Roesiger

There is a race next Saturday – I wanted to pre-qualify myself to see if I could paddle the race distance in less than my worst time for that race. Although this lake does not really substitute for an ocean race with 3kt current, I still did 7.1 miles in 1h17m (which is better). This turned out to be more impressive than I thought when I got out of the kayak. I worked on the skeg mechanism last week and did not seal the holes for the rotation point. There were  many gallons of water in the boat – I guess about 70 lbs. It had flooded to a balance point early on and if I had capsized I would have been holding onto a buoy, not a boat. Lessons learned (hope so!). In theory this means that on Saturday, between the adrenalin rush of a race and a boat that weighs 51 lbs instead of 120 (after I fix it), I should be able to beat even today’s time.

Lake Roesiger is a very pleasant lake to paddle. Usually calm and when it is clear it has great views of Mt Pilchuck. It is one of the few lakes around here that reminds me of the north woods. Today it was socked in with fog and pretty cold. Good for a hard workout though.