Winter Paddling with Summer Weather Trip Report: Saturday/Sunday, March 25-26, 2000 Water temp: about 38*F Air temp: 35-55*F Ryan and I decided to paddle a bit farther than we did on our Finley Point trip, especially since we would spread the paddling over two days. We arrived at the put-in about 2:00 on Saturday afternoon, and found that the access trail was much steeper and longer with two fully loaded boats than with two empty day-paddling loads. We skirted around the south end of King's Point and headed for Finley Point. I was keeping close track of our speed, as I don't really have a good idea of what my average touring speed is. We averaged about 3.5 statute miles per hour, which agrees fairly well with the "industry average" 3 knot speed. I had been fighting a cold all week, but I didn't want that to keep me from enjoying this trip. After about 5 miles of paddling, I realized that my reserves weren't what I was used to, but I wasn't totally depleted. We paddled a fairly leisurely pace for the last 2 miles, and found a nice gravelly beach to land on. Geese were all over the place. We stayed as far out from shore as possible to keep from disturbing them. Some would fly off when we were within 400 yards, others would watch us pass by within 50 yards. We dined on spaghetti, and it started to rain slightly. I set up a tarp (first time "tarping-it"--it worked well, but I still have a lot to figure out) and sat under it, enjoying the honking of the geese, the breeze that kicked up as the sun sank in the sky, and the bright sun behind the glowing clouds. Ryan got busy exposing film at the beach, the sky, the water, and the rocks. The sunset was spectacular--the best I've seen since I moved away from the prairie. I got up and snapped some photos--I got some pretty prints, but it doesn't even do justice to the Real Thing. When the sun had sunk past the foothills in the west, Ryan decided it would be a pretty good thing to build a fire. I'm not usually big on fires, unless I need emergency heat, but I'll admit, it was pretty cheery. We went to bed at the early hour of 8:30pm, and slept until 6:00am. Ryan wanted to take some star photos so I looked up at the sky when I'd wake up periodically. It was slightly cloudy when we went to bed, a bit clearer at 10:30pm, totally overcast at 11:00pm, and totally clear and stars a-blazing at 1:00am. I rolled over and woke Ryan and went back to sleep! He said that he wasn't sure how the shots would turn out, as he has a pretty bright info screen in the viewfinder so he couldn't see the stars he was shooting. We woke up to a fairly warm (40F) morning, which sure seems warm right after the end of winter. In my organizational madness to make sure I packed all necessary safety gear, I neglected to check whether my stove was full of fuel, and I burned off what little was in the tank cooking spaghetti. It was Ryan's turn to make breakfast and he had the adventure of trying to cook pancakes over an open fire. It was very difficult, but I must admit he did a great job of cooking given the fact he had no stove! Lounging around for an hour enjoying the spots of sun through the patchy clouds, then slowly packing the boats. You mean we gotta go back to town? We grudgingly shove off and cross north of The Narrows. Small wavelets, and light wind make an easy crossing. Most of the crossings in this area are only one mile--I want to start "stretching my legs" more and getting used to the longer crossings I will see out in the Puget Sound area. Many geese. Many, many geese. It is nearing nesting season so we'll have to bid a sorrowful goodbye to these islands until this fall. We'll leave the beaches quiet for the geese to inflict their amorous intentions upon each other. Hopefully others do the same. Back to the put-in. The boats are really heavy now!! We lug them slowly uphill, and turn our backs on the beautiful lake that we must drive away from. Back again soon, for the next escape from the drudgery of work. Shawn *************************************************************************** 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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