kayaking – Page 11 – The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

Perfect Day on Big River

It was a perfect day to go kayaking. Once again there was an eight foot high tide predicted for just after noon, giving us a good two hours before to paddle upstream, and another two hours to paddle back down with the ebbing tide. The launch site at Big River just east of the Mendocino Bay Bridge on Highway 1 is huge, with a boat ramp, but also with a broad sandy gentle beach perfect for us.

The weather was clear and crisp, if a bit cool. The current on the river was negligible, and with the incoming tide paddling upstream was easy. It was Abby’s first time out in the new kayak, and it was a perfect place for Mo to adjust to paddling with Abby while she learned to settle in to the bigger cockpit.

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On a Monday morning in November, we very nearly had the entire river to ourselves, with a single rower passing us going downstream, a lone kayaker going back downstream toward the beach, and a young couple paddling a large wooden outrigger canoe. The rest of the trip we were completely alone in the silence of the river and the surrounding redwood forest.

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We saw ducks, herons, cormorants, and on our way back to the mouth of the river, a group of seals. Reading about the trip in the Sea Kayaking book suggested a nice sandy beach about 3.5 miles upriver where we could take a break and get out of the boats. I think the combination of high river water and a very high tide completely obscured the beach, however, because we never found it. After a couple hours on the river, a bathroom break became somewhat of a necessity, so we improvised. In an area that looked just a bit less abrupt than the rest of the banks, we tied both boats up to a small stump and managed to crawl out of them from the deep water. Abby was glad for the break as well before we saw the tide turning and decided it was time to head back downstream.

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Paddling downriver at about 4mph was effortless until we were within less than a mile from the launch site where the winds picked up considerably. I didn’t get any photos of the big wind generated waves because I was busy paddling hard, and that last half mile was the hardest of the day. We had been warned of this, so it wasn’t unexpected and I’m glad it didn’t last any longer than it did.

On the beach once again, we easily loaded up the boats, but by then the wind was darn cold and we were definitely ready for a break. The tiny, incredibly picturesque town of Mendocino was just a stone’s throw from the launch, and we thought a good dose of fish and chips would be perfect. Many shops were open on this slow Monday afternoon,but open restaurants weren’t easy to find. A shopkeeper told us about Patterson’s Pub, suggesting they had the best food in town. She was right The pub was perfect, with an Irish theme, small warm and cozy, great beers on tap and truly wonderful food. I had a Bass from the tap, and Mo’s house Chardonnay was crisp and dry. Lobster bisque drizzled with very green virgin olive oil was a perfect beginning to fresh cod and sweet potato cross cut fries. Yum!!

Since daylight savings time ended it seems that it is way too dark at 6pm and settling in to a warm MoHo, cruising the blogs, and watching TV was a perfect way to end a great day.

More photos of our trip on the river are linked here.

Kayaking Humboldt Bay

I think we would have traveled to the California coast for this trip even if we didn’t have new kayaks. It’s a beautiful place when the fog isn’t hanging around. Fall is usually the prettiest time of year with cooling temperatures inland creating conditions that keep the coastal fog at a minimum. Everyone here knows that when it’s hot inland it will be foggy at the coast. Right now there is a high pressure system inland. Guess what. It’s foggy.

We woke this morning hoping for a bit of a break, but it wasn’t to be. Today was even foggier than yesterday without even that small afternoon sun break coming through to light things up a bit. The tides were with us today, however, and we didn’t want to miss the noontime high tide. Hookton Slough is just a few miles south of Eureka where we are parked, and we checked out the launch site when we first got here on Wednesday. The dock is built to adjust to tide depth, with easy access even at low tide. It makes it a bit less likely that we would get stranded out on a mud flat somewhere when the tide receded.

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This morning we realized that in our five years of kayaking, we have never attempted a dock entry to our boats. Who knows why, I guess because we never really needed to try it. Today was it, there was no other way to get in the boats since the edge of the slough was rocky and descended abruptly to deep water. Either way it would be a deep water entry. We unloaded the boats…soooo dang light….. and dropped them into the water along the dock. With life jackets on we gingerly knelt on the dock and into the boats. Easy. Experienced kayakers will laugh at this, I am sure, but it still was something new for us. It felt great to be in the boat in the water though, once there everything felt just fine.

The bay was fogged in, the estuary was fogged in, but the tide was plus eight feet! One of the highest tides in a very long time according to some local folks at the launch. It made for a very easy kayak along the south part of South Bay, and we traveled about 3 miles west to the edge of the bay. We could hear the ocean again, but this time there was no breach and the bay was quiet. By the time we got back to the launch site, the tide was receding but still was plenty high. We were out a bit less than three hours and during that whole time the fog never really lifted.

We didn’t see any river otters, although there is a family of three living near where we boated. We did see lots of shore birds, blue herons, white herons, a great egret (black legs), huge flocks of cormorants and geese, brown pelicans, and of course, lots of seagulls. With the dark and the fog, my zoomed in bird photos didn’t turn out too well, but it was still great getting out on the water. Of course, the fog and cold day made for incredible silence and beauty. It was just us and the birds out there on the water. Beautiful.

There are more photos for our days in Eureka linked here, here, and here.

Lake Talawa and the coast at Crescent City

Today was the day! We did a bit of internet searching last night to check local tides and possible put-in sites for a trip on an inland lake north of Crescent City. On Google Maps, the two lakes looked accessible but sometimes it’s hard to find a launch site where there is a lot of private land surrounding the lake or where there are wildlife refuges. Lake Talawa and Lake Earl have both.

I found an old website for a kayaking group that is no longer active, but they decided to keep the site up so people could use the information. I’m sure glad they did! We drove north around Earl Lake wandering off towards the west until we came to an extensive area of old roads that weren’t maintained any longer. According to the web site, there was a subdivision planned here that never made it. The roads were cracked and full of potholes, and as we approached the lake it was apparent that we were the only people around for miles.

Another possible deterrent could be that the lake was too low and too muddy to launch there. Instead, we found tules and sedges, with ground underfoot that was firm enough to support not only us, but the Tracker. We parked just feet from the water and launched effortlessly.

With a new boat it is always a bit thrilling to try it for the first time. This boat is so stable and comfortable there wasn’t a moment of wobble or concern. It felt great. Surprisingly, the cockpit is really quite big and the boat is about as wide as my old boat. The keel seems smoother, but Mo didn’t think they tracked any better than our old less expensive boats. However, lifting them to the racks is the deciding factor here, not speed or agility. We aren’t racers at all, and just want to get around easily, have a boat that tracks well, and is roomy and comfortable, and we can lift overhead without groaning. Check on all counts!

I it was still quite foggy, with only filtered sun coming through so the landscape all around us looked surreal. I knew the lake shape from the phone and could see where we were on the lake, but the distances and the changes in water levels made for some interesting moments. Accompanying our paddle was the incredible sound of huge crashing surf just beyond the dunes. With the fog it was hard to discern just where we were, and thinking we were at the dunes I checked on the iPhone to find we were still in the middle of the lake with some islands that didn’t show up on Google Earth.

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We paddled on to the ever increasing crash of the surf, and I wondered if the lake was perhaps breaching the dunes as it sometimes does when the water is high. Suddenly we were surrounded by white floating sea foam that looked for all the world like small icebergs. As we approached the beach we could see really huge waves that were breaking over the dunes and felt the surges of the incoming water. The tide was supposed to be receding and this definitely wasn’t feeling like receding at all! I read something on the weather page last night about a huge ocean swell that was coming this direction, with high surf warnings and waves to 25 feet. Sure made me nervous to see that water cresting over the dunes toward me! I turned and ran and Mo laughed at me, but we felt the swell again and didn’t have to paddle much at all to go back inland fairly quickly.

On the way back to our launch site we saw some otters playing, and a huge flock of snow geese flew overhead. We saw a lot of blue and white herons along the marshy shores. In the fog, everything looked much bigger and yet farther away than it actually was. There was no way to get a feel for where we were at all. I was really glad for the IPhone GPS and map, believe me!

Once back to the car, we loaded up effortlessly, excited about how easy our maiden voyage was. We decided to go back toward Crescent City and explore the other side of the lakes toward the ocean along Pebble Beach Road. Once we got there, we could see a lot of viewing activity along the headlands, with cars parked and people hiking out to high places and watching the surf. Once we did the same we discovered why. The waves were HUGE. It is impossible to take any kind of photos that actually show the scale of these waves coming into the shore. There are headlands and sea stacks in this vicinity that are at least 100 feet high and the waves were breaking completely over them. The waves were at least 30 feet tall, and breaking very far out from shore. There were all kinds of warnings out about staying away from the breakwater and not turning your back on the ocean, se we paid attention to all that and stayed up high.

It was truly exciting. The power of the ocean is so huge, and sometimes with just normal waves it is easy to forget how she can be in a storm. The part that was even more amazing is that there was no storm going on here at all, in fact there wasn’t even any wind. What an exciting thing to see. Mo lived on the ocean near Half Moon Bay for more than 30 years and I spent a considerable amount of time at the ocean as well. Neither of us have ever seen waves like those we saw today.

As always, there are many more photos on my Picasa website for this day linked here.

September 6 Killarney to Toronto

I have only a few photos of this day, and most of them are somewhat gloomy, but I did put them up on Picasa and they are linked here.

After the gorgeous day we enjoyed yesterday, this morning we woke again to gloomy rainy weather. Deciding to skip the morning hikes in the pouring rain, we packed up the MoHo and headed for Toronto. On the way, we happened to stop at a roadside information kiosk where the attendant told us about the Muskoga Lake Region. She also was incredibly helpful and made phone calls for us to the Swift Kayak and Canoe Company where we planned to visit.

On the way, we visited the charming little town of Muskoka Lake, and stopped at an area dominated by huge exposures of the Pre-Cambrian Shield. This is some of the oldest rock in the world, covering a large portion of Ontario and where much of the wealth of the province is derived.

Thanks to her information, we re-routed back north and through the lake district, and went to the main store selling the Swift Adirondack kayaks that I have been admiring on the internet for a time now. These kayaks are sleek and gorgeous, weighing only 34 pounds, with a cockpit that can accommodate Abby, and sealed bulkheads that will keep our gear dry. The owner just happened to be in the store, and offered to ship to the US, saving us the 13 percent provincial tax. It was an exciting day, and our boats will arrive in Oregon when we return after October 1st.

Even though we were traveling the beautiful lake district, with all the forests we didn’t see very much of the lakes and didn’t want to take more time to stop and visit. It is a beautiful area, however, and I would have loved to spend more time. The rest of the day was uneventful, as we navigated into the eastern part of the city of Toronto where we planned to camp at the city owned Glen Rouge Park.

September 5 Sault Ste Marie to Killarney and a bear!

The rest of the photos for this day of travels are linked here

Our day turned out to be wonderfully exciting and beautiful as we crossed the border into Canada. The weather was gloomy at first, but cleared as the day progressed. Originally, our plan for this trip included several days in the provincial parks along the northern shore of Lake Superior where we planned to kayak the lakes and rivers of this part of Ontario. We changed our plans a few days ago, and it turned out to be a good idea. The storms and rain would have kept us from doing any kayaking and the drives were long and featureless with the lake hidden by miles and miles of trees. In addition, the cost of gasoline in Canada ran as high as 4.00 per US gallon, so those many miles would have been expensive.

Instead, our only day camping in Ontario parks was today, at Killarney Provincial Park. Once over the border, which was completely uneventful, we stopped at the Ontario visitors center for information. The guide there was knowledgeable and helpful, and told us in her opinion Killarney was the loveliest park to see.

On the way through the park we stopped for a roadside rest along a lovely lake and hiked around a bit with the dog before continuing. Arriving at the campground around 2 in the afternoon, we set up our camp and thrilled at the brilliant sunshine. The park brochure listed several excellent hikes that were accessible to us, in addition to visiting the small coastal town of Killarney and kayaking either a lake or a river. After perusing the map and the weather we opted for a chance to actually take our boats down and get in the water for the first time on this trip! The skies were gorgeous and the winds were high, but the launching point on Chickanishing Creek was protected enough and had a good ramp. There were several people coming in to land, and the winds were a bit daunting, but we launched and headed for the “Big Water”.

We paddled through meandering water with very little current, among huge pink boulders of granite, smoothed by glaciers and dotted with pine, spruce, and fir. Once we emerged onto Lake Superior, there were granite islands all around us, but the wind was so high we were afraid to go very far into the waves. We don’t have skirts for our kayaks, and big winds make big waves, and we didn’t want to swamp in the extremely cold water so we turned back.

Gichee-Goomi, the Shining Big Sea Water

Paddling upstream was almost effortless, and back in the protected shelter of the creekside banks and cliffs the wind wasn’t as difficult to manage. While gliding along watching the bank, I suddenly realized that something was also watching me! I was eye to eye with a small black bear on the bank, just a few feet from my kayak. Wow! I was glad to be in my boat, even knowing that bears are great swimmers, I felt OK. I called out to Mo, backpaddled to get a better view and take some photos. Abby was sniffing like crazy trying to figure out what that thing was, and the bear was doing the same. We didn’t stay around long enough for him to get more interested in us, but he didn’t seem the least bit afraid of us either. It was the first bear I have seen up that close in ages, not since my mapping days in North Idaho in the 90’s. He was cute. From the safety of my boat, at least.

Our first bear of the trip, up close and personal!

The weather held up long enough for us to reload the boats and get settled into camp before starting to rain again. It was a perfectly wild and gorgeous day with a bear to top it off.