Crater Lake, Oregon: Not, in fact, formed by a meteorite hitting the top of a mountain!

Annotated Log Style

Friday, May 10th
9pm. After a weary work day for both of us, Sara and I met in downtown Oakland to catch the Coast Starlight [a 34 hour train route from Los Angeles to Seattle] at Jack London Square. As we boarded, the Coach Attendant directed us to assigned seats on the second floor of the Klamath Falls car. Our initial concerns that we'd be exhausted after the overnight ride eased upon reclining into our wide, soft chairs. It didn't take long before the gentle train rhythms lulled us to sleep!

Saturday, May 11th
6:30am. Awoken by a peaceful sunrise on the train near the CA/OR border.
7:45am. Early arrival in Klamath Falls.
8:30am. Bridget arrives. Coffee and bagels at a The Daily Bagel. Halfway decent for west coast bagels! On the way to Crater Lake we stop at some "viewpoints" where the waterfalls were just barely viewable and meet a family of roadtrippers who title us "City Girls," much to everyone's offense.
10:30am. Arrive at Crater Lakes's Rim Village where Beth and Trevor are waiting.

11:30am. During a descent down a relatively steep snowy slope, Sara and I decided to do some tricks: I basically do a summersault towards a rock and sara drops her massive water bottle into a more massive crevasse. We both survive and Trevor descends into the crevasse to retrieve the water bottle. We avoid crevasses/schisms/holes/pits/abysses for the rest of the weekend.

Trevor in the crevasse

On the return hike we mostly stuck to the road, which was was perfectly plowed next to 10+ feet of snow. Crater Lake is the third snowiest place in the U.S., receiving 483 inches (40 feet) of snow annually! It's a miracle the roads are plowed at all.

The interesting part: Crater Lake is a caldera lake, which formed when Mount Mazana erupted and collapsed on itself. It's the deepest lake in the U.S. and the 9th deepest lake in the world. For the hydrology nerds: the only inflow and outflow to the lake are precipitation and evaporation, resulting in a 250 year residence time. Compare that to ~ 6 years for Lake Ontario and only a few months for San Francisco Bay - that's old water! Wizard Island (pictured below) is one of many cones that have erupted since the major eruption. It's the only one that reaches above the water surface. And last but not least, a view of the spectacular lake!

~3pm. Return to cars and have lunch on a log overlooking the lake.
4pm. Arrive at Umpqua Hot Springs where we encounter large groups of free spirits who seem to be living at the hot springs. Although we found a nice campsite next to a beautiful river (see below), we decided to leave after a long-term-camper/panhandler asked us for money so he could buy cigarettes (I swear I'll only buy cigarettes!).

~6pm. We set up camp at Toketee Lake Campground and cooked up some pesto pasta and veggies for dinner. Beth treated us to some Korean sweets that she'd transported herself after her worldly travels.

Sunday, May 12th
8:30am. Rise and shine! Bridget spread the breakfast table with delicious muffins and bananas. Did you know that bananas naturally break into thirds, lengthwise? Fascinating.
11am. Start hiking up towards Diamond Peak. Hike around on a dirt trail until we reach snowpack.

Mount Diamond

1pm. Lunch-on-a-log followed by more snow hiking.

The lunch log.

~3pm? Return to cars and drive to Diamond Lake. Clouds of mosquito-like-buzzing insects surround us and swarm into the car. We sprinted towards the lake where it was windy and bugless. Bridget does her trademark dip in the freezing lake and we make friends with a fisherman on the dock. I sneakily hinted that we were interested in going for a ride in his boat, but he was oblivious to our hinting (or I'm terrible at hinting) and points us to the boat rental shop. At this point we parted ways, with Beth and Trevor heading north towards Chemult where Trevor was catching the train back to the Bay. Bridget, Sara, and I laid out on the bobbing docks and enjoyed the warm sunny weather for a little while longer.

Enjoying the sunny day on a bouncy dock, far away form the hoards of buzzing flies.

In La Pine we stopped at a diner to order milkshakes (which had been the topic of many hiking conversations). The milkshakes came in mason jars and we tried almost every flavor on the menu thanks to a convenient mistake by our server.
8pm.  We arrive at Bridget's beautiful house in Sun River where we pack our things, eat some rice cakes, and snuggle with amazingly comfy Costco blankets on the couch.

Monday, May 13th
12am. Still awake, thinking about having to return to Oakland and brooding how to move somewhere safer as soon as possible.
3am. Alarm. Empty the toilet bowls. Did you know that if you dump a bucket of water in a toilet it will empty completely? Fascinating, especially at 3am. Apparently the iron-heavy water leaves stains...
4:30am. At the Redmond Airport
5:30am. En route to San Francisco

Upstate NY reflections

A week ago Caurie Putnam, a reporter from the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle (D&C) stumbled across nakedkayaker.com as she was researching kayaking for an article called "Do It: Paddle sports taking hold." The Do It series encourages people to try new "obscure" sports [no offense taken :)].We spoke briefly about beginner-friendly kayaking spots  and why kayaking is so wonderful, and she kindly linked my blog. She also wrote about BayCreek and paddling opportunities on the Erie Canal, Genesee River, and others. See page 2 here!

I must admit, reading through past posts stirred up a mean bout of nostalgia and longing for the upstate NY kayaking environment: wide open freshwater lakes that feel just as vast as San Francisco Bay (if not more - SF Bay can feel somewhat confining when you're surrounded by boats and traffic and city noises), silent 6am paddles when the thin layer of fog still hovers and the boat leaves a perfect V-shaped track behind you in the glassy water, and the rolling rainbow hills that surround all the lakes in the fall.

Anyways, I've just been reflecting on the beauty of upstate NY kayaking. 

Saranac Lake, Adirondacks NY,  Spring 2009

No pun intended.

Kayak caroling?

Every year, the Bay Area Sea Kayakers (BASK) and the Environmental Traveling Companions (ETC, more on them later) get together for a night of rambunctious kayak caroling. Here's how it works.

Prepare and decorate. Nena and Alice meet up in a commercial parking lot in Mill Valley with a large sign that says "NO BOAT LAUNCHING..." or something along those lines. We gradually unload our boats and prep them in the lawn by the water. Prepping, in this case, involves wrapping them in [expensive] red and green ribbons [from Whole Foods] and taping [very expensive] fake non-waterproof candles [also from Whole Foods] to the deck. Next, strap [cheap] wine under the deck lines. Alice's lights are waterproof and twinkly. I'll be more prepared next year. Couples pass us on their evening walk and say "can you launch from here? I didn't know you could put your boat in here?" We smile and tell them to have a nice walk. Fully outfitted, we stealthily move our cars to the back of the crowded restaurant parking lot next door. 

Find the other carolers. We launch from Mill Valley and paddle south under the Highway 101 bridge toward Schoonmaker Point Marina in Sausalito. We know we're at the right beach when we see dark figures scampering around with lights. We drag our boats onto the sand and find Doug, Eddie, Joël, and Amy decorating their boats in the dark. Eddie and Joël have very shiny christmas tree ornaments that are, unfortunately, completely invisible in the dark. Jackie promptly provided them with their own set of twinkly lights. Others have entire mini christmas trees perched on the sterns of their boats. It is a festive scene!

Back of my boat under the Highway 101 bridge, just after sunset.

Alice's lights are very twinkly. 

Rehearsals. When caroling, it is important to know how to sing. Jackie (fellow BASKer and ETCer) rounds everyone up and passes out perfectly laminated songsheets. We circle up on the beach and begin practicing. The first attempt is quite painful - not enough has been imbibed (ok, I may be one of the only ones imbibing) and people are feeling a bit reserved about belting out Joy To The World. A few iterations later, we are singing loudly and happily (albeit out of tune).

Eddie and I at rehearsals. Photo by Joël Thai.

Identify Targets and Commence Singing. Freshly decorated, the growing group of carolers (~20) launches from Sausalito and heads north towards the boathouses. Many of the houses are dark, but as soon as we spot a light, Jackie yells out a song number and starts to sing (we all join in a few seconds later). Inevitably, more lights turn on and a pleasantly surprised or fully confused tenant steps out onto the deck. Most often the response is awkward standing/smiling until we finish yelling [singing], at which point they say "Merry Christmas" and promptly shuffle back into their homes. A man turns his back on us when we begin singing only to return moments later, joining in with his trombone. Every once in a while, we find a jolly group of residents who shouts "Encore!" or tops off our cups of hot toddies.

This was the same night as the annual Christmas boat parade, so we were surrounded by very jolly and extensively decorated sailboats and motor boats for the entire night.

A successful endeavor. An hour later, a few fake candles short, and fully caroled out, Alice and I split off from the group and head north towards our unconventional launch site. The tide is much lower (we hadn't really considered this...) but we don't have too much trouble getting back to the parking lot. At some point in the dark transit we crack Alice's boat on the rocky revetment, but she's become quite a boat-patching expert so it isn't too big of a deal (I think...)!

Date: Saturday December 8, 2012

Time: ~3 hours

Distance: ~6 miles

Muir Beach to Rodeo Beach and then some.

I've been a bit scarce over the past six months thanks to a lovely series of exams to become a professional engineer (fingers crossed!). Even before the exams were over, Alice (new paddling friend in the Bay) and I were scheming to do a coastal paddle from Muir Beach to Rodeo Beach (just north of the Golden Gate). Even though we've both done a bit of coastal paddling, we were a bit nervous to head out by ourselves. Alice posted her first trip to the BASK (Bay Area Sea Kayakers) list-serve, and five other expert BASK paddlers joined us (Gordon, Don, Joe, Bert, and Ross). Gordon offered to carpool with me since we were both coming from the East Bay, so I had the exciting experience of getting a ride in his old sand-yellow mercedes station wagon!

Where Redwood Creek meets the ocean. The Creek is currently undergoing a restoration project to restore some of its natural pathways and habitats after years of farming/development.

The path to the ocean is a bit long, but we shared some wheels and hands to transport boats along the sandy trail to the beach. We gathered on the beach for Alice's first safety talk. We felt safe:

From Joe (arms wide open) clockwise: Don, Ross, Nena (me), Gordon, Alice, and Bert on the camera.  Photo by Bert V!

Even though conditions warned of a small craft advisory, the expert BASKers had never experienced a calmer day on the water at Muir Beach. We launched through a little surf and headed south along the rocky coast. We paddled rocks, the swell lifting us up and down between steep spires on either side.  I mostly avoided the narrow spaces, but a few of us did a bit more rock gardening.

Photo by Bert V.

Three miles down we reached Rodeo Beach. The northern end of the beach is known for dumpy waves that make landing tricky. Even though conditions were calm, we decided to have lunch on the south end.

Lunch spot on Rodeo Beach. Photo by Joe P.

After lunch we headed back north towards Muir Beach. At the rocky point just before Muir Beach most of the group chose to paddle close to the point between the rocks. I chose to paddle out and around, which turned out to be a bit bumpier than I expected. The waves were pretty "confused," coming from two different directions and yanking my boat side to side. Thanks to some quick braces I didn't have to practice my roll, but it was certainly exciting!

There are some fantastic arches and caves along this route. Photo by Joe P.

We passed Muir Beach and continued north "just to the next rock" three times :). When we returned to Muir Beach it was completely transformed - covered in people enjoying the sunny day. We were dodging babies to land on the beach, and had quite the reception. "Where did you come from?" asked the kids with wide eyes, as they scrambled into our boats. I guess we do look like aliens in all our gear...

At the end of the day Alice, Gordon, Ross, and I stopped by the Pelican Inn to enjoy some drinks in the sunny lawn.

Obligatory post-trip Muir Beach factoids
[I should really start doing this before I go on trips]:

• Muir Beach lies in the Marin Headlands on the Pacific Coast of Marin County (ok, I knew that). 
• Before Europeans arrived, the area was a wild and dramatic landscape, with bears, bald eagles, mountain lions, bobcats, elk, and many Coast Miwok people who moved from village-to-village.
• The Portuguese began arriving on whaling ships in the 1850s from the Azores to start dairy ranches. The beach and entire hillside was (apparently) purchased for $10 by a Portuguese settler who built a hotel and some cabins. (How big is a $10 gold coin in the 1850s?)
• The Old Tavern on the beach used to be a dance hall and host "psychedelic bands," until it was removed in the 1960s and the beach was acquired by CA State Parks. A few members on our trip remembered this Tavern fondly.

See you again soon, Ocean.

Approximate route (Muir Beach at the red marker, Rodeo Beach at the south end of the red line):

Date: Sunday, April 28, 2013

Time: 5 hours
Distance: ~10 miles

Circumnavigating Angel Island, San Francisco Bay

10am - Pull into the parking lot at Horseshoe Cove. The view from the Cove is pretty great. This morning the Bay was covered in a thin layer of thick fog, up to the base of the GG Bridge. It cleared up as the day went on.

Thanks to its strategic location just inside the Golden Gate, Angel Island has quite a bit of history. It was the U.S. immigration station from 1910 to 1940 where hundreds of thousands of immigrants entered the country. In the 1950's and 60's it was a missile site. In 1954 the park was transferred to the California State Park system for everyone's enjoyment! Today you can camp, hike, bike, and do many other fun things on the island.

This was another BASK (Bay Area Sea Kayakers) paddle, and apparently this was one of the biggest groups they'd ever organized - I guess there were 52 boats at one point! It didn't feel so big because we broke up into pods of ~10 boats each, based on speed. 

My pod was pretty pumped to get to Angel Island speedily, so I really had to focus on sitting up straight and paddling like a true Greenlander to keep up! We paddled out of the cove and around the point and north along the coast, at which point we re-grouped and paddled straight across the 2-mile channel as a group. There was almost no wind, and the sun was shining - pretty spectacular conditions for the Bay. 

Everyone convened for lunch on Quarry Beach, which is on the east side of the island. We shared a potluck lunch with an obscene amount of delicious desserts. 

We continued our counter-clockwise circumnavigation of the island on the return trip. The tides had picked up some speed, and the wind was blowing (more typical for a Bay afternoon). These things made the trip back a bit more adventurous, but still nothing too intense. On the way back I met a couple other young paddlers, and we did some impromptu rolling practice when we got back to the harbor. 

Line of little sailboats being towed by a motor boat.

Date: Sunday, October 28, 2012

Time: 5 hours
Distance: ~11 miles

Drakes Estero, Point Reyes National Seashore

Estero: "small river," "marsh," or "estuary" in Spanish. I looked it up before agreeing to go on the trip. "Drakes" because it's the likely landing spot of Sir Francis Drake in 1579 during his circumnavigation of the world (thank you, wikipedia).

Drakes Bay Oyster Company

We departed from the Drakes Bay Oyster Company around 10am. The Oyster Company manages a pretty extensive network of wooden racks with oyster beds throughout the Estero - when the tide reached a certain water level, we kept scraping the bottoms of our boats on wooden poles just below the surface. There's a lot of controversy surrounding the company -- oyster collection disturbs seal pups, covers eelgrass beds, and leaves some plastic waste floating around the estuary.

On the way out towards the ocean we turned left into Home Bay, where we discovered a number of bat rays, leopard sharks, jellyfish, and harbor seals. It was my first time seeing a shark from my kayak. Apparently they're harmless to humans, which makes this slightly less exciting. They eat clams, shrimp, worms, and other non-human things. They're native to the west coast (from Mexico to Oregon), and can usually be found in pretty shallow water. Here's what they looked like from my viewpoint:

Leopard sharks - so pretty! Source

The lunch destination was "Limantour Spit," which is the narrow strip of beach that almost cuts the estero off from the greater Drakes Bay (a wide bay on the Pacific Ocean, just south of Point Reyes). The Spit was covered in white Pelicans:

Taking a lunch break on the sand bar at the mouth of the estero.

Big group of BASK paddlers at the launch site.

According to this writeup by the USGS, the unique shape of Point Reyes, which extends approximately 15 km out from the coast, often made it too difficult for ships to sail far enough west to get around the point. Ships often ended up shipwrecked and stranded in Drakes Bay.

Before the 120 meters of sea level rise that occurred over the last 18,000 years (woah), Drakes Estero was just a river valley, which is why it has such a unique shape. It's sometimes said that it looks like a hand, with Limantour Estero to the east as the thumb (see map below). Today the freshwater inflows from the minor creeks are very small compared to the tides and currents flushing the Estero twice-daily.

The sand barrier (Limantour Spit) that builds up in front of the Esteros is created because the prevailing sediment transport moves from south to north along the coast. Since most of the waves reaching California come from the Pacific Northwest, the waves bend around Point Reyes and end up reaching the beach from the south (kind of counter-intuitive), eroding the sandy cliffs from the south end of Drakes bay. The waves push the eroded sand up along Drakes Bay, where it ends up on the beach.

Phew, ok enough nerding out... 

Date: Sunday, October 7, 2012

Time: 4 hours
Distance: ~9 miles

Fighting the Tide at Elkhorn Slough, Monterey Bay

[blog post interrupted by random clippings from Marika's trip summary!]

In June. Marika, Julia, Whitney, and I decided to go for a paddle in Elkhorn Slough. This was shortly after I found out my company was applying to work on a restoration project for the slough. In 1947 a harbor was built at the mouth of the slough to provide a safe haven for boats coming in and out of the slough. Unfortunately, constructing a permanent structure like a harbor limits the slough's ability to naturally manage itself by opening, closing, and moving north to south, depending on factors like inflows and sediment supply. Since 1947 the slough has experienced massive erosion - even when we were there we could see big chunks of the marsh falling into the channel. Keeping the mouth of the slough wide open makes it so that the water moves in and out with the tide more quickly than it otherwise would. This makes sand and mud move back and forth more quickly. On the ocean side of the slough is a huge submarine canyon: 

Source: NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries

This canyon is like a big sink - much of the sediment that comes out of Elkhorn Slough falls into the canyon and doesn't come back. I found out recently that my company will be working on the restoration project (that I'll be helping to manage!), which will look at different options to try to fix this problem. Getting rid of the harbor isn't really an option, so the main focus will be on importing sediment from other sources (to be determined) and placing it upstream in the slough to try and counteract erosion. The project is just starting, so more info on that later! 

Guy-with-cool-moustache telling us the rules. He later showed us pictures of a baby otter that had jumped into his kayak... There were some very cute kayakers working at this shop... "Also, the cute kayak shop guy lent us his watch because we forgot ours. He was cute I remember that part." - Marika

Pickleweed! One of the main marsh plants native to California. It turns bright red in the fall, so it almost makes it feel like there are seasons here. I tried chewing on it... it tastes like grass, which was a huge relief considering my disagreements with pickles.

Some sea lions chilling out in the marsh. In the background are the cooling towers from the Moss Landing Power Plant, a natural gas-driven electricity generation plant. The plant takes cool water from the slough or ocean and uses it to cool the gas turbines. The warm water gets dumped back in the ocean.

Cormorants and sea lions hanging out on the mud flat.

Happy Julia! Here you can see how quickly the marsh edge is eroding. 

Seagull hanging out above the pickleweed. Everyone in CA hates seagulls because they're invasive, but they're still fun to take pictures of because they're not very scared of people... :)

The slough is full of jelly fish. We tried to pick them up with our paddles and toss them at each, but gravity is not their friend, so they ended up being 2D instead of 3D. It was a little gross, so we stopped. "We passed by a cow farm with manure sliding down a hill into the water...nasty smell." - Marika

While the slough is known for it's excellent sea kayaking, it's also known for intense winds and fast moving tides, that can combine in the afternoons to make for tricky returns to the harbor. The wind was pretty strong on this day, so it took us at least two times longer on the way back to the kayak shop.

Date: Saturday, June 30, 2012

Time: 2 hours
Distance: ~5 miles

Playing in the Surf Zone at Pillar Point, Half Moon Bay

Feeling somewhat intimidated by the Pacific Ocean, I signed up for a Surf Zone class by California Canoe and Kayak. It's a paddling shop with a number of locations in the Bay Area, including Oakland (about 5 mins from my house) and Half Moon Bay. 

I was one of three students in the class. According to the instructor, the surf was perfect for learning. The class was focused on handling your kayak in the surf zone: launching and landing safely, punching through breaking waves to get out past the surf zone, and side surfing to avoid getting flipped when the waves turn you sideways. I'd practiced most of these things on Lake Ontario and at Sea Kayak Georgia, but the waves on the west coast are different: the waves were more frequent and the beaches are steeper, making the waves break differently. AND I was severely out of practice, so it was a very useful class! 

We paddled out past the breakwater and around to the east where we practiced playing in the surf zone. I swallowed an enormous amount of salt water the first few times I rolled, which made for quite a nauseating afternoon. Once we were completely exhausted from paddling out through and into the surf, we paddled along the breakwater to some bigger waves breaking on the offshore reefs off Pillar Point. Just north of here is where Mavericks breaks. The huge waves only break here for certain long period swell, so of course we weren't attempting to paddle in 25 foot waves that often break here. It was still cool to be so close though... 

I didn't get any great pictures since I was trying to pay attention, but here's one of Pillar Point,  facing NW. You can sort of see the waves breaking in the distance. 

After class we relaxed at the kayaker-friendly yacht club and had a beer while de-briefing the day... Perfect weekend day! 

Date: Sunday, June 24, 2012
Time: 3 hour
Distance: negligible

Canoeing the Sudbury River

My little brother's high school graduation in June brought me back to Boston for a long weekend. As usual, my visit home provided my mother and stepfather the opportunity to ask boat-related questions and favors. Last time it was "can you help us buy canoe paddles?" This time it was "can you fix the canoe seats? My brothers and I spent an afternoon measuring and drilling holes in the new canoe seats, bringing the old green canoe back into service.

Moeke (= "mom" in Flemish) and I took the boat on it's maiden voyage, version 2,  down the Sudbury River near our house in Lincoln, MA. Here's a map:

To be honest, it's been so long since we did this short paddle that I can't remember much more. Oops. But here's my mother in her funny hat :)

Santa Barbara Harbor

A couple weeks ago my job brought me to Santa Barbara (~ 6 hours south of San Fran) to survey parts of Mission Creek and a beach lagoon. Naturally, I saw this as the perfect opportunity to have my gas mileage reimbursed and bring my kayak along, so I volunteered to drive. Wednesday was the first time I was able to get on the water since we worked a couple 13 hour days on Monday and Tuesday.

Not sure when I'll stop being amused by palm trees. They're just so tall and gangly looking!

Following advice from a local paddler, I started out at Ledbetter Beach, just upcoast of the Santa Barbara Harbor. I unloaded Big Purple and lugged it across the wide sandy beach to the high water line where I promptly seated myself and spent the next 20 minutes watching the intimidating waves crash uniformly on the beach. Not sure how to proceed, I made some wimpy phone calls to Dave/Morgan/Mike who told me to stop being a chicken and get in. 

Menacing waves at the breakwater.

While I didn't completely chicken-out, I ended up returning to the car and driving down-coast to the sheltered harbor, where I could avoid a solo surf launch. I scanned the boat names as I paddled down the aisles and realized that there are far fewer "joke" boat names here than in Upstate NY. Odd...

Sunset over Santa Barbara.

I paddled out into the ocean from the harbor and enjoyed bobbing up and down on the big swells, while avoiding the breakers. I landed on the little offshore sandbar (see map below) and watched the sun set over Santa Barbara for a while. It's such a cute little city. Apparently there are laws in place to ensure that it continues to feel like a little Spanish settlement with its red tiled roofs and missionary churches

(not) greeted by a seal on my way back to the dock

"A" Marks the launch spot in the harbor. The pier in the top left is Stearns Wharf.

I was a little bummed to have such a limited paddle in this beautiful SoCal city, but I'm sure I'll be back soon!

Date: Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Time: 1 hour
Distance: negligible