WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY, AUGUST 20 & 21

 

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY,  AUGUST 20 & 21:  

     After a slow, leisurely morning waiting for the skies to clear and for the air to warm up, Wednesday was largely spent scouting out a place to launch the kayaks tomorrow.  In doing so, witnessed for ourselves what Lynn has been saying about northbound afternoon traffic on I-5.  Unbelievable!  L.A. can’t be any worse than this!  Apparently there’s been a steady influx of people moving to the north Portland/Vancouver area, and the infrastructure hasn’t kept pace. 

     After a dinner of grilled hamburgers (the first time on this trip, I think), we just relaxed and read til bedtime.

     On Thursday, we took our time having breakfast and getting ready, allowing the air to warm up a little for our kayaking outing.  Found a place to put in a few miles north of Vancouver, at a town called Ridgefield.  There’s a kayak rental place on a Lake River, a small river there, which is a tributary of the Columbia. Starting out on this river, you can circumnavigate Bachelor Island, which is a National Wildlife Refuge.   We thought that this 10-mile round trip sounded ideal.

     And it was.  The weather was just about perfect for an afternoon on the water.  The coolness had warmed up, but it wasn’t too hot either.  No wind at all, a big plus since we’d be out on the Columbia part of the way, and with its tides, currents, and wakes from big ships, we didn’t need wind as an additional factor!  The gal who was so helpful yesterday in answering our questions was there again today.  She suggested which way to go, so that the tides would help us, rather than hinder us.

      We had reserved a rental kayak for me yesterday.  The more Bill looked at their inventory yesterday, the more he thought it would be a good idea for me to try out a wider boat, which would give me more stability.  The boats we have now are designed primarily for river kayaking (Missouri rivers).  But when we travel, we rarely use them for rivers – more for lakes, and often mountain lakes where the wind comes up suddenly or there are other conditions which make me feel a little insecure in a narrow, “tippy” boat.  He’s been talking about selling my boat and replacing it with something like I used today.   So a perfect opportunity to try one out.

     So we started out on Lake River at the kayak rental store, went upriver on that for a little while, and then a tributary off that into the protected area, Bachelor Island Slough.  The scenery wasn’t particularly beautiful here, but lovely enough, especially when the sunlight sparkled on the water,  and it was wonderfully peaceful. 

                                                               

We didn’t encounter another boater.  Just lots of birds, ducks, and other waterfowl.    We were surrounded by their sounds. 

                                                     

      After a while, we came to the southern edge of the Island, where there was a long wide sandy beach perfect for taking a rest and having a snack. 

                                              

This is where the confluence of the Columbia is.
                                                   

As we were resting there, we saw a freighter go by upstream, which we got pretty excited about (not knowing that we’d see a couple more later).

                                                           

     We got back in our boats, and now went upstream on the Columbia skirting the western edge of the Island.  This was the first BIG river I’d kayaked  (Bill’s been on the Mississippi and the Missouri). Even though we were paddling upstream, the incoming tide was supporting us and helped.  The river was very calm, and very pretty. 

                  

                                                             

              
We encountered several ocean-going vessels – a couple more freighters and a barge -

                                                        

 

 

 

               as well as some smaller leisure crafts.  

                                            

                  Their wakes were a good test of my boat’s stability.  The wake of the first freighter was especially big, and we could hear the breaking of the waves it caused on the shore behind us.  I turned around to catch some of the waves in action.

                                                        

This was a really fun part of the trip for me.

     Then headed back around the northern tip of the Island, and back down Lake River.  The loop was 10 miles, and took us a little less than 6 hours (with our rest stop).  That’s about my limit.  I really liked my boat, except for the fact that it was challenging to keep it tracking straight – I had to constantly work at that.  But Bill said that that model came in a 12-foot size as well as the 10-foot I was using, and that the longer length would help with the tracking.  But I loved the secure feeling it gave me.  So, when the Alpine Shop has their “Swap Meet” weekend next spring, I think we’re going to see if we can’t sell mine.  Bill says that he’s perfectly happy with his, but will use mine for fishing, which his very narrow one (even more narrow than mine) is unsuitable for.     

     As Bill was getting out of his kayak, ahead of me, since he wanted to get his beached and go in and pay for my rental, his boat slipped, tipped over, and Bill lost his balance and banged his right knee – the weak one which was banged up in the accident in April.  He occasionally has balance issues with that knee now.   

     Had a simple leftover dinner, and then Bill walked Pappy.  I offered to do it because of his knee, but he insisted that getting out and using it is the best thing for it when something like this happens. 

     This is the last day of Lynn’s taxing (haha) work week (Tues-Thurs).  So tomorrow she’ll be our tour guide once again J