Gulf Islands Trip Report - Day 3

(Click for larger view)

Day 3 was the only day where we had any real plans. We were off to see the petroglyphs at the Degnen Bay on Gabriola Island. These petroglyphs predate the local natives and nobody really knows who left them or why. I find it interesting how different they look from native art. A bit sad that more isn’t being done to protect this site. People are free to roam about right on top of them, which I am sure overtime will erode them away. I appreciated the opportunity to be so close and attempted to use great care not to walk or stand on any of the petroglyphs, but I’m sure not everybody is so cautious. I even saw recently carved graffiti next to some of the petroglyphs. Pretty sad!

Here are some thumbs of some of the Petroglyphs we saw. You’ll need to click on them to get a better view.

The trip of to Degnen Bay was pretty spectacular by itself. The sheer cliffs along the shore of Valdes Island are beautiful. I would have loved to take a day to paddle just along this shore, but that wasn’t in the works.

Shoreline along Valdes Island

We finished the day by mooring in Telegraph Harbor at Thetis Island. Not much here to see, but there were showers. Oh my God how I needed a shower. A shower is just one of those things that you really take for granted. The rest of the night we stayed holed up on the boat as it was absolutely pouring down rain. That’s okay we had several movies to watch and great company.

More critters for M

Lighthouse at Porlier Pass

Next day off to Ganges.

Google Maps and NOAA Charts

I was just given a link to a really cool website that I thought I would share. It is Google Earth with all the NOAA marine charts overlaid. You can zoom it in and also change the view with a slider in the upper right so that the satellite image shows through onto the chart. Pretty cool stuff. So check it out here at http://demo.geogarage.com/noaa/

Below is a sample image of my favorite place to paddle, Deception Pass. I’ll be paddling there next on March 29th.  When you check out the website zoom in really close to Bowman Bay just north of Deception Pass.  There are a couple of kayakers paddling in the water and several on the beach.

Snow Camping

So a friend and I got the crazy idea of going camping yesterday. I couldn’t talk M into tagging along. She is obviously smarter than I. We got about six inches of new snow on us over night. We camped east of Glacier along the river on a road the locals call Dead Horse Road. I have no idea why and I have never seen a sign with this name. Maps just refer to the road by the Forest Service Number assigned to it. Needless to say with the cold weather and snow we were all alone at the camp. There were a few people that were out on snow shoes, but that was it. The weather was predicted to be cold from arctic air coming down from British Columbia. We’ll blame it on the Canadians eh.

As the night progressed and the temperatures dropped I kept myself warm by chopping firewood and building a snow man. I couldn’t decide if he should be named “Henry ” after the brand of beer that made up his arms, eyes, and hat. Or if he should be named “Frosty the Beer Man.” He did a really good job of keeping my beer cold. As the beer was consumed he gained a nose and buttons from the bottle caps.

I awoke several times throughout the night as snow was falling from trees and landing on my tent in big loud clumps. Not exactly a good nights sleep. Another thing that kept me from sleeping good was the pillow I brought. I have a really nice memory foam pillow. Extremely comfortable, but not when it is frozen solid. Memory foam when it freezes turns hard as a rock.

This morning we woke up and I made a big breakfast with lots of grease. Greasy food seems to warm me better than any other kind of breakfast. Another lesson learned was that my camp stove does not work so well in sub freezing temperatures. The Isopro canisters were freezing and the flame output was down to a simmer once they were burning a couple of minutes.

It was a fun short camp trip and something different to do. I always like camping because it forces me to relax. There is nothing to do but sit around the campfire and enjoy good company.

Interesting Water Facts According to Children

In looking at a drop of water under a microscope, we find there are twice as many H’s as O’s.Water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212 degrees.

There are 180 degrees between freezing and boiling because there are 180 degrees between north and south.

Water is composed of two gins, Oxygin and Hydrogin. Oxygin is pure gin. Hydrogin is gin and water. H2O is hot water, and CO2 is cold water.

Flight of the Conchords Encore

It’s Wednesday so that must mean ….

IT’S BUSINESS TIME

Hope Santa Was Good to Everyone!

Hope everyone got what they wanted for Christmas. I was very pleasantly surprised this year. M went overboard and got me a new camera. A waterproof digital Olympus 790SW. I had been borrowing hers whenever I went paddling so now she no longer needs to worry about her camera and I won’t have to ask to use hers.

She also got me a new book that so far looks pretty interesting. Eastern Arctic Kayaks by John Heath. I have barely dug into but so far so good.

I had a great family meal again compliments of my wonderful M. I am very grateful for all I have and all I have received. I hope all of you are having a wonderful Christmas.

Paddler Magazine and Deception Pass Dash

Paddler Magazine’s website just did a story on Deception Pass Dash. What do you know they even mentioned little old me. Unfortunately it was because of my last place finish at the Deception Pass Dash. I must admit I got a kick seeing my name mentioned in their article.

Check it out here.

Kayaker Gone Bad!

No M isn’t getting ready to knock off the nearing 7-11. She is showing her latest addition to her kayaking kit.

M found a new way to keep the drysuit from tearing out all her hair when she puts it on. A pair of cheap panty hose. She says it works great. I can’t remember where we found this little trick, but for anybody with long hair it seems to work.

Where have all my friends gone?

For some unknown reason WordPress has wiped out all my links to my favorite blogs. This is not my way of telling all of you that I no longer check in on you and your adventures. I hope to have all of you back soon.

Okay I found another way to get my blogroll back.  Hopefully it continues to work.  It isn’t ideal but hey at least I have my friends back.

HMS Interceptor

 

HMS Interceptor from Pirates of the Caribbean, which is actually the Lady Washington came to Bellingham along with her sister ship the Hawaiian Chieftain. We took the opportunity to go take a look. Beautiful ships. More importantly it got us out of the house to enjoy a beautiful day.

 

I haven’t been paddling much. I am trying really hard to stick to my running schedule to train for a marathon. I ran 7 miles with a friend yesterday and easily could have run several more, but it was his first run in a long time. Running with somebody else sure makes the run easier and time goes by much faster.  Finding the time for everything keeps getting harder and harder.  My summer is going by way too fast!

Thieves Hit Kayak Academy Shed!

I learned about this from Andrew’s Blog.  George and Barb at the Kayak Academy are really good folks and don’t deserve this.  Not that anybody does but having bought almost all of my gear from them and taking some really good instruction from George I have a real appreciation for the service they provide.

I hope some bad Karma circles around to those that did this.

From the Qajaq USA forum:

4 Sea Kayaks and Gear Stolen from Issaquah Paddle Sports/Kayak Academy Kayak Shed the Night of July 16th (Monday) located at Lake Sammamish St Park Swim Beach.

Kayaks Stolen:

WILDERNESS SYSTEMS TEMPEST 180 Pro-kayaksport hatches. Color: orange deck/white hull/black seam. Serial # WEMRXA31J607

IMPEX MONTAUK Carbon/Kevlar – Color: yellow deck/white hull/sunburst seam. Serial # unknown

IMPEX ASSATEAGUE Fiberglass –Color: yellow deck/white hull/ black seam. Serial # unknown

IMPEX CURRITUCK Fiberglass –Color: ocean blue/white hull/black seam. Serial # 4004G0CNR

All four kayaks have a unique bilge pump holder under the deck in front of the cockpit. This pump holder consists of bungee cord attached to the under side of the deck with four #6 stainless steel bolts. These four tiny bolt heads in a rectangle pattern are plainly visible on the deck even when viewed from several feet away.

Gear Stolen – Kokatat ProFit Tour Men’s L with Kokatat Tow Rope, Kokatat Tributary System, Wenaka Knife, MsFit Guide WM with lotus tow system, Kokatat Back Pocket, Dry bag with flares, Guardian Light, Docs Ear Plugs; Werner Ikelos 220cm, Kokatat Farmer Jane’s WS,WM,WL, Kokatat dry suit GFE-D WXLS color: Plum/Black, GFE-R XL color: gray, Chota Haul Sack included Kokatat Spray skirt, Adventure Medical first aid kit, 2 Otter boxes with safety and repair materials inside, Garmin E-trex GPS, Kestrel 4000 Weather Pocket Meter, Kokatat Pogies and Leatherman-Juice.

Any information appreciated: 206-527-1825.

Meet My New Running Partner

I ‘ve been running lately trying to train for a half marathon in October. It feels pretty good, but I definately have a long way to go in my training. I used to run all the time and I took my dog Nelson with me regularily. Nelson is a Jack Russell Terror. Tons of energy and he worships the tennis ball. He love the tennis ball so much that we can’t even say the word ball without getting him all crazy. We have to call it the round yellow thing. Several years ago I took him for an eight mile run. At the end he jumped into the back of my full size Dodge Ram 4×4 pickup with the tailgate closed. He easily cleared the closed tailgate. Some know it all came up to me and proceeded to tell me that I was neglecting my dog by not exercising him and that I needed to burn off some of the dog’s energy. He didn’t believe me that the neglected dog just ran eight miles with me. This little dog just has that much energy.

Today was the first time in several years that I took Nelson running with me again. We ran three miles and he did great. Now he is sound asleep. Now there is the real reason I run with him. I’m just trying to wear him out.

El cow me (Welcome)

Silly I know, but whenever I see the word welcome I think back to high school. I had a friend that had letter blocks at his Dad’s house that spelled out Welcome. We thought in our juvenile minds that it was so funny to change them around to say El Cow Me. Funny what sticks in one’s mind over the years.

Welcome to my Blog. My wife (Ms. M) has gotten me hooked on the idea of doing my own blog. She too has one for her hobby. I usually get my daily dose of reading other kayaker’s blogs. The blogs that I appreciate the most are the ones that offer something to learn. Or perhaps insight into what they have experienced through their journey of learning. Kayakers I have seen since I started seem to fall into two categories. The first being the expert. They make their boat dance with grace and the appearance of total control. The other category being the dangerous fool. This is the guy or gal you see paddling with with the paddle upside down and backwards, no spray skirt, not PFD, and no sense of the potential dangers they could face. I believe I am somewhere in the middle and want to be as far away from being that dangerous fool as I can be.

I live in the great northwest. An area known for great kayaking. I have wanted for years to kayak and last year was finally able to gather enough pennies to get M. and I started. It has been great so far and the possibilities are even greater. The best part is the stress relief I get when I am on the water. I am so at ease mentally when on the water. I am an avid motorcyclist as well and have long been a believer in two-wheeled therapy and the peace it provides. With kayaking that level of peace has been taken to the next level.

See you on the water.

 

Photo Courtesy of Impex Kayaks