Kayaking day 3

We started out the day with heavy fog, just the way the previous day ended. I heard light drizzle on and off throughout the night. The first photo is at low tide. When we stopped the previous afternoon the water level was approximately the bottom of this image. We had breakfast; French toast with orange zest cut into the mix, back bacon which I have never heard of, it was all meat not the usual bacon, half meat half fat. Then we packed and started our day.

It was cloudy and foggy most of the morning until we turned the southwest corner on Nigei island when it started to clear. Once we made the turn all kinds of starfish, anemones and very large jelly fish started appearing.

We went on a bit further and stopped for lunch in what we now call eagle bay.

There were at least a dozen bald eagles in the bay. A lot of them were youngsters which had not turned white yet. This doesn’t happen until they are about 3 or 4 years old. We saw them taking flight from a tree on one side of the cove and land on a tree on the opposite side then return back again. All this under the watchful eyes of the parents.

The sun popped out as we were making the crossing to Vansittart island. Off in the distance you could see the mountains on the mainland of British Columbia.

You may wonder why I am referring to this island so much. As I mentioned in my last post it is one of the few islands with old growth forest. I was excited to hear this from one of my fellow kayakers. I read several books on the area so I would have an understanding of what happened. ‘The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed’ by John Vaillant is a good read on the history of the area talking about the 1st Nations peoples and how the Europeans moved in to start lumbering and how it took over. It still is a big part of the lives of the people in this area today.

After setting up our camp I wandered around the intertidal zone and up into a small forest. Here I came across a couple deer. They were as surprised to see me as I them. They didn’t run off, didn’t seem to be afraid. They finished munching on the grasses and wandered off looking back every few feet and taking another bite of the greenery. I’ve never been so close to wild deer!

After that we took an organized hike into the woods to hear about the forest. Some of these trees are 500 – 1000 years old; Sitka spruce, red cedar and hemlock. The trunks of some of these trees were 10’ in diameter. You can’t appreciate the size of them until someone is standing next to them. Most of them had the tops snapped off due to the fierce winds that hit the area in winter.
The night went between foggy and clear. We sat up for a while to watch the shooting stars, I also saw a few of the constellations I have not seen in a while because of living in the city. After all that I was off to bed. Fortunately I was told earlier that the deer are inquisitive and may visit during the night. I woke up during the night to light footfalls around my tent then I could hear sniffing just outside for a few seconds before the deer walked off. All in all a great day!

Thanks for stopping by.
Mark

Kayaking day 2

The day started out clear in our little inlet but there was heavy fog in the Goletas channel where we did most of our paddling for the day. Looking at these two images you can see how far we had to move the kayaks because of the difference in the tide. (I don't remember reading that in the travel brochure) :-) You can also see the challenge of fitting all our gear back into the kaykas, we knew it had to fit since it fit the first day!

Even though Vancouver Island is only a mile or so across the channel we did not see it all day. We felt we were on a great adventure not seeing any land other than the island (Nigei Island) on which we were camping. We paddled against a stiff current and breeze most of the day. I took my turn at paddling from the back of the boat. I had to quickly learn how to turn with the rudder. This is fairly easy once I got the hang of it. It was harder getting my feet into the stirrups used to control the rudder than actually controlling the rudder.

We made it to our next camping spot in the early afternoon allowing us to set up camp then go down the island a half mile or so to explore the beach. You can see a few of the finds along the beach. On Kara's pinkie finger you can see the shell of a sea urchin.

It had turned nice by that time although the low fog remained. We saw many tide pools with crabs and sea anemones. Bald eagles seem to be all over the place. What started out as ‘LOOK THERE’S A BALD EAGLE!!!” turned into ‘There’s another bald eagle’ by the end of the trip, still a sight to behold.

By the time we were finished touring the beach we returned to our campsite just in time to watch the fog roll in. It was a heavy mist for the rest of the night with occasional drizzle. I don’t think we could see much more than 1/10 of a mile for most of the night. Kara and Sara with some help form Terry made our meal that evening. We just had to make do with our teriyaki chicken, cashew rice, broccoli, fruit salad and carrot cake. Once we finished eating Kara, our lead guide, laid out the trip for the next day. On to Vansittart island, one of the very few islands with remaining old growth forest.

Thank you for stopping by.

Mark

Kayaking day 1 continued

As I looked through my photos I thought the first ones I posted would not do the trip justice. I am still considering the Flicker thing I’ve just been too busy to do it.

We camped at Port Alexander. There is a short trail over to another small port which goes through a dense forest. This area of Vancouver Island is considered a rain forest so the smells in this forest are a wonderful earthy smell. You just don’t get that smell in New Mexico. One of our guides took us on the trail, she pointed out more plants, mosses and mushrooms than I knew existed. What would be a normal 20 minute walk oblivious to all the life in the forest turned into a 1 hour educational trip. Here you can see Chicken of the Woods mushrooms. This was one of many of our finds.

We had to move our camp site off the beach and into the forest because of the 15’ difference in elevation between low and high tide. We also moved our kayaks on to the driftwood so they would not float away during the high tide. We set up our tents on the forest floor. The mosses are so soft you almost don’t need a mattress to sleep on. I did use one to protect me from the occasional stick snuck under my tent during the night :-)

I thought I'd include a photo of what a not-so-well dresses kayaker wears these days. It did keep me warm and dry though!

Thank you for stopping by.

Mark

Vacation is good!

Hi all,

I’m made it back from my kayaking vacation. I can’t wait to go again! Had a great time. There were a total of 15 people including 3 guides. We were gone a total of 6 days and 5 nights changing locations each night. We were on the north end of Vancouver Island paddling the ‘Wilderness Islands Tour’ with Sea Kayak Adventures through God’s Pocket Marine Provincial Park in British Columbia. I plan to include links for each of the tour operators as the photos appear.

I have included some of my images from the 1st day of the kayaking trip. I have many more images to include but will send them out as I edit them. Along with the kayaking trip I did an Orca day trip and a Grizzly bear day trip. The day between I drove to San Josef Bay in the Cape Scott Provincial Park. In addition I stayed one night in Vancouver walking around Stanley Park. Each of these different trips will be a separate posting. (I have to make this last as long as possible.)


Enjoy the images

Here we are stacking all the stuff; food, water, kitchen utensils, personal stuff and wine to put into the kayaks.

Here's our transportation for the next 6 days. We used double kayaks so we had more room for packing than single kayaks.

The beach for our first lunch,

One of the areas we paddled through,

The evening view from our first campsite,

and the same view the next morning!

Overall the weather was great. We had fog a few days, a little light rain mainly at night and a few partly cloudy to sunny days. Temperatures were quite comfortable; mid 60's during the day and 50's at night.

Thank you for stopping by

Mark

Anticipation

Hi all. It’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog. I’ve been busy working for Sue, my wife, she’s a big Michael Jackson fan so I have been hanging around Ebay trying to find a couple of his books at a reasonable price. I can find the books, the reasonable price part is harder to come by. I did manage to pick up ‘Dancing the Dream’ and I’m now looking for ‘Moon Walk’, his biography. There seems to be hundreds out there but there must be thousands of people bidding. You certainly wouldn’t think the economy was bad by the amount of $$ going out for these books!

I’ve also been getting ready for my trip. For those people new to this blog I’m going on a kayaking trip in British Columbia in a few weeks. When I made the original reservations in early April it was so far off in the future I was excited about the trip but now I’M EXCITED ABOUT THE TRIP!!!

Believe it or not I actually got out the manual for my camera and I am studying it! Hard to believe a guy would do such a thing isn’t it. I knew most of the stuff already but a friendly reminder cannot hurt. I also picked up a 100% waterproof camera case for my expensive point and shoot camera. A $60 investment to save a camera sounds like a good way to spend money. It’s supposed to go down to a 30’ depth. I don’t plan on testing out those specifications; the water is cold up there, about 50 or so! My hope it to keep the camera close so when I see something it is ready to go. I loaded up on memory cards and batteries for my camera so I should be ready. I picked up the case from Amazon but you can go to the manufacturer’s website by going to http://www.dicapac.com I hope to have a lot of photos for you to see.

I’ve also received an email from the woman that owns the shop that’s adopting out my bears. You can see some of them at ToonaRoona This may become a good news/bad news thing. It’s good that I adopt out some bears but now I get to make some bears to replace them. I’m hoping to get some great photos of other animals on my trip to use as models for needle felting.

Thanks for stopping by.

Mark

Happy July

Happy 6th of July! We made it through the holiday without any mishaps. The local paper had an article about people shooting their guns in the air and other people dying when the bullet came back down fatally hitting them. So we decided to stay in the house.

I’ve included a few early July photos of the front yard. A lot of the yarrow is blooming. They start out as red then move on to light pinks and whites.

The Echinacea is blooming.

The scutellaria is also coming in.

Over the next few weeks I will have to go out and deadhead the catmint so they start coming in again. It’s a fair amount of work but it still beats mowing the lawn!

My blackberries did well. I picked about 12 quarts of berries. I could have had a lot more but I would have had to stand guard 24 hours a day to keep the robins away. I think they got more berries than I did.

I did an inventory of all the stuff I need for my Canada trip. Just a few more items to pick up and I should be ready. I’m sure I’ll be running around on the eve of my trip picking up the last item. I do have my passport though.

Thank you for stopping by.
Mark

First picking

I just completed my first picking of blackberries yesterday. Needless to say I had a handful of berries on my Cheerios and will for some time.

There are many left to pick as you can see from the plants. I have two 18’ rows of plants.

Thank you for stopping by.
Mark

On display

I’ve been busy the past few weeks running in all kinds of directions.

First I’ve been finalizing my vacation plans for later this year. I signed up for a 6 day kayaking trip on the Northern end of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. I was looking at kayak trips since it interested me, yes there is kayaking in NM. In my search Vancouver Island came up. I searched through at least 10 outfitters/tour operators and decided this one is the one I want to do. Sea Kayak Vancouver Island - Kayaking Queen Charlotte Strait - British Columbia The link should take you to the Wilderness Islands trip.

The tour most of the other operators do is in the Johnston Strait between Vancouver Island and the British Columbia mainland. This is the main thoroughfare for orcas to pass through. While I want to see orcas, I don’t want to see just orcas, and five days no less. The Wilderness Islands trip goes out of the main channel into God’s Pocket Provincial Park. There should be lots of other wildlife to see, and hopefully photograph. The owners said this is the trip the guides like to take since it is always different and very few people go off in this direction.

I’ve had to buy a fair amount of clothing to be ready. The pieces which should last me forever are the raingear, top and bottoms. If you’re not familiar with Albuquerque we average about 9” of moisture a year so I don’t expect to wear rain gear very often! I’m buying a fair amount of warm weather fleece. I expect to be a bit cool there as the normal temperatures in BC are in the 70’s during the day and 50’s at night. This is actually quite nice until you factor in the average temperatures in Albq. in August are still in the low 90’s with mid 60’s at night.

I’m arriving a few days early so I’m doing a couple day trips. Whale watching Mackay Whale Watching in BC Vancouver Island Canada and a grizzly bear tour Grizzly Bears - Tide Rip Nature Tours - Grizzly Bear Pictures I will also have a day to wander around and see the local activities.

Just to get in shape for the paddling and other activities I’ve increased my routine of swimming to at least twice a week and walking/hiking 5 – 8 miles twice a week. I don’t want to be the old guy holding up the rest of the tourists.

I’m hoping to get lots of photos of the local wildlife to use as models for future needle felting projects.

Sue is not going on the trip, she is still healing from her foot surgery. While she would like to see the water, she would rather be on a beach catching some rays.

In addition to the trip planning I have been working on bears. In my last post I mentioned I did a doll and bear show. One of the customers that came by asked if I would consider displaying my bears in her shop. I said let’s get together and talk. I’ve heard this other times never to be contacted again so I didn’t think too much about it. She contacted me a week or so ago and asked if I was still interested. After stopping by and talking with her I now have a number of my bears and needle felted animals at ToonaRoona. At this point she only has dolls on the website but promises to add my bears. I’ve included a few images of the shop.

She had an Open House this past weekend. I saw a few people come in then walk out with dolls. It seems that like any passion there is money around to feed the passion.

I’m also getting ready to pick blackberries. Most of them are still green but a few are going from the red to black stage. As long as the temperatures don’t go into the mid 90’s I should have lots of berries to pick, and the scratched up forearms to prove it.

I think I’ll take a break for just a few minutes before I go on to my next project…

Thanks for stopping by.
Mark

Show time

I just finished my first bear show for 2009. I am pretty happy with the results. A total of 2 mohair bears and one of my needle felted cats went on to new homes.

I hate to say it but I have gone to the dark side; I like doing artist bear shows but they are getting fewer and farther between. So I had to do a Doll and Bear show. Bear makers were definitely in the minority. I think there were approximately 25 doll vendors which includes artist made porcelain dolls, Barbie dolls in all sorts of ‘original’ boxes, doll clothes, miniatures and all sorts of dolls in various costumes. There were three bear makers. I’ve included photos of my table from the show.

Lots of people were going through the show with quite a few walking out the doors with packages in their hands.

It’s fun doing a show like this. You see lots of different people. Some just speed on by to get to the next doll table, a few stop by for a quick look and comment on the bears and others really look at each bear. Usually they have to come by for a second and possibly a third time before making their selection.

I really like watching the husbands of the couples that come by. Some are as involved as the wife in looking and selecting bears, some stand by with casual interest ready to pull out the wallet/checkbook and the last ones don’t want to have anything to do with a ‘Doll and Bear’ show and “I can’t wait to get back home so I can watch some basketball/baseball/football/NASCAR (fill in the sport)”. It’s better people watching than at the airport.

Now that a few bears and cat have moved on to other homes I will start making some new guys and girls. The next Albuquerque show is scheduled for November. I should be able to finish a few more by then....

Thank you for stopping by.

Mark

A visit from the other side

This evening while Sue and I were enjoying dinner we got a knock at the door from a pest control guy.

“Hi I’m Joe from Joe Blow Pest Control.” “DO YOU KNOW YOU HAVE BEES!!!???!?!?”

“I have what?”

“YOU HAVE BEES!!”

“Sure I know I have bees, you should see the catmint down by the main sidewalk they are just buzzing all the time with bees”

“AND YOU’RE OKAY WITH THAT??”

“Yes I am, I want lots of bees; they'll pollinate my blackberry flowers which will give me lots of blackberries later this year!”

He looked at me rather strange at that point “Okay, …… Do you have any other pest problems?”

“No I don’t, thank you.”

Why do we have to kill everything that doesn’t fit the mold of a mass produced ‘American Dream’?

I have fallen into it a bit in the back yard, since I bought some Scotts fertilizer. I figured Sue likes lawn and she gave into my going natural in the front yard, I had better have some good green grass for her in the back. I only bought the fertilizer, not weed killer. Both of us like the little yellow flowers (dandelions) early in spring. Thinking back to when we lived in Milwaukee I don’t believe I would have fit in very well since I would not be out there killing anything that was not green, or did not look like grass.

Long live the bees!

Thank you for stopping by.

Mark