OBX trip by a newby to kayak's

[tjbliley]

I am getting ready to go on a family vacation to the Oouter Banks of North Carolina. We are going to Corolla and staying in an area only accessible by 4x4 vehicles. We are staying in a house which is not right on the ocean, but it is close enough you can feel the ocean.

We have decided to have this trip be our first major outing with some new editions to our family. Last Fall we bought my wife a nice Ocean kayak. She got a Frenzy. Nothing fancy but she enjoys it. She is looking forward to trying it out in the surf. This Spring we bought a pair of Dagger Zydeco's in red and yellow for my boys. They are 10 and 13. They handle them really well and I sometimes have a hard time keeping up with their energy in them. I got a Wilderness Ride 135 Angler Edition. This is a very stable boat and since I am larger than average, it is very comfortable for me to be in for long periods of time. It has great storage and can carry all the gear that the rest of the family may need. I look forward to finding out more about its capabilities as time goes on.

We are travelling there from Richmond, VA in our pair of Jeep Wranglers. Our 4 door will tow our camping trailer with all our gear and the kayaks on top. We are also taking our 2dr offroad setup Wrangler to take out on the beach for fishing and fun. The trailer is also known as 'The Chuck Wagon' to us and some of our friends. It is setup similar in features to some of the commercial offroad camping trailers but on a very small budget and only has some of the features and not all the amenities. It has provisions for carrying a 5-gallon water cooler. It has a drop-down table on the side for a stove, as well as the ability to anchor a dining canopy for shade and rain protection. I am going to be adding a gas can mount for a gerry can, hopefully before we leave.

I have built a rack to store our kayaks which is portable and can be broken down into a small pile. It uses 2x6's, 1x6's and 3/4 galv pipe to make it sturdy, but portable.

We look forward to a day trip to Hatteras Island for a day of kayaking around Pea Island where there are some great areas to enjoy the wetlands. I am still researching, but I think there are some self guided tours of the area. This is where I hope my Delorme PN-20 will shine for me. It has a mount in my Kayak, so we should be able to navigate the wetlands without difficulty. That will make the trip much more enjoyable for all of us.

I will add more information about my trip as I get closer to departure and try to update when I can from there. I am adding pics of the equipment and preparations. Please feel free to let me know what you think I may need for this trip and if you know the area, by all means I could use any tips and gems of info.

Here is a link to an album of pics I hope to keep updated.

http://s42.photobucket.com/albums/e341/tjbliley/OBX Vacation 07-2009/

Here are the highlight pics

 

[jim65wagon]

Coolness! I love the Outer Banks - stayed "North of Corolla" many times and always enjoy it.

If you drive up to Carova Beach, which is almost to the state line by beach, stop at the Carova Beach Fire Dept and buy a CB T-shirt.

The ponies should be out along the beach in the mornings and evenings - look but don't try to touch!

I've canoed through the man-made canals (behind Carova Beach) out to the sound side of that area. Nice trip, but watch out for the larger boats that go way to fast in a narrow canal!

If you like to collect seashells, drive to the state line; park above the high tide line and hike into Virgina (False Cape State Park). The shells are less picked over and you can find great examples of welk, sharks eyes and sand dollars...

And be wary of any "water puddles" on the roads to get to the houses, they get deep! In a wet year you can cover your headlights(or more) in short order!

Have fun! I look forward to pics of the trip!

 

[Wander]

What Jim said x2- especially watch for those power boats and be ready to beach if needed-they often don't watch for you.

Becareful about the rip currents on the ocean side-that area is prone to them and they can carry you pretty far out quickly.

You'll have a lot of company this time of year-even in the 4x4 only area-if you like the area and want to avoid the crowds come back in the off season-it's much better (and cheaper).

If you do the trip to Hatteras Is, take a side trip out onto the beach at Oregon Inlet-the turn off is just past the fishing center on the left-actually if you in that area around 5-6 pm stop in to see what the charters bring in-free entertainment! Watch for closures for nesting turtles and/or plovers-you'll see more of these in the park (Hatterass nat'l seashore). To get out on the beach between Southern Shores and Whalebone you have to get an access pass in Nags Head- not the best beach driving though so skip it.

Have fun!

 

[T.Low]

Sweet! Looks like a great time.

I paddled and camped thruought the islands about 15 years ago. Saw two of the biggest sea turtles I've ever seen swimming near ( shoot, now I can't remember which lighthouse it was). So big that from a distance, I thought it must be a piece of a pier that had broken off in a storm or something. One of the islands we camped on had wild ponies. Lots of dolphins and some 3ft nurse sharks. WARM water surf! Luved it!

Are you on the ocean side or the protected side? All safety rules apply, of course. On the ocean side, watch for strong off shore winds. It only takes a 5 knot breeze to blow a boat away faster than you can swim after it. Know the currents and tides (get a tide chart of course). Some of those areas have pretty good rips and currents and get strong and choppy.

Of course local knowledge is best. Can probably find some advice on what to watch out for and what not to miss by posting here;
http://www.paddling.net/message/showTopics.html?fid=advice
or internet search for local paddling shops. I know there is one because I was a guest instructor for a rough water rescue course off the coast of Florida many years ago and the owner of the shop was in the class, but I'll be darned if I remember his name or the shop's.

Looking forward to hearing how it went and seeing pics. Cheers.

 

[rctr03]

jerry,
you are the man, i can't wait for monday!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[rctr03]

jerry,
thanks for letting us come and stay. we really had a great time, enjoyed the horses, grilling, beverages and great friends. the new park with the kayak launch is great!
oh yeah, i got the t-shirt!!!

jimmy

 

[tjbliley]

As a newbie to Kayaking and Expeditioning, I was interested in having a slow start to this. I figured that if I stayed in a house at the Beach and tried a few day trips then I could go on to bigger and better things from there. I planned a trip to Corolla, NC staying in an area restricted to access by 4x4 vehicles only. This would mean I would have to bring in everything to the house over the beach during a 2.6 mile ride from the paved road to the house.
I started by planning how I could get a weeks’ worth of clothing, linens, and other gear to the house. Then I had to figure out how I would get our kayaks to the house. I had to figure something that would be low $$ and could be integrated into to equipment I already had in my ‘Garage’.
I figured I would use my trailer and attach a pipe rack system to the sides and then add my Thule bars and kayak rack system to the pipe rack.

This worked well and enabled me to carry 4 kayaks, all the families gear in Tubs inside the trailer, and all the beach gear.

Once everything was packed we started out on our Family expedition. My wife was driving our 09 Jeep wrangler 4dr JK towing the trailer, and I was driving our 98 Jeep Wrangler 2dr. My wife was using the Navigation software in the MyGig system, which really is nice to have when riding along, I was using my Delorme PN-20 with the route transferred from the Topo 7 software. Both were accurate and have their own benefits.
We had not gotten more than ten miles away from home when we had our first little hiccup. I was travelling on a toll-road when I started to lose power in my TJ. Seconds later I heard a loud noise and then it sounded like I had a new hole in the exhaust system. I coasted over to the side of the road and got out, cussing of course, crawling under the Jeep looking for the hole. I opened the hood and sitting on top of the battery was a spark plug with the wire attached to it.

A spark plug had loosened and been blown out of the head. I made a call to another Jeep buddy and had a new plug to insert in the motor. Thank goodness for Jeep buddy’s. I got the spark plug in and we were back on the road.
Our slight delay meant we would be an hour or so behind schedule which would add us deeper into the tourist rush at our destination………Corolla NC.

We encountered a huge backup of traffic when trying to cross the bridge going over the sound into Kitty Hawk before making our left turn to go north up to Corolla. We were in a 15-20 mile back-up which lasted about 2 hours.

Finally we crossed the bridge.
We travelled North up route 12 toward the end of the pavement looking for that final let turn onto the sand. This took a little time but went real smooth. The trailer was pulling fine behind the JK and everything was great.
We checked in at the Office and grabbed the keys. It was time to air down for our dirve onto the beach. The guy at the office was trying to be helpful and said ‘You will need to air down your tires to drive on the beach. What are you driving?’. I said don’t worry, I think we have that under control. We have a pair of Jeeps and a trailer. This is not our first trip on the sand. He said ‘Don’t foget to air down the trailer tires’ We aired down the trailer to 20, the JK to 25 and the TJ to 22. These numbers were a bit high but I was running 35’s on the TJ and the trailer so I did not think it would be a problem. I could always lower them later if it was.
We stopped at the final left turn I had been waiting for and paused to get a picture for posterity.

We then moved on up the beach. When we arrived and unpacked we were greeted by some of the locals…….a family of horses decided to stop by and say Hi.

Then we started our time there with one of the most beautiful sunsets I have seen in a long time.

I set up my Kayak rack for storage of my Yaks until I was ready to go for a ride. This drew a few questions from the neighbors but not too much.

 

[tjbliley]

It never ceases to amaze me the stupidity of some people. When my wife and I returned from shopping after our arrival, we found a tour bus which had gotten stuck in the sand. For some unknown reason the driver thought he could drive onto the sand and turn around. He was sadly mistaken. Stuck to the frame and left deep ruts for the rest of us to deal with the next day.

My wife decided to try her Ocean Kayak Frenzy in the surf Sunday and had a blast. She got knocked on her butt, first time out. Second time she figured out how to get past the breakers. She either needed to get a push over them or push the boat out herself and climb on. She decided to try getting some help from me. She spent a good hour paddling around in the surf near shore, then decided to ride a wave in when she was done.
We had some friends join us on Monday morning, they brought their 02 Jeep wrangler, military trailer ready for the trail and yaks.

We made plans to go into the sound for a nice ride the next day. We went for a ride in the jeeps up the beach.

During our exploration up the beach we found a Public access for kayaking and canoeing. This was where we would go for our little yak ride.
We loaded up the trailers and the families and drove up the beach for some seat time in the yaks. The only thing I wish we would have remembered was the carts for the yaks. We did not think we would have to carry them quite as far as we did before we could launch. We had boats, paddles, food/snacks, drinks and lots of folks ready to enjoy.
This was a great day. We saw lots of animals, some horses along the canals, and got to go out into the sound for a short paddle.

We had an awesome day. I had my Wilderness Ride 135 and my friend had his Mad River Canoe/Hybrid Synergy 14.

We have both used the boats about a half dozen times but have not had a real good trip to find out some of the capabilities of the boats. His wife uses a wilderness Ripper, mine the Ocean Kayak Frenzy.

They both enjoyed their sit-on-tops and had good paddles for this trip. My boys use Dagger Zydeco’s and my friends son uses a sit-on-top(not sure what brand). Everyone did well.

 

[tjbliley]

I had transferred my PN-20 to the mount in the floor of my Ride and used the NOAA charts to plot my track so we could just enjoy our paddle and not worry about how to get back to the vehicles.

We had a few excursions along the beach

and had quite a few visits from the locals………also known as the Wild Horses.

They seemed to hang out at our house a lot. They even came by one morning and woke us up around 06:30.
We had a few rain showers but the weather seemed to be in our favor. The only evidence of the rain was a beautiful rainbow following an afternoon shower.

Some of the take-aways from this trip are:
1. Plan excursions better to fit more in the week.
2. My trailer is fine for long distance moving of the yaks but for local short trips, I need something easier to load and unload.
3. Need to do more preplanning of food and meals. Need to get my chuck box completed so I have my mobile kitchen.
4. House /base camp placement needs to balance oceanfront and canal access better.
5. Travel timing is everything. Traffic can cause you to lose a day or gain one if you plan correctly.
I really hated leaving this paradise. I know the Gods were laughing at me when they gave me the best view of the week as we were leaving. Calm seas, beautiful sky, and gorgeous sunrise.