Fluviatile Corrivation

[ornoth]

After two fun kayak excursions last year, this spring I ponied up for a season membership at Charles River Canoe and Kayak despite my unemployment, hoping that it’d both save me money and incent me to spend more time paddling on the river.

So how did it go?

Kayaking and cycling compete for good-weather days, so even though I had the whole summer off, I wound up going out 9 times: once in June, August, and October, and twice in May, July, and September. I went three times from CRCK’s Kendall Square location, and twice each from Nahanton, Allston, and their primary facility in Auburndale.

With a total of 30 hours on the river, my average outing was 3 hours and 20 minutes. I paddled a total of 90 miles, averaging 10 miles per excursion, with my longest being 15 miles. GPS logs of my paddling trips can be found here.

Had I paid for my own rental time, that would have come to $458, but the season pass only ran me $292. If I include the discount my brother and niece got on rentals via my pass, that’s $173 less than what it would have cost renting by the hour. So the pass wound up saving me 33 percent.

Having a pass also allowed me to stay out as long as I cared to, without worrying about how much each excursion would cost and when to get back. As such, I found it not very difficult at all to go out and do 10 or 12 miles per day.

I encountered a surprising amount of wildlife (muskrat, painted and snapping turtles, great blue herons, hawks, cormorants), on the river, even right in the middle of the city. Tho I didn’t see either the harbor seal or the alligator that were discovered in the river this season! I particularly enjoyed playing in the shallow rapids below the Watertown and Newton dams, and in the huge waves kicked up on windy days in front of Community Boating.

The next step in my paddling evolution would probably be excursions out into Boston Harbor.

It was fun exploring the river, and I covered just about the entire expanse of water accessible from the CRCK locations. However, it wasn’t quite as interesting returning a second time to areas I’d already covered. For that reason, I don’t feel the need to buy my own boat right off, since I’d quickly tire of endlessly paddling around the Charles River basin. So I don’t think I’ll buy a boat of my own until I have a car, so that I can transport it to new and interesting places.

While I thought that kayaking’s upper body workout would be a good complement to cycling, it wasn’t quite what I expected. If you do it right, the proper kayak paddling motion mostly works the hips and core abdominal muscles, rather than the arms. So unlike true upper body work, it wasn’t a perfect complement; on the other hand, paddling was actually of direct benefit for cycling, since you use those same core muscles to steady your torso and back on the bike.

Will I buy another membership next year? Actually no, not unless I’m unemployed again. When I’m working, I only have nights and weekends to ride, which makes it hard to get sufficient training time on the bike. So I wouldn’t spend enough time kayaking to make buying a membership work financially, though I will probably take a boat out a couple times on an hourly basis.

But I’m very glad I took the membership out this year. It definitely was a great way to spend the “rest days” built into my cycling training schedule. And there’s nothing like spending a sunny Monday afternoon paddling alone on a quiet stretch of river, thinking about all one’s wage-slave friends trapped in crowded office buildings, far from nature.