paddling alone can be safer than paddling with others sometimes. doug ammons has a great article on just that. i've been running the watauga by myself a good bit recently, even when i was still paddling my remix with no thigh straps, so i swam alone a couple times. i've had some of my all time favorite days paddling solo. my first and so far only run on lower big creek was at dusk one day this summer reading and running my way down. my first trip on the doe at a flow that i now consider too low for the run, but with the foliage at peak in a beautiful canyon it was well worth it even though i broke my boat/
don't paddle anything solo where you aren't 100% confident in your ability to either stay in your boat, or to recover your gear in the event of a swim. so i don't want to hear about you on the potlatch at 3500 cfs by yourself. and i wouldn't say that kayakers up there are fairweather boaters. erin is still going up to the spokane to surf at least once a week.
i know as much as you enjoy boating, just getting down to the snake to paddle once a month on flatwater will be well worth it for you. and get the full mystery hood if you haven't yet. that thing rocks for the under 30 (or under 20 days)
Hey everybody, thanks for the input. I was mostly curious about how much others in the Cboating community boat solo. I regularly go out during the winter, though nothing technical or outside my comfort zone.
In my area there really isn't much paddling to had in the winter - at least not without a significant drive. Aside from the dam impounded Snake river (20 miles away), there is the Salmon river (150 miles), the Spokane river (90 miles) and lastly, the Grande Ronde river (65 miles). The Grande Ronde is a easy class II river with a very thrashy play hole, and my boating destination of late. It is an easy river to self rescue, if need be. It can be a very beautiful float, both winter, spring and summer.
Gabe, don't worry, I'm not running the Potlatch alone - you should know better.
Here are a couple of photos of the Grande Ronde from different times of the year. The first couple are from last May. That's Oopsiflipped on the Hole in the Wall wave. The others are from the fall of last year.
And Phil, you are right, being on the river alone has its perks. Sometimes there are bighorn sheep and elk down by the water.
A lot of it is on stretches where mostly there will be others, altho not necessarily in cold weather.
Not too many others close by want to boat the way I boat, so even if I would start with them, most likely we would split.
I'm well aware of the issues. Many wildwater boaters train alone; I've never forgotten Donna Berglund, K-1W, neighbor, who died on a solo class-2 river practice run. Often wondered how she felt as fate closed in. She was a good boater, but not at the top. That one last run before the Nationals was supposed to be extra $ in the bank for the big run.
Boating alone is always a (hopefully calculated) risk. I do what I do understanding that, and willing to accept the consequences if the gods of probability pull my number. But I've had a lot more years of past boating than lie in my future.
Some solo boating is pretty safe, some is not. Understand the risks and consider the possibilities. Don't be stupid.
I paddle solo lots, I recon it is better to be alone and know it than to think you are in a group only to find out you are infact alone when it turns to custard, I started through not having anyone to go with, often in Europe which was all new and I knew few locals then continued at home when I (an older guy with one blade) could not keep up with the Kayakers I boat with. I recon its safer to go alone than to be exausted and rushed trying to keep up.
Now I really enjoy going alone, there is more of an edge, I'm really aware and focused and love having the river to myself and not having to check ahead and behind to see who is in that eddy and who is going to slam into my eddy. What grade will I do? Well when I go to a new river alone and the book rates it a four I will do it solo, above that I'll flag it or wait for someone who knows the lines.
My favourite solo experiences are rivers arround grade Four, prety technical and continual that I know resonably well paddled in the cool of a summer evening with the long shaddows of sunset. Thats when it becomes quite spiritual and it is the search for this state of nirvana that motivates me to keep boating year round often alone.
I'm heading out alone in a few minutes. It's 30 degrees & there's some kind of foreign white substance on the ground (laugh if you will, but that's doggone cold down here) & the dam is in 'flood control' mode.
and i wouldn't say that kayakers up there are fairweather boaters. erin is still going up to the spokane to surf at least once a week.
