Yesterday was another unseasonably warm one, the temperature topping out around 80 degrees Fahrenheit in the afternoon. It was also mostly cloudy with storms moving in late in the day. The wind blew from the south around 20 miles per hour much of the day.
That meant conditions were bumpy out on the river as I paddled out there yesterday morning. With a 33.9-foot level on the Memphis gauge, there was enough water for some exploring over on the Arkansas side. I paddled up into the flooded Greenbelt Park and then ferried across to the outflow channel for the Hopefield Chute (aka Dacus Lake). The water in the channel was plenty deep to provide access to this oxbow, and I paddled up there to see what was going on. I didn't see another human. Dacus Lake is a popular fishing spot, but with all the access roads underwater it's hard for any fishermen to get there unless they find some distant spot to launch their boats.
Once I felt I'd seen enough I headed back to the river's main channel. The wind wasn't blowing quite hard enough to generate good downwind surfing conditions, but there was a huge barge rig moving upriver, and with its wake added to the mix I thought there might be an opportunity.
I waited for the rig to pass and then checked out the conditions in the section of river just below the Hernando DeSoto Bridge. What I found was a "sort-of" downwind situation: there were surfable waves scattered all over the place, but there wasn't really a pattern to them like there is in a true downwind scenario. I managed to catch a few okay runs, which you can watch here:
Make no mistake: I was not styling it out there. This video includes only the halfway respectable runs I caught; in between I was doing a lot of flailing around. One reality I'm coming to terms with is that I'm really not stable enough in my V12 to be as aggressive as I need to be. I think anytime there's a south wind I need to break out the V10 Sport.
I'd hoped to paddle with Adam Davis again yesterday, but he had to be in his office. But when I got up this morning I had a message from him asking if I'd like to paddle today. I replied in the affirmative.
I met Adam in the harbor under a mostly-sunny sky. We had cooler temperatures and a west-northwest breeze in the wake of those storms. Adam had never really paddled on Dacus Lake before, so I decided to go back there so he could see where the outflow channel was. We ended up paddling the farthest north in the lake I'd ever been, and that made for a satisfying wilderness paddle even though we were only two or three miles from the "concrete jungle" of downtown Memphis. For most of our two hours in the boat we maintained a good strong pace.
Another barge rig was coming upriver as we re-entered the main channel, and once we were below it I tried surfing its non-wind-aided wake. I got one fairly decent ride. We went on back to the harbor and I completed a weekend full of paddling variety.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment