Freezing Your…Toes Off in Bend

I knew it was really cold when I glanced down at my booties and saw the toes were ice crusted…

Bend, Oregon is famous for lunatics–on the mountain, in the desert, on skis and snowboards, in the whitewater and in the bars. One of the most infamous is Randy Barna, who sent us this by email:

Last Saturday my friend Eddy Miller and I had arranged to go for a paddle on the Deschutes. Ed is a mountain man who doesn’t like modern conveniences and is known for winter adventures like rafting the Grand Canyon. He was introduced to SUP at Elk Lake by friend Win Francis in the warmth of last summer so you think Ed would know better than to SUP all winter. Well, Ed was determined to go since he had paddled every day since he got his first SUP board from me last Tuesday and didn’t want to spoil his record. We couldn’t let the fact that it was only twenty-two degrees out influence us. I had to experience it and so did Win Francis.

We started at Aspen Camp launch. This stretch if the river is completely wilderness and very beautiful. Also, Ed likes it because he lets his dogs run along shore.
I wore a 5mm wetsuit, 3mm booties and a XC ski hat and gloves. Ed had on paddle pants and jacket with long johns and rubber muck boots. Win was wearing ski clothes and wetsuit booties knowing that he’d freeze if he fell in. Come hell or high water, none of us were going to fall in.

The water was mirror smooth and great paddling. My hands and feet were cold at first but the hands warmed up with the exertion level. The toes kept getting colder and colder which finally prompted me to look down and noticed the ice on the toes, in fact the whole deck of the board was building up ice. Where our feet were, the deck stayed warm enough not to ice-up so we didn’t move our feet or try anything fancy. We completed the whole paddle in about 50 minutes. Went downstream until the Big Eddy rapids were visible and then upstream to the rapids up there (I think Dillon falls).

The hardest part for me was getting the ice covered board on the roof of the car. It kept slipping off the roof racks with the slightest touch and fumbling with the rack straps with numb fingers made it almost comical. We didn’t hang around to chat afterwards, it was almost dark and we all wanted to crank our car heaters and get home to warm showers. Eddy Miller doesn’t use a computer so he won’t see this but he deserves our respect for being the most die-hard standup paddler. For me, I think I will keep it above 32 degrees at least!

Holiday Greetings to all!
Randall Barna
standuppaddlebend.com