I'm firmly in the same camp as Dave Kruger when it comes to sharing camping spots. Specifically I hate becoming a slave to some guidebook authors recommendations. This happened to me on a recent trip to the west coast of BC. One of the people on the trip brought along a guidebook. We had to paddle like mad to make the recommended camping spot to ensure we got it over another group. Now that may be ok, but I kind of like the idea of making the journey the focal point of the trip. When I'm in a new area I want to poke my bow into every nook and cranny. I want to play in the rocks, take my time and enjoy discovering someplace new. It's hard to do that when your standing off shore and focused on that distant island just at the edge of your perception or watching the GPS to make ensure you're at the right way point. Besides I don't trust a lot of these so called guidebook epics. I suspect the recommended and "ideal" sites to camp at are simply the places where the author pitched the tent. There may be lots of other sites just as good or better that didn't make the book because the author couldn't camp at all of them. Another problem is what might have been a great camp site one year can be burnt out, logged over, developed,or just overgrown with undergrowth the next year. More likely it'll already have someone camping there when you finally reach it. I really don't like those omnibus books that cover great swaths of territory. You know the ones: "A Guide to kayaking all the way around Vancouver Island," or "Alaska to Baja." Guide books of this nature should really be called - "Kayak Glimpses with Snippets of Information that I picked up While Paddling Like Mad to Get Back Before I Ran Out of Time and Had to Go Back to the Day Job." Even worse is the epiphany book. The type where the author meets god or has a religious experience that they are compelled to share with everyone. Very few writers do this well. Rev. Bob is one of the few and I suspect it's because he was not converted or saved by the sunset, whale encounter or near death episode, but because his convictions where packed into his being long before he loaded up the kayak. To me your personal epiphany should be just that. After spending a pile of money on guidebooks I now borrow them form the library, read up on an area, then return the books to the library. When I paddle the area I rely on charts and local advice and whatever information my brain has retained. This enables me to sustain the illusion of discovery. One piece of advice I was given on a trip was, at the end of the day, never pass on a good looking camping site (or lunch site) for one that you think is just ahead or just a few miles more. I call this the Rum Rule. "You've got your known known versus your known unknowns." Sorting the good guidebooks from the bad may take just as long as paddling into an area, setting up a comfortable base camp, and spending the rest of the time discovering all you can about the area on your own. That's my ideal kayak trip. This works for me on the west coast where access has not yet become a problem - I wish it was like this everywhere else. Have I written about the profound and life changing trip I recently made while kayaking from.....You'll be fascinated how my ordinary and mundane life has been changed into an even more ordinary and mundane life. With just a little encouragement I can bore you to tears with the details. That's it I'm going kayaking. Gordin Warner Victoria BC *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
> I really don't like those omnibus books that cover great swaths of > territory. You know the ones: "A Guide to kayaking all the way around > Vancouver Island," or "Alaska to Baja." They can be dangerous-)... . One that I partucularly don't recommend as a source of logistics, is "Adventure Kayaking: Baja" by Andromeda Romano-Lax (same as other books by this author). It lists landmarks in miles (nautical? have no idea), probably, miles of her actual trip, or, may be miles of the highway along the coast, rather than in GPS coordinates (how did she measure miles? what was the compass bearing to mile X or Y landmark and from how far offshore?). Estuary San Luciano near St. Rosalia she recommends as " If the estuary is flooded, you can paddle it 0.5 mile inland, arriving at an RV park/campground". It's not an estuary a.k.a. river mouth, just an inlet with sea water, (arojo in Spanish). Its mouth is blocked with rocks, leaving few inches of water between and above them, with breakers, even at high tide and low wind. And you can't "arrive" to the RV park/campground by water - the arojo ends about 80 yards from the campground, and then there is a steep hill with RV park located at the top, and if you climb this hill through some old thorny bushes (older than age of this lady, so it couldn'be overgrowth occured after the book had been printed), - you'll see solid 7ft high fence around the campground, with the entrance at the opposite side, and not much trail around the fence. There were also some other nice "campsites" suggested, - like unprotected beaches exposed to the north. As I've found later, she paddled together with epxerienced husband or friend, so didn't have to make any important decisions, and sometimes wrote from other people's words (like, "there is an RV park over there, if you look in binocular"), and this was in June or July, without much wind. > at the end of the day, never > pass on a good looking camping site (or lunch site) for one that you think > is just ahead or just a few miles more. I wouldn't agree more. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
On 29 Jan 2005 at 10:40, Gordin Warner wrote: > When I'm in a new > area I want to poke my bow into every nook and cranny. I want to play > in the rocks, take my time and enjoy discovering someplace new. The only way to paddle on a trip, IMNSHO. > Another problem is what might > have been a great camp site one year can be burnt out, logged over, > developed,or just overgrown with undergrowth the next year. Or destroyed by so many people camping on it instead of other places. Lots of good points, Gordin. I think guide books are a good starting point to get a notion of what the area is like. They are also good at warning you of areas where camping spots are extremely hard to find. Mostly though, you want to find your own campsites. Mike *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Did you say "Count me in as swell?" Sure, another paddler...another lump on the horizon! :-) Hey, back to this guidebook rant thingy, on the flip side of the flip side, wouldn't the omnibus book be a better value if all one wants to do is to accomplish cutting out an excessive plethora (and cost) of having to have a swack of guidebooks for a given geo? Also, if guidebooks have a proven value vis a vis conservational/heritage/hazard/heads-ups, wouldn't the omnibus book give you the better value for alerting you to the salient factors while giving you a broad brushstroke coverage? Sure, it would be like hunting mice with a shot gun (kinda like these heart ablation procedures I keep having), but then you could read the more detailed guidebooks for a given area, those being loaned out from the library for those with Scottish heritage. Hey, for that matter, I've got a heck of a collection of them for the west coat here, you can have them cheap before I burn them! :-) Doug Lloyd (who's all-time favourite west coast guidebook has always been "Kayaking Canada's West Coast" by John Ince - what dreams of adventure and exploration that book has spawned and helped realize over the decades). > At 06:59 PM 02/02/2005 -0800, you wrote: > >>Bart said (snip): >>>we had to make a run for a takeout with a brewing storm, and it was >>>either make it, or be dashed on the cliffs. In these cases, the >>>coordinates of campsites and takeouts would aid in knowing how far the >>>next potential take out would be.< >> >>Now, that sounds like fun kayaking. Can I come with you next time? >> >>Doug Lloyd >>Victoria BC >> >>Count me in as well. > > Gordin Warner > Victoria BC *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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