Re: [Paddlewise] Fwd: Near Miss Report 1997

On Wed, Feb 18, 1998 at 06:52:29PM -0500, dldecker_at_mediaone.net wrote:
>  white water paddlers are on one given river,which ever one you happen to
> be on.There are just a limited number of white water rivers. Sea Kayakers
> if in the ocean often don't see another all day , and on a river might see
> one or two other paddlers.A few less than you would see on some white water
> rivers.In that report it was other people helping out people from other
> groups. Around here sea kayaking you might not see any one else if you need
> help. 

I think you might be greatly underestimating the number of whitewater
streams that people chose to paddle.  For example, in my part of the
world, it's true that most paddlers can be found on one of: Nesocopek,
Lehigh, Tohickon, Black, Muddy, Shenandoah, Potomac, Gunpowder, Loyalsock,
but there are about 200-250 other streams within 4 hours of here that can
be run depending on flow conditions.  These range from rather easy
class I (Brandywine) to fairly steep creeks (Black, class III-IV) to
outright screamers (Unami, IV-VI) to large rivers with big rapids
(Lambertville, Delaware River, _at_ 14000 CFS).

I'd say that on at least half of the trips I've done, that my companions
and I were the only people that we saw on the river; this is especially
true for weekday or offseason paddling.  But one thing to note: most
whitewater paddlers have the good sense to run rivers alone, because
there are just too many things that can happen, so these paddlers are
rarely encountered alone.

---Rsk
***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List
Submissions:     paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net
Subscriptions:   paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net
***************************************************************************