[Paddlewise] Day #79 and #80, An Eventful 52nd Birthday

9/29-10/2/08
With my better half in Hawaii, I decided to spend my birthday on the beach
at Doheny State Beach. I got lucky and found an end campsite on the beach
with two nights available--I think the best site at the park. The twenty or
so beachfront sites all have a sand berm in front of them to keep the tide
out, so you can't see the ocean from your camp, but my sight had a clear
view of the coast to the south.

I arrived at about 3pm on Tuesaday and the beach seemed hotter than my house
had been. I had to fight the strong wind to put up my shade canopy and then
took my chair to sit at the waterside with the water lapping at my toesies.
After a couple hours chilling seaside, Ken and Barb showed up to join me for
dinner. While the sun went down and the fire readied for our tasty burgers,
Barb and I got out the guitars to practice for this Friday's Kayakalooza
Concert at San Diego. Ken joined in on a song and manned the percussion
duties. Afterwards, they joined me for B'day cake a day early.

Barb headed home after dinner, but Ken wanted to stay and try out his new
tent. Well he calls it a tent, I thought a better description would be a
shroud! It's a tiny, diamond shape thing that I doubt would fit me, but he
seemed to enjoy it. In the morning, stoked with bacon, we hit the water, me
in the Lollygagger and Ken in his Wold surf boat he calls "the Death Boat".
He'd had a bit of trouble with it a while back and it's been sitting in his
garage ever since, so he wanted to try rolling it in some easy conditions.
He was able to roll on and off side with his GP, so we made a date to hit
San O this Tuesday. Back in my QCC, I was a bit worried about my rolling as
well, but it seems my time and success at rolling the GTS has paid dividends
with the Lollygagger. I was rolling real well, even with my Redondo
Ridgeback paddle non extended, which was new to me. I also had put a new
backband on the boat that may allow me to get a bit more back lean than I'd
gotten before. Whatever it is, I'll take it.

After our underwater time, Ken decided to hit the road and I soon got a call
from the "dog locator" people telling me someone had found my dog Otto! I'd
left him at my friend Janet's house, so I called her to ask how he was
doing!! She said he was just fine and I told her he wasn't even there!!
Turns out he'd gotten out and headed to a neighbors house who called the
number on his tags and soon he was back at Janet's with her assurance he
wouldn't get out again.

I spent the day in the shade napping and playing guitar and Janet joined me
later that night to help me eat hot dogs around the fire. This was going to
be my last hot meal, as I'd used up all my charcoal and Ken had blown up my
Coleman stove at breakfast! When Janet left, I headed for my tent and
another night sleeping with the Doheny shore break crashing on one side and
the Amtrak and freight trains clattering on the other and with nothing above
but stars. I was a bit worried without Ken there to guard my kayak, so I
tied it to a tree with a tambourine tied to the rope and put a cow bell
inside the cockpit. I figured if someone tried to steal it, I wake up to the
sound of a one man band!

With no one to attend to in the morning, I could sleep in till the sun had
warmed my tent. With nothing to eat for breakfast, I shut up camp before
taking the boat out for a final paddle. Dana Point is not my favorite
paddling destination, but it was still pretty seeing the city with the
trains going by. Far off the shore, I used my camp soap to shampoo my head
and used my new rolling prowess to rinse and repeat. I'd just finished my
jaunt and was ready to leave when I got the call and found out my dog had
been busted by the Westminster Police and I headed down to bail him out.

A link to a few of Ken's photos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbM27Fy5cN2KK



Mark Sanders
www.sandmarks.net

#
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