Cold Water Canoeing Winter Paddling, With Proper Preparations, Provides A Soothing Getaway
Canoeing during winter isn’t for everyone.
I found this out after inviting a friend to float a portion of the Spokane River with me in December. The friend enjoyed the trip between the ice-rimmed shores from Maple Street Bridge to the Meenach Bridge.
His wife, however, wasn’t so tickled.
“Don’t you know you could die when the water is that cold?” she said when I met her at a Christmas party a week later.
I’ve considered this a possibility for just about everything I do, including the commute each day to the office.
“If you tipped over without a special suit, you’d die before you could swim to shore,” she pointed out.
“I’ve never dumped my canoe in that stretch during summer,” I told her. “The thought never occurred to me to go for a swim during winter.”
Shortly after we had put in, her husband and I had to make an aggressive maneuver to avoid a temporary construction cable that had been stretched from shore to shore a few inches above the river.
I hadn’t really considered that dangerous at the time, but I was feeling threatened in having to confront the incident with my partner’s wife.
“The unexpected can always happen,” she said with an uncomfortably clear grasp of the situation.
She was right on every point, although she somehow missed the key one. Winter paddling is thrilling. The ice rattles on brush just above the water. The heads of drake mallards are neon green. The cold air snaps in your nose.
Winter definitely is not prime time for swimming. But if you have the skills to keep a canoe upright, the cold season offers superb paddling attractions.
Chances of seeing another paddler on a winter trip are virtually nil. For that reason, it’s best to go with at least two boats.
Some wild creatures, such as bald eagles, congregate along some rivers during winter before dispersing in spring. Prime eagle-viewing rivers in this region include the lower Spokane, Methow, Clark Fork and Pend Oreille.
The best paddling flows on some rivers occur during winter or early spring.
Hangman Creek, for example, gets too low for canoeing during summer. Alert paddlers take to the creek during periods of runoff and rain primarily from February through May.
Lower portions of the Coeur d’Alene, St. Maries and St. Joe rivers are top choices for winter paddling in North Idaho. Good bets in Eastern Washington include stretches of the Spokane, Little Spokane, Colville, Okanogan and Methow rivers.
But you have to pick your time and stretches.
The Methow had ideal flows of just over 300 cubic feet per second a few weeks ago. The paddling was easy and bald eagles were scattered along the river’s cottonwoods.
Last week, the eagles were still there, but the flows were below 300 cfs, too low to keep a canoe above the rocks. Better flows are on their way before the big runoff comes in May. Most rivers have stretches that are tougher than others.
The Pack River near Sandpoint is known for dangerous log jams upstream from Highway 95. It’s safer downstream. Upper Hangman Creek has a serious canyon with Class IV rapids - easily rough enough to swamp skilled canoeists.
With water temperatures around 40 degrees and air temps below freezing, the rustle of a mere riffle downstream can cause a minor adrenaline rush in a paddler.
Be content with these minor thrills during winter. You’ll live longer.
Novice paddlers should wait for warmer weather. Better paddlers still have to take precautions. The safest bet is to wear a dry suit, a fairly expensive waterproof garment that keeps water from seeping into insulating layers.
A less expensive neoprene wetsuit also will help ward off hypothermia.
Neoprene fishing waders work well in shallow streams that require paddlers to get in and out of the boat to portage or drag over riffles. Fishers and paddlers alike should wear a belt fastened around the waist on neoprene waders to prevent river water from flooding into the legs during an unintentional swim.
The best advice is to avoid any water that’s even close to challenging your paddling skills in winter.
Skilled canoeists on easy water might go with wool or pile insulating garments under a waterproof shell. Special paddling jackets with neoprene around the cuffs and neck are good investments. Even a backpacking rain jacket over insulating layers would likely allow a paddler to retain enough warmth to reach shore in a small Class I stream.
Smart paddlers of all experience levels carry a waterproof bag with a change of clothing on any trip.
This “dump bag” must be attached to the canoe in a manner allowing it to be quickly removed. The bag should contain a COMPLETE change of all layers of clothing plus a towel and rain gear.
A paddler who capsizes in sub-55 degree water has to make an urgent decision. If you can’t quickly get to where you can stand and pull the boat to rest, you may have to snatch the dump bag and head for dry ground without the canoe.
Once ashore in cold weather, the race against hypothermia might require stripping and quickly changing into the dry clothes.
Forget modesty in this case.
While all these emergency actions are important, winter paddling is one of the region’s most soothing and under-rated getaways.
Be warned, though: Avoid your partner’s spouse until warmer weather.
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