Little Man

little man

accept

conform

no.

mother nature

father sea

the truth is in the child's eyes

drink the earth's nectar

your body is soil.

dream...

~d

Chowder

The day is fuzzy. Thick like clam-chowder - shades of grey. Two-tone grey gulls pass over a grey fish-plant, siting on grey pilings, in a grey bay, reflecting the grey sky. The breakwater cuts the horizon, smudged and blurred. The only colour in the entire scene is the drizzle of sepia rust on fish-boat hulls. A black crow perches on the edge of a grey dumpster. The blue-water tug 'Crowley' comes home through the mist - Waadah Island a shadow behind it. Miniature wind-waves form on the puddles outside as a sudden gust tears through. The crows turn in unison to the wind, their ruffled feathers flattening, their heads bowed. Even my own mind is thick like clam-chowder... I squint in the brightness of the overcast. The fog floats in, and I stare out the window... nothing to write...



~d

Nope Not Today

Gave it a try today. Weather wasn't good with the incoming front and tomorrow's storm.



20 knot winds in my face, three to five foot short period wind waves on top of a three to four foot swell in my face, fog in my face. It all beat me back from the south. Cape Elizabeth would have been inpassable with it's shallows reaching far out. No protected landings for the next twenty or so miles. Not a place to wait out a storm and upcoming 3-4 meter swell for the better part of a week.



I got out a mile or so, and then made the call, pretty easy to make actually - no place for me out here today.

Wild Salmon One Government Zero

I'm pretty damned proud of my people today. Let's hope the government got the message this time.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf1M-WGvfCg

The Long Sandy

Crossed the river bar into Queets yesterday, bused into Quinalt to print off weather reports and plan next leg. Tenative plans to land at Grenville Bay and later at Copalis River/Beach. Not many options for protected landings and launches on the next few stretches. Especially worrisome are the stretches from fifteen miles north of Pt.Brown, Grays Harbour to Cape Disapointment.









Tenative stops/emergency pull-outs at inside of Pt.Chehalis, Grays Harbour; Tokeland/Toke Point, Willapa Bay; possibly North Head or Benson Beach, Cape Disappointment. This means I'll be doing really long days along exposed, surf pounded shorelines... if anyone knows of or could recommend more pull-outs it would be appreciated. Options when the brown hits the spinning are always nice to have.



Weather - looks like big seas May 20th through the 23rd so I'll most likely stay off the water. May try to get tomorrow on the water and a short day on Wednesday to take advantage of the last of the smaller seas. A series of fronts coming through will make for windy conditions Wednesday and Thursday... after that a calm? I hope so.



For the techies here are the sources I'm currently using - A LOT.

Buncha numbers from a buoy

&

A buncha blah blah blah from the NOAA Weather guys

Wild Life and Wildlife

It was a long paddle from La Push to Queets and a full-filling one as well.



Early this morn I found a few left-over glowing embers in someone's abandoned campfire from the previous night while on my morning walk and leg stretch. I re-arranged things, added a few twigs, and soon enough I had a cheery 0600 fire to warm my body and spirit.







I had very pleasant 3-4 foot following seas about half the way, and then on the rear quarter with the wind the rest of the way. A bit of work keeping a heading as there was a tendency to broach but in general it was nice to have the assist.



I had my first whale encounter in a kayak, nothing hugely overwhelmingly intimate, no big whale eye looking up at me, or tail raised high in the air. A small whale, a gray I think, lolling about the surface, spouting in front of me a few times, beside me a few times, and then it was gone. I was enjoying a series of rides, alongside an off-shore reef at the time, and this was another smile in a gallery series of today's smiles. Sea-otters, dozens of them over the day's paddle, popping up to watch me, squealing their funny squeal. A porpoise kept me company for a short while. Locals dismiss the Cormorant as a nothing bird but again today they were flying inquisitive circles around me. I like the company. A flock of Brown Pelicans skimmed right bye, feet from me, their wings skimming along the wave crests, almost touching them. I've never noticed how they fold thier wings in a bit to drop down a ahir and open them to lift again. Probably a nothing to most but interesting to me.



Destruction Island makes a great bearing point. It seemed a distant mirage, and as I traveled along the coast it slowly revealed itself - quite a ways out - tempting to paddle out to it but no time today unfortunately - places to be.



Kalaloch was a surfy mess of brown water and I couldn't spot the river mouth so I passed it by.



Queets was a wild surf ride in over the sandbar, and a serious struggle to keep from being sucked/washed back over the sandbar. I picked a beauty of a wave to ride in on, clean, strong and the perfect speed - total fluke but I felt like some kinda bonzo surf-dude riding it in, edging and stern ruddering. Just as it foamed out I felt the lightest tickle of the sand under the skin of my kayak. Nice feeling. Once into the river proper things slowed down a bit, from a five knot current to about a three knot current that I could paddle against and feel like I was able to make comfortable progress. A serene and peaceful place this river - sad that a highway has been built over top of it, and the homes of the friendly First Nations people of Queets Village.

La Push to La Push

I paddled out of the Ozette, seal hopped my kayak across the gravel bar at it's mouth and started today's journey to La Push.



Cape Alava is beautiful and I'm awestruck by it. The sea is calm and sheltered in a triangle of offshore islands and partially exposed reefs.

Tso'ees to Ozette River

Decided to head south after all. Lightest of breezes and calm(er) seas made for a challenging but comfortable paddle. Fishermen everywhere, a result of a very short Halibut Fishery. Most of the guys were clustered behind the big offshore reefs, and a bunch were crowded gunnel to gunnel in the Devil's Armpit at Point of Arches. Clapotis was rough in there, and they were being tossed around badly as they hung in there in hopes of getting the big one. I paddled merrily through the middle of them, chuckling a bit under my breath. They must have thought I was even nuttier than they were as I disappeared in the trough of 7' swells and surfed down the backside of 4' clapotis.

I found the mouth of the Ozette and came in without incident in the small breaking waves. Great place to land.

I'm setup on the backside of the little spit where the river makes an S-bend into the ocean. Pretty spot, out of the wind, the river in front of me the sea behind.

Baby Steps and False Starts

Mother Nature spread her legs and gave me a show this morning.

I'm unapolegetically vulgar here -seeing things that normally live under the sea dangling jiggly and flacid in the air is graphic. I awoke to a -0.7' tide, and was able to walk and boulder-hop my way far out on to the point. I was able to walk through a series of magnifcent caverns, and a maze of tunnels; and explore beautiful, life-filled tide-pools; I was amazed by boulders covered inch-by-square-inch with inch sized sea anenomes, crowded so close together they were cubes. Starfish at waist-level, orange and purple gripping and solid, flacid sun-tars sprawled out on the sand, mussels barnacles and goose-necks crowding the line where the sea is thrown up by the incessant pounding. Quite over-whelming and one hell of an inticement to stay 'just a little longer' ...and back to the opening sentence.

Photo credit - Trisha Nettleship

Paddling out from the Point of Arches, I freak out over my discomfort in the clapotis and head North to Tso'ees River instead of South, muttering in disgust "That's it... I'm going home". I'll admit, I'm having a moment of weakness. By the time I reach Portage Head I'm relaxed and feel much more comfortable, the clapotis off here is fairly severe but I've paddled it before and expected it so it doesn't seem such a big deal anymore. I realize - it's just a state of mind and happily surf into the mouth of the Tso'ees all giggles and grins. A nice long paddle up the river with my canoe paddle 'Makah' and I'm feeling unbelievably fresh and cheery. The ride back down-river is serene and a chance to reflect as I drift lazily with the current. I set up camp on the salt-marshes just inside the river mouth. I'm leaning against a giant buttress of a tree that has washed up here, watching the eagles soar lazily in the evening drafts, happy that I'm not listening to the ocean tonight. It's my quiet, contemplative time tonight and I'm not sharing it with jets taking off, that never stop taking off.... Roooooooaaaarrrrrr... Roooooooaaaarrrrrr... Roooooooaaaarrrrrr...



Tomorrow is a new day and damned if I haven't still had 'it' all along... I just forgot where to look.

Paddler's Retreat

Friday, May 28, 2010 at 10:00am







End Time: Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 3:00pm



Location: Cape Flattery & Neah Bay WA



It's a random gathering of kayakers of all disciplines and skill levels. :O)



Day paddlers; Rollers; Rock-hoppers; Surfers; Lily-dippers; and of course Friends of , Fans of, and Family of, are all welcome.



Lots of places to camp beach-side, and hotels and motels ranging from budget to deluxe. Email longboatshortboat(dot)yahoo(dot)ca for a list or with questions. No registration necessary, but advance booking of accommodation highly recommended.



Good paddling is easily accessible in a 270 degree range from here... the protected beaches of Neah Bay ...the wild rocks of the Cape ...surf at Hobuck Beach ...family and novice friendly paddles up the Wa'atch and Tso'ees Rivers ...inner-coastal trips from to Sekiu and Pysht River... Surf and Coastal runs south to Shi Shi Beach and Point of Arches with lots of rock-hopping options amongst incredible formations.



Admission by donation, in support of the LBSB expediton fund.



Hope you can join us!



~daniel~

Time to Get Back on the Water

Weather has been excellent, forecasts look good with a high-pressure systen pushing in from the the SE, surf has recided a bit. Time to get paddling. May be awhile before I post again as towns and computers will be few and far between on this next stretch. Hope to launch the am of Thursday May 13th.



Whoosh... I've butterflies...

~daniel~

Test Paddle

I had the opportunity to paddle Setsuko's Waterfield Kayaks Qaanaaq 512 SS "Azuki De Cheata".

Being Human.

Odd that a creature like us is so vulnerable. No hard shell, no super-strength, no venomous bite, no camoflauge... nothing... nature has put the amazing capacity to dream into the most fragile of vessels.

A man with a damn good reason to paddle.

Duane Strosaker is a paddler with a reason to paddle these days - I'd like to publicly throw my support behind him and encourage everyone to get involved in the issues...

SoCal Offshore Oil Rig Aware

5,000 barrels a day... at the moment...