Storm Warning

557 words – two minute read time.

I try to have an adventure everyday. It could be anything from trying out a new restaurant to mountain biking a different trail. Sometimes I just do what is easy.

I live in a unique mountain valley in southern British Columbia Canada where the large Kootenay river seldom freezes. The best part is that there is a launch site that is about fifteen minutes from where I keep my kayaks.

One afternoon in early January with the sun shining and temperatures hovering around freezing, I took a break from work and went for a quick paddle. Because I do this so often, my kayak and gear is always ready. It only takes a few minutes to load the kayak, get to the river, and launch. I find that even with a hectic schedule, I can easily get an hour on the water with out disrupting much of my day.

Within a few minutes of launching my old “skin on frame” kayak, I noticed the sky darkening indicating a winter squall approaching. The storm hit quickly with increased winds driving snow and building waves. With the wind at my back…this is where I should mention that my back represents a fairly large sail area as I’m a big guy…. Anyway, between the wind pushing me and the building waves I found that I was beginning to surf faster than I could paddle. This seemed like a good time to cut my outing short and head back to the truck.

 

Photo caption: Just as a following wind was picking up. There are no photos of the storm as I was busy paddling

 

Pulling into the lee of a river bend, I turned about and headed into the teeth of the storm. By now I had white capping waves breaking over the bow of my vessel and wind blown snow hitting me square in the face. I was also on the wrong side of the river…I would have to cross it to get back to the launch site.

Although I was well dressed for a cold winter paddle, I should have been wearing a drysuit like cold water divers use, which would help keep me alive if I ended up in the frigid water. As well, expedition kayaks are set up with a detachable spray skirt that the paddler wears around their waist and covers the the open cockpit to keep water out of the boat. Unfortunately, the spray skirt that came with my antique, German made boat was too small for my large body, so my cockpit was wide open.

Ever mindful to keep the bow into the waves where they could wash over the deck without getting into the open cockpit; I used a technique called “ferrying” to cross the river while still maintaining forward movement into the wind and breaking waves. Even so, it was a tough, wet paddle to make it back to the take out.

To keep things in perspective, at no time did I feel that I was in danger. The weather simply changed the paddling conditions from a normally calm state to rough seas and high winds. Sea kayaks are built to handle this…and more, way more. What the sudden winter squall did was change a routine outing into an adventure. More important…it created some excitement to my day.

Adventure is where you find it.