2015: Post 9 – Snowshoes, paddling, and damage to Jenny..

We had a good bit of snow last week, so when I came home from work yesterday (Friday) I decided it was time to dig out my shed. I walked along the side of the house sinking into the snow.  Seemed like it was a good time to finally try out the snowshoes I had given myself as a Christmas present...  I beat down a path to the shed and shoveled out the entrance, then walked around the backyard for a while.  The snowshoes worked well, keeping me afloat on the deep snow.

Faber Green Mountain snowshoes (or Elongated
Bear Paws if you prefer) with heavy duty lacing

Looking down on my shed

Okay, so now on to the paddling... 

Tony, Gerard and I meet for the second weekend in a row this morning.  Today we decided to paddle from St. Philips up to Brock's Pond Falls.  With the cold weather we've had we were hoping for interesting landscape features at the falls...

The snow allowed us to drag the kayaks
from the cars to the put-in

There was a bit of slob-ice
along the beach at St. Philips

I jokingly told Tony to try to knock this big icicle
off the cliffs so I could get a good picture... next thing I
knew he took a whack at it with his paddle and knocked
off the pointy tip!!!

The falls weren't as spectacular as I had hoped. All this
snow we had covered over whatever ice there may have been

Looking toward Bell Island

Back at Portugal Cove, after nearly three hours in the kayaks since
leaving St. Philips, we decided it was time for a break  

Tony

Gerard

At some point on the way up to the falls the water sucked out from under me and dropped me a bit hard down on a rock.  I said to Tony if he sees the back of my kayak sinking down we'll know why... Last week I sustained some damage around the skeg as well... Oh the horror!!

The damage from today

The damage from last week

Looks like I have a little bit of repair work to do when the weather warms up later in the spring...