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Back in training!

I’m back in training!  For what exactly I’m not sure but there’s always another trip or expedition in the near future, and if all the right cards end up in my hand I’m gonna play them!

I finished up the summer doing some really cool solo canoe trips.  They had some serious portages so my fitness is still up and I want to keep it that way!  I want to advance up to another level of fitness so I can tackle my next challenge with supreme confidence, not that I couldn’t do any of my projected expeditions this afternoon, I just want to be able to do them better.

I have places I haven’t yet pushed myself to and I’ll be exploring  those far flung reaches of my personal performance.  I don’t know what got into me today, but I did have a nice run on the beach, and a nice walk back, it was a beautiful morning leading into an equally nice afternoon.

I do have regrets that yet again I’m gonna miss a kayak/canoe race darn near in my backyard.  The Laredos Rio Fest is the weekend right before SandCastle Days and I’ll be busy working that event.  Damm!  And even though I no longer have a boat suitable I’d use my expedition sea kayak as it will be quick enough to finish, it just won’t be bringing home any hardware, but not that that really matters to me, I just want to push for farther and faster, and a race helps drive you to accomplish that.   Anyway, maybe next year for this event, besides there’s other races out there. (the Texas Water Safari is still calling for me ….. )

Then there’s the whole watertribe thing.  I was ready and set for a qualifying race earlier this year, but it got cancelled and that pretty took all the wind out of my sails.  I needed this to enter the 1200 mile Ultimate Florida Challenge in march of 2012.  I’m gonna train for it anyway, and maybe there’s a chance I can slip into the race with out the qualifier but in the end it may not fit into the budget.  With the financial crash sponsorship isn’t looking at all good and neither is my own wallet.  My own expeditions would fit the bill much better right now and it can be done much cheaper and on my own schedule.

Here’s what I’m really gearing towards, a big trip, one that will take me 3 months, one so big that I’m gonna see three countries.  I call this the Border to Border Trip, Starting on the Canadian Border on the Great Lakes, connect to the Mighty Mississippi and follow that down to the gulf, then pick up the ICW (Intra Coastal Waterway) and finish by doing the texas coast and ending at the Mouth of the Rio Grande River on the US and Mexico border.  I like this because I finish at my home on South Padre Island, Texas, there’s nothing like paddling home!

Everything I’ve done so far is preparing me for this trip.  I still need some gear to pull this off and I’ve started a wishlist that can be seen on the right hand side of my blog.  I plan on giving almost daily field reports on the day’s events and once I get myself an iPhone updating the blog with text, voice, photos and even video will become possible.  I’ll be looking for sponsorship for each of the items that I’ll be needing, plus there’s stuff like gas to get to Canada and back, meals and such, etc. etc.  With the iPhone I can plug my sponsors each time I use a piece of gear or eat a nice deserved meal to fuel up.  Yeah, it’s like commercials, but without sponsorship this trip might not be possible.  I’ll also have my Spot Tracker with me, as I had in all my trips since last year’s trip up the texas coast.  I plan on setting up a paypal account just for this trip so that it’s easy for anyone anywhere to help contribute to the expedition.

When can I do this trip?  I almost did it this year!  But it was still frozen up north when I wanted to start and it took awhile to thaw out, then it flooded in an epic way, even canceling the famed MR340 canoe and kayak race on the Missouri River. I’m still looking into when would be the best 3 months to do this so stay tuned …..

but back to the beginning, back to today, yeah, I’m back in training and we’ll soon see just what the future holds.

Evening paddle

I had a nice little 2.5 hour evening paddle last night. I got my kayak on a cart and it’s all ready and set to go, even after being away. It was a simple walk over to my launch site, and it was about 5 pm so there was a bunch of traffic and I got lots of looks, honks and waves as I pushed my kayak on the sidewalk.
I paddled south and when I got to the causeway it was time to put on the spray skirt. It’s easy enough to put on while in the boat which is nice and I was able to carry on in the increased sea action from the wind and boats.
I made it down to dolphin cove where a dolphin watch boat also just made to the tip of the jetties in the bay where the current rips thru. It’s usually a great place to find the dolphins and with a few slaps on the side of my kayak, just like ringing the door bell several made an appearance and played around for me. They were all around, and very close as I just drifted along with them. One made a huge swirl right next to me but without breaking the surface. wow, that was cool! They moved on and so did I, and made my way into the SeaRanch Marina where there was some kind of video shoot going on and there was a bunch of people in the huge offshore fishing sport boats. As I came back to where the shoot was I noticed a beer can floating and I had just been through there and I knew it was fresh. I went and picked it up and headed over to where the group was and noticed that they were drinking the same brand as the empty I picked up. I asked if they could stick it in the trash can for me, which they did. I wonder if they noticed it was one of theirs?
I headed on back north and caught the sunset right in front of the bars, then decided to head up to the far side of the Tompkin’s Channel where I could see the Southern Wave Catamaran on one of their sunset dinner cruises. I passed a couple of red kayaks just floating near the fingers where Ted’s is and the Southern Wave was just coming out of there. I kicked it up a notch to catch them. I had the breeze in my face and going against the current as I caught up to them, then they pushed on the throttles a bit to match my speed. Cool, now I got a pace boat! We stayed neck and neck for awhile until the channel makes a few turns where they slowed it down a bit and I caught an inside turn and pulled ahead, kept it going til we got back to the entertainment district where they were to dock and I finished my run with a well deserved drink of water. 2.5 hours, not bad for a spur of the moment little trip. By this time it was dark and I turned on my head lamp to see the muddy launch site. It was still low tide, yuck but using the cart makes things all too easy! I kept on my stern light for the walk home, just in case, slipped the boat into it’s designated garage spot, closed the door, and good night! And ready for the next trip to where ever. maybe to PI, maybe around to offshore? Won’t know that until it happens! Sorry, no pics, but if you want to see dolphins you don’t need a boat, just walk out onto the jetties at Dolphin Cove in the evening. Til next time …….

Record (unofficially) Broken!

My mom and I helped break the record, along with the other 1923 boats!  It was a busy boating weekend and there was a couple of other canoe and kayak events going on at the same time elsewhere thru the “dacks”, otherwise we’d had cleared the 2000 boat mark.

We’d be in the top left hand corner of the photo, but not sure exactly where.  We waited until the last moment to get onto the outer most ring on the windward side to keep from getting the boats krunched!  My mom was in the RapidFire, and I was able to demo the Shadow from Placid Boatworks (thanks Joe!).

iPhone4S announced

So the iPhone4S was announced today. (not the iPhone5 like it’s been touted as). Is this my next phone? But more importantly, Is this, can this be my in the field trip reporting device?  Can I update my Blog while out on adventures with this?  One device that can do it all?  Take photos, voice recordings, video and be able to type out text on an external keyboard, and have it all upload to my blog, as it happens or the same day at least?   A lot never makes it to the trip reports if it’s not gotten fresh, and after a few days new experiences overrun the old ones.  Thru my trials I found that I got to get it while the getting is good!

And can the VHF radio I’ve selected really bluetooth connect to the iPhone?  It would be really cool if it did, then I’d not have to dig out the phone every time and I could let the radio take most of the punishment from the elements.

Can I keep from destroying this device?  A waterproof box should do the job.

Anyway, I’ll put these items on my wish list for now.

The Morning After

I’m back, and gone again …..
I’m back from my big 5 day wilderness canoe trip as of yesterday afternoon but will be heading back out tomorrow for another canoe/kayak adventure but this one will be all together different than the one I just finished.

My mom and I will help break the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest group rafting of canoes and kayaks ever done and will be held on 4th Lake, Inlet, New York.

It’s called the 2011 One Square Mile of Hope, http://onesquaremileofhope.org and is to benefit the Susan G. Komen For the Cure fight for Breast Cancer.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I got trip reports to get done, but with a dial up connection it’s tough to get the photos uploaded so this might have to wait until I get back.

I do have an initial draft of the NFCT trip here (no photos):
http://www.adkforum.com/showthread.php?t=16226
and will also post my 5 day trip there as well. Maybe I’ll get a chance to do a write up tonight? We’ll see. Tomorrow is the 4th Lake event, then Sunday I fly out for Texas.

More Adirondack Canoe Adventures

This time the trip will be through the Whitney Wilderness Area, plus a few other additions. It’s a little cooler this year than when I did this last year, so that will be different, plus there’s no moon to help shine the way for night paddling. It’ll also be a couple of days longer than last year with the addition of the Oswegatchie River and Cranberry Lake parts, including a three mile portage, twice what I’m used to. I weighed my gear this evening and gear, food, and boat weigh in at 73 lbs but not including any water. That I’ll filter as I go along. For these portages I’ll only carry just enough to get me to the next spring, brook or whatever clean water source I choose, at least it’s all fresh water! (I’m used to the salt water environment where I got to carry all my drinking water, sometimes up to 8 gallons! 8.3 lbs/gallon x 8 = some heavy stuff!) Anyway, I will be toting 75 lbs of boat and gear on a pack and while there’s that 3 mile portage, there’s plenty of shorter portages to really give me a work out. There’s also the “floating bogs” to be careful of. I’ll try to video that because you’ll just not believe what this really is! I’ll have my spot tracker on so follow the link from my website to see just what kind of trail and waterway adventure I’m in for. I’ll be taking off in the morning and will be out of contact until I get back. On a Wilderness scale of 10 this is labeled as a 10, just the way I like it!