Eastern Mountain Sports Insulated Fence Mender Pants

Let's cut to the chase: These are the best pants since they started putting legs on shorts.

They're lined with a thin and LIGHT primaloft insulation. Not too much bulk, excellent movement, non restricting and I've actually mended fences while wearing them...  I've also worked in the woods, built MTB trails, went canoeing (but stayed in the canoe), but they really excel at sitting around the campfire on a cold fall night.

The EMS pose.

Pockets... The pockets are lined with puppy dogs' ears. Soft.  It would be nice to have one zippered pocket.  The hammer loop is made from a tough nylon material that's rolled for easy access. The two aft belt loops are also made from nylon but I don't know why.  The inner waist band is also reinforced with nylon and the stitching and rivets go all the way through including the lining.

There is one negative review on the EMS Website.  http://www.ems.com/product/index.jsp?productId=10919680&cp=3707807.12194889
I don't know what this guy was thinking. He bought them... then discovered they aren't nylon???

Yep, the pockets are this soft!

If you're looking for a pair of outdoor, bang around, working trousers than buy these... not mine. I've been wearing them since I got'em.

Deep In the Drainage ELF

It rained in the drainage. Hard. Flash Flood warnings. The rain pelted the roof all night. I could barely sleep. Eagerly anticipating the next day. Creeking in August on free flowing streams.

I got up and looked out at the river. I could see rocks. Not a good sign. I checked the 24hr cumulative on the radar. It showed yellow all throughout the watershed. I checked the USGS gauges online. They were shooting straight up but not to the point that provided any confidence.

Puttering around the house I was skeptical that any local creeking was going to happen, at least in a hard shell boat.

Plan B: Load up the ducky, mountain bike and fly rod. I figured it was a safe bet that I would be able to mix all three into an adventure for the day, maybe into the evening.  So I ran off to load everything up and search for a few vital components. As I was leaving I thought better of my plan B and ran back into the house to leave a note.  

I headed north up into the drainage- some of the smaller creekers looked promising but as I started to pick off the favorites it became clear that nothing was going on this side of the drainage. I gassed up in Sparkle City- ripped of by gas prices a good 20 cents a gallon higher than down in the valley and bought an over priced sub that turned out to be pretty good.

Next valley over, things were looking good so I dropped off my boat and fishin gear and drove the truck down to the take-out. Here the water looked low but still paddlable. It was a short, 3mile bike ride back up.

I felt better about leaving the note as I wound up at the last resort destination on my list of possibilities and there is not any DEC sign in boxes where I was going.

 

The paddle in on the flatwater section showed renewed beaver activity and one did startle me as it slapped its tail right along side my boat.

 

The clouds looked like it may produce the forecasted thunderstorms.

 

The water level is quite a bit lower than I thought it would be. This is ELF boating (Extremely Low Flow) good times.

 

I did not get any interest from the local brook trout population throwing out a nymph with some attractor colors, but the dry flies sure piqued their interest.

Paddling with an Old Friend, In Old Boats, On an Old Favorite River

Hey, they're not making 'old' friends like they use to, at least as the older I get. So when I got a phone call, not a text or an email, an actual phone call, to go paddle the Sacandaga River, I jumped at the chance.
This old friend showed up one late night on my door step decades ago. Back when we lived in a trailer next to the river.  He had paddled by and from the river saw our kayaks loaded on the roof of our van. By the time he got to his car and drove back to where he thought we lived it had gotten pretty dark. Persistent he is, and after driving some back roads he finally stumbled upon our home and knocked on the door. Now not too many people ever come out our way unannounced so we thought someone was in trouble. But our future old friend explained it was his first day out with his Dancer and he was looking for someone to paddle with or take him paddling. We agreed to take Dancer out and show him some local rivers and give him a couple pointers. But we really thought he would be like most beginners and get tired of swimming or get too busy with life and eventually quit. But Dancer kept with it and developed into a competent, independent and safe boater with class V skills.
Life gets in the way but fortunately the river was still there waiting.

Seldom Seen Places in the Drainage

Granted there is some flat water to paddle.  But, it’s not like the upper Otter Creek with the largest logjam east of the Mississippi River, I tried to explain to Burn. “Come on man”, I protested, “I’m taking you where few boaters have traveled. “

There isn’t even a fishermen trail, there are no campsites, or old fire rings. Can’t paddle here in the spring because the road is seasonal, and when the spring thaw goes out the road is impassable due to mud. By the time the road is passable the bugs are out in force, black flies, mosquitos, deer flies, noseeums. They can make the paddle into the whitewater seem much longer than it is.

How long is this long flat-water approach? I don’t know and I really don’t mind the paddle. One hot summer day we searched for a short cut. Dennis, Rio and I hiked in from the road where it was closest to the creek. After bushwacking around for most of the day, without map or compass or water, we staggered through the swamp that separates creek from road. Rio kept cool by wallowing through the mud, Dennis and Mike kept cool by… well, wallowing in the mud. 

Looking back upstream at Real Drop #3

Walking away from Countyline Creek

Anticipations were off the scale as rain had been coming down in the drainage for a few days. As chance would have it I was able to squeeze in some time for an assault on Countyline Creek.  However, time was tight, 10AM to 2PM. This is more than enough time for a casual paddle but gets tight when you have travel constraints. Last minute plans included my friends Burn and Nomad to meet mid morning. On my way home I got a call from another friend M243. The four of us were to converge at the get in/ take out at 10.

When I arrived I immediately walked over and peered through the dense foliage and across the East Branch of the Sacandaga River and spied the last falls. It looked ideal, with a sheet of water splashing over the mid-stream portion of the falls.

Eventually the late arrivals made their way and started suiting up. M243 and Pure hiked down and paddled over to the bottom of CLC to wait. A short walk up to the bottom falls and I was surprised to see much more water coming down than what I had thought. M243 and Nomad are not familiar with this creek so I pointed out some of the nuances of the last drop. Even at high water there is a piton rock on the right that continues to be in play and the river left chute drops into a sticky hole.

We regrouped and started hiking up stream and as soon as I saw the next drop I knew that this was not going to be good. This is the widest drop on the river and it was completely covered. Everything from here on up is narrower and steeper. The higher flow would push one gorge into another. I knew this from experience. This drop we were looking at had cost me a boat and a friendship. I really miss that boat.

So, I called it. “This isn’t the day”, I said. M243 was gracious, Nomad and Burn looked relieved. The crux was the time and group size. Burn and I had paddled this at about this level and I had even paddled it solo and survived. However, there was the potential for the group to get too spread out with the less familiar getting left behind as the more experienced got flushed downstream. There would be no way to boat scout and give verbal descriptions before dropping into the many gorges. Then people would be forced to get out and scout from shore and this takes time that I didn’t have to spare.

We hiked back down the short ways and paddled out and back across. Regrouping, we hopped on the East Branch of the Sacandaga and had a great, and relaxed, paddle/surf session.

Cheers.

Pick Two

Pick Two

Expense, Weight, Durability

How much money do you want to spend? This will greatly influence weight and durability. Rotomolded plastic is the cheapest yet most durable option. Sure you could find a chopper’d sprayed in vinylester/fiberglass boat cheaper BUT, it would not be more durable and would be much heavier. 

There is a relatively ‘new’ process called by different proprietary names, but they’re generally referred to as ‘Thermo-formed’.  These boats take plastic to the next level: they’re slightly lighter, maybe a tad less durable than roto-molded and more expensive.

On the other end of the continuums we have composite boats. They’re much lighter using vacuum bagging techniques, exotic materials such as Kevlar, carbon fiber, and/or honeycomb foam cores with epoxy resins. Options such as keel strips add significant durability and still more expense. Materials aside, hand made boats are time intensive and much more expensive.

Therefore, you can have a high performance boat that is light and durable but you will pay thousands of dollars or euros.  You can have a boat that is cheap and durable, but it will weigh significantly more.

This brings me to two boats that I would like to own. 

Rockpool Taran and the Wilderness Systems Zephyr

Rockpool Taran

I’ve never paddled one but this boat just screams at me. Long, composite, and wicked cool graphics. I have no idea what it would cost because I can’t find one in the U.S. It’s just not a long and fast boat that tracks straight. Supposedly it also surfs and turns without the aid of a rudder (although it comes with a rudder/skeg system).  Love at first sight… I can smell the resin…

Wilderness Systems Zephyr

OK, so here is a boat I could afford and really like to paddle. On the shorter side at 16 feet (the boat also comes in a 15.5 foot model but it’s a little tight on my legs) this boat has a ton of rocker which means it will turn and surf. (And it comes in Orange)

Technically, rocker is the shape of the hull when looking from the side. A flat-rocker’d boat will track straight and be slightly faster because of the long waterline. A rocker’d boat will be upturned at the end (think of a banana with the ends turned up) and will turn easier, but be a tad slower due to the shorter wetted waterline. 

If you have a cool picture of the Zephyr, send it.

Great Sacandaga is a Resevoir but it's called a Lake

Great Sacandaga Lake, collection point for water in the drainage, is really a reservoir. A reservoir built, ehhhh, around 1930 to hold back the water and prevent flooding on the Hudson River. I think also to augment commercial shipping and keep the salt water below Poughkeepsie during the summer when the flow of the Hudson is at its lowest. The name change to the Great Sacandaga Lake is most likely for aesthetics and to attract tourist. 

Where outcast pirates go.

June 8^th, near record high temp forecasted to 93F (ok, for some not that hot but humid) a group of us launched from the Northville DEC Boat ramp and paddled south towards the flooded Northampton Campground. The lake is relatively narrow in this stretch but within a few miles it opens up to an area that is six miles across. Here the winds from the west have more to work with and the fetch can create some large waves and whitecaps.

We paddled around a few islands, into and out of the wind, and then headed back north. There were a couple Bald Eagles riding the thermals and the mountains to the west were hazy with pollen. 

Change in weather, pace picks up.

Half way back the western clouds started to build and darken with a distant rumble of thunder. The forecast, while hot, did not predict any thunderstorms. However, we were not surprised by the change. The ‘nowcast’ was obviously more accurate. The paced picked up noticeably as we nonchalantly developed alternative plans should the front close us off. Even though I planned the trip the group was comfortable with sharing decisions, see Common Adventure Model in Outdoor Leadership.

Ominous Sky

We stuck to plan B and bypassed the lakeside Pub continuing back to our vehicles. The storm pretty much passed to our south with just a brief down pour to hasten securing boats.