Kayaking: Part of a Hard Day's Work

This will be a brief one... Friday was (likely) my last day of fieldwork at my job - I have 5 weeks left now, so things are starting to wrap up (or at least that's what I'm pretending). We are working (with a few other agencies/companies) on an oyster/eelgrass pilot restoration project off the coast of San Rafael (project website, recent article in the SF Gate). ESA (my company) is monitoring the physical processes like changes in topography, waves, and also water quality. On Friday we conducted a site-wide bathymetric survey that we will be comparing with a pre-project survey to see how the oyster beds may be affecting regional sediment processes.

Damien preparing the kayak for the bathymetry survey

We used a GPS/depth sounder system strapped on our sylishly-camo field kayak to do the survey. I haven't had a chance to calculate exactly how far we kayaked, but we paddled east and west and north and south across the site for about 4 hours. It was exhausting, but we finished just in time to return the equipment to the rental place. It was also just in time to head to San Francisco and meet up with Doug and his friends to watch the Giant's game from outside the stadium.

Friends (Doug and Ken) playing

Happy Doug and Ken

I parked at Pier 52 and paddled over to AT&T Park (~1 mile). Doug and Ken arrived shortly after. Doug surprised me with two strings of purple lights to decorate my boat (you can kind of see them in the photo below) - they match perfectly! Big Purple now glows radiantly.

Big Purple watching the game with her snazzy new twinkly lights

We floated around and snacked on some sausage/cheese/crackers while waiting for the BBQ-canoe to arrive. I was pooped, so I only stuck around for ~1.5 hrs and missed the BBQ/capsizing/tequila-bottle-tossing/firework madness that ensued. Instead, I spent the next 36 hours in bed nursing my unusually sore back, blistered hands, sunburned face, migrained head, and bruised lip (I dropped the kayak on my face while lifting it onto the work van...). Apparently this is what it feels like to get old, but until further notice, I'll blame it on the un-quantified number of tough paddling we did during the workday. :) Such a wimp.

Date: Friday, June 13th, 2014
Time: 2 hours
Distance: 2 miles (roundtrip)

Sunday Lunch on Sea Glass Beach

The perfect kayaking trip should start something like this: a cool foggy morning, bundled in your favorite sweatshirt, with 30 minutes of meditative/caffeinated (do those cancel each other out?) beach sitting: bare toes hidden inside the boat for warmth.

Pre-kayak relaxation at SeaTrek beach

Jackie (trip initiator), Doug, Liz, and Carrie arrived around 9am. Text from Alice, 9:10am: "I just woke up!" The rest of us launched off the sea-weedy low-tide beach around 10am. 

The fog brings out the green.

The paddle south was reasonably calm, with the exception of Hurricane Gulch (so named because of its gusty tendencies). We paddled past the usual fleet of massive yachts at the Pelican and Sausalito Yacht Harbors investigated a couple fire boats. A large Buddha statue stood proudly at the helm of the freshly painted fire boat.

Visiting a decrepit and a newly renovated fire boat.

We tucked into shore and soon arrived at the Sausalito-Marin City Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant. Based on this newsletter, the plant underwent an odor-reduction revamp in 2007, but our noses told us a different story!

Doug chilling in the eddy near the wastewater treatment plant.

Sea Glass Beach was just around the corner from the wastewater treatment plant. We dragged our boats up onto the beach and began an epic 1.5 hour picnic. Doug kindly offered me his pistachios and stale tortilla chips, which I devoured with gusto (I'd left my thai green curry in Tess's trunk). We discussed many important topics, such as the side of everyone's "Buttons." We determined that Liz's buttons are hidden but large, and Doug's buttons are numerous. Jackie gave me some great suggestions about visiting the San Juan Islands (one of my upcoming road trip destinations). Doug found a new way to use his kayak as a reclined chair. Liz and I discussed TV shows, for which Jackie judged us harshly. Jackie tells an epic story about a sketchy cat-Man who likes to hover outside her patio door. It went on... and then Alice arrived!

Alice finally arrives at Sea Glass Beach!

Foggy view of San Francisco from Sea Glass Beach 

The return trip was uneventful and speedy. Alice and I quickly loaded our boats while the others rinsed and put away their borrowed ETC kayaks. Alice tried to recruit a fellow french-fry-eater, with no luck. After a quick goodbye I was off to try my hand at mountain biking with Bailey up at China Camp!

Date: Sunday, June 1st, 2014

Distance: ~ 5 miles

Time: ~4 hours (including a leisurely 1.5 hours on the beach!)

The 100th Post

We have a couple exciting milestones this month:

• This is the 100th blog post! Nearly every post represents a single cycle of coordinating schedules, boat/gear loading and unloading, miles paddled, even more miles driven, and a few hours spent on a blog post. Phew... 
• The Naked Kayaker (blog) is 4 years old!

I reviewed my first blog post, in which I set some tangible paddling goals. I met the first two by the end of 2010 (paddle 100 miles and paddle on each of the Finger Lakes). The 3rd goal was postponed indefinitely (paddling the 40-mile length of Cayuga Lake in a day). The 4th goal (kayak in lots of places) is ongoing and a bit undefined, so let's call that a success: check!

In commemoration, here are some updated goals for the rest of 2014:

1. A couple months ago Alice and I set a goal to paddle together 15 more times before I left for Europe. It's pretty ambitious since Alice is leaving for a month on Friday. So far we've done 7 in 2014 (Berkeley, Red Rock, Estero Americano, Out-the-Gate, Whiskeytown Lake, Lewiston Lake, Sea Glass Beach). We have some upcoming paddles but we'll definitely be cutting it close!

2. Paddle 100 miles before leaving on my roadtrip (described below). This will be easy since I'm already at 85...

3. Paddle in 10 new places in 2014, including at least once in the Netherlands.

4. Get involved in sea kayaking in the Netherlands.

Starting July 19th, I'm embarking on a 23-day road trip up the west coast to the San Juan Islands and then east through the Great Lakes to Boston. I won't put too many details here, but stay tuned for much more blogging later this summer! Here's a list of the places I'm hoping to paddle:

• Mendocino Coast: sea caves, waves, and crystal clear water
• Humboldt lagoons
• Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area
• Whitewater somewhere near Portland
• Somewhere in Seattle
• San Juan Islands - San Juan Island and Orcas Island
• Fish Trap Lake near Spokane, WA
• Apostle Islands, Lake Superior, WI
• Pictured Rocks, Lake Superior, MI
• Sleeping Bear Dunes, Lake Michigan, MI
• Irondequoit Bay in Rochester, of course :)
• Cayuga Lake in Ithaca, of course

Lewiston Lake: The Annual Freshwater Paddle

Let me introduce you to Alice, my wonderful Bay Area kayaking buddy. She wrote this guest post about our quick trip up to Lewiston Lake over Memorial Day weekend. We also paddled on Whiskeytown Lake, which you can read about here. The last time we paddled on freshwater was at Clear Lake in June 2013, so this was quite refreshing!

After dilly dallying waterside at the Berkeley Marina (Nena had just completed a heroic game of kayak water polo and we were watching the more advanced paddlers warm up), Nena and I left the Bay’s sparkling waters for the heat of mid CA. At first it didn’t feel like it made sense to leave such pleasant weather behind because the Bay was so glorious, but it was cool to travel through so many climate zones- arid, agricultural, mountains and valleys. My camping book guided us just north of Whiskeytown Lake to Lewiston Lake, where we nabbed the final walk-in site at the end of the loop, hugging the southwestern side of the lake.

Lewiston Lake view, facing south, from a short hike we did before our paddle.

We were struck by the beauty and calm of Lewiston Lake and were pretty pumped to get on some fresh water, but after a 4+ hour car ride, we opted to stretch our legs first and kayak around part of the lake’s 15 miles of shoreline. We saw some amazing blue flowers and some cool butterflies. Apparently blackberry bushes line the lake, but we were a little early for those.

Eager to paddle before sunset, we unloaded our boats and launched into the water from the parking lot's rocky slope. The wind seemed to pick up just as we set out on our mini paddle. We hugged the shore, heading towards the dam that separates Trinity and Lewiston Lakes. Nena was in heaven to be on a lake and I was too; so much that I lost my Native sunglasses while reenacting a whitewater event. I leaned back, hit my back deck, and felt my glasses bounce off my head. They spiraled slowly down into the lake’s depths. We accepted their fate, and continued on, noticing fish jumping and pretty wildflowers growing off of the rock slopes. 

Alice, with sunglasses

Lewiston Lake felt more like a fishing destination than a paddling one, but it was beautiful, and with a motor craft speed limit of10 mph, it was pretty peaceful. As we paddled by a Marina, the lake turned into more of a riverine environment, and we noticed some marsh mazes and cool tufts of grass sprouting up intermittently - a scene from The Lorax. We took shelter from the wind in the grasses, and headed into the more lake-like area along the other side of the reservoir and behind a tall hill slope that jutted out and cast a shadow from the wind. The return was wearisome, as the wind continued, but we invented strategies to pull through it, such as closing ones eyes while paddling (surprisingly fun), paddling backwards, and singing.

These grassy tufts reminded me of the Lorax and Nena of Wilson, the volleyball

Beaver dam!

We made it back before dark, but considerations of practicing rolling or swimming were dashed as the temperature dropped and our stomachs grumbled. We decided to forego a campfire, ate dinner in the (scenic) parking lot, and surrendered to quiet/sleepy time. I ventured out of my tent in hopes of glancing a few straggling shooting stars from the meteor shower the night before. Instead, I dozed off while watching the gorgeous sky full of stars through my tent fly, no meteors in sight… All in all, a pretty relaxing spot, a great paddle, and good camping that all lead up to the larger lake that followed: Whiskeytown!

Date: Sunday, May 25th
Distance: ~ 6 miles
Time: 2 hrs?