The Mariner Coaster as pictured in a review by Sea Kayaker Magazine, Summer of 1994

The genesis for the Coaster was a little boat designed and built by Robert Livingston. As Matt Broze says in his history of Mariner Kayaks (www.marinerkayaks.com) Robert brought his little Ursa Micro along on a trip to Cape Flattery (the most NW’ly

Robert Livingston's wife in his Ursa Micro, the prototype for the Mariner Coaster. Note the spiffy PFD.

point of mainland USA) back in the middle 1980s.  Back then a 13.5-foot sea kayak was unusual to say the least (even white water kayaks tended to be 11-feet long) but the Ursa Micro was surprisingly fast (due to low wetted surface) and incredibly maneuverable. Matt and Cam were so taken with the boat that they asked Robert if they could use his design in a production boat.

Robert had designed the Ursa Micro using his new design program “BearboatSP” for a trip along the coast of Portugal. Back then you could not rent kayaks so his idea was to make a boat that could be taken apart into three pieces and transported with his luggage. (Robert is still designing, building and paddling boats and his tastes still runs towards smaller kayaks; except that he still likes his Mariner I.)

The Broze brothers changed some of the characteristics of the Ursa Micro in the metamorphoses into the Coaster. They removed the turtle-back after deck and shortened the cockpit opening. They kept the wide, buoyant forward

My Coaster on the community beach near Freeland, Whidbey Island, WA

section that kept the bow from perling in steep surf, the hard chines and the stubby bow. Once they had the design completed and a boat built Cam decided that there was really no market for the boat and took the first boat to the Washington coast during the weekend of the West Coast Sea Kayak Seminar leaving Matt to explain to potential buyers the virtues of the new boat.

The Coaster was many things but one of them was not “pretty”. It looked short and stubby and the center section was not curved but straight curving suddenly to a point at the bow and stern. But Sea Kayaker Magazine, which did a review of the Coaster in the summer of 1994 said that it drew raves for its stability, quick acceleration, maneuverability, and balance in wind and sea. But by this time the Coaster was well known in the circles where such attributes were highly valued. In fact several of the famous San Francisco-based Tsunami Rangers paddled Coasters and the boat figured prominently in at least one book and several videos featuring the group.

The Coaster, unlike many “performance” kayaks, never feels tippy or twitchy even to novice paddlers. In fact my own Coaster was the favorite ride of  six year old Hailey

Hailey seated in the cockpit of "her" Coaster at age six. A Mariner Express in the background.

who paddled it many times on Moses Lake and referred to it as “my kayak”. At age six she sometimes found the boat a handful in wind but she never felt unstable and, in fact, learned to edge the boat to make it turn easily all on her own!

Coasters can be found all over the world. In fact if you search for “coaster kayak” on YouTube one of the videos is a paddler in Sweden rolling his Coaster in a tidal pool in the middle of a rock garden. But they seem to be most at home in the coastal waters of North America and most often the western and northwestern coasts.

The end of the production Coasters came in 2008 when Cam and Matt finally closed the line down. A short few months later, in February of 2009, my shop burned up along with my Coaster. I found myself without a Coaster and no way to get a new one. Of course there is always Craigslist but Coasters remain so popular that the prices of used boats often rival those of the new boats and a paddler who wanted one had to act fast when an ad appeared.

Then I remembered Brian Schulz who had received permission from the Broze brothers to build an exact copy of the Coaster in skin-on-frame construction. Brian had posted

Pam checking the fit of her F-1, a skin-on-frame version of the Mariner Coaster during the build seminar at Cape Falcon Kayak in Manzanita, Oregon

photos on his web page (www.capefalconkayak.com) of the SC-1 (as he called it) in use out on the rough waters of the Pacific beaches of Oregon.  By the time I had lost my Coaster Brian had refined the SC-1 into the F-1 and was offering build seminars at his headquarters. My friend Pam and I signed up for one of these and by the end of May, 2009 I had an SOF version of the Coaster.

I had found the Coaster to be an almost perfect boat except that, for me, the cockpit opening and the seat was just slightly too small. Once I was inside everything was fine but getting in was a struggle. Getting back out, especially with the bow uphill on a dumpy beach was even worse. Brian had devised a method of building the F-1 in three sizes. A standard size (almost a copy of the Coaster), one size slightly smaller, and one size slightly larger. Pam build the slightly smaller version and I built the slightly larger version.

The original Coasters weighed somewhere between 35 and 40 pounds depending upon the materials used. The F-1 weighs between 28 and 30 pounds depending upon the size.

My F-1 sitting on my dock at Moses Lake, WA ready to paddle. Note the hard chines aft.

When we built ours there were three other F-1s being built at the same time. I don’t know exactly how many boats have been built but Brian has conducted seminars all over the USA in addition to his home base in Manzanita, Oregon and has even guided paddlers through building their F-1 in Australia and Tasmania!

So a design conceived and produced by an amateur (but highly skilled) designer and builder in Seattle became a legendary kayak in the hands of the Broze brothers at Mariner Kayaks and still lives on as a very popular skin-on-frame design by Brian Schulz. Last year Matt and Cam dropped by my house in Moses Lake and took a look at my F-1 sitting on my dock. The resemblance was amazing. Cam thought that the after rocker was somewhat less but Matt wasn’t so sure. Last year at the West Coast Sea Kayak Seminar in Port Townsend an old friend of Matt’s took one look at my F-1 sitting in a rack on top of my pickup truck and said, almost in amazement:

“That’s a Coaster!”

Our normal winter activity is cross-country skiing but the warm temperatures

Hailey, 8, giving the camera her standard greeting at the Moses Lake Ice Rink

translated into more rain than snow in the mountains where our usual favorite areas are about 3000 feet in elevation and are suffering from a lack of snow. You have to go up to 4000 feet to find enough snow for decent skiing; and even then it can be problematic. Nothing less fun than skiing in the rain.  Or driving 2 hours each way to ski in the rain. This left me with a problem. I don’t walk well and can’t bicycle so I had to cast around for winter action. Luckily a friend suggested regular ice skating parties and we remembered that while we were involved with Boy Scouts we collected ice skates whenever we found them at yard sales and thrift stores. We dusted off the box of about 8 pair of skates and invited a bunch of kids to meet after school on Wednesdays.

This escalated into skating whenever we had nothing else to do. The rink is free and covered but not heated so we bundled up well during the cold periods but now that we’re in these early spring-like conditions dressing warmly is not as important. So we now go skating on a whim and since the rink is only about 8 blocks from the lake house it’s easy to run over and skate for a while.

We could have skated on the lake until the end of January but the ice, which was thick enough to support a pickup truck, started thinning rapidly with the warm weather and rain. Besides, the lake doesn’t have a snack bar and a recreation center with batting cages, computer games, ping pong and pool tables. A nice hot cup of chocolate with whipped cream and sprinkles has become the thing to do after skating. And no long ride home.

Hopefully the warm weather won’t make it difficult to keep ice on the rink. When there is a wind at temperatures over 40F it’s difficult to keep parts of the ice frozen solid. Anyway, now that the lake is water again we can go back to kayaking once the water and air temps get comfy. Next weekend it’s predicted to be nearly 60F and sunny so I expect that to be it.

I also expect an update on the new shop next week when the roof trusses arrive.

Our 1970 Streamline Princess (21-foot) at Doheny Beach State Park

the snow and ice. At 5pm the next day we rolled into Doheny Beach State Park in Dana Point, California for a 5-day visit. Our schedule included sightseeing at Disneyland, a visit to the restored mission at San Juan Capistrano, a wonderful morning at San Onofre State Beach (about 11 miles south) with the California Kayak Friends gang (www.ckf.org) and (on the way home) a paddle in the bull kelp off Monterey, CA with sea otters.

Doheny Beach is about 30 miles south of Disneyland (or about 50 miles south of LA) and just around the corner from Dana Point where Richard  Henry Dana pitched cowhides down to the beach for loading into the brigantine Pilgrim anchored below. You can read the story in “Two Years Before the Mast” which is available in several formats (including mobile devices) from The Gutenberg Project (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4277#downloads). I highly recommend reading this book whether you kayak or sail or just have some interest in the history of the west coast of the USA if only for the descriptions of so many places (San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Barbara, San Pedro, Dana Point, San Diego, etc.) in the 1830s as well as a later addtion to most editions describing his visit to San Francisco in 1859 and the differences he found in less than 30 years.

Allow me to quote Dana’s description from the top of what we now know as “Dana Point” as he wrote it in his book: ”

Here the country stretched out for miles, as far as the eye could
reach, on a level, table surface, and the only habitation in sight
was the small white mission of San Juan Capistrano, with a few
Indian huts about it, standing in a small hollow, about a mile
from where we were. Reaching the brow of the hill, where the cart
stood, we found several piles of hides, and Indians sitting round
them. One or two other carts were coming slowly on from the

The Mission at San Juan Capistrano

Mission, and the captain told us to begin and throw the hides
down. This, then, was the way they were to be got down,-- thrown
down, one at a time, a distance of four hundred feet!"

Having long been a fan of Dana’s book you can imagine my delight to be camped in the Princess within view of his “hill” and were able to drive to the top and look out of the very same vista he looked at in the 1830s. It has changed, somewhat, I must admit. But the view, and the “small white mission” are still worth the trip.

Our Disneyland trip was aborted when we discovered that it was a 30 to 45 minute wait just to get tickets into the park itself. We contented ourselves with walking around Downtown Disney. I first visited this park in 1959 – only a few years after it opened – when I was 16. I told my parents I was going to do agricultural work in Quincy (in those days high school and college kids did much of the farm work done by latinos today) and drove down to Anaheim to visit a girlfriend who had moved and to apply for a job at the park. I  was an amateur radio operator and figured I was qualified to do tech work for them. They told me to go back and finish school.

Disneyland is virtually unrecognizable to me now and the crowds were incredible. Not to mention the prices. The original ride tickets (including the fabled E-ticket) are relics of the past and probably collector’s items. We parked ($16) and walked through Downtown Disney (non-existent in 1957) to a ticketing area where the lines were at least 30 minutes long. At this point we had to re-think the plan. Spend all day in line for $100 or bag it. We turned around and walked back through Downtown Disney, visited a few of the shops, got back into the truck and left. In retrospect we should have gone kayaking instead as the surf would be too dangerous the next day. (Sigh).

The next day we had breakfast at Denny’s and then we visited the Mission at San Juan Capistrano. I’m a big fan of the California missions having had the opportunity to visit many of them (including this one 40 years ago) but I’m not unaware of the negative aspects of Father Serra’s life’s work. While the missions unquestionably civilized both lower and upper California and prepared the upper version to become the California we know today, they also devastated the indigenous cultures they touched; cultures which have never recovered. But much the same thing happened in the Pacific Northwest without Fr. Serra.  The damage is done, either way, so now I simply appreciate them as they are. And they are serene and beautiful. Even when the swallows are still in Argentina.

We would have kayaked more at Doheny except for the sand berm bulldozed up

The berm at Doheny. Looks like a sand tsunami!

between the campground and the water. This berm – about 12 feet high – effectively kept me from the water (but not the kids who played all over it). My ability to walk is restricted and climbing over it was out of the question. Walking around it was possible but a relatively long walk (for me, at least). So our dreams of simply dragging the kayaks down the shore and launching were dashed. However we were happy that we got the $35/day spot; the ones across the road (you can see the fire pit and parking area of one in the photo) with a better view of the berm cost $65 a night!

Doheny beach has no utility hookups so one of my priorities was to be close to the bathrooms (easier for me to walk) and to have solar panels. Without the panels we would have run out of battery power in two days. With the two 30-watt panels (bought via Amazon for $149 each) we had plenty of power for movies, reading and radio for the entire stay. Surprisingly enough, most RV owners seem unfamiliar with the concept and instead ran noisy, smelly, expensive generators every day to charge up their batteries. We were glad Doheny had rules against running generators all night. Especially when the guy next door ran his only 10 feet from the front door to the Princess.

One of the highlights of the trip was the Christmas Eve Morning surf extravaganza held at San Onofre State Beach by several members of the California Kayak Friends club (www.ckf.org). This group, which includes Duane Strosaker (www.rollordrown.com) and Mark Sanders (www.sandmarks.net) amongst others, are talented paddlers and musicians. I had never worked much with surf and what looked low to the CKF gang

Christmas Dinner December 24, 2009 in the Princess. Check out the tree!

looked plenty big to me. Since I had just finished my last antibiotic pill for a case of pneumonia the previous morning I decided to stay on the beach and just watch the CKF pros surf. The plus was that by the time the music started I had staked out a nice spot to sit. You can see videos shot by Duane at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG-qlco66AU and get an idea of the fun. If there is any reason to move to SoCal other than weather, the CKF gang is it!!!

Sue and I had our Christmas Dinner in the evening of the 24th as the next day we were planning to leave Doheny Beach. The Princess has a fully equipped kitchen and Sue whipped up baked ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, and the family traditional bean casserole. Yum!

The next morning – Christmas Day – we left early headed to Monterey to see if we could kayak with the sea otters. I had tried several times to do this but always got caught in the wrong weather window. This day promised calm winds, low swell, and relatively warm weather. We drove up over the Grapevine in 30-something (F) temps and then crossed over to Highway 101, El Caminio Real or the highway of the kings. We passed several of the missions this highway serves on our way up

Ripley (left) and Teka (right) enjoyed the trip immensely.

and vowed to return and visit them all as soon as we could get away.

We were parked in front of Monterey Bay Kayaks and had paid our $2/hour parking fee (for RVs) by 2pm and by 2:30pm we were garbed up and ready to launch. One big advantage to traveling in the Princess is that we have a dressing room and plenty of storage either in/on the pickup truck or in the Princess herself. We launched through the (much lower) surf (which still washed me sideways up the beach once) and paddled around the marina breakwater festooned with California Sea Lions. Staying upwind is advised. Once around the marina and into the kelp beds we were in a natural world. Egrets poised for fishing and perched on clumps of kelp. The tops of the heads of harbor seals peeked at us curiously. And sea otters! At least a half-dozen otters spread out through the bull kelp paid us little attention as we drifted slowly past them. I talked to one female with a pup on her tummy as I paddled by within ten feet. She and the pup were unconcerned. Later we talked to a local who said that we were not supposed to impact the otters but that the otters made their own rules. And indeed, it appeared that they were as interested in us as we were in them. We had both left our cameras ashore due to the surf launch and landing so we’ll have to do this again with cameras made safe for use in the water.

Once the boats were cleaned and reloaded on the truck we were in “go home” mode and headed towards I-5 for the trip north.  We were parked in front of the lake house in Moses Lake by 9pm the next evening, December 26, 2009. It had been a quick but fun trip.

White Pass Nordic Center

you can cross-country ski one day and kayak the next. Without, at least, long drives for both.

I had thought that it would be the previous weekend but the track-cat at White Pass (west of Yakima, Washington) had broken down. I pretty much need tracks nowadays. Some people find it unusual that a guy who can’t walk very well can cross-country ski but there is really no mystery. The sport of X/C skiing in tracks on groomed trails is almost zero impact and you get two poles to lean on. There would probably be more disabled people doing it but it never occurs to the sport’s organizers that it’s possible and so sometimes just getting access can be an almost insurmountable hurdle (huge snow berms to clamber over, long walks from parking lots, etc.) Of course for kayaking it’s a cinch for someone who can’t walk. I often need help getting into and (especially) back out of my cockpit but in general I find that I can sit flat on my ass just as well now as I could when I was in my twenties.

So this weekend Michael’s (my son-in-law) dad was here for Thanksgiving and we planned a Saturday x/c ski day. The only possible destination was White Pass. The Washington State Parks Department has had groomed trail snow parks for at least a

Carter (in red) and Ethan in their Carriage ready for X/C Skiing

decade but their enthusiasm for funding the grooming part has faded condiserably over the past few years. Their enthusiasm for raising prices has been better than ever, unfortunately. So while the “season” for groomed trails lasts from November 15th onwards, they don’t actually groom them until several weeks later. You can still be cited for not having the pass on your car in the parking lots though. Clever, eh?

None of us had ever skied at White Pass before. It’s a 2.5 hour drive (one way) from our homes in Moses Lake with at least an hour of that on 2-lane mountain roads but we will do practically anything to get that first ski day in. They had fixed their track-cat and their elevation (4500 feet) would keep them cooler in the traditional November warming trend. So we loaded up and headed out for the long drive hoping that the DVD player would keep Ethan (3) and Carter (2) occupied in the far back seat for at least most of the trip.

One nice feature of the Nordic Center at White Pass is that it’s directly across the street from their alpine facility so there would be hot food. The nordic center has a warming yurt of considerable size and comfort but only snacks and some drinks. The trail pass is $12 per person but their season pass rates are quite reasonable (only $100 for a

Ethan Throwing Snowballs at Grampa

senior). The boys rode free in their chariot pulled by Daddy. They enjoy the trip only if there is movement. Stand still too long and you hear about it. We managed one round of their easiest trail before lunch and one run after lunch. In between eating and skiing the boys played in the white stuff and threw snowballs at Grampa.

The trails were not perfect but given the somewhat icy conditions they were passable. Another couple of feet of snow (and no rain) will help a lot. One great advantage is their RV parking area which is free! Most areas charge for theirs. No utilities but you’re welcome to have a generator. We plan to take Princess up for a long weekend after the new year.

The next day, Sunday, my paddling friend Pam came through town on Sunday with a borrowed Illusion kayak (borrowed from Barb at Kayak Academy near Seattle). Pam has a new Illusion that is about to be delivered soon (which she bought through Kayak Academy) but she was eager to get in some paddle time in the model before her debut in the Deception Pass Dash (a 6-mile race through Deception Pass held every December). We unloaded the Illusion and set it next to my Mariner II for comparison. Two very different kayaks. Pam has been paddling a Mariner Sprite and a Mariner Express for the past few years. The Illusion will make a much different platform.

So we put the boats into the water down at my dock. I clambered across the rocky beach and into my M-II while Pam did a daredevil entry from the swim ladder into the Illusion. We paddled south under the I-90 freeway and kept up a brisk pace past the

Mariner II (left) and the Illusion... Two Very Different Kayaks

grass island (detouring around the camouflaged duck hunters’ boat) down to lighthouse reef. The wind was about 11kts from the south and I remarked that it would make it nice going back so we could surf a little. I should know better than to say – or even think – those things because the wind died completely just about the time we got to the reef.

We played around the rocky islets in the dead-calm water for a bit and I showed Pam the roosting grounds for the Blue Herons that live in the area and then we turned to head back. Often we can paddle along the docks and one or two will come down to bark at us to get us to come pet them. This was not one of those days. We kept up a good pace back to my home dock where Pam did a few rolls in the Illusion (in 34F water!). That boat certainly rolls easily, I must say.

By this time, and only after a couple of miles, I was tired out. I was in the first stages of a bad cold that only got worse over that day and thenext. Karma for having a double header weekend I guess. We loaded Pam up and she continued east to where she would be working for the next week and I went to the sofa for a nap.

Getting old isn’t easy… but it beats the heck out of dying young! Besides, I would have hated to miss this double header weekend.

Instead of a convenient dock, at winter water levels I get a rocky beach!

sunshine all conspired to lure me out of the house and into a kayak and out onto the lake.

Moses Lake, where I live in Washington state, is part of several reservoirs involved in the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project. These include the waters impounded behind Grand Coulee Dam (Lake Roosevelt), Banks Lake, the Potholes Reservoir, and more. Almost all of these make superb desert paddling with public and private campgrounds numerous and attractive and launch points spread throughout the area. In fact, if you enjoy paddling big fresh water lakes you’d be hard-pressed to find better water anywhere in North America. At least for three quarters of the year. Maybe now more than that.

Every year during the winter months the local water authorities lower the “pool” elevation on most of these lakes to control aquatic plants and Moses Lake is no exception.  So when I went out to paddle my dock was fully six feet above the water leaving my “beach” exposed: boulders, concrete rip rap, and rocks. This could explain why there are no bikini-clad girls lounging about. This and the cold. And Mindy, the guard dog.

I am somewhat disabled and getting into and out of a kayak are the least gracefull of all my moves. Generally I prefer a nice dock about six inches above the water so I can slide into my kayak’s cockpit while supporting my weight on the dock. My least favorite

I can paddle numerous islands in Moses Lake which extends some 30 miles towards Ephrata, WA

entry is from a beach and a rocky beach is even worse. Fortunately no one was around to watch.

Once I was in and settled I pointed the bow south directly into the sun which was hovering about 35-degrees above the horizon. The light wasn’t that warm but it was certainly bright. The cut through the I-90 freeway looked entirely different – and much smaller – than it does in summer at the higher water levels. And my usual paddle through the grass island – only a few inches deep even at summer levels – was entirely blocked; but I could’ve gotten out and walked. Going around the islands I stumbled upon two forgotten crawdad traps someone had left in place. I checked them both to see if they were empty and left them together in case the owner remembered and came out to find them. Crawdads are numerous in Moses Lake but these were the only two traps for the critters I’ve ever found. Might have to do this myself next year.

I paddled down to lighthouse reef to get an idea of how extensive this reef is. At summer levels the water covers all but the highest pile of rocks but today the place looked like a coral atoll with numerous islets. Many a powerboat has fetched up on these

The lighthouse marking the reef which is almost covered at summer water levels.

islets as the only marker is the lighthouse a thoughtful homeowner erected on his lakefront and maybe a seagull standing on the single rock visible during the summer. It pays to stay to the west of this rock in anything other than a kayak. Even at nearly 18-feet long my Mariner II easily maneuvered through the pools between the islets and I stopped to take my iPhone out of its water-resistant case and gingerly take a few photos.

A dog barking on shore lured me over to see what was up and I discovered two black labs harassing a school of carp in the shallows. By this time my hands were getting cold even in their gloves. I should have used the pogies and tomorrow, if the weather is anything like it was today, I’ll go out again but use them. Generally I prefer gloves as pogies give me a “trapped” feeling with my hands on the paddles. But perhaps I can get used to it.

I returned home at a higher paddling rate because my bum was getting sore and my hands were starting to bother me. The 35-degree water temp was the culprit, of course. I maintained a 5.5mph speed for the last 1.5 miles and maneuvered up to my beach under the watchful eyes of Mindy our rescued guard dog who thinks anyone who kayaks is crazy. She loves the jet skis though. Go figure.

The dry suit came in handy for my exit as I simply tipped the kayak to the side and crawled out. I’m always surprised that there is no feeling of wet or even cold when dressed properly inside a drysuit. My suit is an NRS extreme (my wife has a Kokatat) and I wear a full fleece body suit under it and wool socks inside the attached booties covered with an NRS bootie. Proper immersion attire is critical in the winter if anything goes wrong. You don’t have much time in water that’s close to freezing!

I don’t know how many of these paddles I can get in before the ice covers the lake. Even global warming can’t stall that forever. Sooner or later I’ll be able to walk around under the dock on the ice. Until then I’m grateful for a few extra days of kayaking.

It pays to live on the lake. All I had to do is drag the kayak through the gate and into its storage spot, take my gear up to the kayak locker, and go inside to grab a soda and take off my drysuit and “jammies”. It was still sunny and still 50F. Global warming is ok in my book but the central heat in the lake house was even better.

The geese, ducks and seagulls get a chance to rest on the ice as winter shifts into gear on Moses Lake

This morning when I got up and looked outside it was clearly winter; half the lake was covered by a skim of ice. By afternoon there was still enough ice so that ducks, geese and seagulls could stand on the ice an look out over the open leads. There will still be leads for another couple of weeks but at some point the lake freezes solid to a thickness of several inches. And at some point before that point there will be ice fishermen testing the ice and giving the paramedics practice reviving hypothermic ice fishermen.

Winter spells the end of my workout paddles, of course. I used to go out ice-breaking in my boat but gave that up when I nearly capsized in ice about the thickness of your living room window. My paddle – which I was pushing through the ice so that the shaft would move the boat forward – got caught in the ice and startled me. If I had capsized it would have been serious.

When our daughter lived here in the lake house one of her huskies got out of the yard and ended up trapped and scared on a peninsula flanked by the freeway. I put a small kayak onto the ice and used ski poles to slide myself along the relatively safe ice until she ran over and jumped into my boat and started licking my face. We turned around and slid home. That was the last time she tried that stunt. Every year we lose someone who is trying to rescue a dog from thin ice. A few years ago some guy slid himself out on an 8×4 piece of 3/4-inch plywood which worked well until he slid forward to grab the dog and the additional pressure of his weight on a pressure point broke the ice and in he went. The dog survived. The guy didn’t. Turns out an 8×4 sheet of 3/4-inch plywood will only support the weight of a dog.

For the next few weeks I’ll have to drive 200 miles to the Seattle area to paddle. At some point in the next month the state will begin to groom the cross country ski trails.  The price for the permit to use them has gone from $40 a year to $80 a year in three years! Aren’t you glad they don’t have to groom kayak trails?

For the ice skaters life is good as the local rink – with free admission – is open. The free admission keeps the kids off the lake ice and, hopefully, out of trouble. But skating the lake back before global climate change was one of the real joys of childhood. It’s still “probably” safe to skate but I wouldn’t risk my kids’ lives out there; I take ‘em to the ice rink.

Confluence of the Lewis River and Columbia River

contain detailed descriptions of the area and make it very clear that the population of native Americans was very high, indeed. Paddling the area makes it very clear that there is virtually nothing left of this civilization in 2009.

On November 5, 2005, the two hundredth anniversary of the expedition passing the Chinook village of “Quathlapotle”, my paddling friend Pam and I sat with our kayaks beached where my wife’s ancestors had almost certainly beached their own kayaks. But there was almost no sign of any civilization at all, either ancient or modern, except for some pilings along the north edge of Bachelor Slough and a large navigation marker tucked up against the edge of Sauvie’s Island on the other side of the Columbia River.

My own interest in this area was kindled when our family was invited to the blessing of a replica longhouse in the area of the Cathlapotle village (http://www.plankhouse.org/). But modern culture uses the land for its highways and the original village site was inaccessible except by water so the new longhouse is about a mile east of the original village site. That site is part of an archaeological dig conducted during the summers by a nearby university and the beach, the one Pam and I were sitting next to, is distinguished by signs clearly indicating that we should not get out and explore.

In 2005 Pam and I had launched from the marina at Ridgefield, Washington which lies about 2 miles south of the original village site but when I visited Ridgefield last weekend it was clear to me than launching there – and paying the $6 fee – was going to be difficult due

This ramp leads to Ridgefield's Marina Office and a Kayak Business. Note the sign.

to the high docks and steep ramps and signs that seemed less than welcoming. Instead, I retreated to a campsite at Paradise Point State Park where I parked the Princess (and hooked it up to electricity and started the heater). Then I launched from the beach under the freeway that fronts on the East Fork of the Lewis River and paddled downstream.

The Princess makes almost anywhere a comfortable camp; whether it’s a Wal-Mart parking lot or a private site in a state park. I had towed the 21-foot 1970 model Streamline trailer from my home in Moses Lake, WA across White Pass in the Cascade Mountains in the first snowstorm of winter season. This has, for some reason, become practically a tradition. After a late start and a 300-mile drive I simply stopped at

Paradise Point State Park launch site... a beach under I-5

the Wal-Mart parking lot in Longview, WA so I’d be in position for setting up and paddling early Saturday morning.

Almost any place I chose to paddle I’d be paddling in what was, in the early 1800s, a thriving and vibrant civilization that only fell to the devastations of diseases introduced by white settlers around the middle of the 19th century. It seems that our modern culture has fewer ties to the water because there would be little sign of modern man during my river paddle. Cars on the roads and freeways, the occasional waterfront or floating home or house on a hillside, the railroad tracks and bridges and the odd

A floating home along the Lewis River

fishing boat on the water or jet plane in the sky would be the only traces. It is easy to imagine that you are back in 1805; except that in 1805 there would be much more human activity on the water.

My original intent – to repeat my visit to the site of Quathlapotle – turned out to be a trifle ambitious given my launch site. I paddled to the BNSF railroad bridge across the main Lewis River but did not realize that I was less than 2 miles from Quathlapotle itself. Thinking that I still had 5 or 6 miles more to paddle, I turned at the railroad bridge and fought the ebb tide back upstream to the park.

Later I drove around to see if I could find more launch sites that would be a little closer to the main Columbia. There was one perfect launch area called “Austin Point” due west of Woodland, WA and apparently controlled by the Woodland Port Authority. Signs at

Austin Point - an excellent launch beach right on the Columbia

Austin Point indicate that a permit would be required to use the area, day use only, and that the permit was available during normal working hours at the port office in Woodland, WA (about 3 miles away). However, as this was a weekend, no access to a permit was available and no explanation on the signs as to whether the permit is an annual one or a daily one.

Another access point was at a small campground on the south side of the Lewis River at the end of the road called “Pekin Ferry Road” (probably the old ferry route across the Lewis River long before the advent of modern roads). The campground offers a launch for $5 and fairly protected parking. A camp spot is available for $15 per night on a grassy sward with easy access to the river. I could not see if there was electricity available but it appeared that there might be.

Camping at Paradise Point State Park offers both utility sites and “standard” sites with easy access to the freeway (I-5 exit 16) and easy access to the river at the park’s beach located directly below the I-5 bridges across the East Fork of the Lewis River. The town of La Center is located a short distance away with several casinos for those paddlers who want to risk it all.

A word of caution here. I paddled the area during the first winter storms to hit the Cascade Mountains for the 2009/2010 season and there was only 1 to 2 kts of current going downstream. The launch at the State Park is only 3-feet above sea level according to my GPS so there should not be many hazards running downstream (or up, for that matter). However, a river – any river – is subject to change and sometimes that change can come with startling speed. I would expect that during spring runoffs there could be substantial current in both forks of the Lewis River and paddlers should use good judgment before launching.

My 16-foot Mariner Kayak sitting on my dock ready for an evening paddle.

extra house. As it happened having an extra house on a lake is not as bad as you’d think. Except for the extra house payments.

The upside was that when we sold our farm 2 years ago we had a place to move. The downside was that I lost my fishing/kayaking cabin on the lake. Not that I completely lost it (I still live here, after all) but I lost the “cabin feel”. The “kayak wall” in the dining room was the first to go.  It’s now a “kayak rack” outside. Sigh.

There are obvious advantages to living next to a lake when one is a kayaker. If I have the urge to paddle I don’t have to load gear in the car and kayaks on the rack; I can just pull a kayak down to the dock, get in and paddle away. The disadvantage is that after a few years you’ve paddled to every possible place on the lake and there is precious little that’s new. It is, however, excellent for training workouts and for just getting away.

Today I took my wife’s Mariner Express and headed south under the I-90 bridge aiming for the lighthouse rock. Now there are no navigational aids on Moses Lake but the lighthouse was constructed by a local homeowner as a warning to boaters of a reef that extended westwards from his property out to a rocky islet. However boaters on fresh water lakes are made of sterner stuff than to take a home built lighthouse as sufficient warning and they ran their boats up onto that islet with astonishing regularity.  But the rock makes a swell place to mark the halfway point of a 4-mile out-and-return paddle.

There are a group of grass islands on my route with shallow passages winding around the hummocks of grass and, depending on my mood, I can either paddle through the islands or past them. At some times of the year these are alive with geese, ducks, herons,, turtles, water snakes and huge carp. The carp congregate in these shallows and are often surprised by my kayak which sometimes hits them. These are huge fish; often 24  to 30 inches in length and are not native to Washington waters. My own theory is that they are the descendants of goldfish discarded by Air Force personnel after the closure of Larsen Air Force Base in the 1960s. The carp are harmless of course, but an unwary paddler could be startled into a capsize after hitting (or being hit) by them.

Once around the rock I start the slog back to my dock. Sometimes I tuck in along the homes lining the lake on the western shore. I almost never paddle in open water because of the danger of boat traffic. Salt water paddlers don’t realize the dangers posed by small motorboats moving along at 40 to 60 mph. If they can run into a rock marked by a lighthouse, I figure they can certainly run into my kayak. The 3-inch depths inside the grass islands is perfect protection. I’ve never had a jet ski follow me there but I bet they’ve thought about it.

Right at the rock my attention was drawn to the sounds of loons calling to each other across the lake in the late afternoon light. On their way south after breeding in the north, these loons weren’t making their haunting cry but rather their hoo-hoo cry to let each other know where they were. Instead of rounding the rock immediately I paddled around to see if I could find them and also decided to check the grove of Russian Olive trees on the eastern side of the lake that I know is commonly used by roosting Great Blue Herons.

Herons are common everywhere nowadays, it seems, and every little town seems to identify itself with them. Moses Lake is no exception. They are lovely birds who love to roost in the upper branches of large trees. Last summer one would roost in a Birch tree next to our 2nd story porch where we would sit outside enjoying the sunset. If we spoke too loudly our heronic neighbor would give us an outraged “graaaaaaack” as a hint to shut up and go to bed. This evening the Russian Olive trees were empty of the herons so I turnede and headed for home.

The loons were soon left behind and their calls replaced by the sounds of cars and trucks headed east and west along the I-90 freeway. I often wonder whether the drivers notice me paddling right next to them and what they think. Occasionally someone will sound their horn at me but usually they simply drive on. Wilderness, this isn’t.

Once under the freeway I’m only a few blocks from home and I often sprint the distance to impress my neighbors with my paddling prowess. They all think I’m a crazy old man, of course; maybe they’re right.  But my Garmin GPS usually shows a moving average of around 4mph so at age 66 I figure I might be crazy but at least I’m not spending all my time on the sofa watching I love Lucy reruns.

Mindy barked at me when I got to the dock. She is supposed to bark as part of her job but she occasionally takes it too far. Such as when a stray skunk wanders past the fenced yard at 3am. She knows it’s me, of course, but barks to show she’s on the job and alert. One time, when I unexpectedly capsized just off my own dock and the tennis shoes I had stupidly worn trapped me in the cockpit Mindy and the other two dogs set up such a racket that my wife came out of the house in time to see me finally bob to the surface next to my overturned kayak. The dogs may not know what I’m doing but they certainly know – after watching me for so many years – when I’m not doing it right!

One of my least graceful kayak moves is a simple exit from a cockpit but at my own dock I have it down to an art and it’s only a matter of a few minutes to put the boat back where it belongs under the cherry tree, take my trusty Lightning paddle (the best paddle I’ve ever owned) back in the shed, and walk through my front door where my wife had dinner ready. It’s feijoada, a Brazilian dish that I became addicted to when I lived in Rio de Janeiro in the 1960s. All I have to do is add salsa and sour cream, grab a soda, and sit down and eat.

Maybe it’s easy living on the lake after all.

My 1972 21-ft Streamline Trailer and Dodge Pickup at Deception Pass Campground

volume of water that must fill the basin between Whidbey Island and the mainland of Washington State means that when the tide changes the water runs swiftly. Deception Pass is, depending upon your skill level, either a wonderful playground or a place to avoid at all costs in a kayak. I’m here to debunk at least a little of this.

I just spent a weekend paddling the Deception Pass waters in virtually calm conditions. Except for a few eddy lines my 8-year-old friend Hailey could have made this trip. From my camp spot on the Whidbey Island side of the Pass (Deception Pass State Park) I could take my F-1 kayak and paddle miles of protected water. But by choosing to paddle during the right tides and in the right weather I could safely mooch around Deception Pass; no whirlpools required. Let me explain how I did it.

The periods between the tidal changes – the pauses between ebb tide and flood tide – are called “slack” because the currents in the channels are essentially zero (or nearly so). As the tidal waters build up on one side or the other this changes rapidly so that often the amount of time between zero current and virtually full current is only a matter of a half-hour or an hour. But for about 10 or 15 minutes of every tide cycle, Deception Pass is not much worse than any other salt water body of water.

But you can often have a lot more time than that. Because of the vagaries of Puget Sound tidal cycles there are often 2 high tides and 2 low tides in every 24-hour cycle. In general there is a pair with a higher tidal range and a pair with a lower tidal range. Because the time of high/low tide increments about an hour every day, sometimes the high tidal range period is at night and the low tidal range period is right in the middle of a nice summer day.

If you want a raucous kayak ride you simply paddle when the current is at maximum; which coincides with the higher tidal range. But if you want to just test your skills in Deception Pass or if you simply want to paddle the shorelines on either side of the Pass, you simply choose a time when there is very little tidal range.

To illustrate this let me show you the tide for Cornet Bay for October 10, 2009:

Tides at Cornet Bay for October 10, 2009

Cornet Bay is located just east (inside) Deception Pass on the Whidbey Island side and is a common launch area for paddling the area (the other common launch is at Bowman Bay just west of the Pass on the Fidalgo Island side).  This tide chart is read like a graph with water height (in meters above mean lower low tide) on the left and time at the bottom. You can see that there are two relatively deep lows on either side of what looks more like a saddle.  It’s a bit difficult to see but between the hours of about 11:30am and 8:30pm on the tenth of October, 2009 there was less than one meter of tidal range. This would make me think that there would be smaller currents associated with this low tidal range. Let’s look at the current tables and see.

Deception Pass currents for October 10, 2009

Sure enough. See that little slightly lower blue hump just to the left of the center of the image? That is the current graph for October 10, 2009 and it indicates that the maximum current is about 2.8 knots. Much less current than you’d encounter with a higher tidal range.

The lesson to be learned here is that not all tidal currents in Deception Pass are equal. But there two other variables that can make your paddling trip to Deception Pass more, or less, exciting and that’s the wind speed and wind direction. Any wind out of the west or southwest against an ebb tide will create some really exciting wave trains on the western side (Bowman Bay side) of the Pass. Similarly a strong easterly will have an effect on the Cornet Bay side during a flood (although not so much due to the smaller fetch).

A maximum current of less than 3 knots is much easier to deal with than a maximum current of 6 or 7 knots so if you want to get your feet wet at Deception Pass then you might want to choose a time and tide (along with weather) that suits your purposes.

I have launched at both Bowman Bay and at Cornet Bay but I generally prefer Cornet Bay and a flood tide so that I can work my way into the Pass without being carried willy-nilly into it. It is generally felt that the flood current presents more exciting paddling than the ebb tide, however. Remember that the wind can alter all conditions. If I have to swim out on a flood current it merely washes me back past Cornet Bay and within an easy swim to land. On a strong ebb it could carry me past Lopez Island and out the Straits!!!

It bears mentioning that you should never paddle the Pass alone unless you are very experienced and that you should always dress for immersion. I always wear a drysuit with a one-piece polypro base layer as a starting point. If you are expecting or planning immersion (rolling, etc.) then you should also wear some head protection for both heat retention (to avoid that ice cream headache) and rock protection. I recommend warm socks or booties and gloves, as well.

If you are unable to self-rescue or roll then by all means take a class to get you to the point where you can safely get back into your kayak in the event that you have to swim out.

Three knots of current can – and does – produce some sharp eddy lines that are fully capable of capsizing an unwary paddler but it’s a lot easier to learn to cross eddies in 3 kts than in 7 kts. Read my articles to the right in the sidebar, Getting Along with Eddy and Working the Tides in the Pacific Northwest to familiarize yourself with the concepts. Take a class from a reputable instructor to learn how to deal with eddies and currents, self-rescue, group rescue and rolling.

Despite the title of this article, Deception Pass can be a dangerous place for the complete novice in a poorly equipped boat. But if you don’t want to try the Pass at its harshest, plan your trip to take advantage of conditions so that you can just ease yourself in.

Beach at Fort Worden State Park at Port Townsend, WA during the 2009 WCSKS

Northwest (including B.C., Canada). It is generally held in September as the kayaking season is winding down so that exhibitors are often offering significant discounts on boats and equipment.

Sea Kayak seminars are different from simple kayaker get-togethers. The WCSKS has always been as much about learning as marketing. Over the years there have been seminars given by

Paddlers return to the Ft. Worden beach after lessons and tours.

expert paddlers such as Dubside, George Gronseth, Derek Hutchinson, several of the Tsunami Rangers, and others.  There are classes for everything from simple forward strokes to advanced techniques in heavy winds and seas.

The economy in the Fall of 2009 is just recovering from the worst recession since the Great Depression of 1929 (at least we hope it’s recovering) and this had an impact on WCSKS. The main registration building has had two floors full of gear exhibitors over the past 5 or 6 years but this year only the first floor rooms were occupied. Registrations were also down. However

Most calm water for test paddling off Fort Worden

there was no discernable difference on the beach or in the parking lots or even – especially in the afternoon – on the water.

September can always be an interesting month for weather in the Puget Sound area. If the symposium had been held on the previous weekend it would have been rainy and nasty. But a delay of one weekend made all the difference and the weather cooperated with sunshine and light winds. Only one morning with clouds

3 of Sterling Kayak's Illusions... in different sizes.

and one day with swells sneaking around the point after having traveled the Straits of Juan de Fuca from the Pacific Ocean.

This year I parked my 1972 Streamline 21-foot trailer at the campgrounds adjacent to the seminar beach so I would have convenient access to the water. This meant that it was always a short walk back for a snack or a nap and it made for a very pleasant 4 day trip from my home in Moses Lake, some 270 miles from Port Townsend. The small trailer was a wonderful addition to the

The '72 Streamline with the Dodge - Neat but not gaudy!

seminar scene and meant that I didn’t have to put up with sleeping in a tent. This gave me picture windows over the campgrounds, a comfortable bed, and a fridge to keep my sodas cold. Plus I had a heater!!! The heater was really handy on the last (Sunday) morning when the temperature dropped into the 40s over night. It took the chill off the morning very nicely.

All in all a wonderful get together. My paddling partner Pam was an instructor this year and we managed to hook up with Mariner Kayaks guru Matt Broze, Paddlewiser Dave Kruger, and many other friends over the weekend.  There are now several kayak seminars held around the Puget Sound and B.C. region but this remains the largest and, in my opinion, the best. A nice way to end the summer (but not the paddling).