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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Jumping hurdles

Spit-shined ready for the road

We're lucky where we live in Newfoundland on the Avalon Peninsula. The salt water doesn't freeze over and that gives us a chance to paddle all year round. A few hours away and its possible to drive a vehicle over the sea ice.

But salt water is corrosive and taking good care of the gear requires the salt be washed off of everything. That's sometimes a bit of a hurdle because there isn't much open fresh water and certainly no rain barrels. Getting out the water hose isn't a lot of fun either this time of year. Therefore, I try to find paddling destinations that have flowing fresh water at or near the take-out.

Topsail is one such location. Sunday after our paddle Dean and I pulled our boats into the fresh water of the lagoon behind the sandbar where I rinsed everything out. A guy walking his dog looked on in disbelief as I stood in waist deep water with ice floating around to rinse off the boat and then threw myself into the water.

Washed up, I pushed the boat up onto the ice, spit-shined ready to go home. Dean in a plastic boat was able to beat his way through the ice.

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