[Paddlewise] Tour de West Coast

Ok, not the entire west coast... and actually only bits of it. But I drove
most of the West Coast of the USA in about a week and while I didn't get to
paddle in all the places I really wanted to, I did manage to accomplish a
few of my goals.

Goal 1: Get to the CKF get-together in So. Cal. from Moses Lake, WA.
Everything conspired against me to delay my departure. Between business,
family and a terrible case of stomach flu I didn't get packed up and on the
road until Friday night at 7:30pm. Since the CKF get-together was some 1100
miles away on Sunday morning I had my work cut out for me. The closure of
the main bridge across the Columbia River at Biggs, OR also presented a
problem. Nevertheless, I rolled into Mark Sanders' driveway in Costa Mesa,
CA at exactly 8:15pm the next evening for a total time of 24 hours 45
minutes on the road. Including about 5 hours sleep in a Bend, OR motel.

Mark and his wife Christie very kindly loaned me their spare room for the
next two nights. Sunday morning we drove to Long Beach and the Naples beach
for the CKF get-together and Mark took my Mariner Coaster out for a trial
paddle. Just getting into the Coaster is a trick for fellows our size but
once in there is plenty of room. Mark seemed happy with the boat and even
put in a couple of rolls.

The California Kayak Friends is an association of active paddlers of all
experience levels who paddle everything from recreational boats to the
highest high-tech carbon-fiber boats and the most beautiful hand-crafted
wooden boats. I was very pleased to finally meet Duane Strosaker who has
been one of my favorite contributors to kayaking on the west coast with his
articles on Paddlewise and his remarkable web page (www.rollordrown.com).
Mark's collection of paddling pals were friendly and outgoing to this
refugee from the snow and ice of a nasty spring in central Washington.

Goal #2: Paddle to the Big Ass.... er, Arch Rock. On Monday morning Mark
took the day off to act as my guide to the Big Arch Rock. A feature of the
So. Cal. coast just outside Newport Harbor, the BAR has been a mainstay of
Mark Sanders' photos and articles. Those photos and postings sustained me
throughout the long winter here at the lake house so I wanted very badly to
see the BAR and, if possible, play around it. Unfortunately, the tide was
low and the swell was high and the BAR was closed. Mark spent some time
wondering if he couldn't get through it after all while I poked around
outside looking for whales. We joined up and paddled back to the secret
beach in almost no wind. A solitary sea lion begging for scraps at the bait
barge gave us short shrift as we paddled past.

Goal #3: Paddle Big Sur. I left Monday evening for Santa Barbara and points
north along US1 hugging the west coast of California. Arguably one of the
most beautiful stretches of highway in the entire country (if not the world)
the trip is worth the effort just for the views. I wanted to paddle and
stopped for the night at Morro Bay to stay in a small motel that turned out
to overlook the famous "Rock". The morning dawned foggy with a low tide and
even though I drove around a bit to see if it was worth launching, I was
almost upon the "Rock" in the car before I saw it. So I headed north for San
Simeon.

By the time I reached San Simeon the wind that had been predicted to reach
15 to 20 was 25 to 30 and building even higher. The wind became the
dominating force for the rest of my trip up the CA coast and ultimately
caused me to bail out and head to Puget Sound. Nevertheless I managed to
visit Monterrey where it was even windier, and found that sheltered Elkhorn
Slough had nasty seas both at the Moss Landing end and the Kirby Beach end.
The folks at Monterrey Bay Kayaks were surprised at that. Another evening
and another motel and I was up early to launch at Moss Landing to paddle the
lower reaches of Elkhorn Slough in search of the elusive sea otter.

Elkhorn Slough is a marvelous waterway that winds for about 5 miles
eastwards from Moss Landing which lies about halfway between Monterrey and
Santa Cruz. You can launch at either the pay-to-park ramp at Moss Landing or
at Kirby Park at the eastern end of the slough. Since my mission was to at
last see the sea otters and the sea otters hang out at the western end of
the slough, it only made sense to launch at Moss Landing and fight my way
through the harbor seals and sea lion packs to get under the highway bridge
and into sea otter territory. It didn't take long to find them after getting
under the bridge though. And I had a nice time photographing and watching
several otters as they munched their way through breakfast.

On my way back to the car I managed to catch a few of the large swells that
were making their way into the harbor entrance against the ebb tide. The
Coaster was happy to show me how she loved to surf. In a few minutes I was
on my way to Berkeley and friends for a short visit.

Goal 4: Tomales Bay. That same evening I arrived at Tomales Bay to find the
wind blowing even more fiercely than it had been further south. By now I was
thorougly sick of wind and just turned tail and ran north to Redding where a
friend had a sofa waiting for me.

Goal 5: Deception Pass. A one-day drive north from Redding (including a
pause to paddle the houseboat strewn waterways of Portland, OR) brought me
to Pam's house and her spare bedroom for the night. The next morning I
headed to the ferry at Mukilteo, WA which crosses to the southern end of
Whidbey Island. We have a small lot at Freeland on Holmes Harbor and I
stopped to set up a tent and campsite before the rain hit, and then headed
up the highway some 30 miles to Deception Pass. Launching at Bowman Bay on
the flood tide, I played around at the Pass until it was time to head home.
By this time the swells had built in Bowman Bay and a dumping surf was
hitting the beach. Dumping surf is common here and my normally graceless
exit was made even worse by the steep beach and the 2-foot waves hitting the
stern of the Coaster. A local paddler lent me a hand and I was soon on the
road back to camp with the back of the Coaster covered in bits of seaweed.

The next day Pam came up to Deception Pass and we launched at Cornet Bay to
paddle against the flood almost up to the bridges. A combination of boat
wakes and currents got me nervous; not the least of which was caused by the
fact that I had left my dry top at the camp and had lost my favorite Mariner
paddles. All I had was a poly top and wing paddles. Neither of which was the
best choice for Deception Pass. So we paddled up almost to the bridge before
I turned tail and rain back with the current and eddied out. We paddled
around a few of the islands and then packed up and headed to the campsite
where we found my dry top and launched for a 5-mile round trip paddle north
in Holmes harbor to round an island and head home almost at sunset.

I broke camp, loaded the kayaks, and Pam and I barely made the 9:30pm ferry
to the mainland where we parted ways; her to go home to Graham and me to
head across the mountains to Moses Lake. I got home at 1am Monday morning
and fell into bed. I still haven't unloaded the car completely. LOL.

Some goals met, some goals unmet. But quite a trip for an old guy. I'll try
to get some pics up.


Craig Jungers
Moses Lake, WA
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