Duke
Mountain Carver
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2012
- Messages
- 382
Nick's post here http://backcountrypost.com/threads/river-snorkeling.3854/#post-44736 about River Snorkeling intrigued me and I have been wanting to give it a shot for a while now. On Labor day I took my 3 boys with me and we tried it out. Because this was new to us I was a bit hesitant and decided we would take the drift boat. I put two of the boys out and floated downstream of them for a while so we could see how it went. I even had some tag lines hanging from the boat. None of this was needed. It went smoothly and was very fun. I recommend it.
We did learn some things and my input for someone would be the following (with a few pics just below):
1. Shorty wetsuits just don't cut it. I was in a full wetsuit but the boys were in shorties and even though the water is now up to 61 they were chattering their teeth and had to get out to warm up. This was problematic since the worst part is putting an ice cold wetsuit on after warming up in the sun. My head hurt and I need to get a hood if I do this again.
2. Since we always had someone in the drift boat floating nearby we didn't have to worry about where we were. But, were we all floating at once it might have been hard to know when we were at the take out spot. The river underwater certainly looks nothing like it does on top. My plan for next time is to drop off and shuttle a car a few miles down. I'm still not sure how I can know when I am there....other than to keep poking my head up every 5 minutes and continually worry about it.
3. The wetsuits were plenty buoyant for us. I had my 13 year old in a PFD but the other 3 of us were fine. We were in a section that did not have many large holes, whirlpools, or strainers. The river was running around 9k cubic feet per second...which is a big river. There is some risk and it was only because I know that section so well that I was confident enough to do so, but for us we didn't need them and not having them allowed us to dive down.
4. I was a bit unhappy with the clarity. This is a pristine river, but did not have the clarity that was in the videos in Nick's post. Still awesome, but I need to find the magic recipe here. Time of year, different river...whatever was missing. ?
Here are a few pics though they aren't very interesting in themselves but can give you and idea of where we were:
the upper section is where we were. They have private land there with some seven figure houses/cabins. Then there is this guy. hey, at least it has a sat dish eh? It might have room for one bunk bed and a stove. My kind of place
At one point my 17 yr old got into some reg clothes to warm up in the sun and gave us some Ukulele river music
the next shot or two are still clips from a GoPro. Do not judge this trip by the lame shots. GoProing this was different than anything I have ever GoProed. Learned alot about how not to do it. So even though these pics are lame...give this a try! Snorkel a river!
We did learn some things and my input for someone would be the following (with a few pics just below):
1. Shorty wetsuits just don't cut it. I was in a full wetsuit but the boys were in shorties and even though the water is now up to 61 they were chattering their teeth and had to get out to warm up. This was problematic since the worst part is putting an ice cold wetsuit on after warming up in the sun. My head hurt and I need to get a hood if I do this again.
2. Since we always had someone in the drift boat floating nearby we didn't have to worry about where we were. But, were we all floating at once it might have been hard to know when we were at the take out spot. The river underwater certainly looks nothing like it does on top. My plan for next time is to drop off and shuttle a car a few miles down. I'm still not sure how I can know when I am there....other than to keep poking my head up every 5 minutes and continually worry about it.
3. The wetsuits were plenty buoyant for us. I had my 13 year old in a PFD but the other 3 of us were fine. We were in a section that did not have many large holes, whirlpools, or strainers. The river was running around 9k cubic feet per second...which is a big river. There is some risk and it was only because I know that section so well that I was confident enough to do so, but for us we didn't need them and not having them allowed us to dive down.
4. I was a bit unhappy with the clarity. This is a pristine river, but did not have the clarity that was in the videos in Nick's post. Still awesome, but I need to find the magic recipe here. Time of year, different river...whatever was missing. ?
Here are a few pics though they aren't very interesting in themselves but can give you and idea of where we were:
the upper section is where we were. They have private land there with some seven figure houses/cabins. Then there is this guy. hey, at least it has a sat dish eh? It might have room for one bunk bed and a stove. My kind of place
At one point my 17 yr old got into some reg clothes to warm up in the sun and gave us some Ukulele river music
the next shot or two are still clips from a GoPro. Do not judge this trip by the lame shots. GoProing this was different than anything I have ever GoProed. Learned alot about how not to do it. So even though these pics are lame...give this a try! Snorkel a river!
