Not only snakes in the cockpit . . . you need to shake out your boots too. Scorpions like boots. But I'm reminded of Washburne's account of racoons in the San Juans: He had his food and gear stored inside his tent and the little bandits would sneak in and carry off pots, pans, boots . . . He says he spent half the night holding on to a pot that a racoon was trying to actively wrestle out of his grip. I'm betting a racoon can get a cockpit cover off a boat. _____________________________________________________ Sent by Jahoopa Free Email! Find us on the web at http://www.jahoopa.com Join today! *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
I was once testing a folding kayak and left it assembled overnight on a dock at a marina. The next day there was clear evidence that a cat had climbed into the cockpit and decided to pee on the seat. I guess the cat thought it was only right since the kayak in question was a Khats (Feathercraft Khatsalano)!!! Honest, I am not making this up and have a buddy witness who discovered this with me. We did a good job of cleaning it out. The Khats was then sold by a dealer to some unsuspecting soul (no the cat didn't come with it :-)). 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/ ***************************************************************************
1. Caught a racoon in our headlamps one night as he started to reach into the hatches of our double. Like an escapee caught in the searchlights, he simply adopted an innocent "Who - me?" expression. 2. (Self inflicted). A decade ago in the Queen Charlottes, I caught a rockfish. I coshed him with a stick, and having nowhere on deck to store him, I popped my sprayskirt and dropped him below decks. Returning to camp involved running some small surf. As I braced sideways on a wave, my dinner guest decided he wasn't quite dead, and splayed his needles into my inner legs. It's hard to concentrate on the finer points of bracing while being tattoed on the thighs! Philip Torrens N49°16' W123°06' *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
I was camping on Lower Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks 2 summers ago. Got up, made breakfast, broke camp, loaded the kayak and launched. In about 10 minutes I know I had an "alien" stowaway. There are two things I can tell you. One, it is impossible to get a mouse out of a kayak cockpit while you are on the water and two it is not much easier on land. -- Hal - "Power your boat with carbohydrates, not hydrocarbons." http://www.jlc.net/~hlevin "I can think of nothing pleasanter than to be close to danger or discomfort, but still to be protected, preferably by one's own foresight and effort." Wallace Stegner *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
> Not only snakes in the cockpit . . . you need to shake out your boots > too. Scorpions like boots. A tip here: Put your boots into a gallon zip lock baggy and stuff them into your sleeping bags bottom end. You'll have warm and varmint free boots the next morning. We don't have crows here in SoCal, but very imperious ravens. They have invaded my cockpit the last three weeks or so and thrown out my cockpit sponge (it not having any food value) so I'm going to buy a cockpit cover this weekend. Don't know if they will be able to invade that or not, but wouldn't second guess the big bastards. Anything with a hole in it, like a trash can, is fair game for them. Speaking of varmints, one time I was camping with my brother and his kids in the Sierras, I kept hearing a chewing and scratching noise outside the tent. Something trying to get in. I'd open the fly, flash the light around,.... nothing. Turned out later that it was my nephew grinding his teeth in his sleep. Damn varmint. -Nick *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Nick Von Robison wrote: > Speaking of varmints, one time I was camping with my brother and his kids in the > Sierras, I kept hearing a chewing and scratching noise outside the tent. > Something trying to get in. I'd open the fly, flash the light around,.... > nothing. Turned out later that it was my nephew grinding his teeth in his > sleep. Damn varmint. > > -Nick i heard chewing all night long, in the morning i found a hole chewed in my hiking boot, right at "salty" crease ... unrepairable, un-believable. guard anything you value ;-) mark *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Caught a porcupine eating the backband out of my boat once... and oh those pesky chipmunks, at least they make good hors d'oeuvre's. -- Rob Cookson 3 Hats Design INTERNET PRINT ILLUSTRATION 5201 15 Ave NW Suite 220 Seattle, WA 98107 206.851.8202 direct line 206.784.1641 main office phone 206.784.2231 main office fax mailto:rob_at_3hats.com http://www.3hats.com *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
It was such a nice day that I decided to go paddling when I got off work. During the winter, it's impossible to get out after work and paddle in the daylight, even if conditions are favorable, but once Daylight Savings Time comes, it becomes a lot simpler. DST doesn't start for a couple days yet, but I was able to sneak out of work a little early, go get the boat, and head down to the familiar waters of Lake Hudson. The willows are wearing tiny leaflets, and there are a few buds on other trees, but things are still rather barren around the familiar shores. From the boat launch I can see several nesting geese, so I guess we've gotten to that time of the year. The boat launch silted up a lot last summer, and last fall they came in with a backhoe to try to clean it out, and they did a lousy job, leaving not much of a place to launch. The lake level coming up some and a little wind will go a long way toward turning it back into a nice sandy launch, but for now, I'll have to be a little careful. I've been out on odd occasions all through the winter, but not enough to really stay in practice. I did a five miler last Sunday and ended with a sore bicep, but I know that it's just plain winter rust; getting out a couple times a week for the next month or two will go a long way toward fixing that. Still, I want to push it a little today; besides, I've got a new paddle that I'm not terribly comfortable with, and I want to get used to it a little. Even though it's not a routine after work paddle yet, it already feels familiar. But, it's good to get out on the water and make a hard paddle into the wind and the sinking sun, just to get some of the kinks out. It feels good to be out on the water on a nice day. In a couple minutes, I'm sneaking along the shore on the far side of the channel, seeing what changes have taken place since I was last here, last fall. But now, it's spring, and there's hope, instead of just endless months of winter to look forward to. I turn out of the sun, to paddle along the north shore eastward, the wind at my back. Not having to fight the dazzle of the brilliant spring sun does make the going easier, and it makes it easier to see what's to be seen. There are a lot of geese out on the water. The nonmigratory birds are fairly used to being around people, and sometimes I can get quite close to them, and it's good to hear the goose music on the quiet of the lake. Curiously, other than several pairs nesting quite close to the boat launch, I don't see any nesters elsewhere. There are a number of flocks of coots on the lake, one quite large, and several smaller groups of what apparently are buffleheads. I sneak along the shoreline, trying to avoid stirring up the birds, and sometimes I succeed. The water has an amazing amount of dead algae floating in it. It was bad last fall when the lake was extremely low, and I hope that now that it's a little higher and once the water warms up, it'll clear up some, or else this is going to be a gungy summer. At the far end of the lake, the inflow channel lies waiting, with probably a half a mile that could be paddled until it gets too shallow, but I don't really have the time tonight, and the sun is getting low. I leave that for another day, and turn to run down the east shore. Far away across the lake, perhaps a quarter of a mile, a huge flock of coots takes alarm at something -- I don't think it was me, and it may have been one of the lake's lunker muskies. Whatever it was, the whole flock takes off as one, wings fluttering frantically, the ruffle of their feet running across the water to try and get up enough airspeed for liftoff making a churning sound that's fun to listen to. Back into the sun, for the final run back to the boat launch. It really doesn't feel like I'm going that fast, and this paddle just doesn't seem to have the bite of the old one. However, how much is real and how much is perception remains to be seen. I do see that if I work harder at keeping my stroke close to the boat, things go smoother, so it's clear it's a technique adaptation as much as anything. Coming around the last point before the takeout, I wave to a couple of shore fishermen, who complain that they haven't caught anything -- but they're out enjoying the warm spring day as much as I am. Just around the point, I come upon a goose that lets me get within a few feet before it honks and springs out of the water, the air through its flight feathers making a fluffing, squeaking sound. He doesn't go far, just back to the edge of his comfort zone. Near the landing, a bass jumps well clear of the water, the first fish jump of many that I will probably see over the next few months. The landing on the backhoe-scarred shore is a little precarious, but dry, so that's all that matters. I check my time -- just under an hour, not a real great time for this trip, but acceptable given the season. On an exercise run, I'll shave ten or fifteen minutes off in a month or two, but this will do just fine for a season opener. -- Wes *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Okay, a lot of these are just camping incidents and not specifically paddling, but they're close to being on-topic. I've also come across rattlesnakes while paddling (the Green River in Utah between Green River and Potato Bottom in Canyonlands NP). The best varmint I've seen was a Fisher that carried off my hot cocoa cup and left its tooth marks in the plastic cup (Uintahs, Utah). We've also had Parka Squirrels in Alaska (Gunsight Mountain - Talkeetna area) chew holes in our ensolite sleeping pads. I've had a 10" Chain Pickerel jump into my canoe (Okeefenokee NWR, Georgia), and have seen a shrimp jump into the cockpit of a kayak off Cumberland Island Nat'l Seashore, Georgia). My biggest was a Black Bear that crawled into the bed of my pickup truck in Jasper NP (Canada) - after it left claw marks on the door handle area of my 4X4 that was towing the truck. The bear got its teeth into a dog food container that was in the bed of the truck. Darrell Lee Alameda, CA snorkler_at_juno.com > racoons in the San Juans: He had his food and gear stored inside his > tent and the little bandits would sneak in and carry off pots, pans, > boots . . . He says he spent half the night holding on to a pot that a > racoon was trying to actively wrestle out of his grip. I'm betting a > racoon can get a cockpit cover off a boat. ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Xerxes wrote: > > I'm betting a > racoon can get a cockpit cover off a boat. > I once left a PFD laying on the deck with an unopened Clif bar in the pocket. Racoons can figure out Velcro, although they will mess up the surrounding fabric a little doing so. Steve *************************************************************************** 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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