Snow is hard to find around Ithaca this year, so a bunch of us decided to go searching for some powder elsewhere! We had a lovely day of cross country skiing at Bear Swamp State Forest, just southwest of Skaneateles Lake. Here's a map of the trails! The crew included Rob, Ben, Sarah, Emily, Rick (Emily's dad), and me. We departed from COE a little after 10am (after waiting for Ben to polish his rental skis...). The drive from Ithaca was approximately an hour.
About 5 minutes into the trip it was clear that I am by far the slowest XC skier ever. It probably didn't help that I went with a bunch of experts... The moments between falling on my face were quite enjoyable!
Most of the trails were really nice and fluffy with snow, but towards the end the trail followed a creek which was not frozen. This resulted in some very ice-laden skis which made it feel like we were snow-shoeing instead of skiing.
On the ride home we chatted and munched on some chocolate bars that Rob brought - yum! Also, this was my last day of adventures with Emily before she graduates and moves back to Colorado! I'm gonna miss this girl! Hopefully I'll have some Colorado posts in the near future...
A few weeks ago my graduate adviser offhandedly mentioned that there was a need to develop a more detailed outline of the south end of Cayuga Lake for the hydrologic model he and some colleagues are working on. There is a particularly high need for a more accurate outline of the inlet and other contributing waterways at the southern tip of the lake. In an effort to validate my kayaking with some sort of productive excuse, I offered to take a GPS along while I paddled as far as possible up the various tributaries of Cayuga Lake.
Last Sunday some Ithaca kayaking buddies (Ben, Rob, and Esther) and I headed down to Cass Park to attempt to map the inlet. The GPS seemed to be working and recording data as we paddled, which was a relief! The channels we paddled (from west to east) included:
#1 The "Inlet" - The widest and longest of the four, this channel is relatively unexciting. The wind was coming from the south, so we had a pretty strong breeze to paddle against on the way down. We were stopped by a dam across the channel.
#2 A nameless (?) side channel - The beginning of the channel has a long boat house where a number of big boats are propped up above the water for the winter. It was the perfect (and slightly scary) opportunity to play kayak Limbo: That red thing above my boat is a HUGE boat propped up on some little legs...
This channel also takes you past Wegmans, which is always very exciting. Before getting to Wegmans, however, you pass The Jungle. It's a little triangle of land owned by the railroad company that the homeless of Ithaca have called their home for more than 70 years. Click here to see some pictures and here for more about the Jungle.
#3 Six Mile Creek- This section of the creek is not the most scenic.. We paddled past some suburban plazas, and were once again limited by the shallow water.
#4 Cascadilla Creek- The entrance to this creek is north a bit, right near the Ithaca wastewater treatment plant. Part of the goal of modeling the lake is to see how much of an effect point-source pollution (like wastewater treatment plants) has on the lake compared with non-point source pollution (like fertilizer runoff). Anyways, we were shortly limited by the shallow water. This channel had many more down trees blocking off sides of the creek.
I'm not sure how successful it was from a GPS standpoint (I haven't had a
chance to look at the data yet). It was hard to maintain a constant
distance from shore due to super shallow water, docks, and fallen trees.
We were, however, successful in having an enjoyable kayaking trip. Rob demonstrated a new feat: kayak pull-ups on low bridges:
He also tested his cold water rolling abilities... even later in the year than last time!
Date: November 14th, 2010 Distance: 10 miles Weather: Partly cloudy, pretty windy, 60ish degrees F
After a fun-filled weekend at Ontario Greenland Camp where I learned two new Greenland rolls, I was excited to attend one of Cornell Outdoor Education's kayak pool sessions to practice! If you're ever interested in joining, I can bring up to two guests for free, so check out the dates on the News page and let me know when you'd like to attend.
The turnout was great - 12 people in kayaks in the pool makes for lots of boat-bumping and fun. There was a well-balanced mix of experienced rollers and excited beginners.
This is the first time I've had movies in my blog, so let me know if they don't work for some reason! Here's one of me doing a rough version of 1/2 a reverse sweep roll (normally you're supposed to go over the other direction, but I'm still trying to refine this portion of the roll):
Here's one of Rob doing a bunch of C-to-C rolls in a row!
Here's one more of Ben doing a hand roll!
Any feedback on rolling technique is much appreciated! More videos to come in the future.
What a beautiful day for a paddle! Today I helped Rob teach the FAST (Fall All Staff Training for COE) sea kayak seminar. The students were all COE instructors for different sports -- mostly climbers -- so they were a really enthusiastic bunch! We met at East Shore Park and went over the basics (fitting in boats, wet exits, deep water re-entries, and basic paddle strokes) and then went for a short paddle punctuated with mini play-times. Most people were really excited to try t-rescues, and some people even worked on their roll. Dan got his roll on the second try! It was very exciting! Everyone was excited to hear about the tri-weekly pool sessions available to all COE instructors, so hopefully they'll be back for more.
I didn't take any pictures, but we could see Todd (COE director) snapping shots from the shore, so maybe we'll make it into next year's catalog! The strap on my camera snapped a few days ago so I'm trying to find ways to remedy that...
I haven't been a very good blogger lately... or kayaker for that matter. That's what school and working at the kayak shop do to you. At least I can be optimistic that when I graduate and have a 9-5 job I'll have more time to paddle!
Now that I'm back in Ithaca, Ben and I made it out on Monday morning for a solid paddle around the south end of Cayuga. A little under 9 miles. The weather was very eerie, with the sun shining through dark clouds that continuously passed over our heads. The strange lighting made it feel like the world was about to end. But we paddled through the random drizzles anyways...
No pictures... I was lazy. No map because I'd just be reposting one of the previous maps. Sorry, lame post! This weekend I'll be helping Rob teach the COE Fall All Staff Training sea kayaking seminar, so that should be fun.
I found out today that my master's project will have to do with developing a method to calculate stream flow in the inlet channels to Cayuga lake. Right now they have various ways of estimating the flow based on flow measurements upstream, but they want a way to do it more accurately right in the inlet. My adviser even suggested that I might get to take a small boat (i.e. kayak) back and forth across the channel to measure the flow. I'll post more info when I find out more about it!
