Low Leven Play

28/01/23

With no rain to speak of pickings we’re again slim.

Watching the the Leven gauge through the week I was hoping it would hold for a Saturday morning low run.

By Friday teatime it had dropped to 0.83 so it should just hold.

A WhatsApp message posted to the river group sparked a bit of interest, in fact five including myself, so a trip was put on the calendar.

Meeting at the normal egress for 10.15am we were soon shuttled and on. With nothing much running it was busy, with groups from way down south, Sheffield and Leeds. It really makes you appreciate how lucky we are to have a river like the Leven on our doorstep.

With a big group putting on at the same time we got ahead of them quickly and enjoyed lots of time on the features without getting in each other’s way.

Most features are tame at this level but can be tricky picking your way through.

On arrival at the bridge two inspected and decided to walk whilst the other three took the hard right line peeling in right of the exposed boulder and through surprisingly cleanly.

More fun messing before getting out to inspect fisherman’s island. A recent tree blockage river right near the exit point of the narrowing was still there and could be for some time. The river left was too low and with most of the water going down the right channel we agreed a running strategy. Negotiating the tree was made possible as just before a narrow slot to the right of the tree opened up. The normal route past the tree would still be sketchy.

On down the the egress then, no cafe stop today as we all had things to do and surprisingly we’d been on the water for over three hours. Level on the day was 0.81 and a big thanks to Sten, Ian, Rachel and Duncan for joining me.

Mark M

Easy river trip 4 – Border Esk

Today’s target, The rarely paddled Border Esk, from Canonbie to Metal Bridge

The team accumulated at Metal Bridge Inn before shuttling to Canonbie. 2 open boats and 6 kayaks found the water level of 0,62 to be flowing well. No scraping today. The gradient promised shingle rapids interspersed with flatter but flowing water. From he start that is what we encountered.

Just out of Canonbie a fine red sandstone cliff caught the sun and led us down a bouncy grade 2. The odd dipper did its’ thing as we passed by.

The journey always provide some interest. Past the old railway viaduct. At one point slabs threw up some smooth bouncy waves.

Such was taken by a suspension footbridge where Julian raided the Church of St. Andrew, built in 1776 in red sandstone and of an unusual rectangular design. Nearby Kirkandrews Tower, an early c16 Pele Tower in the ‘Disputed Lands’ caught our eye.

Just downstream the isolated Coop house seemed and oddly, perched on the river bank. The course flowed through wide open fields with copses. Shallows shingles caused choices with deeper flows on the left or right.

As Longtown bridge approached, some islands narrowed the flow, making larger waves, which brought us to a choice of arches and billy water. Downstream 300m of grade 2+ at this level required some manoeuvring to avoid boulders and stoppers.

On to Metal Bridge, the river flow slowed, and banks became flatter as the estuary approached.

Three final shingle rapids room u sunder red M74 to our egress at 2.30, just in time to avoid the incoming high water pushing us back upstream.

Robin, Mike H, Graeme, Clare John Sp, Rob H, John Sh, Julian, Philip and Cara. Enjoyed exploring what the Border Esk had to offer.

Mike H

Bore To Shore – Arnside Borewave

Tuesday 24th Jan.

Having no surf or river experience, it was with trepidation I signed up for a Borewave trip.

Eight of us met at a drizzly dead calm Arnside, a mix of play, river & sea kayaks. The boats were carried down over the slippy prom wall and beach,we donned helmets and began the paddle south down the Kent Estuary.

It was a strange journey: The water was hardly deep enough to get the blades in.. The mirror-like grey water seemed to merge with the equally featureless misty sky. The channel is wide and the muddy banks (also grey) were only half a meter above the sea. The net effect was no sense of motion or position. Maps are of limited help: the Kent has deviated significantly from the 1980s Ordnance Survey position. At one point we were only 500m from Grange station but you wouldn’t have known.

After 7km we stopped and waited, strung out along the channel. It was totally silent. Then there was a sound like an approaching train and the Bore was spotted: a white line about 500m broad. Within seconds, the shallow bubbling mass passed us. We quickly turned to get just behind the wavefront.

The ‘riders’ were able to travel sideways along the front of the Bore. The playboaters later complained later the water wasn’t deep enough to do proper spinning but it looked impressive to me.

As a ‘follower’ the aim was to keep in the smooth “green” wave trains that developed behind the main wave. At times the bow dug into the water and action was needed to avoid being turned. Sometimes you were carried into shallow flat water and intense bursts of paddling were required to catch up with Bore. I thought this was supposed to be a free ride?

The intensity and character of the Bore varied and as we got near Arnside, it veered off our route and we were left just riding the incoming tide.

Tea and cake at Arnside House gift shop.

A great experience and everyone said it’s different every time so looking forward to trying it again.

Giles Wilson

Lower Eden by Sea Kayak

10th January 2023

Padlers: Robin Everingham, Clare Farley, Simon Milligan, John Soady (leader), John Speakman, Mike Sunderland (leader).

With continuous rain forecast for the day and flood warnings in place for the Eden, we opted for a shortened route of around 13k, putting in at Carlisle above the weir at Sands Leisure Centre, to finish at Rockcliffe, just below the tidal limit of the Solway (the original plan being for around 28k from the weir at Wetheral east of Carlisle).

After a warm-up paddle upstream against quite a strong flow, we turned and started the descent shooting over a washed-out Sands weir. With having a shortened day we had plenty of time to spend playing at the various bridges en-route, breaking in / out, high crossing and ferry-gliding between bridge arches – great opportunities for practising moving water skills in sea boats. All-in-all we had a fabulous day considering the miserable conditions.

Interesting footnote – on leaving the river at Rockcliffe we came across a ringed dead cormorant washed up amongst the high water flotsam. The bird ring database identified cormorant 116 being from a Cheshire project. Apparently, the bird was ringed on 2nd June 2022 at Hale Duck Decoy, Cheshire as a chick in the nest. It was seen at Hale again in July after it had fledged; the next report being deceased at Rockcliffe. If you come across a ringed bird, do report it. It helps the research.

John Soady

Arnside Borewave

Monday 23rd January

After the recent icy Weather, a mellow misty morning, greeted 7 borewave aficionados gathered on Arnside prom. It was a delight to paddle out into Morecambe bay on such a still morning, with the added bonus of no shallow water impeding our progress.

Out in the atmospheric Bay, we soon heard the borewave “roar” but not approaching us! It was over towards Silverdale, eventually we saw it making progress across the sandbank. Somewhat later a small wave approached us , fortunately this built in size and we enjoyed a reasonable ride for awhile. Before it changed nature , becoming a series of smooth waves. Then reforming briefly on the approach to New Barns bay.
So, not the best of Borewave paddles, maybe a 3 out of 10 for the wave. But other factors scored an 8.

And so back to Arnside and the Sandpiper cafe for Dragon pie etc.
Paddlers: Chris D Ian Mc, Duncan,Mike P, Mike H, Rachel, Sten

             Chris Dale

Cumbria/N.Lancs Polo Tournament at Kendal

Saturday 21st Jan 2023

7 teams of Canoe Polo players played in the first Cumbria/N.Lancs Polo Tournament of 2023, at Kendal Leisure Centre. The teams were:

· Copeland

· Duddon

· Lakeland 1

· Lakeland 2

· Lancaster University

· Penrith A

· Penrith B

The tournament winners were Lakeland 1 (pictured below), with Lancaster University 2nd.

All games were played in a friendly yet competitive spirit, with many youngsters involved from Penrith and Duddon.

The next tournament will be hosted by Penrith on 25th March.

By Mike P

Lecks try Borrow Beck

Advanced river trip 14/01/23

Plenty of rain forecast for Friday night into Saturday, so could we get on something different. Well looking at the updated levels in the morning we could have too much.

Normal WhatsApp discussion out the way and a plan was devised.

I had two Becks in mind, but too much water and it could work against us.

My Beck of choice was Leck beck, a steep waterfall type run to begin then continuous rapids through woods. We met at Cowan Bridge (egress) to check water levels. Simon had already got there early and had walked in up stream to inspect. Fast flow, one river wide tree and very few eddies. Dilemma, risk it or walk away, we chose the latter. It’s not going anywhere so hopefully another time.

My second choice was also ruled out as its catchment (further south) was lower than hoped.

So where’s all the water then ? Lune was bigggg so it’s tributaries must be. Borrow Beck was suggested, and as this was new to me and a few others seemed a fitting choice.

To the egress then near Tebay and on arrival the Beck was flowing well. Quick change and off to the put in, which is a bit of a long shuttle and not helped if you’re hoodwinked into going south down the M6 instead of north. Never mind only an additional 12mins.

The rain had stopped and I’d arranged for the sun to come out around mid day followed by a lovely rainbow, it didn’t let me down.😉

Borrow Beck starts fairly sedately but with enough grade 2/3 interest and a feeling of remoteness the top section soon passes by.

There’s a couple of sheep fences, one we were able to squeeze through and another it was quicker to get out and drag your boat through.

Once you pass the foot bridge there’s a step up in the rapids and a lovely section of read and run. You have to be mindful though as coming up is a definite inspection/portage.

When we reached this point three portaged and three ran it with the result being two rolls and brace. (Lol sounds like Greg’s order🤣 ).

After this there’s more read and run for another kilometre or so, with the only hazard being low hanging branches.

By the time we reached the egress the level had dropped somewhat judging by a rock in river we had picked out earlier.

If you wanted to continue on to the Lune, just beware there’s a river wide tree down just after we got off, passable down the right.

A new river and a throughly good day out topped off with coffee and cake in Orton.

Paddlers, Mike, Brian, Pete B, Simon, Harvey and myself Mark M

Roeburn Return – intermediate river paddle

14th Jan.

So good to return to the Roeburn: it’s been too long. Why? Virtually continuous grade 3 ((+) tree hazards) In a beautiful remote setting.. River level 0.96, a good level, but plenty of rocks to catch you out. The team was Chris D, Ian Mc, Rob, John H and Pete R making a welcome return after a 3 month hiatus.

After a brief inspection of the upper Salter section we decided the normal start at Barkin Bridge was best, apart from the tree covering 90% of the river immediately downstream. A portend of things to come, lots of trees obstructing part of the river but never completely, but causing a few problems along the way.

John H correctly identified the get out point for a recce of the gorge, another section where trees dictated the choice of route. Fortunately not the route to the main drop – which had a strong propensity to kick everyone left on exit and required the biggest support strokes of the day.

Amazingly we completed the whole trip without any tree portages. Roeburn…one of the best paddles locally … plus the added bonus of the excellent bridge cafe to repair to afterwards 😀

Cheers
             Chris

Improve your river skills – Duddon

Thursday 12th January, Duddon gauge 0.8. Graeme, Julian, Shaw, Alan C, and Stephen B all took the opportunity for some river-based coaching led by Mike H and Brian.

A quick exercise just above Ulpha bridge helped to identify, ‘where are we’ and diagnose skills to ‘work on’.

Aim for the rock at top of the intended eddy, angle of approach, speed, penetrate the eddy line and transfer the edge.

Brian led off, and Mike observed, the team eddy hopped. Individual feedback on the go. Then in 2 groups follow the leader.

Spin time to practice changing direction. Then lost more opportunities to build the sequences, reliably and consistently.

2 km downstream we found the egress and took lunch. Review. Then upstream to the Tarn Beck confluence, to put it all into practice.

All chose their own route and multiple eddies to hone new skill sequences – style improved. More vertical paddles, more speed, better angles of attack, better edging. The team worked hard, confidence grew and the self-set challenges increased in difficulty.

Soon, Hall Dunnerdale Bridge was passed to find the egress.

Smile all around, no rolls no swims, the team looked good.

Mike H

River Esk

11th January

Or for those at the Quiz and/or others with a knowledge of the Periodic Table – Einsteinium + Potassium

Three O’clock in the morning, the rain was hammering down on the roof, it seems to have been raining since Christmas, thinking there just might be too much water tomorrow and a need to choose a river in the morning, maybe I should just get up now annd cancel it. Turning over and thinking better of it – I’ll wait till the morning and see.

Waking up and looking at the levels everything a lot more reasonable. How about the Esk? Levels looking more reasonable at 0.8, I always think of 0.7 as a minimum level and we did it the other week at 1.00 and it was very good

The team assembled at the “Mazda” garage. I was confused because there were lots of cars with kayak bars, but no kayaks – another lakeland team was heading to the Duddon. Lots of water in the fields but rivers on this occasion appear to be very efficient at draining water out to the sea and the Esk was good but if anything a little low.

The water of the Esk is such a high quality, lovely and clean and the valley is a long beautiful river with lots of interest. Early on it was a little bit of a rock dodge but you get down the river it does improve. The difficulties are not always obvious but looking down the river it seems that all you have to do is turn and paddle through the a gap in two boulders, but the flow is strong and pushes a kayaker onto the second nudging rock. Not a very helpful nudge either.

We did a bit of spinning round on flat water, concentrating on where we were looking, where we put our paddles in and were we take them out, not forgetting edges.

I remembered there was a tree at the bottom of the Gorge and at 1.0 we kayaked over it, today at 0.8 that would not be possible. We employed our eddy hopping skills and negotiated the gorge, keeping line of sight round the corners and collected in an eddy in sight of the tree. For a moment I did wonder if we could limbo under it but discretion at all times and we sensibly portaged.

There are two bridges with a quickening of water under them and a biggish but flushing stopper next to a rock and all were paddled comfortably by the team.

A great day out.

Another editors note: ANOTHER big thanks to Brian for making the right decision at 3am and leading the trip and to Brian and Mike for keeping us all safe, Natalie, Alex, MarkG, Julian and Eric