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From: <MJAkayaker_at_aol.com> subject: [Paddlewise] Lessons Learned (long) Date: Sun, 1 Oct 2000 20:54:42 EDT · This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:18 PDT

Having returned from a five week trip to the Northwest (my first trip there) 
I thought I might pass on some interesting facts and observations that I came 
up in both in my preparation and during the trip.

1. If you discover that you have been paying for your neighbors air 
conditioning for 3 years due to mis-wiring at the apartment complex do not 
bother postponing your vaction to talk with a "regional manager" about a 
refund.  They will just refuse to see you, tell you they are withdrawing 
their original $100 offer, and suggest that you actually may owe them money.

2. Do not go to your mailbox on the day before you plan to leave.  You might 
find a notice from the IRS demanding answers to questions within 20 days.  
The letter will already be 11 days old before you get it.  It is especially 
frustrating if the IRS service center responds to your confusion about the 
questions by telling you "I do not know what drugs the person who wrote you 
the letter was taking, but this is my best guess as to what they want."

3. Do not buy Firestone tires or vehicles with Firestone tires.  Even if your 
tires are not the ones recalled it will take about a week to determine if it 
is safe to leave for your trip.  

Note: Listening to a Firestone dealer answer phone calls for 4 hous while 
waiting to have your tires checked can actually make you feel sorry for the 
poor guy. 

4. If at this point (delayed by 2 weeks) you hear a little inner voice saying 
maybe this is not the time to take this trip, perhaps you should listen. (See 
next 2 items)

5. There can be some positive points about getting food poisioning.

a. If after driving solo for 2600 miles in 3 days you manage to get really 
sick just as you reach the state park, you can totally mess up their bathroom 
instead of the inside of your car.  

b. Two sick days in a motel is a nice relief after sleeping in your car at 
rest stops for a couple of days.  It does however consume more than 1 week of 
your intended budget 

c. The first time back on the water is really enjoyable no matter how short 
the trip.

6. A mole which suddenly changes shape and color is not necessarily 
cancerous.  However, it is difficult to enjoy your paddling until you can 
find a doctor and get back a pathology report.  Finding a doctor when you are 
out of state is not real easy without dropping really big bucks at the 
emergency room.

7. There is no free parking in downtown Seattle.  If you are totally lost at 
6:00 pm rush hour you just have to drive in circles until you really mess up 
and wind up driving out of town all together.  The first rain in 2 months 
coinciding with my arrival did not make the driving any easier. 

8. Despite what I had been led to believe, the REI store in Seattle does not 
have a 500,000 gal tank where you can test paddle kayaks with Orcas. It does 
have just about everything else and was worth the trouble I had finding it.

9. Watching a 7 knot ebb at Deception Pass is a scary sight even if you are 
watching safely from the bridge.  Note: I am from an area with a 1 ft tide 
range where 1.5 knots of current is a major deal.

10. What people call beaches along Puget Sound and the Hood Canal we call 
construction debris here in Texas.  This is further compounded by the fact 
that Washington oysters seem to congregate near the low tide mark at these 
beaches.  What seemed like a passable launch/landing site at high tide turns 
into a boat chewing, foot cutting, personnel barrier only somewhat gentler 
than razor-wire.  Our Texas oysters confine themselves to nice little reefs 
that take the bottoms out of powerboats, but do litttle to interfere with 
launching or landing kayaks.  

If there are not oysters, you may find yourself knee-deep in mud for a 
quarter mile or more trying to get back to where you launched.  

I wonder if this had anything to do with the number of people who seemed to 
know the exact high and low tide times and/or carried little tide tables 
around with them.

11. Lopez Islanders are the friendliest people in the world.  Not only do 
they all wave to each other but they will go out of their way to help you.  
For example a local resident spent an extra hour bicyling around Spencer Spit 
State park looking for a Texas license plate to go with the drivers license 
in the lost wallet she found.  The half crazed Texan, who was muttering 
something about listening to that little voice's warning (see item 4), was 
most grateful.

12. Listening to the weather forecast for the Puget Sound, Hood Canal, and 
San Juan's is almost useless.  Wind forecasts for the Hood Canal were 
especially deceptive.  I got light north winds (forecast for that day) 
suddenly swiching to 25-30 mph southerlies without any warning.  Fortunately 
I was not too far from landing when it came up.  I had the reverse (forecast 
light south becoming high northerlies) situation a few days later. I wound up 
not taking several trips I had planned, because I did not think I could trust 
forecasts.  Of course paddling solo, I was trying to stay on the very 
cautious side for any of my trips.

13.  The best way to insure light winds and fair weather is to drive 60 miles 
out of your way to test paddle boats in rough weather.  Despite forecasts and 
current condition reports of 20+ mph winds I arrived to find 5 mph winds and 
good stories about how it had really been blowing earlier. 

Note: A jackknifed truck blocking 4 of 5 freeway lanes and backing up traffic 
for 20 miles makes the return trip seem even longer and more disheartening.

I think I should also be thanked for the good weather Friday at the West 
Coast Symposium since I delayed my return for 4 days to go to the symposium 
and test paddle boats.  It probably blew really good on Sat or Sunday after I 
left.

14.  September weather in Seattle is just like the weather in Texas (IN 
FEBRUARY ).  It was amazing how quickly you could get hot if the sun did come 
out and how quickly you got cold when the clouds or fog moved in.  Nothing 
ever seemed to get dry.  Then I realized that I was trying real hard to get 
stuff to dry that I was just going to take out and get wet the next day.  Why 
bother? 

They had 4 or 5 days over 105 deg F back home while I was gone including one 
day at 109.  I was really glad I was in Washington.  You can always put more 
clothes on, but you can only take so much off without being arrested. 

15. If you are from the South, do not pay any attention to the locals who 
tell you that the unusually warm summer has really warmed up the water.  
After 10 days I finally decided I had to practice rolling.  Even with all my 
WINTER paddling gear on (Hydroskin farmer john/ploly longsleeve top/hydroskin 
longsleeve top/fuzzy rubber skull cap) it was still COLD.  Warm water is 80+ 
deg F not              50 - 55 deg F.

I did notice that my rolling was much better in the cold water.  Could it be 
that colder water being more dense provides more bouyancy, or that cold water 
caused a better quick-twitch muscle reaction (I heard this phrase in some 
Olympic coverage) or maybe it was just so cold that I was really determined 
to get up.

16. Despite items 1-15 I had a great time.  The scenery was breathtaking, 
there were more great trips than I had time to paddle, and the weather was 
actually pretty good for most of the trip.  I met some very nice people who 
let me tag along with them on their paddles and everyone that I talked with 
was so friendly and helpful.  I got to meet Matt and Cam Broze, see my first 
seals, sea otters, sea stars and anemones, test paddle more boats than I have 
ever seen down here, and paddle through Deception Pass (escorted and at slack 
water of course). Although I did not paddle the Pacific beaches, I did get to 
hike the beaches around La Push.  Those are marvelous beaches with dramatic 
sea stacks and rugged headlands.  I can not even imagine what kind of storm 
waves could throw such huge logs so high up on the shore.  I also got to day 
hike Hurricane Ridge, the Hoh Rain Forest area, and Mount Saint Helen's 
National Monument.  Just too many things to see and do even in a whole month.

Thanks again to all Paddlewisers who helped me plan the trip.  I would have 
been totally lost without all the good information you sent me.

I am looking forward to a chance to get back.  I guess sometimes you just 
have to ignore that little voice.

Mark J. Arnold

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