The Mudflats Kayak Club

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[Snoskred]

It seems there are a few of us who kayak. So let's have us a nice club where we can talk about kayaking and share pics.

We have a Hobie Outfitter Kayak - it seats two of us and it has the mirage drive system which means you pedal most of the time instead of paddling. The pedal system works so brilliantly that we never paddle unless we get in water that is too shallow.

This was the first time we've gone out in the kayak this year, but I have been training hard to get in shape and it looks like all the working out paid off - we were out for 4 hours, covered almost 10kms, and I wasn't even tired at the end of it. I was ready and willing to go out again the next day - but the other half was a bit broken even though a lot of the time he wasn't pedaling because he is behind me so I couldn't see he was sneaking all these breaks!

When we arrived in the morning, the entire bay was just glassy and perfect, barely a wave to be seen. It was very tempting to head out into the bay but we decided to stick to our original plan and explore the "creek" and mangroves.

The boat you can see in the first two images goes out and looks for whales and dolphins, we've been out on it a few times, it is a great day trip.



In this picture you can see where we got into the water - there's a chain across the boat ramp, but with the kayak on the little trolley thing you can just take it underneath the chain and sneak into the water. There's always a lot of fish around this area, little cute fish hanging around the "structure".

When we arrived back here later in the day there were people everywhere and people were actually jumping off the little wharf thing into the water. Had they been out in the kayak with us, they might have given that a second thought - we must have seen at least 50 stingrays, they seem to like this creek very much! However they do not like the kayak because anytime we got close to them they would take off very quickly..



We got in the water just as the sun was beginning to rise, and headed off down the river. It was high tide, so we stuck to the less trafficked, shallow side of the creek.



We got to maneuver around the boats which are moored in the creek - the Hobie has a rudder which means steering is as easy as twisting a little dial thingy. It was surprising to me how many of them had an awful lot of spider webs on them.. those spiders are wily!



The water was still very calm and reflective for most of the day, and we got a lot of great shots like this where the water was like a mirror.



We did a lot of pedaling close to the mangroves, seeing the baby fish and other sea creatures. What was the most fun was not knowing what was around the corners like you see in this picture below.. and having big areas of water to pedal across.



We had a great time, can't wait to go again. We would have gone today except there was a thunderstorm when the other half got home from work.

We have a fair bit of equipment we take with us and one of them is a camera which is shock proof and water proof. We did take some underwater shots but unfortunately we have not perfected the art of this yet. We almost got a photo of a stingray resting in weeds in the creek, but there was an air bubble on the lens!

Next time we plan to take a fishing rod, maybe.

[the problem child]

Ooh, yes we can! My DH and I have an Old Town Loon tandem. It's pretty open, and we don't bother with a spray skirt, but it holds almost as much gear as a small canoe and we have gone fully loaded through some pretty challenging water. We do a lot of day tripping on all kinds of bodies of water, but get in at least a couple of multiple night trips down some of our beautiful New Brunswick rivers every summer.

My photo contest pic "Moon over Kayak" shows our baby, "Feliner II", but I'll post a few more pics as the thread unravels.

[Jaime from Wasilla]

Back when I lived in Kodiak one of my best friends had a Kayak Tour business, and he had quite a selection of kayaks, from individual racing and whitewater models up to tandem inflatable Kleppers for long ocean trips.  I went on on a couple two-week long trips around Shuyak Island, and even got my 56 year old mother to go on a week long trip around Spruce Island.  I haven't been in a kayak in many years, but I have awfully sweet memories and a few hair raising stories of dumb-luck survival.

I always felt safest in the slow stability of the the Kleppers. They were not speedy, but I never felt in danger of capsizing, even in some pretty rough surf.

[Forty Watt]

Yes, we kayak.  No, won't be doing it Spring!  Lovely pics, Snos.

[Snoskred]

Today we went out in the late afternoon. It was overcast and the tide was out. We kayaked for almost 6km, and we were out for almost 2 hours. We would have gone a lot further but the weather started looking a little like rain and possible thunder.

The kayak is still on the roof of the car, we're hoping to go out again in the morning.



We met a whole lot of small crustacean friends who we didn't see when the tide was in. There was hundreds of thousands of tiny mangrove crabs. When we stopped pedaling and just floated, you could hear all their little claws clicking. If we went too close to the edge - the beach or the side, little crustaceans would go running for their lives. A lot of them were so well camouflaged that you could not see them until they moved. Some were colored green like the seed pods which get dropped into the water. It was extremely fascinating.





When we got to the carpark and were unpacking the kayak, a boat arrived with four guys in it who couldn't remember if this was where they left their car and trailer. Being the helpful people we are, we got out the street directory. Yes, this was the boat ramp where they got in the water, but their car and trailer were mysteriously missing. They thought it had been stolen - and this put a bit of a downer on things because we don't want ours getting stolen, obviously. And to be honest, I couldn't quite believe someone would steal theirs instead of ours..

Just as we picked up the kayak to load in on the car, the car they described was driving down the track, with trailer on the back. Turns out his friends had decided to play a trick on them and after they left on the boat, they went to the boat ramp and took their car home.

Note to everyone. This is *not* a cool trick to play on anyone! These poor guys were freaking out, trying to remember what was in the car, and what they'd lost.  I would have lost it, totally.. and those people would no longer be my friends - nor would they have access to any keys of mine anytime soon!

[Jaime from Wasilla]

Here a couple of my favorite kayaking memories...

On a short little afternoon of playing around the small cluster of Islands just off of the town of Kodiak, I was paddling toward what i thought was an exposed rock to do a little reef combing looking for sea urchins and other pretty things.  I was about three feet away, when the rock rolled over and looked at me.  It was a humpback whale.  The eyeball was as big as my head. Like all warm blooded mammals, there is more connection to the eye contact than with fish or reptiles. The eye swiveled and looked right at me, and blinked. I had the distinct sensation of recognition, as though the whale was saying, "I see you. I know what you are."  Then it just quietly and calmly sank out of sight.

The next memory is a little less profound, but had it's own adrenalin rush.  Spruce Island is a little north of the town of Kodiak and is the home of the Alutiq Village of Ousinkie toward the west, and a Russian Orthodox holy site at the south end.  From the beach at Termination Point at the north end of the Kodiak road system, it is about a five mile paddle to the south end of Spruce Island.  On the trip with my mother, we were about halfway across the channel when we noticed something swimming from Kodiak Island to Spruce Island.  As we got closer, because the kayaks were faster than the large animal, we could see that it was a very large Kodiak brown bear, dog paddling its way across five miles of ocean.  It was very focussed on the destination, like an athlete doing a training routine for the Olympics.  I'm sure it knew we were there, but never looked sideways, but just calmly paddled and breathed, looking at it's destination. 

[Snoskred]

So these Kayak pics are from the 13th, which was quite a few days ago. On the 13th we covered 11km in 4 hours. It was high tide, and we did a bit of paddling through the shallows in the mangrove area, including using the actual paddle instead of the pedals.

This first shot is of a tree which would usually be out of the water at low tide - in fact this whole area would be uncovered. Here you can see it has about a metre of water over the top of it. The water is crystal clear - this is actually taken underwater with our underwater camera thingy.



Here's a couple of panoramas put together by the camera itself.




This shot shows how far we ventured into the mangroves - far off in the distance you can see the river we were originally pedalling on!


We went out today - after 5 days break cos the other half has been working - for a 4 hour kayak. I am teh tired, so no pics from that today!

[Snoskred]

We'll be out kayaking this weekend, so before we go I thought I should post the pics from last time. This time I am going to show you some of the wildlife we encounter while out and about. I would have put up a picture of two mud crabs mating, but unfortunately it did not turn out very well and I can't enhance it to a point that you can work out what it is. So apologies, no crab porn for you!

This is some kind of sea eagle. It watched us carefully. Another little bird was on a nearby branch, yelling at the eagle to go away. The eagle did not listen.



This is the first time I ever took an underwater picture, and it is of two skates which are similar to sting rays but do not have the barb in the tail. There are literally hundreds of them in the river we go kayaking in.



Some days when we go out, we will encounter huge stingrays. Often these can be almost as large as the kayak we are in. Because these have the barb in the tail, the other half is freaked out about putting the camera in the water and usually ends up with an air bubble on the lens. You can see the air bubble in the top right hand corner of this pic. I do not think it is possible to express to you the actual size of one of these things. They. Are. Huge.



This is a close up where you can see the barb in the tail. Also when I enhanced it some little fish appeared in the picture too! We see a *lot* of fish while we're out. Fish of all sizes. I find them fascinating.



So there's a few fishy pics for you!

[InJuneau]

Well, our kayak is still partly buried by snow, so no kayaking for us for a while.  AND, the weather was too cr***y all of last summer for us to have gotten out then, either.  We're hoping for a better summer this year, and then maybe we'll have photos to share here.  In the meantime, Snoskred, I'm going to enjoy the heck out of yours and dream of the day when I might actually see skates and rays instead of harbor seals and dead salmon on a kayaking trip!

[the problem child]

Cool skates!  I thought skates live in salt water. Is this an estuary you are on?

[Snoskred]

Yep, it is a tidal estuary. The water is salty most of the way up the river but I think at some point it turns more towards fresh water. We haven't got that far up it yet.

[Snoskred]

We got back out on the water yesterday - I wrote a blog post about it which you can see here. We got some amazing jellyfish pics, too.

Also, via Yakabout which is a brilliant kayak fishing blog, I found out about Freya who is kayaking around Australia. If you'd like to keep up with her journey you can via Freya's Blog. It's worth reading back to the start which was over 50 days ago now.

I am hopeful some of the members kayaks have less or even no snow on them by now? Make sure to write a post about any kayaking you do.

[InJuneau]

I am hopeful some of the members kayaks have less or even no snow on them by now? Make sure to write a post about any kayaking you do.

Ha, ha, ha!  I think we still have a kayak UNDER all that snow on the side of the house, but I'm not actually sure!   

[Aeroentropy]

As I was doing some spring cleaning in the Clubs and Shared Experiences room of the Coffee Lounge, I came across this thread, which I think I didn't have the heart to archive last time either. And here it is spring in the Northern Hemisphere, so I'm going to try and reactivate and rejuvinate the topic.

I'll start with a small piece of ancient history . This photo would have to be from the summer of '89, not long after the Exxon Valdez hit the rocks in PWS.  I believe the background is an island a few miles off of Kodiak, though it could be Kodiak Island itself. We were on a week long wander about, a special trip for me for several reasons. The terrier in the back hatch was my dear partner in crime for most of my adventures that decade and beyond.



My current boats are still in the garage this spring, but will come out soon.


Just for the record, touring the open seas of Alaska (or anywhere, for that matter) with no spray skirt and an open hatch with a dog in it does not generally fit the recommended standards for safety. I was young and foolish then. I'm older now. Lets leave it at that. 

[futurexpat?]

Very nice. We've kayaked in Alaska twice. Wonderful! We are hoping to do a little around Mt. Desert Island this summer.

[boodog]

Thanks for bringing this back Aero, I hadn't seen it before! I love the photos and stories.
I haven't been out in a while as my kayak has been hyjacked by a family member who has found they can't live without a daily run around the islands; leaving me to start shopping around for a new one .
 We have year-round boating in Puget Sound, if you don't mind the rain and cold. The many islands and diverse coastline (wilderness estuaries to city harbor in minutes)makes for fantastic kayaking or canoeing. Seals, orcas and, if you're really lucky, a gray whale might be seen on any given day. I haven't looked at new kayaks in years and I am more into where it can take me than what I am paddling- so if anyone has any reccomendations ..?

[Snoskred]

Look at the Hobie pedal kayaks, Boodog