Me and my mate Brian had planned to spend a few nights camping and paddling over at Loch Ken this week, but with the rather nasty weather forecast, we decided to call it off and just popped up to Hexham on Wednesday afternoon for a couple of hours.
We cracked a few firsts; First time we had tried carrying two boats on Brians car:
no real bother, we put the SP3 on first, then my new ( to me) Explorer 14 on top, tied everything up and away we went, all solid as a rock but we decided to try it the other way round for the return trip ( as above) and that seemed even more solid, so that's how we'll do it in future.
First time for me in "No.6" my Mad River Explorer 14;
Quite pleased with it, particularly as a solo boat.
Brian had a go too;
And I think he quite liked it, indeed he paddled all the way back down to Tyne Green in it!
Not that I was moaning, I still love the way the SP3 paddles
We also did some boat to boat transfers and some X rescue drills with both boats, very handy for the trips we are planning for later in the year and of course all new to Brian, who's only been paddling for a few months.
It had been fairly blustery when we arrived and the paddle up river was a doddle with the easterly wind behind us but of course we had to come back into it on the way back;
but a change of position in the boat to alter the trim and we were soon cutting along quite nicely.
The final first was a gang of swallows, feeding on mayfly's which were hatching as we paddled up river:
[video=youtube;AY22653fSro]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY22653fSro&feature=re sults_video&lr=1&ob=0[/video]
We both found it a very relaxing few hours and we just managed to avoid the torrential downpour, getting loaded up just in time but driving back home in some awful conditions;
I think ( hope) we made the right choice in not heading for Loch Ken but we'll be up there at least once this year.
cheers
Steve
We cracked a few firsts; First time we had tried carrying two boats on Brians car:
no real bother, we put the SP3 on first, then my new ( to me) Explorer 14 on top, tied everything up and away we went, all solid as a rock but we decided to try it the other way round for the return trip ( as above) and that seemed even more solid, so that's how we'll do it in future.
First time for me in "No.6" my Mad River Explorer 14;
Quite pleased with it, particularly as a solo boat.
Brian had a go too;
And I think he quite liked it, indeed he paddled all the way back down to Tyne Green in it!
Not that I was moaning, I still love the way the SP3 paddles
We also did some boat to boat transfers and some X rescue drills with both boats, very handy for the trips we are planning for later in the year and of course all new to Brian, who's only been paddling for a few months.
It had been fairly blustery when we arrived and the paddle up river was a doddle with the easterly wind behind us but of course we had to come back into it on the way back;
but a change of position in the boat to alter the trim and we were soon cutting along quite nicely.
The final first was a gang of swallows, feeding on mayfly's which were hatching as we paddled up river:
[video=youtube;AY22653fSro]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY22653fSro&feature=re sults_video&lr=1&ob=0[/video]
We both found it a very relaxing few hours and we just managed to avoid the torrential downpour, getting loaded up just in time but driving back home in some awful conditions;
I think ( hope) we made the right choice in not heading for Loch Ken but we'll be up there at least once this year.
cheers
Steve
