Trip Report!!!!

Posted by george jung on Sep 18, 2005

Well, kids, it's been awhile since anyone has posted a trip report. My favorite time of year for kayaking is fall, with better temps and nice foilage... (just watch out for the hunters, and don't be making those duck calls...)

Had an interesting, though short, paddle the other night. As I was heading out from our marina, a friend who just recently bought a small plastic yak (haven't convinced or converted him yet... but he's a lawyer, so what do you expect) caught sight of me, and paddled over to join up. This is his first year, and he's got it bad! Paddling nearly every night for the past two months...

We had gone perhaps 1 mile when we noticed clouds building up to the south.... generally not a big deal, as storms tend to go SE around here... but we kept an eye on it, and another half mile showed this was building fast, and headed our way... with occassional lightening. That was it; time to get off the water. We had crossed the river, and as we paddled like crazy back to shore, it started to rain. First a moderate sprinkling, then a nice, warm downpour. We were treated to a beautiful double rainbow to the east, cast against a dark blue bank of cumulus/stratus thunderheads; it's perhaps the most intensely colored and distinct rainbow I've seen around here (and very similar to what we saw, frequently, when we were in Alaska), and at one point it actually extended past landfall, onto the river. I've never seen that before. Of course, no camera (it's mommas, and she doesn't want me to do a Robert N.(not gonna drop it) Pruden on it; it's off limits.

It just kept getting better. Suddenly, the wind came up (and I mean REALLY came up) , making paddling into it a bit tougher. This was the only time the plastic yak was able to keep up with me; It was a bit 'overloaded', and mine was underloaded, giving a bit more surface area for the wind to grab. (My boat has a smaller motor, as well). This lasted only 15 minutes or so, then the waves showed up. These were big, rolling, boy-is-this-fun waves, and we were paddling INTO them (not so much fun when paddling with them..). I love this kind of paddling, and for the rest of the paddle home, we rode the roller coaster. This is the first time the waves have been big enough I could have used a spray skirt; OTOH, I was already soaked from the rain... The plastic yak did pretty well, but has one of those big, open cockpits. After this trip, I think he might be convinced to move up to a 'real' kayak..:-)

Replies:

• Kayaker Saves Dogs Life by Robert N Pruden on Sep 18, 2005
  • Re: Kayaker Saves Dogs Li by FrankP on Sep 19, 2005