OVER THE BOW: LAKE JENKINSON

“We come from a perspective, humbly, where we submit the science is in — and observed evidence is self-evident — that climate change is real and that is exacerbating this.”--California Gov. Gavin Newsom

I love to paddle in rain, fog, and snow. Weather for me is just a state of mind. As writer John Ruskin wrote, "Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating. There is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather."
But, with wildfire erupting throughout the western states causing a path of destruction as it burns across million acres. Meanwhile, a hazy, milky overcast of smoke is choking us all. The climate is changing.

The governors of California, Oregon, and Washington have all said global warming is priming forests for wildfires as they become hotter and drier.
“What we’ve been seeing in California are some of the clearest events where we can say this is climate change — that climate change has clearly made this worse,” Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at the Breakthrough Institute, an Oakland-based think tank, told the Los Angles Times, “People who have lived in California for 30, 40 years are saying this is unprecedented, it has never been this hot, it has never been this smoky in all the years I’ve lived here.”
Scientists say wildfires are all but inevitable has plants and trees drying out due to climate change. Forest officials hope that implementing efforts to thin trees and brush through prescribed burns and careful logging will help prevent forests from being threatened with fire.

That was the case earlier this summer on the south shore of Sly Park Recreation Area's Lake Jenkinson as crews with a masticator cut, chopped, and ground dead and dying trees and dry vegetation into particles to reduce and inhibit the spread of a potential fire.
It was a disrupted noise to a usually peaceful lake scene. And when the winds were light a dust bowl like cloud darkens the lake view and faded the treeline. Paddlers floated in and out of the haze above the lake. But, at least it wasn't smoke from nearby.
Funding for the vegetation management project was provided by Cal Fire as part of the California Climate Investments Program.

Over the Bow is a feature from Outside Adventure to the Max, telling the story behind the image. If you have a great picture with a great story, submit it to us at nickayak@gmail.com

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WEATHERMAN

Attitude is the difference between an ordeal and an adventure. – Bob Bitchin

"No epic adventure started with "On a bright sunny day." It's one of my favorite tweets attributed to adventurer Sean Conway and my usual answer when someone asked: "Are you going to kayak in the rain?"

I kept thinking that as a hard pounding rain bounced off my bow and cascaded into Lake Natoma as if a dam had burst in the sky. A misty haze hung over the lake as each drop created millions of momentary craters exploding in the water creating a giant whooshing sound over its surface. In the middle of the lake, stranded and getting soaked  I paddled as quickly as I could under to the safety of nearby bridge to wait out the deluge.

Adverse weather makes my trips more memorable. Paddling through a mist of rain adds a certain magic to my outing on the lake. It's a man vs nature type endeavor. Do I like bright sunny days? Of course, I do. Nothing is better than kayaking along while being kissed by the sun. In California, a state known for its sunshine, I have experienced lots of sun dazzling days on the water. But heartily coexisting in snow, rain, sleet and fog make for trips that are far from ordinary.

I'm grateful for the rain. The 2017-18 winter is off to a very slow start in Northern California. What a difference a year makes after last winter's record drought-busting snow totals in the Sierra Nevada. The recent snow survey results showed the basin at 30 percent of normal, compared to 67 percent on the same date last year.
“We are behind where we were last year at this time,” Jeff Anderson, a hydrologist from the Nevada Natural Resources Conservation Service, a federal agency that tracks snow in the west, told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Last week's series of storms did bring much-needed rain to Northern California but did little to help the snowpack. The southern storms were swollen with tropical moisture, too warm to make it a snowmaker as the snow levels hovered only around 9,000 feet, or higher than the ski summit of Squaw Valley-Alpine Meadows. Ski resorts hoping for snow only got rain. The snow-forecasting website Open Snow says another stormy period is expected next week, with the possibility of several colder storms by midweek, so cross your fingers, skiers and snowboarders.

The ancient weather rhymes say, "A ring around the sun or moon, rain or snow coming soon” or “Red sky at night, sailors’ delight; red sky in the morning, sailors take warning." But don’t cancel your trip just because it’s raining or cloudy and cold. Be sensible. Pack your raincoat and go anyway. Because if you wait for that perfect day. You will never go. "Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating," said English writer John Ruskin, "There is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather."

I just hope I can remember that the next time when raindrops are hammering down on my bow.