 3’ wide didn’t offer much of a place to paddle, but more of  ride the current and hope for a solid out! When the opened up into the main channel again, I had a very familiar feeling…

This was like pre-running Baja, this felt right! Talking to myself about how Team Trainwreck (my Baja brothers) would be stoked about the shortcuts and efficiency on the race course, but then also wondering which shortcut would stick me in a ditch like Erik Irvine found… the deeper he went, the smaller the ditch got.  

Today….pre-running was a success! 

The wildlife consisted of ducks and geese. They had no intention of letting me pass them in the narrow waterways, and seemed quite irritated about having to take off and make a loop as I passed along. They always stayed in pairs, and I don’t think I saw a solo bird all morning.  Maybe they know

More than me lol. 

When I hit the take-out my dry pants had a solid layer of ice from the waste down, dry top was a mix of ice and water and the top of the boat was completely frozen over. I paddled into a section of solid ice and discovered 3/4” thick was the max I was able to break through and maintain forward speed.  More than that was thick and almost impossible to back out of. I’ll keep that little nugget of knowledge in my pocket for the next few days down river. 

Like clockwork Sam was at the take out, camera in hand and warm truck ready to help load the gear and get warmed up. The takeouts are a challenge as the water at the banks are deep and usually have a bit of current. 

Luckily I saw the loaded bear trap in the water in the notch of land at the takeout as I paddled up.  It was in a prime spot to catch an unsuspecting paddler trying to portage.  I accidentally set it off making quite the noise and the keepsake.  I see no reason to not help future paddlers and bears along my trip. 

Tomorrow I will take the big boat out to finish the last section of the headwaters and look forward to the increased speed enclosed cockpit and additional warmth that it provides!