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
Friday, May 21, 2010
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
~d
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
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.
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
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf1M-WGvfCg
Monday, May 17, 2010
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.
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.
&
Sunday, May 16, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
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.
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.
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