Kayaking Swofford Pond

Day 306 - and be sure you watch the 15-second movie just under this post!

Beautiful weather for the Tanager's inaugural voyage! Swofford Pond has long been a favorite place of mine. With no homes along the shoreline, no combustion engines allowed on the lake and very little traffic on the road which runs along the north shore, it is one of the most idyllic settings you could hope to find in the modern world. Cowlitz Wildlife manages the south side, and a little-used, little known trail runs a mile and a half before petering out into brush at the edge of a privately owned farm. The Pond is stocked regularly with trout, but bass, bluegill, catfish and even sturgeon may be caught. The sturgeon were stocked here in the 1990s to control scrap-fish, and a few naturalized. When someone hooks one, it makes the newspaper!

Technically, Swofford is a reservoir. A tiny dam at the east end keeps the lake level uniform, and the spillway allows Swofford to drain into Riffe Lake (a much, much larger reservoir with hydroelectric dams at either end). At maximum depth, the Pond is about 15 feet. Aquatic weed is prevalent, and occasionally, I had to remove a few vegetative "strings" from the paddles, but for the most part, the Tanager simply glided through or over the tangles. The length of the lake is about a mile and a half, width approximately one quarter to one half mile at the widest. The public boat launch is at the northeast end, That's where I put the 'yak in, wading out in green slime so we wouldn't scrape bottom too badly. With foresight, I'd put a towel aboard. Within just a few minutes of parking the car, I was on my way down the length of the Pond.

I went more or less directly, navigating around weed beds and avoiding boat fishermen's lines. I'd always wanted to see that far end because you can't quite get there by trail. I discovered that the last quarter mile or so is quite shallow, so shallow and weedy that the boats with electric motors avoid it. Not me! The return trip was more nonchalant. I made several cross-passages to check out interesting features in the terrain, trees which had fallen into the water, and once put up a Great Blue Heron who flew several circles, honking Heron cuss-words at me for disturbing his breakfast. About halfway back, I decided to try my luck at fishing and tossed a lure out behind the boat, paddling at a good trolling speed. In all honesty, I have to say the few "bites" I got were probably weeds.

I was out about three hours and could tell I was getting tired when I started banging the side of the boat with the paddles on every other stroke. Just as I started to head back to the boat launch, a stiff breeze came up. The last quarter mile was the hardest paddling I'd done all day, but the Tanager handled beautifully. Getting out wasn't the challenge I'd thought it might be.

For a short boat, the Perception Prodigy 10.0 tracks quite well. It seemed very stable, too. The paddles are adjustable and may be used with the blades aligned or with them offset about 15 degrees. I found that using them in the aligned position worked best for me. Now, about those back muscles I haven't used for twenty years...