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 # *************************************************************************** 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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