BrewZone

Our First Kayak Adventure

2. Getting Ready

We spent a lot of time reading and rereading the packing section of the website.  We’ve done a lot of backpacking and bike touring, so we were familiar with all the basics of camping in rain. We also once owned a canoe, so we had a little experience with being on the water. Still, we’d never paddled in freezing Alaskan waters and had never packed a kayak. Using the packing guidelines proved slightly challenging since we didn’t have a total sense of how to handle the cold, the wet, and the limited cargo space. We didn’t know exactly what clothing we needed, how much we could carry, etc. If possible though, we wanted to buy any special gear before leaving the Lower 48 where prices are much cheaper. We made another call to Wendy and got further clarification, but still felt a bit unsteady. It seemed we’d have at least as much cargo space as cycling, and could use existing sporting clothes, but how many layers of clothes would we need, and just how big is a “bear-can” (the bearproof canisters into which we’d need to cram all of our food)? We just made our best guesses and figured we could get final clarification at the pre-trip meeting the night before we left.

We arrived in Seward a few days before the trip, so we dropped by KAW’s office to let them know we’d made it. Once again, Wendy was manning the desk, and was as enthusiastic as ever. We found out that her husband Dave would be our guide (we hadn’t been contacted but weren’t too surprised since we were on the road) and that another couple would be joining us so the rate would be reduced and we would get a refund. She then answered many of our questions as best she could, though some things she had to leave up to personal preference. In that limbo of not knowing our preference because we had never done it, we just had to make conservative guesses. We decided to spend our refund buying warmer hand and foot coverings (neoprene paddle mittens called pogies and some waterproof socks), and to wait until after we had seen our “bear-cans” to buy our food.

We walked away from the pre-trip meeting a little more nervous than we’d started. Dave is a pretty serious guy, and the weather was not looking good. Yet, it was his opinion that if we were willing to be wet, would could still have a safe and wonderful trip. He did his best to share his strategies and we were fully confident that if we left him with the flexibility to do what he thought best, we would be safe. Clearly he wasn’t about to take 5 novices into rough waters we couldn’t handle. Bear-cans in hand, we set off to the 24-hour grocery.

3. Heading Out

The next morning, after loading up at the shop and shuttling down to the launch, we loaded our mountain of gear into the water taxi. Dave gave us the weather update, and confirmed his plan to start in Abra Cove on the leeward side of Aialik Bay away from the storm, and then base-camp there until the weather gave us an opening to move.

With fog down to the water for the whole choppy 2-hour water taxi ride, we began to wonder if we should have taken a rain-check. Our schedule really didn’t leave much option, and Dave kept confirming that it was going to work out, so we took comfort in the calm waters as we approached our protected beach. We unloaded, pitched tents and sat for lunch just as a bear swam across the cove. We joked about “Alaskan beavers” as we finished up, and then Dave suited us up to take our first paddle. After just a few minutes instruction on how to hold the paddle and keep from tipping, he loaded up the first team.

We were using fiberglass tandems, which we had repeatedly read were very difficult to tip unless you do something stupid, so trying to stay smart, we got helped into our boat and pushed adrift. While F struggled to master the rudder pedals in the back, I tried to focus on the 3L’s of paddling- Long, Low and Loose. Achieving something more like the 3S’s – Sloppy, Spastic and Splashy, we wobbled around to face the back of the small cove, where the fog had lifted enough to reveal an impressive 100ft wall of waterfalls. We evened ourselves out and tried to stay upright as I oggled both the view ahead and the amazing aquatic gardens below filled with jellies, anemones and sea stars competing for space with kelp, coral and colorful rocks. Still within view of our tents, we knew this would be a great trip.

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This article was written on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 and is filed under Mastering Skills. For more articles about: Travel (8), Alaska (1)

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