Spring Cleaning

By Damon Bungard

It’s finally here, Spring in VT – which to a kayaker officially begins on ‘ice-out’, when there’s enough snow melt to lift enough ice out of the creeks to make it paddle worthy once again.

Where I am in Vermont, that’s usually in early April, and this year is no exception. And the snow is DEEP, which should hopefully make for a great extended early runoff season of moderate levels, although it’s just a matter of time before that first big rain event when every river in the state will blow out.

Early season is always fun. Depending on your pool session time, skills are typically a little rusty, can’t find your booties amongst the piles of gear, and rapids are changed – rocks have moved, new wood, etc. That all just adds to the fun.

This year for me posed a new challenge – getting a new vehicle rigged up for kayak hauling and shuttles. I picked up a Jeep over the winter and have had one vision in my head since – open top cruising to the river. The problem with that is, where do the kayaks go?

So one morning on the way into work I had a vision, drew up some sketches, thought about it a little, and decided it had to be done. Off to the store, picked up the raw metal stock, and on to my friend Mike’s house, who just happens to have a hobby of building his own airplane (and he thinks whitewater paddling is nuts….right!), and has all the tools necessary to get the job done. We had a good time making sparks – remember kids, wear those safety glasses!

By evening, our work was done, and I had one river ready rig. Nothing left to do but load it up and head to the river to test it out. Now I just have to wait for it to warm up enough to go topless….

Enjoy the Spring,
Damon