Snow Day

We got about 6 inches of snow on Saturday night and Sunday, which has kept us close to home. We got out for a little fun on Sunday morning, so the girls and I made a snowman of sorts.

Baker Lake 9/15/06 - 9/17/06

Ed arrived early Friday morning and we loaded up his Suzuki with my gear. It was a school day and Zoe had woken up sad because she thought I’d already left. She was happy to be able to see us off on our adventure and wished us a pleasant journey. We caught the Kingston-Edmonds Ferry, stopping for coffee while we waited for the next boat. We saw a bunch of kayaks rolling off the incoming ferry – headed up to the symposium up in Port Townsend. From the ferry we made our way up to Darrington where we bought the day’s lunch at the IGA and visited a dug out canoe display across from the ranger station.


Every year, Ed and his family take a week to attend the Darrington Bluegrass Festival and paddle the Sauk River. A few years ago, Ed went in his solo canoe and took a swim just before the take-out. He had to abandon his canoe and spent the next day or so tracking it down. It was a good piece of detective work and a great story, so we re-lived the experience on our way up to the lake. We started the re-enactment at the put-in near the mill with a small toast our to upcoming adventure. I’d smuggled a couple of airplane bottle of Jaegermeister for just such an occasion.

We then followed the Sauk to the takeout at a county park about 16 miles down the road, scouting the river where we could. The county park is where Ed lost his canoe and since he’d never been down river from that spot, he did the right thing and let it continue downriver on its own. Further down the road, we made a brief stop at the boat launch where Ed had recovered his canoe just a few miles out of the little town of Concrete.

From Concrete, we made our way up to Baker Lake. The lake is about nine miles long, running north to south. There’s a dam at the south end. In our current climate of national security paranoia, it was refreshing to see that we could actually drive out across the dam. The lake had already been lowered to handle the winter rains, so it was about 100 foot drop down the lake. On the outlet however, it was a long way down, with only a chain link fence to keep us back. We drove out across the dam and back, and then made our way to the put-in at Baker Lake Resort.

The resort consists of a camp ground and a store. When we pulled into the resort, a number of Puget Sound Energy employees (they run the resort and the dam at the end of the lake) were sitting down to lunch. Because the lake was so low, they suggested we scout the put-in before committing to leaving from there. We decided it was doable as long as we put in on the little creek running into the lake and floated out that way. After a little bit of our own lunch, we loaded up the canoe and paddled off. With the low lake level, we were able to look down through the water to see huge old growth stumps that were left behind after they logged the forest for the dam. The marvel of these stumps would be a theme for the rest of the weekend.

We paddled a short crossing to the eastern side of the lake, scouting for campsites along the way. The lake is in a valley between some pretty steep mountains, providing us with a picture postcard view of Mt. Baker to the west and Mt. Blum to the east. According to my GPS, we were only eight miles from the peak of Baker – so close we could pick out glacial features with the naked eye. The low lake level left behind plenty of rock (and stumpy) beach between the lake and the forest. The no-burning signs posted along the beach also signified potential campsites. We got out to scout a few sites, including a huge sandbar in a little cove where Noisy Creek runs out into the lake. Although an ideal spot in it’s own right, we kept moving north in search of the ultimate campsite. A little further down the lake we finally found our new home. We’re picky and didn’t want to camp in the woods (and lose the view of Mt. Baker), so we chose a nice patch of packed sand in the middle of a stump field. Ed suggested that maybe the stumps came alive at night and moved around, which added to the surreal setting in which we found ourselves. This is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been.
After setting up camp, we settled into dinner. Since campfires weren’t allowed, we spent an evening around the Coleman lantern. Although we saw some deer tracks on the beach, we didn’t come across too much wildlife – except for a ton of little tree frogs making their way to the lake, and a couple of beetles who scurried around our campsite. At one point in the evening, I felt myself relax and slow down to pace of the world around me. With only the lightest rain coming down, we retired to our respective tents at 10:00 and fell asleep immediately.

We woke with the sun at 7:00 next day and had breakfast consisting of coffee and instant oatmeal. Our plan for the day consisted of a hike along the eastern side of the lake to Maple Grove Camp. The 11 mile, round trip, hike would take us about halfway down the lake toward the dam. We took our lunch and a water bottle in my day pack and hit the trail. About a mile into our hike, we met a couple of runners on the trail. They told us they were in training for an upcoming 50K race around the lake. A few miles later, we met another group of runners doing the same. We apparently timed our weekend perfectly – imagine trying to navigate the trail with a race in progress. After wading through seemingly endless patches of wet overgrowth on the trail, we finally made it to Maple Grove Camp where we had a lunch of beef jerky, chunks of parmesan cheese and a little gorp for desert. We saw a group of kayakers out on the lake exploring a little island that is likely not there when the lake is up. After just a short break, we followed the trail back to our site on the north end of the lake. In total, our hike took about five hours.

Exhausted after our hike, we changed our socks, put on some sandals and brewed up a batch of coffee, Ibuprofin, and a can of Fosters. During our respite, a small plane flying up the lake, came over our site and tipped its wings at us. Luckily enough, I had my camera ready and got a few shots as the plane banked at the end of the lake and headed back south. The visit from the plane rekindled our adventurous spirit, so we suited up for a paddle to the mouth of the Baker River a short distance away from our camp. After paddling up the mouth of the river a few yards, we decided to explore by foot – apparently 11 miles wasn’t enough for the day. Beaching the canoe, we both immediately stepped into seemingly solid sand and sank just deep enough to get our fresh socks soaked. Thankfully we’d both put our sandals on, so we took off the socks, and traveled amphibiously up the river for another ½ mile. The siren’s call of every new turn kept drawing us up the river, but alas the setting sun reminded us we had to get back to the canoe – another part of the world left unexplored.

Back at camp we settled in for dinner and another night around the lantern. Over another can of Foster’s (they travel well and pack out nicely when crushed) we alternated between planning our next adventure, reliving old adventures, stargazing, and listening to blues on the radio. It being our last night in the wilderness, we hung on as long as we could, but finally retired to our tents at midnight.

Sleeping in, we were up at 8:00 on Sunday, had our breakfast and broke camp. We loaded up the canoe and crossed to the west side of the lake. We followed the western shore through a forest of partially submerged stumps, drawing ever closer to the resort. We’d noticed on Saturday that the lake had been lowered through the dam by a good foot. This kept us from paddling up the creek as far as we would have liked, but we were able to get out and line the canoe back up to the boat launch. With little desire to do so, we loaded up and left. Working our way down the mountain back to the freeway and a little lunch stop at the Skagit River brewery in Mount Vernon, we began planning our next adventure – a combined paddle of the White River into Lake Wenatchee.

Great Moments in Parenting

Recent family surf trips have caused me to reflect on my life with children. Ryleigh is 10, well on her way to becoming a teenager, and Zoe will be 7 in September and I'm slowly losing my influence on them. However, as you'll see below, some things stick a little more than others. For the most part, I think the kids are growing up well. They're active, involved, and doing great academically -- all this in spite of frequent and stupid mistakes on my part.

Here's a partial list of corruption, terror, bad ideas and outright lies I've inflicted upon my precious little ones:

• Ever using the words "butt" and "poop" in a sentence -- ever
• Teaching Zoe how to make armpit farts
• Forcing Ryleigh to go on Disney's Pirates of the Carribean
• Forcing Zoe to go through Disney's Haunted Mansion (some people never learn)
• Teaching the kids the "diarrhea song"
• Guess what? Chicken butt!
• Letting Zoe drive my truck
• Hanging Ryleigh off the side of the balcony so my fans can adore her (wait, that was Michael Jackson)
• Telling a 2 year old Ryleigh there were monkeys in the Badlands of South Dakota
• Telling Zoe the new leaf blower was for her
• It's OK to chase the geese out of the yard with a hockey stick
• Calling Legoland, "Lame-O-Land"
• Go flush the toilet while Mom is in the shower (it's not so funny when I'm the one in the shower)
• Pull my finger
• Making up funny new words for old songs (see bullet #1)

OK, so I'm not a perfect parent.

Surfer Girl

One of Ryleigh's goals for the summer was learning to surf. No way I'm passing that up, so we packed the family in the van, threw the kayak on top and headed to Wesport. We rented a wesuit and a board for Ryleigh and hit the beach.

Now, Ryleigh has grown pretty comfortable in the lake, swimming most days, jumping off the dock and riding boat waves on the innertube, but she's never been all that interested in saltwater (dead crabs and other yucky stuff). Well, it might have been the full wetsuit or maybe is was just her time, but she took to surfing and playing in the waves like a natural. After pushing her into a few waves while she lay on the board, she decided to stand up. She'd get tired or a little cold occasionally, but would say, "just a couple more waves, dad. Just a couple more waves."

I surfed a couple waves and got out for a little while in the kayak, but it was Ryleigh's day and she couldn't get enough. So, needless to say, I'm excited for our Oregon Coast vacation coming up in August.

Here's a few more pictures from our day:

Blake Island

My friend Jeff and I recently did a quick overnight kayak camping trip to Blake Island. Paddling across from Illahee State Park, I met Jeff -- who left from Bainbridge Island. Interstingly enough, we both read the tide tables incorrectly and bucked the current through Rich Passage. It wasn't too bad though, about 6.5 miles out to the island. Blake is an interesting spot in that it it's kayak camping within full view of Seattle. We camped in one of three sites reserved for paddle-in campers only (part of the Cascadia Marine Trail -- a network of over 50 similar campsites that range from Olympia to the Canadian border) and met a couple of representatives from Washington Water Trails, an organization dedicated to the development of water trails like the Cascadia Marine Trail.



Jeff and I hiked the Island, shared a couple bottles of wine and had smoke salmon with pasta primavera for dinner. Not exactly roughing it, eh?

I got to try out my new tent (father's day gift) and my new backpacker guitar.
After a beautiful night under a clear sky, we packed up and paddled home.

Zoe Loses Her First Tooth

A couple months ago, Zoe announced that she had five loose teeth. Well sure enough, at least one of them was really loose. She was awfully proud of her tooth and wiggled it every chance she got. She even took to taking mom's make-up mirror to the dinner table so she could see it wiggling around in her mouth. On the final day, she decided that she didn't want to have it come out and was a bit "shaky" about it. It finally did come out while she was buying a pretzel at the mall.

The tooth fairy came and brought a dollar bill, a Sacagawea dollar coin, a coin from Georgia (Russian), and a coin from Jamaica. That tooth fairy is one global traveller; she always leaves foreign currency for the kids. 

The Maiden Voyage of the Arctic Tern

On what was quite possibly the coldest day of the year, I finally launched the Artic Tern for her maiden voyage. The Arctic Tern is a sea kayak project 1 1/2 years in the making. I started building her in May of 2004 and got about 90% of her done in about 3 months. Due to many factors, mostly laziness, I hadn't done much to move it along until after Christmas. Anyway, I've finally completed the hatch project (well, completed enough to paddle anyway) the other night and hadn't yet had time to get out. So, before the sun went down and the wind picked up too much, I threw on the paddling jacket and PFD, got the boat out of the workshop/kids play room, and headed down to the dock. With little fanfare, I put the boat in the water and was only a little surprised to see that it actually floats. I climbed in, pushed off and took a few strokes with the paddle, headed in to a chilly North wind. She tracks nicely into the wind and has a great glide--especially in contrast to the Perception 3D (my whitewater kayak) that I use for surfing and river trips. She's also much lighter than my 16 foot Royalex Mad River Canoe. I know it’s not fair to compare the Tern with a river boat, but I spend a lot of time in the 3D, so it’s my own point of reference. Since I'm used to spinning the 3D around pretty easy, the Tern took a little bit more to turn, but with a solid lean to the outside and a nice little sweep stroke, she comes about nicely. Some would say to add a rudder, but I want to keep it simple and I think I’ll become a better paddler for not having one. She ran pretty straight down wind too, but the waves weren't big enough to see how she'll handle a following swell. The lake water is freezing--literally--and I lent Ed my sprayskirt, so I didn't attempt a roll. I'll wait until I spend some more time in the boat and I'm in warmer water.

All-in-all, I love this boat and look forward to taking her for a weekend kayak camping trip once the weather gets a little nicer. Sometimes I wish I had decided to build the 17 foot version instead of the 14 footer, but realistically, the 14 will suit my current needs (mostly day trips and the occasional weekender) a little better.

After a few trips up and down the lake, I headed back in as it was getting dark. I lifted her out of the water with one hand (she only weighs about 30 LBS), and set her on the dock. I took a few steps back and finally got a look at her in her natural state. In that setting, I couldn't help but admire her lines. And, there's nothing so beautiful as the bright shiny expanse of wood that makes up this boat. I have a lot to do to outfit her, but she's finally a boat. I’m going to paddle her for a couple weeks, then take her down to my friend Steve’s shop and varnish her in his paint booth. I have a few paddles that I want to make, a few home improvement projects, then it’s on to the next boat—a wood strip solo canoe. Let’s hope it’s not another year and a half in the making.

Flat Water Fun

A while back, my friend Ed from across the lake, called me to let me know he'd bought himself a new boat--at least to him. The boat is a Perception Pirouette, a previous generation whitewater boat. I had to laugh, because of all the boats out there, he got the exact boat I got for my first kayak. I still have the Pirouette, though I pretty much keep it around for guests to play around in here at the lake. I love it though, it's the boat I learned to roll in. Ed's boat is in really good shape and will make the perfect downriver kayak for him. I'm looking forward to some river time. While Ed is a pretty accomplished open boater (he has both a tandem and solo canoe), butt-boating is a bit new to him, so we spent a day on the lake.

We left from my dock and headed south against the wind to a the mouth of a Grata Creek. Grata Creek is typical for streams in Kitsap county--it's dry for the majority of the summer and little more than a trickle for the rest of the year. However, we've had quite a bit of rain the week before, so there was actually a nice little current running out into the lake. A couple of gravel bars created nice little eddies, allowing us to practice our eddy turns. It doesn't happen often, so we got a little treat. I also managed to practice a few pivot turns in my Perception 3D.

After a while, we headed up into the conservancy at the South end of the lake, navigating between old stumps and the beaver hut. The shallow draft of the kayaks make them quite possibly the best craft for poking around in the bog. After circumnavigating the little island, we paddled over to check out the dam. With all the rain, we kept a safe distance from the lip to avoid going over. I wish I had the cajones to go for it, but I'm really in to self-preservation, so I'll leave it to someone else.

We continued our trip around the lake and up another short inlet that I've seen, but have never been up before. This is Ed's secret spot and once again, the short little boats made for easy work in the tight little creek. From there it was back to the house to warm up over coffee, nachos and a paddling video.

Ed's planning on taking a roll class soon, and we're also talking about a whitewater course, so hopefully we'll see some rapids this year. In the meantime, I'm still focused on surfing and getting the sea kayak done, so I can take a couple weekend kayak camping trips this summer.

Currently listening to - Jack Johnson (Thicker than Water)

Currently reading - The Historian

LaPush

After nearly a two-month, holiday induced hiatus, I finally made it back up to the surf. The forecast was looking pretty sad for the Straits and Jeff was looking to head out to the coast with a board-surfing friend of his, Rob. We all met on the West side of the Hood Canal Bridge at 7:00 Saturday morning and consolidated into two vehicles. Our first destination was Rialto Beach, just north of the tribal village of LaPush. Because it looked pretty sloppy, we made the short drive south to check out first beach at LaPush. It was a little cleaner (slightly), especially toward the north end of the beach where the Quileute river runs into the sea, with 2-7 ft waves. Rob's dog, Abby escorted us down the beach and bid us great surfing by barking from shore. She's a great dog, just hanging out on the beach until we came back in.

In spite of the surf being a little less chaotic than Rialto, I still spent a good portion of the first session getting beat up by extremely unpredictable waves. I expect some of my issue was having not been in the water since November, but it didn't help that the break kept moving around at will. Every once in a while, I'd realize I was too far out to catch anything and would move back toward shore. Just about that time, I'd get caught on the inside by a huge wave and would find myself getting Maytagged, hanging upside-down in my kayak. At one point, I was stuck in a side surf, headed straight toward Rob. With no other choice, I found I had the presence of mind to roll and pulled myself off the backside of the wave.

After a quick psychological break on shore, we headed back out for another session. The waves seemed to have gotten a bit smaller. I caught a few and was able to ride a few until they got into a deep spot and petered out before forming again closer into shore.

After another couple hours in the waves, we had a couple beers on shore and chatted with a local while Abby and I bonded over part of my turkey sandwich. All-in-all it was a great day.

Working on the Kayak

For my birthday in 2004, I got a build it yourself kayak kit--something I've been wanting to do for at least 10 years. There's something about building your own boat that I had to get out of my system. I made great progress for the first couple months, until the weather started getting nice. The way I see it, you could either spend a nice day in the garage, building a boat or you could be out paddling one that already floats. The short story is that the boat has been about 90% complete for almost one and half years and it's been sitting there--in the kids playroom. So after our Christmas guests packed up (it's also a spare bedroom at times), I got started back at it. After this last little bit of work on the rear hatch, it's mostly finish work. My friend Steve has a paint booth in his shop, so the plan is to get it buttoned up and ready for varnishing. I'm going to have to take it out for a paddle at least once before we make it all pretty like. Maybe next weekend? Maybe in another year... Even though I'm not done with this one, I find myself thinking about the next project--a woodstrip canoe. 

Day After Christmas

Here's a picture Ryleigh took with her new camera. After being cooped up in the house for three days, I felt like we needed to get outside, so after Laurie and Bethann got back from their after Christmas shopping trip, we took Grandma Patty and Grandpa Larry on a hike to Guillemont cove. Rosie came with too. She walked almost 2 miles today and now she's wiped out. We stoppped for coffee and hot chocolate. Now we're waiting for the pizza dough to rise so we can build our own. 

Christmas Eve Eve

We're officially kicking off Christmas weekend. Santa just came by on the firetruck and gave the family candy canes. Laurie's family (Dad, Patty, Michelle, Tomm, Bethann, Eric) is showing up a little later tonight and we'll have guests through Monday. I'm looking forward to relaxing a little bit and will unplug my work computer for a couple of days. I will be working a little bit over the week between Christmas and New Years, but it won't be full time. The kids are excited and I think Mom is too. So Merry Christmas everyone! I'll try to post some pictures of Christmas morning.

Ryleigh's New Specs

Surprise, surprise! The girl who can't take her nose out of a book is near-sighted. Although we suspected it, the results of her school vision testing told us Ryleigh needed to see the eye doctor and get some glasses. Much to Ryleigh's delight, she can see again--and doesn't have to sit in the front of the class anymore. Kids don't seem to have the same issues with glasses that we had as children. Ryleigh thinks they're cute. So do I. One boy told her she looked goofy in them, to which she replied, "and now I can see how goofy YOU look." Go Girl!

Nutcracker 05

Here's Ryleigh in her role as one of the "boy cousins" in this year's Nutcracker. The Nutcracker and it's many weekend and late night rehearsals has taken it's place amongst (hell, effectively replaced) the many other events we have during this time of the year - like Laurie's Birthday and our Anniversary. This is Ryleigh's 7th year of dance (she's 9) and her third year in the Nutcracker. Last year she played a mouse and a bon-bon, and the year before that she was "The Naughty Bon-Bon" who refused to get back under mother Ginger's skirt. 

SnowDay

We got a good amount of snow last week. Here are the girls sitting on the first layer of our snowman. The kids had a couple of late starts, but not a full day. I worked from home most the week, but we only got out for the session you see here. I'm hopeful for more snow, since we didn't get any last year. I never did get up snowboarding, so my new snowboard is now two years old.

Currently listening to - System of a Down (Hypnotized)
Currently Reading - The McKinsey Way; Fundamentals of Kayak Navigation 

Getting the Tree(s)

Today we got the trees - a Grand Fir for the living room and a Noble Fir for the entry way. Even Rosie got in on the fun. Isn't that a cute sweater? Mom took the picture. We had hot chocolate and espresso drinks while warming up after getting our trees and spent the rest of the day putting them up and decorating. I got the lights up last weekend, so we're in full on Christmas mode. Cheers!!!

Arctic Winds on the North Coast

Up at 4:30 this morning to meet Jeff and David and do some surfing at Crescent Beach. COLD! We drove through some snow on the way up to Port Angeles, but arrived at the beach to a beautiful, sunny (albeit, windy as hell and COLD!) day. We were the first ones in the water today and had the beach to ourselves for about an hour. On the incoming tide, it was chaos. David and I got beat up for awhile until we moved down the beach. Up to now, my 1.5 mm gloves have been plenty warm, but with the wind and cold, my hands got a little chilly. No matter, we caught some nice rides once we moved down the beach and the outgoing tide seemed to smooth things out a bit. At the busiest point, there were no more than 10 people in the water (and most were kayaks, including myself). We passed on the hot showers at the RV park, had a Pacifico, then kept the Mexican theme going with tacos and beer in Sequim. With the early morning start, I still made it back to Bremerton to catch Ryleigh in an abbreviated version of the Nutcracker at the Festival of Trees. Man I love the North Coast dawn patrol surf trips.

Day after Christmas 04

Here's a picture from the day after Christmas last year. My Father-in-Law, Larry, and I went for a paddle near the great bend of the Hood Canal. The day started warm and calm -- summerlike conditions. By the end of the 2 hour paddle, the wind picked up and the 2 ft waves created a great paddling challenge for the team. 

Falling off the board on the Oregon Coast

I forget the name of the break -- it's right by the Devil's Punchbowl a few miles north of Newport.

North Coast Saturday 11/12/05

A beautiful day huge swells out on the coast, and chest high in the Straits if you're standing on a board. It's all overhead to me. There were dumping waves at Crescent Beach so we headed a little further west. There was about 20 board surfers in the water and me, the lone kayaker. These waves were somewhat new to me, nice spilling waves with a lot of height and a nice peel.