Re: [Paddlewise] vehicle for sea kayakers

At 02:37 PM 5/24/2005, Melissa Reese wrote:


>I'm still leaning in the direction of a wagon rather than an SUV type
>car or a full blown truck, because I would still want something with
>decent fuel efficiency, and I just don't need anything bigger. I drive
>on some rough roads now and again, but I never drive off-road (just
>don't like the idea of messing up a place that doesn't already have a
>road), so I don't need anything capable of plowing its way through
>pristine wilderness. No Hummer for me! :-)

Whether or not one drives off-road depends how you define off-road.  There 
are lots of "roads" that are mostly unpassable using most vehicles, and for 
many such roads might be defined as "off-road".  One of the experience that 
probably had more than anything to do with creating an interest in paddle 
boats involved a weekend trip to the Sierra Nevada on some 4WD roads.  I 
owned a 4WD vehicle at the time and we put a friends canoe on top.  We left 
the paved road and traveled about 100' before I had to put it into 4WD. 
Then we drove up a long, steep, and rocky "road" to the top of a hill with 
a gorgeous small lake.  We unloaded the canoe and paddled out onto the lake 
and caught lots of wild brook trout.  Much of the lake wasn't accessible 
due to the steep cliffs surrounding much of the shoreline but we were able 
to get to it using the canoe.  It would have been a really long hike to get 
to the lake without the 4WD vehicle.
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