5:30 AM Sunday morning Feb. 8, found me in the truck and headed for Astoria to meet Dave Kruger and "the Queen" --Dave's friend Becky Smith. Dawn caught up to me somewhere around Goble. It's catching up to me earlier; spring is on the way. The drive was punctuated with squalls but nothing serious.
I got to the John Day boat ramp in plenty of time to stop at Walt's just around the corner for a cup of coffee and an update on the neighborhood from Walt. When Dave and Becky showed up at the ramp the squalls had evolved into a torrential downpour, and I was thinking as I put it on how ironic that my wet suit was all wet inside even before going near the water. Once agian, I was dead last to get all my gear together and in the boat. We headed along the shore east toward Svensen with the help of a slightly flooding tide with hopes of catching the ebb on return. Coming around the east end of Lois Island we saw the run-of-the-mill, "Ducks R Us" flocks of coots, buffleheads, scaups, scoters, a merganser or two, and Canada geese. Off in the trees we spotted a bald eagle. A typical day in birdland. The fog was rolling in, and my glasses were soaked (maybe the fog was all on my glasses!) so what I thought were sand shoals turned out to be swans--Whistling I think, about 18 of them. We were able to get close enough to see them take off. First a fast run just over the water, then they seem to "shift down" once airborne. Dave remarked that he'd never been this close as the swans were taking off. Then we rounded a point and got even closer to another small flock of maybe a dozen. Heading past the Eagle Sanctuary we saw a couple more baldies and a hawk, then we sneaked along the inside channel of Svensen Island to stay out of the wind. Becky's boat doesn't handle very well in heavy seas, so we decided to stay out of them. All the time the rain was coming and going, sometimes coming down pretty heavy. We parked in a niche along the bank, rafted up and ate lunch in the boats. At the east end of Svensen Island, Dave persuaded "the Queen" to have a look at the outside seas, and we talked about a paddle to the "duck shacks" on Russian Island, At this point in the tide Russian Island was under water and the mile or so to them was all open water with pretty fair exposure to the wind. "Those black lines on the surface with the little white accents" turned out to be waves. I was all set to check out the duck shacks, but the wind and waves were getting pretty serious. Becky was getting serious about heading back up the inside passage of Svensen Island and even talking about maybe hauling out at the bridge and then getting a ride from Dave's Retreiver Service. I, on the other hand, wanted to paddle the outside route to the west end of the island and have a go at the wind and waves. So we agreed to meet at the boat dock on the other end of Svensen Island. By now the tide was ebbing (to the west) and the wind was blowing out of the west. The waves were building up fairly well, maybe a healthy 2 feet, and they were running close together. So I'd be sitting on the crest of one with the nose pearling into the next and washing over the front of the deck. I made the stupid move in all this to try hauling out my chart and spreading it out under my bungies, ended up bunching it around the paddle while I braced, then finally jamming it under a loop while I took care of more important business. Now the rain was running parallel to the water with a good fresh breeze. It was stinging my face. Every now and then a wave would slap me under the armpit and pushing the Wind Swift paddle forward in the wind was getting to be more work than pulling it back through the water. (No, I don't feather, hard on the wrists, and I want to know were my blade is when I need to spank the water to brace.) This was fun for me, but Becky would have been terrified in her flat-bottomed Aquaterra. Rounding the west end of Svensen Island, I met Dave. Becky had decided to haul out at the bridge and forgo crossing some pretty open water with a fair breeze on the paddle back to the John Day ramp. Stopping at the Settler Point dock to "adjust trim" and "empty bilges," Dave managed to knock his rubber duck off the deck whereupon it dived under the dock and got sacrificed to the river gods. Despite the strong ebb current, we had to work very hard to make progress against the wind. We took every opportunity to tuck in behind sheltering land and paddled along the shoreline. (I *will* patent a paddle with a sicle blade for grass!) By the time we reached the mouth of the John Day River, the ebbing current was threatening to keep us from making our way upriver and back to the dock. The wind was tunneling along between the banks and adding to our problems. It took all the paddle power we had to cross this last leg, and we were hugging the shore in under the trees trying to stay out of the wind and current. So that was Sunday. . . While parked at the boat ramp, my truck decided to pick up a sheet metal screw and was sitting on a very low tire. I limped into Astoria at about 20 mph, got some air and then headed to Les Schwab's in Warrenton. Surprise! Unlike the "big city," Les Schwab in Warrenton takes Sunday off. Making another epic tale a footnote, I spent three hours in the Fred Meyer parking lot, discovering that "Fix-A-Flat" does not, not even a little bit. Also, Toyota pick-ups have this mounted spare under the bed that one lowers with the long jack handle that comes with the new truck. You know, the one the first owner decided to keep when he traded in. I managed to get the spare down using the end of an 18" wrecking bar to turn the head of the winch screw (Fred's sells the bars for $4.49) . . . in what was now turning to hail. But I pack a rain suit, gloves, and ground cloth for this sort of stuff. I cleaned up, bought a six-pack at Fred's along with some pretzels and headed to the local laundromat to dry my clothes. Tossed a couple beers in my "Big Gulp" cup and watched the Olympic snowboarding on the TV while my stuff was in the dryer. Another hot Sunday night in Warrenton! Monday turned into bright sun and clear skies. I got the tire taken care of at Les Schwab. (No charge to fix a flat, just buy your next tires from them!) And headed over to Pacific Wave to see what sort of trouble Ben and I could get into on a Monday morning. Ben took care of the books, and set out some new skateboard blanks. Sandy came in at 10:00 fresh off the plane from London with the jet-lag set at 6:00 PM. . . But pretty soon Ben and I put in just off the levee and we paddled to the Astoria-Megler bridge across very open water. . . again tide and wind in our face. A school bus full of high-school aged boys passed though the parking lot as I was putting on the wet suit, kayak on the roof of the truck. They were amazed that someone my age could actually be getting to do something way more cool than what they were up too . . . I got the thumbs up from them. Made my day! All my aerobic training is paying off, but Ben is still really strong. Even in the rental Merlin which is way too small for him and sinks to the shear line, he's a lot faster than I am out on the open water. We got out to the piers on the bridge in about an hour, and horsed around on some very healthy eddies and swells. The fetch across the water was providing is with large rollers, and the bridge piers created some water that pushed me past my previous "envelope." We got to paddle around several sea lions too. A huge tug tossed some rollers at us just to ensure that I got to do it all. Our hopes to ride the wind and swells back to the shop fell flat along with the seas. I think maybe the river gods see people having a good time on a Monday, decide that they should be working, and so keep the water and wind from cooperating with the paddling. . . The current out of Young's Bay was pretty steady by the time we started across, and so we "crabbed" back to the shop on some pretty flat water. But the sun was out, and it was dry! This kayaking stuff must be great in the summer!!! Now the freezing level is dropping, and the snow is falling on the mountain. . . Ski!!!