Paddling 2012
by Mike Thompson, 12/19/2012
Jane and I did some fun paddling in 2012. The weekend after school got out in June we drove east for a weekend of paddling on Moses Lake and Seep Lakes. A couple Saturdays later we drove north on I-5, west on Milltown Road just north of Stanwood, and paddled a loop on the lower Skagit River delta. Late in the summer we drove up to Bellingham via Chuckanut Drive, had a nice breakfast in Fairhaven, put the canoe in right by the ferry terminal, and paddled down to Chuckanut Bay and back. That nine-mile round trip was our longest paddle together to date. The Sound was calm with not a breath of wind all day, and the scenery was gorgeous.
In July we had a terrific, week-long family reunion over at Lake Chelan. A highlight was a paddle in our 19-foot Grumman canoe including (back to front) Maggie Goodman, Ella and Sevy Dreke, Connie Dreke, and our daughter, Erika. We paddled around Wapato Point and up to the park at Manson, where we stopped for a swim before paddling back.
I was doing sprint canoe training throughout the first eight months of the year, mostly on Lake Serene but also with the team at Cascade Canoe & Kayak in Renton on Saturday mornings. I also competed at Maple Ridge in Canada in May and at the Ted Houk Regatta on Green Lake in June. US Canoe & Kayak Nationls were held in Seattle at Green Lake this year, right in our back yard. I competed in men's masters events, much as I had last year at Georgia. Also, Jane and I raced together in mixed masters canoe, and Jane paddled with Jim Olson in mixed K-2. Best of all, the Cascade C & K Masters team won the national team championship!
I let Dan Henderson of Cascade C & K know that I was going to give whitewater paddling a try once Nationals were over. After five years of dedication to sprint canoe, it felt like time to switch gears and branch out. I found a used whitewater kayak on CraigsList, bought a used paddle from Herbie at NWOC, joined the Washington Kayak Club, took one of their roll classes, did a WKC trip down the lower gorge of the Green River, had a wonderful kayak surfing session at Crescent Beach just west of Port Angeles, gave kayak polo a try, and paddled the gates in the Arboretum across from the UW with a couple slalom paddlers. Whitewater is a whole new world, with lots of different varieties of paddling and lots of nice people.
