This is something I learned the hard way Friday when I went up to Castle Lake with two old friends. One of them brought a Dry suit to stay warm in the 52 degrees Fahrenheit Castle lake water for swimming. The other one brought two kayaks, (one for him and one for me). The problem was I wasn't familiar with this kayak (in other words I had never used this one before). So, I assumed the inflatable seat would work for me in it. But, also, I'm 6 feet five inches tall and I also realized the weight limit was 300 pounds on this kayak and that is expected to be spread in two people with one sitting in the front and one sitting behind in the kayak for that to work well.
So, as I got into the kayak in shallow water I noticed this kayak was wider than ones I had been in before so it was more cumbersome to get into it. But then, what I didn't expect at all was that this inflatable seat made it so I couldn't breathe when I got into the kayak. So, I'm sitting there trying to figure out what to do and these people say on shore "Aren't you going to meet your friend out in the lake on his kayak?" However, I couldn't breathe and I'm already at 6000 feet and I realize suddenly I cannot stay in this kayak if I cannot breathe the way it is set up and if I lean back the whole kayak is going to break my neck on the bottom. So, the only way for me to breathe immediately again is to roll over sideways in the kayak into 52 degree water. So, I do this so I can breathe again and not break my neck flipping over backwards bow to stern. So, now I'm really cold because I just got really wet at 6000 feet in 52 degree water and cut my right knee on a rock on the bottom to boot. But, at least I can breathe now. (You aren't going to last very long in a kayak if you cannot breathe by the way!)
So, I guess what I'm saying here is don't just get in an unfamiliar kayak and then go down a river because you might die. YOU have to test these things to see if you are compatible with them or else it is your life!
I already lost a friend from my senior class in high school on a river in Colorado when I was likely 30 to 32. So, even under good conditions (if you are on a river) kayaks can be dangerous.
You have to be prepared for anything when you are on an adventure!
So, I hauled out myself and the kayak and the double ended paddle to the boat launch ramp and left it there until I could change into dry clothes before I got really really cold. Luckily I brought dry jeans and a flannel shirt to change into and then when I got back to the hotel in Mt. Shasta my wife read her book and sat drying all my lake wet clothes in the drier there for about 1 hour before we went to bed after dinner that night which was really nice of her to do this for me. But, she enjoyed her book because she liked having a quiet place to read it too.
So, the moral of this story is "It's great to be a life long adventurer like me. But, you have to be prepared to do almost anything to survive different situations."
A few years ago these two friends and I were skiing across this same lake in the winter when I miscalculated and fell down going from the shore snow to the lake snow and ice and right there the Ice wasn't very thick so my rear end went into the lake some. One of my friends could hear me and I called to him:"Hey! I cannot release my ski bindings please help me or I'm going to drown!"
So, I'm thinking to myself how crazy this is that my skis are going to stay on top of the ice with my ski boots and my rear end has gone through the ice and now I'm going to drown if my friend doesn't come back in time. Luckily, he came back quickly because he didn't want me to drown and undid my bindings on my skis. So, then I stood up in the lake at about 4 feet deep.Luckily I'm 6 foot 5 inches tall so I"m now standing in the lake with water up to my chest and ice above that and so I break more Ice so I can climb out. Now, I didn't drown but I'm in 25 degrees Fahrenheit with the wind blowing strong in wet clothes up to my chest. I found it not as bad as the movies say but realized I was at least 1/2 mile from my 4 wheel drive truck that I drove my friends and myself up into the snow with and this time I didn't have a change of clothes so I had to just wing it back to my hotel in freezing wet clothes pretty much with the truck heater on full blast.
However, I could see if you did't have a truck or a cabin where you could build a fire likely you would die if this happened to you when you went into extreme hypothermia and started halucinating so you didn't know which end was up anymore. However, if you had a friend to think for you and they built a fire and warmed you up you still might survive something like this.
Question: "How do you keep from getting frostbite on the tips of your fingers and toes after an experience like this?"
For me, the answer was simple. I just got into a hot tub and massaged my fingers and toes until they worked right once again. However, if you don't have a hot tub to get into you are just going to have to wing it somehow. Also, I was hot from skiing when all this happened and so I didn't completely lose my core temperature ever completely above where my heart is. So, at least I was still warm mostly above my heart even when everything was at 25 degrees around me with wind blowing hard with blowing snow and overcast. So, my brain felt funny and I knew I was sort of off but because my upper body was still fairly warm I didn't start to fully hallucinate from hypothermia. I just felt strange and was having to sort of be strong in my mind so I didn't go fully into shock from the experience.
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