Having come to sea kayaking later in life (age 48 or 49), I often look back to places that I had been to in pre-paddling days and tried to image what it would be like to kayak in them. The thought came up recently when I replied to a post from our Argentine PaddleWiser, Fernando López Arbarello, and I mentioned wanting to paddle portions of the Chilean coast, the Rio de la Plata near Buenos Aires as well as Cuba, places I had been to in pre-kayaking days. I know a number of PaddleWisers are in the same boat, i.e. having started paddling when older. If you could re-visit some of your pre-paddling haunts again, only this time with a kayak, which would they be and why? I know the very first thing I did when I started sea kayaking was to go to _nearby places_ I had experienced only from the land. One were the lakes in Bear Mt-Harriman State Park not far from NYC. For decades my wife and I had hiked the many trails in the area. The closest we got to the water was skinny-dipping on a particularly hot day in what we thought was a secluded spot...it wasn't! On getting a kayak our first paddle was on one of the lakes, clothed of course! (we have a local club called the Paddling Bares, which I have never had the nerve to join; maybe some one here has :-)). The next was on the Hudson. One particular spot was that little island I could see while hiking high on Breakneck Ridge, which overlooks the Hudson just a bit north of West Point. It was Bannermann Island. My wife and I learned a lot on that early paddling trip, mainly how wind can stop you cold. I remember paddling against the wind and seeing that we were parallel to the same little tree for what seemed hours. Luckily we were in a folding kayak and were able to land at the closest RR station and not have to exhaust ourselves fighting the wind all the way back to our original put-in; I don't think we could have anyway. My third paddle took me to the waters of Long Island Sound. As a boy I had worked many summers on Orchard Beach (in the northern Bronx) selling refreshments on the beach or being part of the beach cleanup crew. I could see small and large islands out in the Sound, too far to swim to and longed to know what it would be like to visit them by boat. Natch, we kayaked out to them the first chance we got. I wonder how many of you did something similar the first moment you got your hands on a kayak? And, again, looking back to faraway places you knew in pre-paddling days, which would you like to go back to with a kayak? ralph diaz -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
ralph diaz wrote: > I know a number of PaddleWisers are in the same boat, i.e. having > started paddling when older. If you could re-visit some of your > pre-paddling haunts again, only this time with a kayak, which would they > be and why? I fit the age descriptor well, but my path has been very different. I used to be a climber, with an intense focus on high places. None of those places is visitable by sea kayak -- except perhaps by the severely demented set that likes to slide down ski slopes in WW yaks. Hmmmm ... maybe that might actually be fun. OTOH, I live in a place that has **tons** of terrific flatwater to play on ... which I totally ignored during the climber phase of my life. So, learning to yak, and discovering how easy and fun it is to poke around watery haunts has enriched my life in an unexpected way. I have "rediscovered" the Lower Columbia. One year, in response to a survey, I toted up something like 50 days on the water **locally** -- days which put me in touch with the natural surroundings we enjoy here in ways I could never have fathomed before. In addition, my region has a long and rich history of settlement and resource extraction (gill net fishing and its canneries; logging and its mills,log dumps and abandoned company towns). All of that has made my leisure time more enjoyable. Finally, exploring old ground has led me to conversations with oldsters who lived in the company towns, cannery operations, and the like -- connecting me to those who went before. Another benefit I had never anticipated. Yeah, Ralph, after 50, "if it don't hurt, it don't work" but we also have a better, more sanguine outlook on what we see. Thanks for your reflections on sex after 50 ... oh, I mean *sea kayaking* after 50. (They ARE both "s" words, ya know!) -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR older than average sea kayaker *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
>ralph diaz wrote: >> I know a number of PaddleWisers are in the same boat, i.e. having >> started paddling when older. If you could re-visit some of your >> pre-paddling haunts again, only this time with a kayak, which would they >> be and why? I grew up around Puget Sound. I have never kayaked on the Sound, or around the San Juans, or B.C. I would like very much to kayak the length of Lake Chelan. I've seen all these places from a motorboat -- most of them many times. But the world looks a lot different from a kayak. Perhaps I'll get my chance in a year or two. I've also visited Hawaii and the Bahamas, and both would be likely kayak spots next time around. I was on the Cote D'Azure about 3 years ago and I think kayaking on the Med would be extremely cool. (The Med went from lake-like conditions one afternoon to road-closing, boulder-throwing exploding breakers the next morning, while I was there.) If time and conditions permit I would love to put an open canoe, or a kayak on the rivers and canals in England. Visiting my sister in San Diego, I really wanted to put the 'yak on the harbor there. Leaving, driving up the coast around Camp Pendleton, I was watching very moderate, regular rollers coming in and the kayak state of mind lasted until I got home. Down south, Huntsville, Atlanta and Memphis, I wanted my canoe every time I crossed a bridge. On a recent trip to Boston and New Hampshire, I found you can't go 20 minutes without being reminded of the kayak you left home. (Ralph, you are right. Everyone needs a folding kayak.) I guess the real question ought to be, where have I been that I wouldn't want to paddle? jerry. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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