Thames River - CJF Ross to Gibbons Park

I had a fun run today with some of the locals. The levels were similar to the last time. It was a fun paddle with Steve, Debbie, Dave, Brenda, Bob and Flash. Bob got some great pics. (www.skydog.ca under Kayaking) Once again a spot just south of the UWO bridge was excellent for pratice. Looking forward to the next one.

Steve

Pearling.

Playing on edge.

Thames River

Well we finally got onto the Thames yesterday. With local paddler Mike as our guide, Sara, Elaine (a western club member from Chatham) and I started near the Richmond St. Bridge and ended at Harris park. The river was at about 6.36 meters, a little rocky in spots but Mike showed us some great play spots, even with the low levels. Elaine was successful on her first combat roll, and Sara showed us how difficult the Liquid Logic Skip can be on moving water. All in all it was a good trip, looking forward to many more over the summer. We didn't have any cameras so there are no pics to post, but I'm sure we will get plenty in the future. Thanks again Mike!

Almost there.

It's finally getting warm. Today we went for a walk and took a few pictures. Think me may actually head out on the river tomorrow. Classes at western have finally ended. :( There is a trip to the Ottawa planned for May, hopefully we will be there for the latter part of the trip. Looking forward to the paddling season and I will try to post as many pics as I can on here.

A closer look at the river right behind our apartment.

View of the Thames from our balcony.

Western Kayaking

I was flipping through a 2003 edition of rapid magazine. I found a section on university clubs and it has a blurb on Western. Rapid has issues available online. Here is a link to the page! Sadly the winter class' are coming to an end, but the real paddling season is just starting. :)

This pic was posted on the sxpaddlers yahoo group with the quote "It's all got to melt". :)

Thames. February. Low levels. Shallow rapids downstream.

Thames. February. Lower levels looking upstream, channel narrows and deepens.

Will do.

Thames River, January high levels. There are definately some spots to avoid. There was a tall fallen tree submerged in this picture being battered against the upstream trees creating the wave.

Thames River, January high levels. Would make for a great put-in were it not for the fence.

Is it spring yet?

No? How about now?
I haven't posted anything on here yet accept some pictures I had kicking around. So I thought I'd add a posting, because what good is a blog that you never use.
The only kayaking we've been doing lately is in a pool with the university of western ontario kayak club. Not to say pool time isn't fun, we've gotten our hand rolls down and are starting to learn to get our boats vertical. The kayak water polo is good for a few fun bruises too. I don't think it will be much longer until we've outgrown our current boats, but time will tell.
I've gotten in touch with people who paddle the Thames river here, (even a white water guy) and I've gotten some interest from people in the university kayak club. So it looks like we'll get to do some paddling in the spring right here in London.
Speaking of future trips a week long trip to the Ottawa is planned for the spring as well. I think we've decided to spend atleast a good chunk of the week there. We have rafted the Ottawa river before so we have an idea of what to expect, which is a whole new class of river compared to what we've done so far. It will probably be a week of wake up / eat / paddle / eat /paddle / eat /drink / drink / sleep / repeat... I think we'll have to start working out more to have a hope of surviving. :)
Anywho, I'll try to get some pics up here from the pool, by for now.