Another Duck River Expedition Above Normandy Lake

This is the place I stopped for lunch upstream the first bridge above the Fire Lake boat ramp. At 9:37 am, I was already hungry.	Already out of the boat, it occurred to me this was a convenient place to take some photos of the Pionier on the water. I had just walked the boat up past that branch across the stream in the background.	Front left three-quarter view Pionier 450 S
Pionier 450 S right rear three quarter view	Pionier 450 S seen from astern	Photo of the Pionier's back deck with logo. After I took this picture, I pushed the boat in to deeper water and practiced cowboy re-entry. Worked okay, but deck rigging would be nice for holding the paddle.
Here's what that pool looked like where I took the boat pictures. At far right frame you can see where I walked the boat up through and over that fallen wood.	Paddling up past that first pool. A lot of fish up there visible under the clear green water. They didn't take much notice of me in the kayak. My guess is, the area's not been fished much.	Here I'm standing upstream that discarded tire and looking back. This is as far as I got because the water for the next stretch was only about ankle deep. I didn't see much point in dragging the kayak a quarter mile over slimy rocky bottom. Walking the boat back down to where I could again paddle, I slipped and fell in a couple of times.
Paddling back to the pool pictured earlier.	Here I am paddling back just below that pool where I took all those boat pictures. At left is the gravely bank holding the pool in. Ahead is the fallen tree I had to paddle under on my way upstream. The only passage is at far right.	I'd never before seen that flaky-looking bark on the fallen tree. A little farther right was enough space to paddle under and enough water to paddle over the fallen tree's trunk and branches.
This stretch I referred to in 2008 as Duck River Stairs. I was not able to paddle up this far, and photographed the rock upon which I sat to eat my lunch on that drizzly June day.	It was easy to see at the time, but it doesn't show up well here - I was trying to photograph what looked like a pile of water I was pushing downstream ahead of me.	At this point, too far upstream and too shallow for any bassboaters or jet-skiers, the still water was marked with a lot of white feathers.
I stopped here at an isthmus not far from the boat ramp in mid-afternoon because I badly needed to stretch my back. Here's where I ate what was left of my lunch - trail mix, a few pretzl sticks, and drank some water and way-past-expiration-date Gatorade. This could have been a cool photo, but I spoiled it by leaving my hat on the foredeck.	Back in June of 2008, on a drizzly day, I put in at Fire Lake boat ramp on Normandy Lake and paddled as far upstream the Duck as I could get.  I made it to point where Cat Creek joins the Duck, but beyond that, the river extended uphill in a sort of shallow spillway like a set of broad steps curving away to my right.  I dragged Campsis Radicans, my Pouch E68, up to a flat rock large enough to serve as bench and lunch table.  That post is here. In this post, I am experimenting with use of a table to organize my photos.  Seems to be working okay. On Sunday 8/8/10, I skipped worship service and went paddling.  A hot day with a heat index of about a hundred degrees Fahrenheit, I paddled about 14 miles in Ga-Gong or Gongol (my son’s word for “water”) my 1962 Pionier 450-S.  Great boat.  However, its aging hullskin is not as abrasion resistant as it perhaps once was.  The keelstrip I affixed has helped some, but I’m going to have to refrain from taking this boat on any more shallow, rocky expeditions. That’s it for today.	Also at the isthmus was this day camp. Instead of being inhabited by sireens, it was the work of a couple of fishermen who reminded me slightly of a pair of assassins from an old James Bond film, but were pleasant enough to talk to.

Sunday 27 June Estill Springs Slough

I am still trying to figure out how to get multiple photos to appear in some kind of sensible order.  Probably the solution involves inserting a table and inserting the photos into the cells, then adding captions.  I’ll try that next time.

Gongle (or Gongol) my 1962 Pionier 450 S kayak up a shallow creek that empties in to the Elk River upstream from the ruined footbridge above Beth Page Rd.

Starboard (right?) rear three-quarter view showing waterline, rudder, steering yoke.

State of the art comfort seating of 1962. My butt didn’t hurt until about the third hour on the water. The curved seat provided adequate thigh support, and seatback supported my lower back to a much greater degree than either of the modern Pouch folding kayaks I own.

Heading back downstream toward the bridge above Beth Page Rd. Don’t usually manage to make this far upstream on the Elk; helped by recent rains.

Eric paddling Campsis Radicans, my Pouch E68, at Beth Page Rd. bridge. Note the high water.

A blanket of green water plants (dunno what they’re called) near that second bridge.

That’s me looking a little Spock-like under the hat and smirking while at rest in the cockpit of 450 S.

Eric paddling upstream toward that second bridge. Note the waterline. I liked the reflection, which is why I took the picture.

Eric & Campsis Radicans up that shallow creek.

A snapshot of the E68 underway. Eric was using a Werner Skagit paddle he’d purchased a couple of weeks ago to use with the plastic rec-boat he bought. At 230 cm, the paddle is too long for the E68.

Eric snapped about six shots of me getting out of and back in to the 450 S hoping to capture something similar to his concrete-roll portrait the day before at Boat Day in Murfreesboro. Here I’m getting in to the boat. The paddle’s about 223 cm. Dunno what that is in inches.

A not terribly secure lock on our lunchtime mooring in the shade of the bridge at Beth Page Rd. The Pionier came without any deck rigging or perimeter line; I improvised.

A couple sight-seeing in their 20′ pontoon boat

We rafted up for lunch and ate the remains of a large chicken alfredo pizza.

I love this stretch of the Elk River above the ruined bridge. Even in extreme heat, this section is cool from the cold river water, and the smell of spring-water seeping and flowering leafy plants at the rock overhang is pleasant. As a bonus, bird sounds and the sound of wind in the trees makes this place worth the price of admission.

The shallow creek maze where we rested a couple of minutes before proceeding to the next bridge upstream. Usually passage upstream from here necessitates wading and pulling the boat behind not much past this place on the map. The river is to the photographer’s back.

Winchester has a number of these stony piers that don’t seem to have much to do with anything currently visible either here or behind the city’s housing projects.

Some of the stone facing is missing this year. Previously I’d always thought these were Civil War old, but the concrete underneath makes me wonder if they were’nt part of some WPA flood control project before the river was ever dammed.

Strange marker at that second bridge. The map shows a gauging station here.

Swallow nests under that second bridge.

Thursday awaits us at the take-out, an “unimproved” dirt ramp at Estill Springs City Park in Franklin County, Tennessee.

Trumpet creeper, or campsis radicans, in bloom.

Just paddling – note improvised deck rigging.

Keelstrip Project Pionier 450-S

Friday was the day I got around to starting the keelstrip project.  In order to keep from having to buy a new skin for my new boat, I bought a keelstrip kit from Longhaul Folding Kayaks.  Spoke on the phone with the company’s owner, Mark Eckhart, who not only manufactures folding kayaks, but has a keen interest in superannuated folders long out of production.  For a very reasonable price, he sent me a 17’ keelstrip, neoprene cement, a brush, 50 grit sandpaper, rags (for the application of toluene), protective gloves, and printed instructions.

Abrasion of the fabric along the keel is such that I will have to debride some of the loose strings.  I also marked the guidelines wrong and will have to re-center and tape the strip, then re-mark the hull.  Additionally, because the floor of my garage is not particle-free, I’m going to to have to find another place to clean off the strip’s application surface.  Which means that aside from the hull-sanding, I’ll have to start over.  Means I’m going to get another toluene headache, although I’m sure working in the open air helped lessen the toxic effects of the fumes on my neurobiological substrate.

Some pictures:

  

Faltkajak Pionier 450 S Assembled!

Forgot to mention this in my previous post, but this last weekend I found the time to complete assembly of my new Pionier 450 S.  My goal in the next week or two is to affix the keelstrip provided by the manufacturer back in about 1962.  The keel’s worn in some places, but not completely through the skin which I hope will remain serviceable for the next couple of years.  Assembled, this boat is beautiful and lightweight.  I love precise way in which all the parts fit together.  The gunwale or “thele” boards/stringers are a bit fiddly to attach fore and aft, but that was the most difficult part of the process.  This kayak comes with a very interesting spraydeck, and the wooden seat-bottom attaches interestingly.  Below are some rather bad-quality photos of the boat I took over the weekend.

Pionier 450 S Assembly Instructions

Pionier 450 S Instruction Sheets In German and English:

Pionier 450 S Instruction Sheets