The Fractions and Narrows - First Off-Side Kayak Roll
& First Solo Flight

My first solo flight over Leadville Airport, a couple of hours before hopping into the Arkansas River today.

I made my first solo flight at North America's Highest Elevation Airport today. As a self reward, if I wrapped up at the Leadville Airport early enough, I also planned to join a Summit Paddle Club kayaking excursion.
Today an advanced paddle club group was meeting at the Colorado Kayak Supply location by the Arkansas River.

Solo Ritual: Signing the back of my shirt.

I have quite a few training requirements yet to complete, and some serious tests to get past before I am a fully licensed pilot, but I feel like it is within my reach now. I will later put a small amount of Colorado aviation information in the film section of the site.

There is a loose connection between Savage Snow and my flight training.
I have looked into private pilot training in the past back in North Carolina, but I needed to find a resource locally in Colorado for the aerial shots in Savage Snow. My personal interest in becoming a pilot was piqued again by my new search for a local general aviation airport for the film.
In addition to being close to my new Colorado home, it turns out that Leadville Airport is also one of the best places in the world to become a safe pilot.

The mountains and the winds, along with the thin air which lowers the performance of the aircraft, all combine to create a superb environment for someone who wants to learn to be safe in challenging conditions.
They also have excellent instructors at Leadville.
If you ever find yourself at the Leadville Airport, look for the cut out back of a Savage Snow T-Shirt tacked to the ceiling along with the shirts of all the other pilots who flew solo for the first time at Leadville.

Incidentally, it looks like my kayak will fit inside a Cessna 172 if I pop the door off to slide it in, and I can definitely fit a couple of snowboards in the back. This is good news since it is unlikely I will be flying anything much larger for the next year or two.

	Video of area surrounding deadly Frog Rock.	Studying the lines of other boaters at House Rock.

I did make it just in time to paddle with the Summit Paddle Club and in addition to my first solo flight, I successfully completed my first off-side kayak roll today.
We paddled on the Fractions and Narrows sections of Colorado's Arkansas River. We took our boats out in Buena Vista at the Buena Vista Whitewater Park. And yes, I did try to surf in BV's uncooperative wave again today. This is the same place I went for a painful swim not too long ago on Paddle Day 25.
The wave still seems pretty much unsurfable to me, and I have never seen anyone else have a successful go of it.
I am sure it will be tuned better for its second season next year. You can read more about the Buena Vista Whitewater Park by visiting the Paddle Day 25 journal entry.

Many thanks to Seth, one of the paddle club regulars, for convincing me to try an off-side kayak roll for the first time today while we were waiting in an eddy for some other boaters. Most people learn to roll on their left side because offset paddles can make it a little more complicated to roll on the other side. The right side roll is typically called an off-side roll.
(I'll have more on Paddles in a future special journal entry.)

The eddy was deep, so I gave it a shot. I hung upside down and tried to think through the procedure carefully like I did when I was first learning to roll on my left side. It felt very strange, but to my amazement, I rolled up smoothly and with little effort on my first try.

I will start working on my off-side kayak roll more regularly now. It is my goal to be able to roll just as easily on both sides. I will stop referring to my current weak side as an off-side. I will just call it a right side roll. Being able to roll on both sides can be a handy skill in advanced rapids, because you might be pushed up against a boulder or sheer rock face while upside down. If you only have competence rolling on the side wedged up against the obstacle, then there is a good chance you will not be rolling at all.

Watch the Frog Rock video to get an overview of that hazard if you plan to kayak or raft this section of the Arkansas River. The large rock perpendicular across the river creates a sieve under the water that can permanently grab and hold boats and people. There is also a small chute river right of the boulder next to the bank which is too small to pass through, but large enough to trap and hold people and boats. Frog Rock is the site of recent season boating deaths on the Arkansas River.

We got out to scout Frog Rock. It is easy to pass safely by staying far left, although you may have to bump across some rocks in the shallows that way, depending on water levels.
I followed the line of our CKS Paddle Club guide Greg, who went down the middle but turned left between the two boulder clusters immediately above Frog Rock. Whatever course you take, paddling right up next to Frog Rock is not advisable.
For reference, if you watch the video clip, I went left before the small pyramid boulder jutting out of the water, just above Frog Rock.

In the above right photo you can see House Rock, the other feature we got out to scout. You want to cut hard into the first left eddy to avoid getting pushed up against the wall on the right. Greg is in the first eddy in the House Rock photo. The tail of my boat bumped the wall but I wasn't flipped. We had one kayaker in our group go for a swim at this point after being trapped up against the wall for a bit, but the river was calm right after this feature. It seemed to be not such a bad place to swim, although I wonder if the wall might be undercut under the water as many sheer walls are. If so, it could turn into a very bad place to swim.

Everyone had a good time. The runs were not too scary, but they still provided some challenging new experiences.

A good day.
-Dan

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