Kayaking

River Hazards & How To Survive Them | Paddling.com

River Hazards & How To Survive Them | Paddling.com

Each type of water: whether expansive oceans and lakes or meandering streams and rivers – have their own unique hazards that challenge the paddler. Some are natural such as currents, rip tides, rocks, reefs, narrowing channels, winds and myriad natural obstacles (surface and submerged). Other hazards are man-made (dams, weirs, spillways, structure abutments, stump fields, barge wake) that can also cause the flowing waters to act in ways that can be very dangerous to paddlers of all skill levels. Of these, arguable none present the diversity and intensity of hazards as do the flowing channels of water we call rivers.

Kayak and Solar Panel

While it shouldn’t have surprised me, the kayak and solar panel played together nicely this past weekend. πŸ”Œ The kayak rides well clear of the panel, and doesn’t really have much of an impact on loading and unloading While the solar panel doesn’t produce much output while the kayak is on the truck, parked in the sun while I was out paddling fully recharged the battery so I had plenty of power for the second night.😎

The solar panel probably makes the truck even a bit more top heavy and unstable with the kayak on roof but I’ve not noticed it. The kayak seems to ride fine although a little bit of due care is needed while driving on the expressway, especially at 65 mph with the wind on some of the hills of the Thruway outside of Amsterdam. 🚚 A high center of gravity probably isn’t that dangerous, especially with the under steer of the big tires of my truck but one has to be careful – one time a few years I swerved with the kayak on the roof – and there was a lot of body lean. But things were fine but I learned my lesson to be careful.

I really should bring my kayak along for more adventures.

Exploring the back roads of Lewis County