kent

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Kent on a Pole

Dropping into Force Falls

Dropping into Force Falls

Despite the recent storms that have been sweeping across the UK I hadn’t been in my kayak for over a month.  It wasn’t due to lack of offers, for some reason I just couldn’t get myself motivated.  So on Saturday with a good forecast I decided it was about time I got out.  The forecast wasn’t as predicted, plenty of rain fell but it had stopped at mid night.  This meant that the smaller upland rivers were dropping quickly and already down to low levels.  I don’t do low levels if I can avoid it.  So we headed straight to the larger lowland river Kent.  I knew this would be high as it rises and falls later than the upland rivers.  It also has a much larger catchment area.  Anyway, enough of geography lesson.

The run itself went ok, I could definitely tell I hadn’t been out for a month.  My paddling felt laboured and not as smooth as it can/should be.  I used far too many back strokes (1 would be too many in my eyes! Sign that you have messed up if you need to use one in my opinion) and missed my intended line on the L shape weir.  However, despite this I was still smiling afterwards.  To keep the smile going we went and paddled a rather high Leven to finish the day.

In the guts of Force Falls

In the guts of Force Falls

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A triple to kick off New Year’s Eve

Lots of rain was forecast through the night.  This time it arrived 🙂

The plan was simple, enjoy some of the classics with plenty of water in them.  We started of with the Sprint, 0.9 on the gauge and holding.  This provided a quality opening to the day, with only “slot and drop” being portaged by myself and Sam.  The rest got through with a right to left line.

After this we headed over to Sedbergh to paddle the Lower Clough.  At the get out the Rawthey looked pretty big, this made me a little apprehensive.  I knew after my last outing on the Clough in high water that the ledges can dish out a beating (https://lakesboaters.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/when-it-goes-wrong/).  So I decided to have a quick look at the gorge before we got on.  Thankfully it wasn’t as high as I had thought, I say probably a perfect level.

After the Clough we headed back over to the Kent to finish the day off.  It turned out to be at the highest level I have paddled it, 1.2 on the gauge.  At this level water is coming over the rock in the middle of Force falls but not quite enough for the boof line to be on.

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Proper Rain At Last!

Rain arrived through the night Wednesday and all day Thursday.  So those that were lucky enough to have a day off (Craig, Ewart, Lee and Tom H) went out to make the most of it.  They started with Troutbeck at a nice level with no incidents then moved onto Skelwith with a new friend who had been soloing, for a park and huck session.

After this they paddled the Sprint at again very good levels with only the new boater swimming in “slot and drop”.  After this Ewart and Pilky manned up to a rather large Kent.

All this time I had been stuck at work watching the rain.  As soon as I could leave myself (Ant), Dan and Tom F meet up with them to paddle the Roeburn, which unfortunately (and hard to fathom) was on the low side.

Please rain like this more often and at more convenient times for me!! 😉

Quote of the day

Craig’s wife: “Just rang the house phone (9pm), you’re not there, where are you?”

Craig: “Just getting off the river, be home soon”

Craig’s wife: “I thought you had grown out of that?!”

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Shap Film Festival

Here is the film I made for the festival (unfortunately I couldn’t go, so don’t know if it was actually shown).  All the rivers featured are with in a 40 minute drive of Lancaster, some considerably closer.  Enjoy.

0:00 – Kent – Force Falls

0:17 – Sprint – Garnett Bridge

0.28 – Troutbeck

0.40 – Artle Beck – 1st rapid/ledge

0.48 – Wenning Wave

1:07 – Doe – Beezley Falls

1:11 – Kent – Gunpowder

1:23 – Hindburn – Double Drop

1:33 – Doe – Beezley Falls

1:37 – Clough (upper) – Ledge Drop

1:41 – Brathay – Skelwith Force

1:46 – Artle Beck – Weir Drop

2:01 – Leck Beck – 1st drop

2:06 – Kent – Force Falls

2:16 – Clough (lower) – 2nd ledge

2:21 – Sprint – Garnett Bridge

2:29 – Doe – 3rd drop

2:37 – Leven – Backbarrow

2:41 – Birk Beck – Docker Force

2:46 – Sprint – Slot and Drop

2:52 – Leck Beck – Drops 1,2 and 3 in the gorge

3:10 – Dee – Ibbeth Peril

3:15 – Clough (upper) – Lemmings Falls

3:26 – Doe – Kiwi Pot

3:31 – Leven – Backbarrow Weir

3:37 – Leck Beck – 4th (last) drop in gorge

3:41 – Sprint – Sprint Mill falls

3:51 – Clough (lower) – exit drop from gorge

3:57 – Kent – Force falls

 

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Lakesboaters meet Rainchasers

On Sunday myself, Rob and Richard had a plan to run Artle beck.  We met at the get out but the level was a tad on the high side so we ended up at the Sprint (via a look at the Hindburn which was empty).   While getting changed at the get on 3 members of the Rainchasers turned up: Jack, Chris and Steve Ed.  We got on together and had a nice run down a Medium level Sprint with no dramas.

Rob had to leave to get back to York but the rest of us headed off to the Kent.  The level was high, the highest I have ever run it.  It all went cleanly (ish) and fun was had by all.

Sprint:

Kent:

 

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Lakes Triple Crown

Flood warnings were issued but the rain still hadn’t arrived when I went to bed on Sunday night.  I was woken up by a phone call Monday morning from Rob telling me that the rain had definitely arrived!!

So off I went to meet Rob and Atti at the Sprint.  While driving down into Burneside the water was pouring off the hills so I was confident the Sprint would be going.  It was more than just going when we got there!!

I attempted to film it all on the new headcam but unfortunately the battery died (my fault for not charging it from the previous days use).  So for the last drop we used Atti’s camera.  From the video you will see why I am sticking with HD from now on.

Everything went fine except slot and drop which we all portaged.   The only annoying thing (well for Atti) was I had left my car keys in his car!  Thankfully he managed to hitch his way to the top.

Atti and Rob had to leave after the Sprint.  I had a few hours to kill until I met Craig (was on a WWS&R course), so I decided to head home and charge my camera. On the way back I checked out the Kent (2pm ish), which was well in spate with the centre rock boof line definitely a goer.

Camera charged I met up with Pilky and headed off to meet Craig at the Troutbeck (5.30pm).  Unfortunately the majority of the water had run off and it was going at a low-level.  It was only my 2nd time on it and I definitely saw that it has potential.

We got off Troutbeck at 6.40 pm and quickly set off to the Kent.  The Kent had dropped to a manageable high level.  I so often do the Kent when nothing else is going that it made a change to run it with water in it!!

We blasted down and got off the water at 7.50 pm, not bad for an April evening.  As  you can see the GoPro cam handles the low light well.

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Testing my new GOPRO HD headcam.

I thought I would treat myself to a new gadget this week, the GOPRO HERO HD headcam.

So first impressions were good, it looks well put together and the waterproof casing looks bombproof.  Apparently it is slightly bigger than the original HERO so if you are thinking of upgrading you will have to buy the whole package and not just the camera.  I bought the helmet cam package, which comes with several attachments.  The ones I was interested in were the sticky attachments – 2 curved and 2 flat.  I have attached one to my helmet and one to front deck of my boat.  They appear very solid, but I have improvised a leash just in cast they do fail.

There are 5 different video settings with 4 of them being HD.  I chose to use 960p @ 30fps (1280 x 960) as it gives the maximum overall view in my opinion.  With the 16gb card I should be able to get roughly 2 hrs 45 mins of footage.  However, the battery will run out before that.

Anyway I will let the footage speak for itself.

Leven Headcam

Kent Deckcam

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Dusting off the Cobwebs

It has been an age since I have been in a boat. I can count on one hand the number of decent trips I have had this winter. With rain all day today I was hopeful that something might go after work. I was disappointed that Artle beck hadnt even risen, so we quickly drove up to the Kent to find that at an acceptable low level.

With evenings only going to get longer from now, I plan to get out every time it rains.