Duwamish paddling
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Class II rapids dump n00b.
Wanted to try paddling up the Duwamish. On paddling.com they have a put in site for Codiga park. Checked it out but there was a good 100 yard portage to get to the water. Thought I'd see if I could come up with a place with a shorter walk and went back a put in site I had found previously.
There were rapids at the put in (they are there near low tide) but I was traveling up stream and did not go through them. Going up river was not too difficult, not too strong of a flow.
Tiny island in the middle of the river. It even had blackberries on it. (No, I didn't get out and pick them.)
Found a spot with some small rapids and I made the mistake of trying to paddle up them. Wanted to see if I could fight the current. Was at too much of an angle and the current started pushing my boat around downstream. Second mistake was trying to fight the turning of the boat and sploosh, found myself in the water. My initial thought was that I have to pull the rip cord on the spray skirt and realized that the skirt was already off, I was already out of the boat. Pretty much immediately exited as the boat was going over, don't even think my head went under.
So got in a nice swim. Water was not too bad. Floated down to a spot where I could stand. Thought about turning around at the point but noticed there was a short easy portage around the rapids and decided to do that and keep going. Lesson learned. If you can easily go around the rapids rather than up through them, that might be the better choice.
Initial plan was to make it to the freeway. When I got to the freeway I thought I still had energy and maybe would go a bit further. Small rapids under the freeway and the current was just enough to convince me to turn around at that point.
Of course had some minor trepidation of going back through the rapids but doing them straight through on the way down wasn't even a challenge. I think trying to upstream through rapids is a skill to develop. Could go through much higher end stuff the other way.
Wanted to try paddling up the Duwamish. On paddling.com they have a put in site for Codiga park. Checked it out but there was a good 100 yard portage to get to the water. Thought I'd see if I could come up with a place with a shorter walk and went back a put in site I had found previously.
There were rapids at the put in (they are there near low tide) but I was traveling up stream and did not go through them. Going up river was not too difficult, not too strong of a flow.
Tiny island in the middle of the river. It even had blackberries on it. (No, I didn't get out and pick them.)
Found a spot with some small rapids and I made the mistake of trying to paddle up them. Wanted to see if I could fight the current. Was at too much of an angle and the current started pushing my boat around downstream. Second mistake was trying to fight the turning of the boat and sploosh, found myself in the water. My initial thought was that I have to pull the rip cord on the spray skirt and realized that the skirt was already off, I was already out of the boat. Pretty much immediately exited as the boat was going over, don't even think my head went under.
So got in a nice swim. Water was not too bad. Floated down to a spot where I could stand. Thought about turning around at the point but noticed there was a short easy portage around the rapids and decided to do that and keep going. Lesson learned. If you can easily go around the rapids rather than up through them, that might be the better choice.
Initial plan was to make it to the freeway. When I got to the freeway I thought I still had energy and maybe would go a bit further. Small rapids under the freeway and the current was just enough to convince me to turn around at that point.
Of course had some minor trepidation of going back through the rapids but doing them straight through on the way down wasn't even a challenge. I think trying to upstream through rapids is a skill to develop. Could go through much higher end stuff the other way.