River Skills Weekend - Details
Since there is no pre-trip meeting for river skills, this sheet will fill you in on details of the river skills weekend.

The overall plan is to begin the weekend by meeting at 9 am at the campgrounds of the Canoe and Trial Outpost on the Bogue Chitto River.   I will send directions after each person signs up.

Once gathered at the Canoe and Trail Outpost, we will set up our tents on the beach.  Next will be a shuttle up to a put in site on a four mile segment of the river.  The emphasis during the day will be on how to be a competent and confident river paddler.  This means paddling with your partner as a team, reading the river, avoiding obstacles and learning how to move across currents.  The single most emphasized skill is how to back ferry across the current.  How does a paddler move from one side of the stream to the other without moving downstream into a hazard?

To acquire these skills, encompasses a lot of instruction and practice.  When we move down river, we use "follow the leader" as a teaching technique.  The lead canoe seeks out obstacles rather than avoiding them.  At places the class will stop, learn to read the river, decide on a route and then run through a series of obstacles.  After the lunch, we will learn about the power of the water on a broached canoe and on paddlers on foot or in the water. 

At the end of the instruction, we will return us to the campgrounds for showers and a change of clothes.   The evening meal will be a local restaurant which features a seafood buffet.  Each paddler pays for their own meal.

Sunday morning is a quick breakfast of boxed cereals, fruit, toast and coffee, milk and juice.  Then we are shuttled upstream to spend the day paddling back to the campgrounds.  Emphasis will be on ferrying across currents and more practice in reading the river.  At the "falls", there is a deep eddy that we use for the canoe over canoe rescue practice.  Everyone and their canoe will rescue and be rescued by your classmates.  We usually finish up between 4 pm and 5 pm with most paddlers home by 7 pm. Everyone will be very tired but will be pleasantly surprised at how much more capable a river paddler they have become.

What to bring for the weekend:  For on the river, bring raingear and wear clothes and footwear that can get wet.  Remember two days of sun exposure, so also bring a brimmed hat, sunglasses, long sleeve shirt, long sleeve pants and socks for your river sandals.  (Dry bags will be furnished.)  Consider wearing the same river clothes both days.  For the evening, casual dress is fine.

For camping, bring a cotton sheet and pillow from home. Also bring a heavy shirt or light sweater in case the evening gets a little cool before morning.   (I can furnish a tent and mattress -- just let me know.)  Also bring a flashlight and personal kit with soap, etc. 

Often it is very warm to sleep in the tents but there are ways to reduce the heat.   One is to sleep outside the tent where there may be a breeze and the other is to use a battery powered fan which will cool you off enough to go to sleep.  Sporting goods and marine stores are good places to look for such a fan.