Trail Cafe: Trip report - Canoing the Elbow with Kaylyn 4yrs old

Summary:

Title: Canoing the Elbow with Kaylyn 4yrs old
Trip type: article
Summary: A 3hr canoe trip out on the Elbow river with a 4yr old girl. What worked, what could have been better.
Author: Myrl Tanton.

The Trip Report:

Today (May 12) was the first paddle of year . My normal paddling partner is off in Turkey vacationing. So today it is time to find a new partner. Steve is in Toronto (poor guy), and it is a bit late to be calling around. So I convince/volunteer my daughter Kaylyn, who just turned 4 yrs old a couple days ago. Actually I've been thinking for the last few days of a short trip I could take her on, down the Elbow river in Calgary, is the the river I though she would enjoy the most.

I'd earlier decided we'd do a small section, Leave the bike at the take out, paddle down, and bike back to get the car, drive down to get the canoe. The old how do you car shuttle with one car trick. However we are 'saved' by my wife who decides she can drive and pick us ups. (She'd be unable to drive for some time due to an operation). So in a snap decision I decide to run the Elbow river from Glenmore dam to the Zoo, just after it flows into the bow river. Its a trip I've done a few times, my memory seems to think it takes from 1.5 to 2 hrs.

Ready to go dad! Ready to go dad!
I expect the river to be low this time of year (pre-runoff), and sure enough it is. A good thing I think, although it will make for a longer paddle, I really enjoy working my way down dodging rocks, and finding the channel even if it is only 6 inches deep in many places. Lots of folks out playing around, on and in the river today, it is a beautiful day. We are starting off at around 3:00. Only a few small clouds in the sky, temperature in the mid 20's.




The trip is a very nice trip, I prefer it to the larger BOW river in many ways. The river is smaller and more intimate. It is not anything remote, it is easy to pull off and stop for a break at several parks along the way. Many very nice houses backing on to the river, boy I'd like to own one of those.

At one point on the trip today, I watch as four young boys (8-12yrs old) scramble down a tall bank, to the river, then start to wade, and swim across one not-so-shallow sections where it is about 3 ft deep. It was like a human version of the caribou crossing the rivers up North. Fully clothed I might add. They did not initially see us, and we were about 20ft up stream of them when they entered the water. I got their attention, just prior to going through them, calling out a warning that I was coming through in front of two of the boys, and saying a quick 'nice day for a swim' as I went by. Just then my daughter dropped her toy (a small kayak on a string on a stick, with Winnie the Poo, Tigger and Piglet stuffed in the cockpit) in the water. With in a split second of Kaylyn's “Oh no Daddy!”, one of the boys was swimming down to fetch it for her. Good on him.

Snack time... Snack time...
We make use of one of the parks for a rest and a snack break. However by then we were getting a bit tight on our schedule for our pickup and had to push on fairly quickly. But not before a quick potty break.

The wind today makes the trip less enjoyable than it otherwise would have been. It picks up a bit as the paddle goes on after the snack. Seeming to always be blowing at us. It has two effects that make the trip less enjoyable.

First it makes the paddling harder. It is strong enough that with my daughter in the front (the with the boat flipped backwards, so the stern is now the front), the higher front catches the wind and it is really turning us around. Once causing me to broadside a rock when we did not turn into the channel, during a peel-out. Once once completely reversing my peal out into the current, turning me upstream against the current as if I were trying to ferry. Basically increasing effort, and at times causing minor grief. Boy did it really seemed to blow going under the bridges. It also slowed us down, making it apperant that we would be late for the pickup, adding a bit of 'stress' as I did not want a grumpy wife waiting for me.

The other some what more subtle thing, is it make talking to Kaylyn very hard. Because I could not hear a thing she was saying for 90% of the trip as she spoke forward into the wind, I ended up yelling at her a lot, thinking I needed to do so to be heard. She just turned 4 two days earlier, and yelling for any reason does not go over well. This caused her to enjoy the trip less, which was the whole point of the day. Sigh.

As mentioned earlier there were lots of folks out today, dogs playing fetch in the water are always fun for a 4 yr old. There were the folks swimming, floating down the river on rafts (wind must have really got them bad). Sun bathing, and just enjoying the day.

Lots of Canadian geese, We saw several batches of young chicks out on the water. Some looking no more than a couple days old.
I'm not the only dad showing the river to his little chick I'm not the only dad showing the river to his little chick


Elbow_Kaylyin_4yrs_016.jpg Elbow_Kaylyin_4yrs_016.jpg
We went under the train bridge just as a train came rolling along, how cool is that for a kid. Not to mention me.

I did manage to miss many many rocks just under the surface... that does not mean I did not get many new scrapes in my canoe. As always I was surprised at how little draft I needed, In places I could not paddle due to shallow, but glided over the rocks. That darn wind though, made it hard to see some of them (yeah yeah the wind he says), and in some places there was just no viable route.

I got Kaylyn to start pointing out the rocks to me, the first rock she pointed out with a bit of excitement, and pride in a job well done, ended up being the rock I got hung up on. After being stuck in the river for a bit, with dad really worrying about rolling over in the cold water, we did the unglamorous backwards spin out to get free. The rest of the trip was a bit of a rush to get to the take out.

Although I was ˝ an hour or so late, the wife was not grumpy at all. She was enjoying one of her magazines in the sun. Our 3 mth old was happy sleeping in the back seat. For me it was a fairly nice day, I think overall Kaylyn enjoyed it as well, just could have ended about ˝ the time.

Over all it sure was a nice day.

I'm really just learing the whole kid thing. So what would I do different in that regards?

Thinking back on the day, I made a bit of a mistake in not keeping Kaylyn active in the event, and thus interested in it. I have a small child's paddle which she immediately grabbed when we set off. I mentally noted she was holding it with one hand, but did not say anything. About 20 seconds into the trip I realized several thinks I'd forgotten to do, on the account I was so rushed to get put in. Not to mention I was busy dealing with dodging rocks. Finding a place to stop and call mom (as she requested I do when we got started). After getting sunglasses for Kaylyn, I then handed her a toy boat to play with.

That was I think my first, biggest, and most obvious mistake. I should have let her stick with the paddle, provided some guidance and encouragement, then brought the toy out when she was tired of paddling. After when she had become a bit bored it never occurred to me to get her to paddle, and coach her on it.

The other big thing that would have made the trip more enjoyable, is if she had a friend with her. Perhaps in another canoe or raft. A day where there was more time out of the canoe to play and explore.

And as mentioned earlier, pic a route where Dad does not have to focus so much on paddeling.

Kaylyn was however a real trooper. The first 2 hours were fun, and she never really complained until after that, where she was understandably bored. As I was now late, and still had over ˝ an hour to get to the take out, I was really focusing on getting there.

Not much you can do about the water level, or wind, other than choose a different day/location. However next time I'm going to make sure I'm not being rushed... sit back, stop play and enjoy the full meal deal.

Kaylyn's already said she wants to go again :-).




Gallery

Ready to go dad!

DSC00718.JPG

I'm not the only dad showing the river to his little chick

Some of the canadian Geese goslings

That just seems wrong.

the water is definately low right now.

A bit of the city center skyline coming into veiw

Snack time...

Elbow_Kaylyin_4yrs_016.jpg

Spent some time last year trying to get a canoe off the piller of this bridge last year


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Content Copyright Myrl Tanton. 2007


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