Showing posts with label Paddling trips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paddling trips. Show all posts

Thursday, 30 June 2011

Paddling 206 kms and testing my DIY ultralight pants


Finally, our paddling expedition (6 - 10th June), which we've been planning for a while, has been paddled through. And what comes to my DIY ultralight pant project, I just finished making them before our trip, so I could wear them on daily basis (check them out from my profile picture).



We started our trip from a small place called Porras, and during the first day we had to paddle through two lakes before getting to the starting point of Loimijoki river. There was a pretty nice downwind for the whole lake section and some of the waves came over the decks of our kayaks. From the beginning of Loimijoki river, we started to paddle towards two nearby towns, Forssa and Jokioinen. During this section of our trip, we had to face three mills, which blocked the river so, that we had to carry / cart our kayaks to get past them.

The second carrying spot of Forssa, a nice old mill


The third carrying spot at Jokioinen (and probably the most tricky one), "How to fit two tandem kayaks through this locked gate, which is the only way to go?"


Then, we only needed to paddle towards the town of Ypäjä. A few kilometers before it, we found a nice place to spend a night at. So, the first day (41 kms) of paddling was gone.

In the beginning of our second day (Tuesday), we ate some rye bread and started paddling towards Ypäjä, where we stopped to buy some groceries and to fill our water tanks. We also had some porridge for breakfast at the same spot. After getting everything done, we started heading towards the town of Loimaa, where we faced two mills blocking the waterway. Our goal for that day was to paddle to a waterway blocking mill nearby the town of Alastaro. Finally, we got there and had some evening exercising, cause we had to really carry them over without using our cart. So, our second day (40 kms) of paddling was gone.

The first dam and mill at Loimaa, where we had some lunch on Tuesday



Getting ready for the third day (Wednesday morning)

In the beginning of our third day, we had no idea, where that day was going to take us. For breakfast, we had a similar plan as on Tuesday, and we paddled the first kilometers to the town of Alastaro, where we bought some more groceries and had some porridge. From Alastaro, we started heading towards the next bigger town of Huittinen and there were two mills blocking the waterway. The first one was quite a big electricity production plant, which we skipped by carting our kayaks through a nearby farm. Afterwards, we had lunch at the crappiest place ever, which seemed to be a really nice sandy beach, but it turned out to be really soft mud/sand. After spending quite a while washing our feet (not to get all that mud into the kayaks), we started heading towards the next carrying spot. Carrying and carting through a small sawmill with some advice from a local motor-biker, and we were able to continue paddling. After we had paddled for a while, those last few kilometers of the day were supposed to be easy and nicely flowing rapids, but then shit happened. The water level was far too low and we got stuck on top of rocks, so we had to cart our kayaks for a couple of kilometers on a road to skip all those rapids. Finally, we found a nice spot to go back to the river through someone's backyard. We got a permission to do that and we decided to ask whether it would be possible to camp that night on their grassy yard (after we had seen their kayaks : D). They even let us use their shower, which was pretty nice after all what we had experienced within the last few hours... The distance of that day stayed under 40 kms (37 to be exact).

On Thursday, we started heading towards the ending point of Loimijoki river, but on our way there we had to stop for shopping groceries. Finally, we ended up to the point, where Loimijoki and Kokemäenjoki rivers meet. From that point, we started paddling towards our final destination (the city of Pori). Kokemäenjoki river is far wider, so there were even some islands in between of its many channels, and the landscape was generally much nicer due to larger forest areas. We navigated our way through the tightest channels and had our lunch there. After we had paddled the "loop" before the town of Kokemäki, we had to cart our kayaks around quite a big dam, which was though pretty easy, cause there was a good road to use for carting. During the evening hours, we paddled through the town of Kokemäki and few kilometers after it we decided to call it a day (45 kms of paddling).

In the morning of our last day, we started to realize that our trip is really about to end, but we didn't know that it was about to be the best day in paddling wise. After having breakfast, we started heading towards the town of Harjavalta, where we filled our water tanks before we needed to cross another big dam. Again, there was a pretty good road to use for carting. Then, we started to paddle towards the town of Nakkila, and we were thinking about the rapid to come for the whole journey (whether there would be enough water...). The rapid of Arantilankoski was quite great, cause there was enough water and the current was quite strong too, so we just enjoyed the ride (after paddling over 170 kms without any doable rapids). And of course there was another rapid just a few kilometers away, where we had lunch on an island just by the rapid. The trip was really getting towards of its end, cause there was only the town of Ulvila to paddle through, and then we ended up to the city of Pori, where we decided that we had earned some kebab meat with french fries. Finally, we paddled few kilometers away from the city center, where we landed our kayaks and decided to call it an expedition (206 kms paddled).

Washing our pots after Friday's lunch



We got picked up by a car from that point and we started heading towards the town of Klaukkala to return the kayaks, and then towards Helsinki.

Thursday, 3 June 2010

Paddling 95 km's last weekend


Well for now a bit different kind of sport, paddling. Last weekend, we paddled from Vihti to Tammisaari, which is just on the coastal line. The starting place was actually quite nearby our scout hut about few kilometers away. This trip has been under planning since last autumn and finally we got a chance to do it. What comes to the equipment, we had the old and dirty fiberglass canoes of our local group, not kayaks.

We started on Friday around 1pm from an old riverside mill, which was quite fabulous. Our day's goal was to paddle to Lohja, about 35 kilometers. We managed to do it and arrived around 9.30pm after some annoying headwind, but also experienced the excitement of waterway lock, which could be operated manually. The lock located at the end of Hiidenvesi just before arriving to Lohjajärvi.

On Saturday, we started our journey around 9.30am. The weather forecast said there would be some heavy raining on Saturday, but hopefully it wasn't. Although, it rained few times for some time. The most annoying thing was probably again that stupid headwind, especially when the first 20 kilometers were mostly lakes. When it started to be more river like, also the carrying started cause there was two old ironworks with barrages just in the beginning of the day's first river. Hopefully, those barrages gave bit more stream to the river, which gave us more speed after those slow carrying operations. Around 9pm, we crossed another ironworks and just after it we found a nice place to spend our night (almost someone's backyard :D).

On Sunday, we started to paddle around 9am. After few kilometers, we had again an ironworks to cross by carrying. After this the river was about to end and the final > 10 kilometers of sea bay started. The headwind started to be quite strong and the waves came almost into the canoes, but still we made it to the final and 95 kilometers were paddled around 3pm...