OK, Here's Some Pictures

Here is a picture of an old dilapidated bridge crossing the channel not far from my house. I took this picture on Saturday morning, the first real sunny day after almost two straight weeks of rain. Just a picture of the much needed sunshine.
Some daisies in the back yard.
Here is a wonderful photo of my lovely wife, practicing to be a mommy with her new 8 week old niece Emma.


Tomorrow night after work I will have to pack all my gear for the WMCKA symposium.

Now it's my turn to say: "Gone Paddling" =8-}

Dead is Forever.

WOW, Hillary is right.

I sometimes see people while out paddling and wonder about their apparent disregard for others. The ones I wonder about are usually the ones on Jet-skis or powerboats, going way too fast. I have wondered if anyone would ever notice or help if I needed it.

I wonder how those climbers can look themselves in the mirror?

I read a statistic yesterday that said 49% of Americans said they would not seek evacuation assistace in the face or wake of a hurricane if it meant they would have to abandon their pet.

I can't believe anyone would just leave a person to die.

Sorry no picture today either, maybe next time.

May Showers

Last night was cold, gray, windy, and rainy.....Perfect kayaking weather. After work, I rushed home and played with the dog for a little bit, and read through the mail quick, then changed into my paddling clothes. My wife was at work still, so I postponed dinner, and carried my kayak out of the garage and placed it on the ground. The spray skirt and PFD, both hung from their drying nails, were retrieved and stuffed into the cockpit along with my ONNO paddle. I strapped my home-made take-apart kayak dolly to the kayak and locked up the house. A short 300 yard portage to the put-in, take-apart and stow the dolly, and simply slip away from land with the help of the wind. I stretched my legs, torso, and arms while drifting with the wind, and contemplating my route. I chose to try and stay out of the wind as much as possible at first, knowing that I would have a slogfest on the way home. Better to just unwind from work first, then punish myself with physical labor after my mind has drifted off.

I had the entire lake to myself for the duration of the paddle. It was quiet, except for the wind, and almost lonely feeling....Calming. Only a few birds were out today, mostly waterfowl, but the weather was classic duck weather. I suspect that the other birds were near by, but hunkered down waiting for the wind to subside.

I continued down wind through the channel to the bigger Wolf lake and could see a slight chop out in the middle of the lake, so I stayed close to shore and fiddled with the skeg. I finally chose to put the skeg up and forget about it. It does help in a following sea, but allows me to get slack in my technique, and I need the practice with wind and waves quartering my stern. I focused my attention on the task at hand and made good progress with the wind down as far as the yacht club and then took a break in the lee of several pontoon boats. Sadly I counted five sail boats docked so far, ready for the summer season, but counted six power boats as well. I guess that more people would rather take advantage of the brainless solution on their day off, than think and work at the romantic version.

I was right, the ride home, back into the wind was a slogfest, but it was feeling good as well. A real workout. I realized that I have not been paddling enough, and I need to get out more often. The wind and rain were picking up, and my hands, especially my thumbs, got cold, but I really enjoyed that paddle, on the lake all by myself.

My next post will have a picture. I promise.

Only one week till the WMCKA symposium, always a good time, looking forward to meeting Derrick and Alex and Matt and Keith.

My Pentax Optio WP is Fixed!

I just got my Pentax Optio WP back from service. The best advice that I can give to anyone who owns a Pentax camera, is to save the receipt. All of the repairs done to my camera were covered under the warranty, but if I would not have had the receipt, it would have cost me $127. So far it works great again, so I will keep taking it with me when I go kayaking, and I will keep posting its performance in the future.

Mother's Day Mushrooms

A picture of my father, on Mother's Day, with some nice mushrooms. It's been so rainy here, for more than a week now, that the mushrooms were popping up all over.

Too Dry or Too Cold

Sorry, I've been out of town lately. Not much paddling going on in Tucson, AZ. Every river that I saw was dry. The only water that I was in, was a swimming pool (no kayaks allowed). Beautiful scenery though. Flowers were in bloom everywhere.
I did get out and paddle today, here at home. Three hours on my usual lake. Past the yacht club, with their little sailboats slowly starting to appear around their dock, and then on down to the county park beach to practice some bracing and edging control. I did see some teen-agers out swimming on the lake today, no fancy cold water clothing, just swim suits. I still think it is too cold, but maybe I can try a solo roll sometime soon, if the weather keeps warming. First practicing hip-snaps off a dock, then with a paddle float, and most likely with a wet-exit following shortly there after, but I think it may be the only way I will get my roll. Just have to keep trying. Its good to be home, with a whole summer in front of me.

Heartbeat

Yesterday, I got to hear the new baby's heartbeat. The midwife called it "doppler", the machine that they use to listen to the baby's heartbeat. It sounded like a high frequency swish-swish-swish-swish-swish. I also got to see the heartbeat on the ultrasound as well. It was a really cool moment. Everybody is doing well, only twenty eight weeks to go.

Put-in

Here is my usual put-in. N42°11.587' W84°16.511' A short walk with my portage wheels from my house.

This also happens to be the last photo from my Pentax Optio WP. It seems to have stopped working. I can turn it on, but it does not display an image on the screen. I read through all of the troubleshooting procedures, and I cannot find a solution. It will display each of the different view options, but will not show what I am actually trying to take a picture of. So I press the button, and the flash goes off, even in bright daylight, and it takes a black picture. I guess I will have to send it in for service.

I may not have many new pictures for a while. I have a disposable film camera that I have started to use in the interim, but its not going to be the same.

Has anyone else had any problems with their Optio?

Wildlife

I took this picture while paddling last Saturday. There was a lot of wildlife out and about. I saw great blue herons, sand hill cranes, swans, Canada geese, mallard ducks, mergansers, and I also saw a bat in the middle of the day. The bat kind of surprised me, because I have never seen one in the bright sunshine before. He dove out from under a tree, and just tapped the surface of the water about twenty feet in front of my kayak and the flew past me at about a paddle length away. It was a bat - no doubt. Kinda neat/weird.

Spring!

What a beautiful day. 80 degrees F air temp and 56 degrees F water temp. I was surprised that the water has warmed even that much. First time out paddling this season (pool sessions don't count). I tried out my Greenland paddle as well. I will have to sign up for a beginning Greenland class at the WMCKA symposium at the end of May, just to figure out how this thing is supposed to work. I even remembered the spf15, but now I have some funny tan lines.

Miners Castle Revisited

This is some new news from the great white north.

Miners Castle is eroding. Here is what it looked like the last time I saw it.

Slow Progress

I'm still working on the Greenland paddle. I have the urethane on the tips and I started rubbing in coats of tung oil. The problem is, I will leave a generous coat of tung oil on it overnight, and when I look at it in the morning, it all soaked in and doesn't look like there is any oil on it again, so I rub in another coat. After the third coat, it is starting to look like it is building up, so I will keep at it.

I went back for a second rolling class on Sunday (with a euro paddle). I still haven't been able to get a roll all by myself yet, but I learned some more. With my goggles on and the nose plugs of course, I was able to relax enough and slow down to reduce each stage to simple mechanical steps so that I could assess my form. I still have a problem tucking and extending my right arm far enough during the sweep to keep the paddle at the surface of the water. Each time my instructor(Rob Taylor) would help by positioning my blade at the surface, I could execute the roll with enough force that I would need to brace on the oposite side to keep from capsizing again, but I just can't seem to get into that sweep position on my own yet. So last night I rode my bicycle ten miles and did twenty sit-ups. The only reason I did only twenty, is because I couldn't do twenty one. I'll keep working on losing weight and building my ab strength.