There were family get-togethers, injuries, work obligations, and a weekend of bad weather that fouled-up paddling plans for the last few weeks. But now the weather's great, we've quit our jobs, the injuries have healed, and we've divorced our families, so now we are back in the paddle again.
And it's not like we ignored kayaking during the layoff. Far from it. Both Louise and I ordered new kayaks from the good folks at Ocean River, and they arrived yesterday.
Louise bought a Delta Seventeen Sport (on the right). It's promises to be a little more edgier and playful than her old Fourteen5.
I went with the Delta Eighteen5 Expedition (on the left). The cockpit is a little bit roomier for my legs, which I like, yet still fits good in the hip area. It tracks nicely and goes quick, too.
Louise launches her new boat for the first time.
We were joined by Paula (in Commando Mode) for an inauspicious first paddle into Portage Inlet, then down The Gorge.
It's was a gorgeous day for paddling, and other people clearly had the same idea. Only moments after putting in, Richard and a friend paddled by us. They put in somewhere down the other end of The Gorge and had had to portage over the Tillicum rapids.
They were going to head up Colquitz Creek, while we were going the far side of the Inlet to look for more jelly goobie egg sack thingies. So after we paddled together for a while, they went right, and we went left.
We headed around the point into egg sack country.
We finally found more of the egg sacks. We thought about trying to get one and open it up, but it seemed too dangerous. (We all know what happened to John Hurt when he tried.)
Every other time I've been here, I've never managed to get a picture of the train...until today.
We saw the swans again. It looks like they are the darlings of the Inlet. This gentleman stopped his Sunday chores to sit on his dock and feed them.
We paddled back past our starting point and down The Gorge where the geese were plentiful....
...so plentiful that they were guarding the beach preventing us from landing.
The obligatory goose porn shot.
Trip length: 6.92 k
John's photo's are here.
The Google Earth kmz is here.
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