@sheldon
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BUMP – Still Available
This is a good bargain. The new price for a MonStar is $1599.
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I’d say it depends on what you want to do on the water. For example, I used to paddle a MegaRocker but after I got past the beginner stage, it drove me crazy, because it had no edges which made it extremely hard to ferry and peel out. On the other hand, No Eddy Freddie loved his MegaRocker because he just wanted to go down river.
I think the Karma is a step up from the MegaRocker, but it’s far from perfect. Chris Gagnon described the Karma well by saying it will carve … but you have to touch your ear to the water to make it do it. On the other hand, I think it is very comfortable. I have a large Karma and I call it the LazyBoy recliner of kayaks. But with relatively little edge it’s harder to make it stay on a surf wave. It requires a lot more paddle work. I checked Jackson’s website and it looks like they are no longer making the Karma. But the large Zen 3 is the same volume as the Karma at 103 gallons and is rated up to 280 lbs. And their large Nirvana is around 97 gallons, but haven’t padded either of those boats.
I also have an extra large Pyranha Burn, which comes in at 90 gallons, but I’m at the upper end of the weight range for that boat. The last few times I paddled it I noticed that I was catching an edge more than I should. But if I were 20 or 30blbs lighter it would be my favorite boat because of those edges. Surfing, carving into an eddy, ferrying, and peeling out are really fun in that boat. Pyranha also has the Machno which is 98 gallons, but I haven’t padded it.
If I were looking for a brand new kayak, I’d be interested in the Machno or the Zen. You’d be welcome to paddle my Karma or Burn, but I don’t know when I’ll be over that way again.
ON THE OTHER HAND, why ditch the canoe? I have actually been thinking about trying one because 1) I’m not crazy about paddling a kayak at the upper end of its weight range and most of the canoes are huge so it wouldn’t be an issue; and 2) I don’t paddle much in cold weather anymore. Stuffing myself into a spray skirt and closed cockpit in 90° weather is miserable. An open boat just sounds a lot more comfortable to me from that standpoint.
If I want to try out an open boat, what would you recommend?
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Freddie,
Have you tried the Jackson Karma? Even though it is shaped a little differently than the Mega Rocker, it reminds me of the way a Mega Rocker handles (soft edges, spins easily.) The volume of the Karma medium is 86 gallons and the Karma large is 103 gallons, so the Mega Rocker was right in between those two at 93 gallons. The length of the Karma medium is the same as the Mega Rocker at 8’6″, while the Karma large is 9′ long.
Glad to see you’re still livin’ the dream in the DR. If you’re ever back in the area, I have a Karma large you are welcome to borrow.
Sheldon
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https://streamstats.usgs.gov/ss/
In case you haven’t already seen it … here’s an interesting USGS website that will draw the watershed draining to a point picked on a stream. So if the water quality is bad at the point of the Saint’s southernmost 67 crossing, pick that spot on the map and the website will show you the area that drains to that point. If the water quality is good at Gruner Ford Access you could pick the point there and it will show you that watershed. Subtract the second watershed from the first and you should have the region in which the source of the mud & suds is located.
Good luck and happy hunting.
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I hate to hear this. Gary was a great guy.
This is Gary volunteering as the “victim” at Jim Coffey’s Swiftwater Rescue Training at the Saint in 2014. If I remember correctly, he wasn’t even signed up for the course. He just ran into us on the river, tagged along, and put himself to good use!
Gary Cooper at Nantahala Falls, Sept 2014 -
This is very disappointing news.
However, to see date, time, and level there are a few options on the COE page.
1) You probably already noticed. If you hold (hover) your cursor over the blue line it displays date, time, and gauge reading in a small popup box. (At least it does using Chrome on a PC.)
2) This page http://rivergages.mvr.usace.army.mil/WaterControl/stationinfo2.cfm?sid=CE62308E&fid=ROZM7&dt=S
a) Lets you choose how many days data to display (but the only options are 1, 3, 7, 14, or 31 days)
b) Lets you choose whether to plot a graph or display the data in a table
c) Has a link to download the data
The USGS page was much better.
Does anyone have any other contacts at USGS that we might be able to talk to about the situation? Is there an email address we can bombard (or petition, as Casara suggested)? I think it would be appropriate for whoever is responsible for the change to know how many people are disappointed with it.
Also, it seems there is no longer a way to get text notifications with the river level via the USGS WaterAlert system. For a year or so I’ve had a “subscription” set up to receive a text message with the river level if the gauge reading was above 3.0. This morning I received a text message saying the subscription was cancelled, and that “USGS stream gauge 07034000 has been discontinued.”
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Before you make any predictions, I found this cumulative precipitation map that shows the high (near 2″) precipitation to be only in a relatively narrow band, which won’t have as much effect on the river as 2″ across the whole watershed.
The image below is for a six hour period Saturday morning.
National Weather Service – Cumulative Precipitation
But it still might go huge. I really don’t know.
Any guessers? 😀
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I hope one of you has a GoPro. I’d love to see some recent video of Lusk at a good level. It’s a beautiful place. I took some video of it several years ago, but it is very poor resolution.
Watch for wood. And watch out for the “Mother of All Strainers” just downstream from the canyon section. If I remember correctly, there are two rocks the size of small houses in the middle of the creek that collect every log headed downstream. There used to be a narrow chute on far river right to go through.
Have fun! Be safe! Can’t wait for the trip report and (hopefully) video.
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