Kudzu Posted February 2, 2014 Report Share Posted February 2, 2014 First off, if you don't have immersion gear, don't EVEN THINK about paddling in cold water!!! If you do and you don't know how to do a wet entry while stressed, don't EVEN THINK about paddling in cold water!!! With that out of the way, we have had some brutal cold air single digits the last week. The lake rarely freezes but some bodies of water had iced up. I thought it had all melted and went over to Short Creek today only to find it was still mostly ice. Headed to Town Creek and found it too was frozen but the ramp on the other side of the causeway was open. So I launched with all the fishermen and decided to paddle is the ice flow coming out from under the bridge. I discovered that paddling in ice is a seriously bad idea! You can't paddle if your paddle is on top of a sheet of ice. That means you can not brace if you boat gets tipped. Paddling over a floating sheet of is another bad idea. It lifts the boat up because it is much more buoyant than you would expect. It also it much stronger than you would expect so it doesn't break.Which means you find yourself needing to brace the boat which you can't really do. Picking a patch through the clear water and staying away from the ice seemed like fun. Till you start back under the bridge and find that flowing ice has now filled up the clear channel you came in on. Put your paddle in the water and end up with it under a ice sheet is not fun either. I am sure there are more reasons, but after 15 max., I was totally stressed and happy to be back in clear water and headed to ramp! It was something I have always wanted to do but after trying it I will never do that again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hirilonde Posted February 2, 2014 Report Share Posted February 2, 2014 I get the impression Jeff doesn't like paddling in ice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveKos Posted February 3, 2014 Report Share Posted February 3, 2014 It appears to leave him cold (sorry, someone had to say it). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P Doug (WA) Posted February 3, 2014 Report Share Posted February 3, 2014 I would never have to worry about ice. I'm a warm weather paddler, I don't go near cold water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northernMike Posted February 3, 2014 Report Share Posted February 3, 2014 I would think a Greenland or Aleut boat could goe with the floe ... noe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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